Oh, the gospel will overcome in a world full of sorrow, by evil over all. You're listening to The Dean's List, an analysis of news, culture, and theological trends from a biblical worldview. This is your place for intelligent conversation on the relevant issues of our day. And now, here's the host of The Dean's List, Dr. Paul Dean. All right, Mary, I think we've got to be a little bit more careful as Christians these days. What do you think? Uh, of course I do, but what do you mean? That's right. You gotta, you gotta ask what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of areas we need to be more careful in, but I think we need to be careful at least for today, actually every day, but what we're talking about today, we need to be careful in the area of language and even the terminology that we use. A couple of days ago or last broadcast, whatever it was, we were talking about an important topic. As always, Did you know that there's never anything that I'm saying that's not important? I'm kidding, of course. I'm smiling, yes. Yes, it's radio. We may not understand where you're coming from, but we let you go on and on. Then we finally say, oh yeah, I see now. Well, no, but there are lots of things I say that are unimportant, but we were talking about an important subject. We were talking about how direction of our culture, the multiculturalism and the identity politics. We're talking about how it's sort of imploding on itself and how if you're part of an identity group that gives you, at least in your own mind, power and authority that others do not have, others who are not in your identity group. And she can have people who are, well, as one individual is trying to do, I mean, he claims to be a Christian, of course he's not, but he's trying to queer the church. He's trying to queer the world, and you've got, well, transgendered, non-binary individuals saying, oh, and by the way, Latina saying, you're a cis white dude, so you have no business talking about these issues. You know, people who are more marginalized than you can talk about these issues. And so it's sort of eating their own. It's sort of like rejecting help from any source except from those within your own group. So as we've been saying for many, many years, this multiculturalism that's taken root in our culture And by multiculturalism, we're not saying we don't want people from different cultures in, in America. We certainly do. We, we, we love and revel in and believe in a pluralistic society. Of course, we're going to try to persuade every one of them to come to Christ. But the point is we're not, we're not, um, you know, racist. We're not nationalist. You understand we're not nativist. But when we talk about multiculturalism, we're talking about a philosophy that says, well, my truth is true for me, and I'm just going to stay in my group, and I'm going to affirm my truth, and you can affirm your truth, but we're not going to merge. We're not going to have any common truths, as it were. We're not going to sort of melt into the melting pot anymore. We're going to stay separate. And see, that's a dynamic. That's a philosophy that's going to drive a civil society apart. We Christians are exclusive in the sense that we believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation. We understand that no one can be saved apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time, we, we, we certainly believe in getting along with people who disagree with us. We believe in getting along in a civil society with everyone. It's fine. The family stone said, and as we quote so often, we got to live together. Doesn't mean we have to agree with each other. But I'm going to let you say what you want to say and believe what you want to believe. And I'm going to say what I want to say and believe what I want to believe. We'll try to persuade one another, but we're not going to outlaw one another. That's what I'm saying. And you understand that. Yes, I understand that. Now I got bogged down a little bit. I wasn't trying to. So we're talking the other day about how this transgendered, non-binary, Latina woman was saying to the cis white dude, and that's what she called him, you can't really speak to this issue. And so I made a little bit of a joke and I said, Hey, I mean, I, as far as this culture is concerned, nobody wants to hear anything from me. I'm white, I'm Christian, you know, I'm male, I'm cis, and I didn't say hetero, should have said hetero, you know, just sort of rattling off a little bit of a list there. You understand what I'm saying? Okay? All right. You don't have to answer. Okay. But I used the term cis, cisgender. Now, again, I was just in the context, but I got to thinking about that after the broadcast, and I got to thinking to myself, you know, I really don't want to use that term. I mean, in one sense, you know, I mean, we know what cisgendered means. It means same, right? Comes from, I don't know, what is it, Latin? I think it's Latin. I'm not sure, but it means, um, you