A number of social commentators have claimed that partisan political affiliation has replaced religion as the most important identity for many Americans. The politicians and pundits on the left who frame “Christian nationalism” as a conservative evangelical attempt to institute theocracy don’t seem to notice how their political agenda is rooted in a different set of religious instincts.
Democrats fight so hard to control the dictionary because they believe they can shape reality with their words. They believe their primary fight is with conservatives, but their desire to create the world of their choosing ex nihilo has put them in direct opposition to God.
In their world, homeless people are “unhoused persons,” ex-offenders are “returning citizens” and “justice-involved individuals,” women are “people with the capacity for pregnancy,” abortion is “reproductive justice,” a medical treatment that prevents neither infection nor transmission of a disease is a “vaccine,” and the mutilation of adolescents is “gender-affirming care.”
I understand the desire not to define people by their problems, but there is a much bigger issue at play here. This is not about rhetorical compassion. Like the “name it and claim it” prosperity preachers on television, liberal politicians, academics, and activists believe they can “decree and declare” the things they desire into existence.
The beliefs that “trans women are women” and “men can get pregnant” are treated as sacred knowledge – understandable only to the enlightened – to liberals today. Anyone who questions these claims is seen as a heretic. Some people like Macy Gray respond to their public shaming with expressions of contrition and pledges to continue educating themselves. Others, like J.K. Rowling, are treated like diseased lepers who are unfit to mingle with the true believers who unquestionably affirm these new truths.
The same people who are unsure of the exact number of genders also believe that they can create legislation to control the physical world. The Bible says that the wind and the waves obeyed Jesus. Nancy Pelosi believes the words in a climate change bill will have the same effect. She seems to believe that if the Son of God can control the weather, surely the speaker of the House can as well. This is government via god complex.
This rejection of nature has serious real-world effects. Serena Williams recently expressed the difficulty she is having with accepting that her tennis career is ending. Her essay in Vogue magazine includes much of what you would expect from an athlete facing the prospect of leaving a sport that has defined her for over 25 years. It also included one section that sounded like an opposition to biological reality.
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family,” she wrote. “I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”
The gender exclusivity of childbirth is seen as unfair by women like Serena Williams because second-wave feminists sold women a lie. They told women to pursue any area of social or economic life that was dominated by men and reject a superpower – the ability to bring life into the world – that belongs solely to them. The inevitable result of rejecting the world as it was designed is a lifetime of frustration and bitterness.
Politicians, ideologues, and activists on the left think they can shape reality – and solve problems – through the manipulation of language. That may work on people who lack knowledge or courage, but with respect to eternity, it is an exercise in futility. They can use emotional extortion and fear to force compliance, but none of those tactics can actually change reality. The God who created the world cannot be bullied into submission by rebels who want His throne.
Reporting from The Blaze.
