Good morning, everyone. Typically, I would go ahead and give you the date and all of that information, and I will give a proper introduction in just a minute. What I ask everyone as they listen to this episode, that you will just take a deep breath you will listen carefully, you will continue to do your own research, and that you care more about truth, you care more about accuracy than you do your emotions, and you care more about, you know, showing understanding, compassion, and love towards other human beings more so than you care about winning an ideological debate. I do find it interesting that the last live broadcast that I did was a discussion about this verse. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise." Now, a lot of times when Christians read that, we immediately, we say, everyone else is the fool. They think they're right in their own eyes. We are the wise ones. But let me make it very clear, you and I have just as much the potential as being foolish and thinking we are right in our own eyes when we are very wrong. So all of us need to take a deep breath and we need to consider maybe we are right in our own eyes and we need to then listen to counsel. We need to seek advice. We need to seek information so that we can make sure that what we are about to say can be as accurate as possible. And we are considering all different possibilities. Does that sound reasonable? Does that sound okay? I hope so. Now with that said, I would like to welcome everyone. It is Friday, August 2, 2024. It is currently 1109 a.m. Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Do you truly desire truth? Do you truly desire to put away lying, to put away misinformation, to put away disinformation, and to pursue truth? Do you really desire that? Or are you the type of person who sees a headline, or sees a tweet, or sees something on social media, on Facebook, and just immediately, you just react, you just react. You don't stop to go, wait a minute, wait a minute, what is the truth here? You just start reacting, and then you start sharing your reaction with everyone else, even though maybe it's based on, well, ignorance. It's based on misunderstanding. If you're that kind of person, let me challenge you to stop being that kind of person and be a person who pursues understanding, truth, knowledge, and information, and not base things off emotion and ignorance. I really would challenge you. And we're all going to have to work hard together to be the right kind of person in this situation, because I am sure you are very aware there's a great controversy about the 2024 Olympics. In fact, there have been many controversies. We had the controversy about the opening ceremony, right, where supposedly what they did was a mockery of Christianity and come to find out, well, maybe it had more to do with Greek mythology and a Greek god, and maybe it wasn't exactly as everyone immediately stated that it was. And so I tried to offer somewhat of a correction. Again, it didn't make things popular for me and made things more difficult for me, but sometimes you've got to say, hey, everyone stop. And we have another controversy with the Olympics, and this time it's about boxing. Now, typically when you have controversy in boxing, it's because you watched the fight and you're like, wait a minute. The judges said, that person won? Are you out of your mind? Are you blind? That is ridiculous. That person was robbed. There's no way they won that fight. Because sometimes, historically, boxing judges, I don't know where they get their judges sometimes, but I think in many cases they're absolutely blind because it's ridiculous. I mean, I could go, I mean, I've been a boxing fan forever. So I try to watch a lot of boxing and sometimes I'm just baffled by what were the judges seeing? And many times the announcers are just as confused as well. So that's why they always say in boxing, don't leave it in the hands of the judges. But this time it's not a controversy about judges. It's a controversy about the competitors. because it is being stated by many that what happened in the 2024 Olympics is that we had a man competing against a woman. it's outrageous, it's demonic, it's satanic, it's ungodly, and it must be—we must boycott, we must scream against it. But is it that simple? Is it something as simple as, that's a man, they were fighting a woman, and this is insane? Is it that simple, or is there more to this controversy? Now, again, are you going to be a person that pursues truth, facts, or are you just going to react? The way of the full is right in his own eyes. But he who heeds counsel is wise. We need to seek counsel. We need to seek information or we're going to end up being the fool who thinks we're right in our own eyes. Now, I've been watching this controversy develop over the last, I don't know, 24, 48 hours, 72 hours. I don't know exactly how long it's been. And as this controversy has developed, I've been trying my best to read everything I can find about it. And I'm going to be honest with you, there's a lot of things I still don't understand. There's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of confusion. And some of the articles, again, I'm going to be honest with you, after I'm done reading the article, I'm like, I still don't know if I have a straight answer. So this is a situation where we need to be very, very careful, and I need to be very careful. So I'm not going to try to be too dogmatic, but I'm going to try to lay down a framework that would allow Christians, hopefully, to conduct ourselves in a Christ-honoring way, not like some lunatic that's running around yelling and screaming and accusing people of things that may not be true. Now, some basic rules for Christians when