know, same or on the same side of, and of course the word trans means on the other side of, but the point is, cisgender is not a, it's not a term that, you know, the average person uses. It's not a term that we've been using for a long, long time. It's a term that's been used in different contexts, scientific context, for example, academic context. It's a term that's been used in sexual studies for, you know, some time now, I don't know, 20, 30 years, something like that. But it's not just a term that the average Christian, for example, uses every day. You say, well, okay, that's fine. We can use new terms. And that's true. But the point I'm trying to make is the reason I was like, you know what? I hope people didn't take that the wrong way. I don't go around quote unquote, identifying as a cisgender male. I mean, I'm just, I'm just a guy. I'm just a man. That's it. Now, if you ask me a question, do you transgender or, you know, do you identify and by the way, CIS means you, you identify here's the language here and here's where the rub comes. You ready for this? Cisgender means that you identify your gender identity is the same as your gender assignment at birth. So technically, I was born male, so to use their language, assigned male at birth, and I identify as a male. I'm not transgender. So in that context, it's okay, but here's the problem. Think about the whole terminology assigned. Think about me using the phrase, I was assigned the male gender at birth. Is that true? Or did something else happen? Did the doctors assign it to me? Did my mom and dad assign it to me? Did my birth certificate? Did the culture? Did somebody make a mistake? What happened? You were born man. I was born a male. I was born a male. I was born a... yes. So if you want to say God assigned it to me, okay. But God created me that way. That's the Christian worldview. And when we fall into this terminology of gender assignment, well, now we're falling into the political correctness and the terminology and the philosophy of the age, the philosophy of the culture, because what they're saying, of course, as well, you might've been assigned the wrong gender at birth or the gender you were assigned by someone arbitrarily. Because gender is not tied to sex, they say. Gender's not tied to biology, they say. See, what God does and what we do is we tie gender to sex. We tie it to biology, but they don't. And so the whole term cisgender, again, it just means that you identify gender-wise with your sex assignment. Or your sex. You identify with the gender you're assigned with. I'm sorry. See, it gets confusing. I was just thinking about filling out the DMV form yesterday. You know, in our state, we only have to do this once every 10 years, unless you're, I can't remember, over 65, I think they only give you five years. Renew your driver's license, what you're talking about. Yes. And oddly enough, 10 years ago, I said that I was an inch shorter than I am now. Wow. And the lady noted it. Wow. Gravity. No, no, no. You're defying gravity. Yeah, that's what she said. Wow, you're an inch taller this year. I said, wow, I've always been the number that I put down on the paper. I don't know what I was thinking 10 years ago. But, you know, you were sitting there thinking, you know, male still ask you, are you male or female? Well, on that form, but there's a lot of forms that... Oh, I know. Oh, you go to college now and they might give you 20 different options. You know, that's the sad reality of our culture, but it did. It asked male or female, it asked your gender, it asked your race, the whole bit. Oh yeah, you're right, it did ask what race. And they gave you a little teeny, you couldn't have put anything in that box. Oh no, and it didn't tell you, it didn't give you options. It usually gives you options and you feel comfortable circling an option. But now that I'm out there on my own, I gotta put down a W, I felt really weird. I know. I could have put down a question mark. I don't really know. Yeah. But I shouldn't have felt weird, but that's the culture you see. Anyway, uh, hey, Sidebark, as long as we're talking about the DMV, can I just, can I just say something? I sold a car last year. You know where I'm going. I can't believe you're gonna bring this up. Sold a car last year. And of course, once I sold the car, I dropped the insurance. No car, no insurance. Don't need it, right? And I got my license tag. Who knew you had to turn this thing in physically to the government? I mean, I didn't know that. I guess you did. But I'm just a guy. I'm not a cisgendered guy. I'm a guy. God made me male. And I believe I'm male. I feel like I'm a male. I try to act like I'm a male. I mean, the whole bit. Not going to buy into the PC. I'm not going to use the term cis because, you know, there is, you know, there is no distinction between sex and gender. It's all the same according to the Bible. Okay. So where was I going with that? I don't know. You're going to say you're stereotypical. No, you