What To Do About The Man In Red Flats

Take Your Cue From Lady Wisdom

The Man In Red Flats

He crossed the road in front of me as I sat in my car waiting for the stoplight.

He was wearing bright red women’s flats and what looked like a black beret, along with the rest of his black, gender-nonspecific outfit.

He was on his way to the supermarket, which is where I too was headed. I was visiting this town for a day, and I needed to pop into the store for something.

Inside, I happened to pass him again. I didn’t look closely, but he was wearing some kind of makeup, maybe eyeliner.

It occurred to me that many people in this town—a college town—probably see this person and think he’s “empowered.”

I see someone who is in deep darkness, in despair. The mental state of a person like this cannot be healthy.

Everybody Knows

In reality, everybody knows this, despite many pretending otherwise. The proof is that we’re told we must treat these people—so-called “transgender” or “nonbinary” people—with kid gloves. Don’t “misgender” them, or they may kill themselves!

Who else would be at risk of suicide if you used the wrong pronouns for them (the actual wrong pronouns)? If you referred to me as “her,” I wouldn’t want to kill myself. You would simply be wrong, and that would be your problem. And this is no feat of mental strength on my part. It’s just how things are when you’re not mentally ill.

Again, everybody knows this. No one truly looks at that man I saw and assumes he’s a healthy, normal, and thriving person. No one truly considers this way of being to be natural, or to be a way to experience wholeness and abundance.

The Bible says “what can be known about God,” including His “divine nature,” “is plain” to the unrighteous, but they “suppress the truth” “by their unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18-19). If that’s true of what can be known about God’s divine nature, it’s not a far leap to affirm it’s true of what can be known about our own human nature.

In other words, everyone knows what a man is and what a woman is, even if they work hard to convince themselves they don’t. They are “without excuse” for their willful confusion (cf. Romans 1:20).

Call A Spade A Spade

Transgenderism is a sickness of the mind. There is no way for someone to truly think they are or should be the opposite sex (or “gender,” a made up concept as it’s often defined today) without being deeply disturbed.

What a sad, pitiful state of affairs we have put ourselves in, where, out of fear of confrontation, we are honest neither with others nor even with ourselves.

If there’s any hope of saving our culture from the divine judgment we’re currently under—if there’s any hope against hope of turning back the wrath of God, of salvaging and regaining any acknowledgment of truth in the West—then we have to shake this deception we’re actively engaging in. We have to be able to call a spade a spade—that is, a man a man, and a woman a woman. No, not “able.” We are able. We have to be willing.

Are you willing?

On Compassion

Some have the silly notion that this hard stance is not compassionate. What a twisted idea of compassion they have!

Oh, we can speak the truth with compassion. We must. That man I saw is in misery, there’s no question, and it’s sad. We ought to be sad for these people, our fellow image-bearers of God who have tried to reject the glory of that image for a bastardization.

But compassion doesn’t hide the truth, it exposes it. It exposes it with a motive of love, with a hope that some will hear and turn back from their foolishness.

Here’s how that works.

Lady Wisdom’s Plea

In the first chapter of Proverbs, WISDOM is personified as a woman (sometimes referred to as “Lady Wisdom”) calling aloud in the streets. She begins her speech:

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.” (Proverbs 1:22–23)

She starts off by calling her hearers “simple,” “scoffers,” and “fools.” Does that sound nice?

No, it’s not nice. It’s not pleasing to hear. But—get this—it’s kind. It’s compassionate. How so? Because her motive is that her hearers would “turn” and receive her “spirit” (the spirit of wisdom) and know her “words” (words of wisdom).

That means she wants what’s best for them. She doesn’t want them to continue in their self-destructive ways. She’s not afraid to offend them, because maybe offending them will be the first step to their betterment.

In fact, if hearing what they don’t want to hear offends them, then offending them is inevitable if they’re going to get better. For them to get from where they are to where they should be, they have to be made to acknowledge in no uncertain terms where they truly are.

How A Wise Person Loves

A wise person who loves someone loves that person more than he loves his relationship with that person. Read that again if you have to. The wise person is not inordinately worried about what the person he loves is going to think of him. He cares more for the person’s welfare.

Example: if someone you care about were careening toward the edge of a cliff, wouldn’t you yell at him urgently and earnestly to stop? You would do or say anything that might stop him, even if it’s impolite.

Our culture is careening towards the edge of a cliff. So, where’s your compassionate hollering? As Jack Richardson says, hurt feelings will heal, but you cannot heal a lie.

So, we must not budge on this. For the sake of the culture at large, and for the sake of the “gender”-confused themselves, we have to boldly speak the truth about these things. We have to refuse to use “preferred pronouns” that don’t align with a person’s sex. We have to risk whatever consequences may come for speaking the truth.

A Hill To Die On

This is a hill to die on, because if we don’t, it will be the hill our civilization dies on. It’s not just about this issue, it’s about truth itself. That’s what’s under attack, and that’s what’s at risk.

And for the Christian who does experience hardship for telling the truth, don’t forget: God is not unjust so as to overlook what you do in His name (cf. Hebrews 6:10). You will be rewarded.

So again I ask, are you willing?

Anthony Langer
Creator of Project 18:15