dealing with a controversial situation. First and foremost, we should care about truth, we should put away lying, gossip, slander, and we should not be bearing false witness. Those are basic concepts for a Christian. Hey, stop with the lies. Stop with the conspiratorial thinking. Stop with the rumors. Stop with the misinformation, the disinformation. Do not be bearing false witness. Stop with the gossip and the slander. Let's find truth. Another basic principle that a Christian should have is we're to demonstrate love even to our enemies. So we don't start calling people names. We don't start saying things in a way that just demonstrates a lack of love. Because I've already seen, under some articles, people in the comments section go, there's nothing like Christian love, and they're saying it sarcastically, because the comments there on a Christian website demonstrates a lack of love, empathy, or compassion. we should put away lying, speak the truth, we should remember the word of love, even our enemies. And I think another very important thing is, supposedly, as Christians, we believe in the sanctity of life, and that all human beings are created in the image of God, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Now, sometimes Christians say that, but then over and over and over, we sometimes forget that when we're dealing with controversial subjects, we're dealing with human beings. We're not dealing with just an ideology. We're dealing with human beings. And sometimes we take those human beings and kick them around so that we can win an ideological debate. We're dealing with human beings. who have emotions, who have feelings, and we sometimes reduce them to nothing more than an argument or a debate. If all you can see is an argument and a debate and you cannot see the human, then I'm sorry you're not looking at it from a Christian perspective. All right. Hopefully that laid a good foundation. Now you're ready? All right, we're gonna take this slowly. Some of this is gonna be very tedious and I apologize for that. I'm still gathering information. So a lot of this could change over the next 24, 48, 72 hours. And if it does, I'll come right here and turn on this microphone. I will correct any mistake that I made and I will try my very best to be as accurate as I can in this episode. There's going to be a lot of terminology here, a lot of medical terminology. There's going to be names. If I state anything incorrectly, let me just go ahead and apologize right from the start. I've tried to verify and correct things as much as possible, trying to prepare for this. I could argue that maybe I need, you know, I probably should wait another 24 hours and do more prep. But at the same time, the situation, I just feel more fuel is being thrown on the fire and it's just spreading and people are saying some outrageous things. So I think someone needs to step in and go, whoa, slow down, slow down, slow down. Very famous people have stated comments and then they've had to come back and apologize. if you know anything about the YouTube world or the wrestling world, there's a person by the name of Logan Paul who jumped in the middle of this controversy and then had to come back and say, you know, I think he said, I mean, he kind of played down his mistake, but he kind of said, oopsie, you know, maybe I'm spreading disinformation or something along those lines. But it's like, well, I do admire the fact that he came back and apologized, but this is why everyone needs to slow down before they jump, you know, onto this controversy. But here we go. Are you ready? Here we go. Let's go slowly. I'm going to tell you why I'm currently involved in this controversy. I am currently involved in this controversy because yesterday, Thursday, August the 1st, 2024, the Christian Post decided to jump in this controversy. I didn't want to be a part of this. So what I was trying to do as this controversy was building, I was kind of letting it just kind of, you know, let the fire just spread and let the fire just burn and just kind of stay out of it, right? Because it was so hard to get accurate information. So I'm like, I'm just going to stay out of this. And I didn't want to necessarily address it on the podcast because the information was so difficult. But once the Christian Post jumped in, then I felt like I have to say something now, because here's exactly what will happen. Pastors will look at the Christian Post, take their article, and then go to the pulpit or go to their microphones and spread what the Christian Post said without, in many cases, doing any additional research. And I think the Christian Post article, some could argue, is somewhat misleading. Some have accused it as being downright a lie. But are you ready for the Christian Post article? Here we go. Female Olympic boxer quits, reduced to tears after a 46-second fight against male competitor. Now as soon as I read the headline, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. They are now accusing the other boxer as being a male. And I'm like, what are they basing this off of? Because there is much controversy about this and it may not be as easy as everyone wants to make it. So again, the Christian Post, their argument is, or their headline is, that a female Olympic boxer quit, reduced to tears, after a 46-second fight against the male competitor. Now let me just go ahead This competitor that the Christian Post is classifying a male—let me make it very clear—has been boxing basically a good portion of their life, has always competed as a woman, and has even been beat, I think—I don't have the exact number in front of me—by, I think, between 8 and 11 other women have beat this person as they competed as a woman. This person has