didn't take the time to turn in your tag. Oh no, I'm just a guy. That's what I'm saying. No, no, I don't. I'm not aware of these things. I mean, who knew you'd turn in your license tag? So anyway, like I said, I get this letter, says your insurance has lapsed, or you hadn't, I think, they didn't tie it to insurance in the letter. But somehow they, I guess they knew, and that's why, you didn't turn in your tag. They charged me $5 a day, I was 11 days late, and they charged me $55, you know, because, well, because I didn't turn my tag in. And it's grievous to me the government can just reach in and take my money because they don't turn a license tag in. So anyway, I got this letter, and so I did what every liberty-loving American would do, I ignored it. Now a Christian, you might say, well, they're charging you a fine, even if it's wrong, or a tax, it's a tax is what it is, you should pay it. Well, that's true. I believe Romans 13, pay taxes to whom they're due, but there again, Oh, you get into these discussions and this is a big rabbit trail. I'm sorry. I shouldn't even have gone down this road. I don't even know what the title of the broadcast today, because we're talking about language and now I'm off on the government again, which is easy. So she's told you to turn it in before you sold your car. I go into the DMV yesterday to renew my license and I get up there and the computer says all my services have been stopped. Now I knew what was going on, but I played dumb. Huh? And it was very nice, just so you know, because I knew I had to give a good witness and I knew I had to pay this thing. Okay. I'm just, I'm having a little fun here on the radio. And basically she says, uh, got a $55 deal here. You were uninsured. And I said, well, no ma'am, I was not uninsured. What happened was I sold my car. And I remember that time you were working, I don't know. Oh yeah, I didn't have time. Well, because they've changed it. Used to, they had a box that you could just like turn in your tag. Yeah, but I didn't even know about it. Slide it in the box. And now you have to go stand in the DMV line just to turn in your tag. I know it. But I didn't even know. I didn't even know. I didn't even know to drop it in the little box. So anyhow. Yeah, wouldn't I get to stand in line? Yeah, that's right. You would've had to stand in line. Do you know how much time it takes at the DMV? I mean, I guess you do. Most people listen to us. They probably go to the DMV. That should have a better system. No, it's just to employ people. It's all it's for. It's to employ people. It's stealing money from us to employ a bunch of people who should be employed elsewhere. Anyway, so what happened? Oh, so anyway, I said, well, no, ma'am, I sold my car and I didn't need insurance anymore. I said, I think they, I think they're charging me because I didn't turn in my license tax. She said, well, yeah, they're tied together. You should have turned in your license tag before you sold your car. That's what she said. Oh, wait a minute. You want me to turn in my license tag before I sell my car? See, that doesn't even make sense. Anyway, so it was very nice. And I said, well, again, I was not uninsured and so I didn't break the law. Can you just waive this? Which I knew she couldn't. And I thought about... You really asked her that question. I did. Can you just wave it? She said, I wish I could, but I can't. And I said, I know. I mean, that was very nice. I thought about asking just for fun to talk to somebody higher up, but you know, there's other people in line and I, you know, I didn't want to take any time. And so, but I'm going to write a letter to Nikki Haley. No. I think the next car you sold, actually, you just turned in the tag. You didn't drop your insurance until you turned in the tag. Who knows if that cost you $5 a day or not. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway. See, here's the deal. You don't pay that $55, you don't get a driver's license. You don't get a driver's license, you know, you can't drive. You don't go to work and all that. And see, here's the thing. Why in the world do I have to have permission from the government to drive a car anyway? You, Christian, Christian, Christian, listen, anybody home? I want you to really think about this question seriously. Give me a biblical reason. I'm not talking about submitting to the government when they make ridiculous laws. Okay, yes. Do that. Unless they ask you to sin. Okay? But here's the question. Can you justify in any biblical sin. Can you come up with any justification for the government to require me to get permission from them to come and go as I please, to drive a car? You'll have somebody on the other side saying there's lots of traffic laws that you need to obey and you couldn't know them unless you were tested. You don't need a license to know the traffic laws. That's a whole other discussion about traffic laws, but I'm just telling you, all you need to do is obey the traffic laws, period, end of