The Wrong Question

There is a question that keeps coming up in Christian circles. How should we respond when society pushes something that goes against what the Bible teaches? Take pronouns as an example. Culture says you must call people whatever they want to be called, even if it does not match how God made them. So what do you do?

Most Christians land in one of three camps.

Camp 1: Refuse. Some believers will not use pronouns that do not match a person’s biology. They see it as a lie. Genesis 1:27 says God made us male and female. To say otherwise is to deny what He created. These folks are not trying to be mean. They believe real love means telling the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.

Camp 2: Go along to get along. Others use whatever pronouns are asked for. They see it as a way to show respect and keep the door open for deeper conversations about faith. They are not saying they agree. They just do not want pronouns to be the hill they die on.

Camp 3: Dodge it. A lot of Christians just use the person’s name and avoid pronouns altogether. No lie told. No fight started. Problem sidestepped.

All three have some logic to them. But all three are focused on the wrong question. They are all asking:

“What should I say?”

The Bible is asking something deeper:

“Do you understand what is actually happening?”

This is not a debate about words. Something much bigger is going on underneath the surface. And the Bible diagnosed it almost 2,000 years ago in Romans chapter 1. It is not vague. It is not a stretch. It is specific. And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

Let’s walk through it.

They Already Know the Truth — and They Are Pushing It Down

Romans 1:18-20 says people “suppress the truth by their unrighteousness,” even though what can be known about God “is plain to them” and “clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” Read that again. This is not about people who have never heard the truth. This is about people who see it and push it down.

The male and female body is one of the plainest things God ever made. Chromosomes. Biology. Reproduction. It is written into creation itself. You do not need a medical degree to see it. A child knows the difference.

So when someone demands you call them something their own body contradicts, that is not a new cultural moment. That is the exact pattern Paul described. Suppressing what is plain. Holding down what is obvious. And the text says this leaves people “without excuse.”

Calling a man “she” is not just a word choice. It is participating in the suppression of something God made plain for everyone to see.

The Trade: Worshiping the Creature Instead of the Creator

Romans 1:23 and 25 use the word “exchanged” twice. First, they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man.” Then they “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

This is not a slow drift. It is a conscious trade. My feelings replace God’s design. My identity replaces His creation. The creature becomes the authority, and the Creator gets dismissed.

Pronouns are the everyday ritual of that trade. When language gets rewritten to match how someone feels instead of how God made them, we are watching creature-worship in real time. The self becomes the new god. My truth replaces His truth.

And here is what most people miss — demanding that everyone else use your pronouns is not just a personal choice. It forces everyone around you to participate in that trade. It is not asking for kindness. It is asking you to bow.

God Gave Them Over

Three times in Romans 1:24-28, the text repeats that God “gave them up” or “gave them over.” First to impurity and the dishonoring of their bodies. Then to dishonorable passions and relations contrary to nature. Finally to a debased mind — a mind that no longer works right.

This is not God punishing people in anger. This is God stepping back and letting the logic of the trade play out. You want to replace My design with your own? Go ahead. And here is what happens next.

The pronoun movement fits this progression exactly. The same “exchange” language Paul used for swapping natural relations for unnatural ones now applies to swapping natural identity for self-defined identity. And the “debased mind” is not an insult. It is a diagnosis. It describes a mind that has been handed over — one that can no longer see what is plain.

This is not a neutral cultural shift. Romans 1 says it is what a society looks like when God removes His hand and lets the exchange run its course. The confusion. The insistence. The anger when anyone disagrees. That is the debased mind doing what debased minds do.

The Loyalty Test

Romans 1:32 delivers the final blow: “Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Read that carefully. The sin is not just the act. It is the cultural machine that demands everyone else approve of it.

This is the pronoun flashpoint. Using pronouns that deny someone’s biology is not courtesy. It is giving approval to the entire chain — the suppression, the trade, the debased mind. And the text says they know better deep down. The plain truth is still plain. But they demand applause anyway.

The real situation Romans 1 exposes is this: we are not in a polite disagreement about language. We are watching a civilization demand loyalty to what God calls a lie. And language is the loyalty test.

A Christian who refuses is not being harsh. They are refusing to join the approval machine that Scripture specifically condemns. So if this is the explanation — if Romans 1 already told us what is happening and why — then the question is not “What should I say about pronouns?” The question is:

“Does debate or arguing about it accomplish anything??”

That is where we are going next.

Next: “Why Arguing Isn’t Working (And What the Bible Says Instead)”