competed as a woman. There's never been any controversy. Never until something happened in 2023 that now came to light in 2024. But they've always competed as a woman, they've even been beat by other women, and everything has moved smoothly until all of a sudden this controversy exploded and then everyone comes jumping into the controversy as if they're experts. They're experts about everything. That's the thing with Christians. Christians always think we're experts on everything. And we think that our opinion somehow is fact. And sometimes we need to stop acting like we know everything. Instead of being a fool who thinks we're right in our own eyes, maybe we should stop and go seek additional information and seek counsel. So as soon as I saw the headline, the Christian Post. I'm like, oh boy, now I've got to address this, because this is now pastors are going to take this, Sunday school teachers are going to take this, and it's Friday. You know by Sunday it's going to be mentioned from the pulpit. It's going to be mentioned in the Sunday school classroom. It's going to be talked about in church. Oh, did you see that demonic Olympics? We already knew what they did in the opening ceremony as they mocked Christianity. Now they got a man beating up a woman. Oh, this is how to... And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There may be issues here that need to be addressed. But here's the thing. We need to make sure that we define the issues correctly and that we pursue this accurately. right? So, is it as simple as saying that the other competitor was a male? Is it that simple? I don't know if it's that simple. We're going to find out. We're going to give it time. I'm just saying everyone needs to take a deep breath and look into this. So, I'm going to read a little bit, because now, even in the comment section on this Christian Post article, even in the comment section, there's people going, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. This article is not accurate. This article needs to be retracted. Now, I almost called the Christian Post this morning and go, wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you guys sure that this is the headline you want to go with? But I haven't had an opportunity yet. I still may try to contact them because there's a lot of things here that still makes no sense. there's a lot of questions I don't have answered yet. We'll go through the Christian Post article and we can see if they address some of it. Maybe the headline is too sensational, but within the article they pull back and offer more clarification. Let's see what exactly happens. So, an Italian female boxer quit 46 seconds into a fight against an opponent with the XY chromosome at the Olympics on Thursday after getting punched twice in the face, prompting renewed backlash to the hot-button issue of men competing in women's sports. So the argument is, hey, this other boxer has the XY chromosome. And if they have the XY chromosome, well, then they have to be a man. Is it that simple? Is it that simple? So I'm going to do something really quick. I'm going to, I'm going to look something up really quick. Here we go. I'm going to see if I can find this. All right. Are you ready for this? Here we go. Here's some information. All right. So the question is, So let me go back to the, I had something set up. I wanted to play the audio of it, but it disappeared. So here we go. Let's read this again. An Italian female boxer quit 46 seconds into a fight against an opponent with XY chromosomes at the Olympics on Thursday after getting punched twice in the face, prompting renewed backlash to the hot button issue of men competing in women's sports. So the implication there, what is being implied there almost explicitly, if you have the XY chromosome, then clearly you are a man. Is it always that simple? Well, if you do a little research, you will find things like this. While it is typical, while it is typical, while it is typically the case, I should say, while it is typically the case that females have two chromosomes XX and males have one X and one Y chromosome XY, there are exceptions. Some individuals with XY chromosomes can be born and grow up as girls due to specific genetic mutations. These conditions fall under the category of disorders of sex development or known as DSD disorders. DSD disorders of sex development. Here are a couple of scenarios. androgen and sensitivity syndrome or androgen and sensitivity syndrome. All right. Androgen or androgens insensitive syndrome 46 XY DSD. All right, so if I'm saying that incorrectly, I apologize. I had the audio for this pulled up, but the audio disappeared. So I wasn't prepared that I was going to have to read it because I was going to let you hear the audio of this. So then everything would be pronounced perfectly and you would hear it from a different source other than me. All right, so. but Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome 46XYDSD. People with this condition have male chromosomes XY but do not develop male sexual organs due to a mutation in the androgen receptor gene. As a result, they appear female externally and live their lives as girls and women. make it that way. So just because this boxer has the XY chromosome is not necessarily accurate to say they are a man. So let me read this again. While it is typically the case that females have two X chromosomes, XX, and males have one X and one Y chromosome, XY, there are exceptions. Some individuals with the XY chromosome can be born and grow up as girls due to specific genetic mutations. These conditions fall under the category of disorders of sex development, DSD. Here are a couple of scenarios. The androgen insensitivity syndrome. Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, 46XYDSD. People with this condition have male chromosomes, XY, but they do not develop male sexual organs due to a mutation in the androgen receptor gene. As a result, they appear female externally and live their lives as girls and women. Most discover their genetic difference during puberty, and then they do not menstruate and may not be able to give birth. All right. Everybody got that one? The androgen insensitivity syndrome. So that's at least one case. The second one, I sometimes would say Sawyer syndrome, it's Swyer syndrome, S-Y-S-W-Y-E-R syndrome, S-W-Y-E-R syndrome, Swyer syndrome, this is 46XYDSD. All right, these individuals with the Swire syndrome have XY chromosomes, but they lack the development of male sexual characteristics. They typically have female external appearance and may not have internal female sexual organs. Some can even give birth. So we have the androgen insensitivity syndrome and we have the Swire syndrome. In summary, while rare, it is possible for someone with XY chromosome to be born and raised as a biological woman due to specific genetic factors. Please note, they're born and raised a biological woman, even though they have the XY chromosome. These cases highlight the complexity of sex determination beyond the simple XX and XY model. So immediately, Christians need to stop going, if they have the XY chromosome, then they're in! Stop that! It's not that simple! Learn! Study! Research! So we have two possible situations. The androgen insensitivity syndrome, where people with this condition have male chromosomes, but they do not develop male sexual organs due to a mutation in the androgen receptor gene. The other one is the Swyer syndrome, I sometimes say Sawyer syndrome, individuals with the Swire Syndrome, and if I'm saying it incorrectly, I apologize. Again, I had the audio for this, and I was going to play the audio, and then right in the middle of the broadcast, I get ready to hit the, and the whole page disappears. And I'm like, uh, no, please come back. But I'm glad I copied it all down, because that would have been bad if I didn't have copied it all down. That would have been really bad for the broadcast. So we have the androgen insensitivity syndrome, we have the Swire syndrome, and individuals with the Swire syndrome have XY chromosomes but lack the development of male sexual characteristics. They typically have female external appearance and may not have internal female sexual organs. Some can even give birth. As summary, while it is rare, it is possible for someone with the XY chromosomes to be born and raised as biological women due to specific genetic factors. Alright, so let me go back and read this first paragraph from the Christian Post. the Olympics on Thursday after getting punched twice in the face, prompting renewed backlash to the hot-button issue of men competing in women's sports." Now again, just because someone has the XY chromosome does not necessarily mean they are a male. It does not necessarily mean that. We would have to then do additional research to go, has this person who is being labeled as a male, do they have these conditions? Do they have one of these conditions? If they do, one of these disorders, then okay. I don't know if they do. I don't know if they don't. I just know that the person in question has competed as a female their whole life. And they're from a country that definitely would not support anything like we would know, we would refer to as transgenderism in any way, shape or form. Now, Angela Karini, and if I'm mispronouncing her name, I apologize. Angela Karini, who told reporters she was fighting in honor of her late father, was reduced to tears after abandoning the fight against her Algerian opponent, Emmane Khalif. And if I'm saying her name correctly, I apologize. But Emmane Khalif is the individual where everyone now is discussing and referring to Emmane Khalif as a man. Now, even though They have been participating as a woman through their whole life, and there's never been an issue. Now, this is where the issue begins. Khalif was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after failing a gender eligibility test conducted by the Russian-based Internal Boxing Association, according to a Wednesday statement from the organization. IBA, that's the name of the organization, no longer governs boxing at the Olympics. Instead it is run by the International Olympic Committee. So this organization that's making this claim no longer has anything to do with the Olympics. Not only that, according to At this moment, what I can tell is that the 2023 tests were likely invalid and there is no proof of them being medically accurate. Nowhere does it list the tests done, but they don't have any validity to them. So there's a lot of questions like, okay, they're claiming that in 2023 this happened, but we need those tests. We need to know exactly what they determined. But make it very clear, that organization has nothing to do with the 2024 Olympics. The 2024 Olympic Committee did their own test and obviously found that Imam Khalif could compete in the women's category. Now, just because, even if they tested to have the XY chromosome, that would still not make them a man. Now, listen, we could argue. Now, let's make this very clear. I'm trying to be as fair as I can with all of this. You could argue, well wait a minute, if someone does have this condition where they are a biological woman but they have the XY chromosome, should they be allowed to compete in the women's category? That is a separate issue and I'm all willing to hear that debate. Just don't immediately say because they have the XY chromosome they are a man. Don't immediately just jump to that