story. And if you didn't obey them, you get a ticket? And if you don't, then there's a consequence, sure. But see, the Christians are so oppressed, we're so tyrannized, our liberty is so restricted, and we have no idea because we were born into this ocean. We're born in this cave. We live in Plato's cave and we just don't know it. Plato's cave. I'm going to do a t-shirt. the British, you know, in the European Union until all of a sudden they banned their electric teapots and toasters. Yeah. So, you know, hey, whoa, wait a minute. That's right. What? I know. You could tell I'd really rather talk about Liberty, but this whole cisgender thing... Yeah, I was gonna say, we weren't even talking about it. I know, we just got... You're the one that brought up the DMV. Look, I was just... At least I was on topic. I was saying that, hey, I had to fill in a box and say I was female. But I guess I could have checked male, but you know... You know what I kept thinking when I was talking to this lady? the FBI the song the CHP the DM the DMV coming after me I'm an outlaw baby outlaw well you remember that song War. They sang Lowrider. Most of our listeners probably heard of Lowrider. Low-ri-der. Remember that one? They might not have heard of Outlaw. Outlaw's good, too. Okay. Got a chopped down Harley. Power to the max, I think, when they try to catch me and leave him in my tracks. Something like that. Uh-oh. He's speeding. He's an outlaw, baby! What else is he gonna do? That's kind of like the people today saying that the evangelical Christians are the reason this Muslim sympathizer, whatever he is, ISIS, jihadist guy shot up all those people down in Orlando. They're blaming the evangelicals because of our stance on marriage and guns. And the whole argument is that if, oh yes, what is it? What is the chant that the Congress has come up with? Oh yeah, no fly, no buy. In other words, you're talking in Congress, if you're like on a terrorist watch list and so you can't fly anymore, you know, they won't let you on a plane or whatever. They're going to tie that, want to tie that and say, you can't buy a weapon either. No fly, no buy. And they say, had we had that in place, then, you know, the guys on the no fly list or whatever, then he wouldn't be able to buy a gun and all those people would still be alive. Wait a minute. I'm going to tie this back to your driver's license. Okay. But I'm going to, don't let me forget my point either. Oh, sorry. I don't want you to forget your point. Say your point and I'll forget mine. Well, my point is you think that this guy who murdered 49 people and shot up over 100, you think that him being on a no-buy list is going to prevent him from getting access to a gun and still doing what he did? He's an outlaw! But see, that's what tied it back. You said, he's speeding. Well, duh, he's an outlaw. He shot up those people. And let's say there was a law against guns in place. He still shot up those people. Duh, he's an outlaw. See, I'm not glorifying outlaws. I'm having a little fun at the DMV. I know. And the same thing is true with license. Just because people are required to have licenses doesn't mean that there are people out there that, in fact, I think in our state, like one in I can't remember how many, you know, my daughter was hit by a drunk driver, thankfully she's okay, but the insurance guys told her that like one in ten don't have insurance. So if you don't have insurance, you're not supposed to have a license, so that means one in ten are driving without a license. I can't believe that in our state, but anyway. Well I was almost one of them. They don't want to wait in the line, I guess. Yeah. Well, you know, listen, I'm not an outlaw and I, you know, obey the laws. I paid the fine. And you do have your license. I have my license. For another 10 years. Another 10 years. Unless you forfeit that right. Haven't had a moving violation since 1984. Okay, I'm not bragging. I'm just telling the people and all my fun. But here's the reality. I do object, though, to driver's license. I think it's immoral. I think it's wrong. I don't think. I know. This isn't one of those, oh, this is my opinion. No, no, no. It's a fact. It is immoral to require a driver's license. But we submit because of Romans 13. Now, again, I still think most Christians misinterpret Romans 13. We've talked about that before. We'll talk about it again. But I paid the fine. So I'm not glorifying outlaws, especially this outlaw I cannot believe that we're talking about the gun the guy used more than the crime itself and his connection to ISIS and all the rest. he could have done just as much damage with something other than a gun uh... anyway just it's uh... yeah well i mean how how come you listen at maybe the cut the commentary has probably already been exhausted so i don't want to spend anymore time my summer schedule is so busy i don't get to watch news commentary i get the headlines and all that so i don't know what's been said but anyway why uh... four or five people didn't uh... you know do a let's roll thing You know, and rush this guy. I certainly wouldn't let him, I'd let him shoot 50 people if I'd have been in there. Of course, I wouldn't have been in there. You know what I'm saying? But some guy comes in with a gun, single shot. He got a reload. It's time to take him down. for the glory of God. Anyway, not because I like fighting, I don't. Most people know I'm like borderline pacifist. I'm not a pacifist, but yeah, we're certainly anti-war and we're peaceful, but we do believe in self-defense. Well, no, we weren't there. That's true. We don't know where he was. Maybe he was hiding behind a barricade. Who knows? I don't know. I don't know. Yes, at a nightclub. They have barricades interspersed throughout the nightclub. It's so people can't have close contact with one another. I don't know. Okay, get back to the topic. Well, the truth is in this, what is this, 2016? It really wasn't a barricade. He had a force field. Oh, yes. Self-activated force field. Probably too. Somebody might say that. Yeah. All right. Hey, the sociologist Peter Berger once told a story about his childhood in Italy when Mussolini was the dictator. You remember that? Mm-hmm. Now we weren't there. I mean, I remember learning. Yeah. I was going to say, I don't remember, you know, Mussolini personally, but, uh, I've read about him. You know, this is like World War II and stuff. Anyway, Italian and by the way got this from John Stone Street. We're gonna run out of time So hey, we got to talk about a lot of other things But he says Italian You know like other languages You can address someone close to you. And by the way, I'm not going to pronounce these words, right because I don't speak Italian But you can address someone close to you as two and you address, um, like a stranger as like lay, which is also Italian for sheet. I don't miss lay or Lee. I don't know. But the point being there are two different words. Someone's close to you versus a stranger. Yeah, we do that. You know, just like as a stranger, I might say hello. Yes, yes, yes. Well, not a stranger, but you've got. Well, that's like plural versus singular to you and voo, but I might say to someone. Hey, buddy Hey, bud. Hey, hey friend or hello, sir. You know, anyway, we address people differently So anyway Burger says that Mussolini thought using I'm gonna say Lee. I don't know. I don't know how to pronounce this word I don't speak Italian. Okay, but anyway using that but he thought using the word Lee was effeminate and degenerate and So instead of using Lee, and he's a fascist, you know that, a legit fascist. So they substituted the word voi, which is the second person plural, sort of like you all, or as we say in the South, y'all. So he didn't say Lee, he said voi, because he thought Lee was effeminate. It's kind of like there's certain words I don't use in English, because I do, they sound feminine. And I just don't use them, because I'm a male. Born a male. Identify as male. Act like a male. Eat like a male. Don't even use the word cis, because I'm not a cis. C. Okay. Now, so linguistically speaking, Stone Street says this is nonsense. But I understand where Mussolini's coming from, I really do. But even though linguistically it might be nonsense, it has real world consequences. So Berger says, you know, from that moment on, every time you said Lee in Italy, you were making an anti-fascist gesture, consciously or unconsciously. And every time you said voie, you were making the linguistic equivalent of the fascist salute. So you're saying if you use... If you use the term cisgender, you're giving a salute. To the multiculturalists, to the progressives, to the LGBT community. Yes. So you really ought not use the term, you know, cisgender, especially when you're talking about yourself. And that's, see, it's interesting to me. That's what I was thinking about as soon as I said it and after the broadcast. I mean, I did use it correctly. But again, it's in a context, you see, and it has real world consequences. And lo and behold, two days later, I come across an article by John Stone Street, and he says the same thing. And I'm like, yeah, let's be Christian. Let's be men. You see what I'm saying? The right word to use and the academic word is normative. But they can't use that anymore. See, it's politically incorrect. Normative and normal don't mean the same thing, but they're too close for comfort. But the right word is normal. I'm normal. I mean, and it's not being ugly, not being arrogant. It's just the way God made things. So Christians, uh, didn't get to my application points, but just, you know what, let's just be normal. Can we do that? Can we love others? Don't be an outlaw. Don't be an outlaw. Don't be an outlaw. Be normal. Love Jesus. The opinions expressed on today's program are those of the announcers, their guests, and callers, and do not necessarily represent those of the staff and management of His Radio Network, the Radio Training Network, or iHeart Media.