conclusion because there are real conditions where that can happen. Sorry to ruin your little Disney version of life, but it's much more complicated than you would like to think. People are born with all kinds of disorders. People are born with all kinds of conditions. I know it doesn't fit the perfect little Christian image, but there are people born with horrible diseases and disorders and disabilities and handicaps impacting every area of your life from your mental development to your physical development to your sexuality. Now let's go back to the Christian post. And just again, the IBA no longer governs boxing at the Olympics. Instead, it is run by the International Olympic Committee. Both Khalif and another boxer from Taiwan were cleared by the IOC to participate in the sport despite failing gender eligibility tests in the past. So the IOC did clear them, even though the IBA didn't. their statement, the IBA said, the IOC's differing regulations on these matters, in which IBA is not involved, raises serious questions about both competitive fairness and athlete safety. Now, again, if we're just going to argue, well, wait a minute. What does the test consist of? And what should be the practical application. If a test comes back on a biological woman who has the XY chromosome, if they're testing at a genetic level, if they're testing there, then what, then what do you do? What do you do? Right? Okay. I'm all for that discussion. That doesn't make someone a man though. Right? That, that's what I'm saying. We have to be much more nuanced in our discussions about this. After the fight, a tearful Karini remained defiant despite quitting the match, refusing to shake Khalif's hand and throwing her headgear while shouting, this is unjust. I got into the ring to fight, but I didn't feel like it anymore after the first minute. I started to feel a strong pain in my nose. I didn't give up, but a punch hurt too much. So I said enough. I'm leaving with my head held high, she said. Now let me just make it very clear though, from everything I understand, Caliph has fought women before and has lost again somewhere between 8 to 11 times. And you can go verify the numbers there. And there have been other women who have fought Caliph who have spoken on this matter. I wasn't able to finish the match. I felt a strong pain to my nose and said to myself, for the experience that I have and the maturity as a woman that I have, I said, I hope my nation won't take it badly. I hope my dad won't take it badly. But I stopped and I said, I said, stop for myself. Now, according to the New York Post, Karini's coach said people had warned her against fighting Khalif, telling her, do not go, please. It's a man. It's dangerous for you. Now, again, someone's saying it's a man. It's a man. It's a man. Now, so far what we know is there is a possibility of one test, possibility of one test, that identified Khalifa having the XY. Now again, there are conditions that may explain, because there are countless other sources that say, wait a minute, Imam Khalif is not a man, they are a woman. So there's a bunch of back and forth. What I'm trying to say is, look, as we wait for more information to come out, and I don't know if we're ever going to get to the bottom of this, I think at some point we'll have to, Just note that just because the XY chromosomes are present doesn't necessarily make someone a man, as I've already identified the situations where this could occur, right? Italian Prime Minister condemned the fight as unfair. I think that athletes who have male genetic characteristics should not be admitted to women's competitions. And not because you want to discriminate against someone, but to protect the right of female athletes to be able to compete on equal terms. Carini's situation also drew scorn from prominent voices who have been speaking out for years against men competing in women's sports. Someone said, and I quote, as if the satanic display at the opening ceremony wasn't enough, the Olympics glorifies men punching women in the face with the intent of knocking them unconscious. Imagine Khalif is one of two male boxers fighting at the Olympics. A woman is going to die. So immediately someone is now accusing, of course, Khalif of being a man. Now, I don't, that's what, look, all I'm saying is everyone needs to hit the brakes and we need to find out because there's too many other things that, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, not a man, biological woman, but there's an issue here with maybe some things going on inside of them that we could then talk about whether fair or not fair, but that does not necessarily make them a man, all right? So then they have a lot of quotes here. of all kinds of famous people who are just immediately jumping in saying, it's a man, it's a man, it's a man, it's a man. Everyone is, I could go through all the articles here, all the different things they have here, all right? Now, immediately when you jump down to the comments, well, here, we immediately have all kinds of comments on here, all right? One person posted, According to the IOC, this is not a transgender issue and her gender remains uncertain. Some people are born differently than most people and conservative Christians are ignorant about human sexuality. To her credit, this boxer quit after all the unwarranted negative backlash. This attack, another person says, this attack on Emayne seems to be more anti-trans satanic panic 2.0 hysteria. Reality check. Khalif is not transgender nor is she intersex. Despite that, the boxer is facing transphobic backlash as many online are categorizing her as a male and connecting her win to the debate around Then they have a link to an article here. from another source, and it says, Imane Khalif, an Algerian Olympic boxer, won her first boxing match of the 2024 Paris Olympics today against Italian boxer Angela Carini. Last year, Khalif was disqualified from the 2023 International Boxing Association World Championship because she had elevated levels of testosterone. Khalif is not transgender, nor is she intersex. Despite that, the boxer is facing transphobic backlash as many online are categorizing her as a male and connecting her win to the debate around transgender athletes. All right. Okay, here, see here, they go on adding again, a lot of all the things that people say. All right. Everyone's making arguments here. So they go on, but then the rest of the article is filled with all the people making all the claims. Then someone else says, another Christian Post lie. I hope Khalif sues the Christian Post. I have a screenshot. I have screenshotted the entire story. OK, I have never heard of Khalif. Below is the boxer who defeated her in the first round of the World Boxing Championship. How could Khalif be the woman killer that Riley Gaines claims she is? Clearly, whatever chromosome she has is not an automatic win, if the chromosomal story is even true. And then it goes on here, a lot of people deserve to be sued. And then they have a link to the woman who beat, who has beat Khalif in the past. And they're saying, wait a minute, she's been beat by other women. So clearly, there's more to this story. Another person put, the boxer in question is not another male. By the way, she has been defeated eight times in the ring by women. The Christian Post point in creating this article is to keep fanning the flames of anti-trans hatred. There's literally no love like Christian love. Then someone else says the whole thing is a demonic mess. Thankfully, the entire world was able to see it. According to the IOC, and this is another source, this is not a transgender issue and her gender remains uncertain. Some people are born differently than most people and conservative Christians are ignorant about human sexuality. And then other people are like, hey, you know this is actually a woman, right? Okay, so then someone else posted, the Christian Post needs to issue a retraction and an apology. And then the comments just continue and continue and continue. Obviously, even in the comments, there's a back and forth. It's a man. It's not a man. It's a man. It's not a man. The XY chromosome. Well, what does that mean? So there's a lot of uncertainty on it. That's why the Christian Post article bothers me, because they just immediately labels the person as a male without any... Well, what are they basing that off of? What are they basing it off of? The supposed test done in 2023, where there's lots of questions about the validity of said test? What are you basing it on? Have we talked to Caliph themselves? Have we talked to them and asked them? I mean, what are we basing all of these claims upon? Another article here, okay, we've read that one. Here's another one. understanding Iman Khalif's Olympic controversy, what hyper-androgynism is, and its impact on female athletes. Iman Khalif has consistently identified as a woman and has every right to compete regardless of this controversy. Algerian boxer Emman Khalif at the center of a gender eligibility controversy following her victory over Italian fighter Angela Carini at the Paris Olympics on August 1st. This is Khalif's second appearance at the Olympics, having first competed for Algeria at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. I want to make it very clear, Khalif competed in the Olympics in 2021 and there was no controversy! Now, why is it a controversy in 2024? Since then, she has faced ongoing controversy, which has intensified after her recent win. Numerous comments and news articles have labeled Khalif as a biological man and questioned her eligibility to compete in women's boxing. A video of Khalif in 2022 has been widely shared on X claiming she is cheating in the Olympics and this has garnered millions of views. Another boxer has also been drawn into the controversy. While much of the discussion has labeled both athletes as transgender, there is no evidence or public statements confirming that either of the two boxers now involved in this controversy are transgender. Both Khalif and the other boxer from Taiwan have competed as women throughout their careers. Everything was proceeding smoothly until the 2023 World Cup organized by the International Boxing Association. The Russia-led IBA, which is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee, disqualified Ameen Khalif after a gender eligibility test reportedly revealed she has XY chromosomes. IBA president has claimed that both Khalif and the boxer from Taiwan, who allegedly had a similar test result, were trying to deceive their colleagues and pretended to be women. Khalif has denied these allegations. Now, so Khalif themselves have denied the allegations. Nobody wants to talk about that. See, on the Christian Post, they don't even mention Khalif, anything that she has said or not said. They just immediately labeled her as a man. Well, that's my problem here. Maybe it will be proven that she is a biological male and then we could have that discussion, but until then we need to proceed with great caution and care. Despite this, both Khalif and the boxer from Taiwan were admitted to the Olympic boxing competitions. The boxing unit responsible for overseeing eligibility ensured that all athletes meet the required rules and medical regulations, including submitting verified medical certificates at least three months before the competition. The IOC spokesman defended the athletes at a news conference. These boxers are completely eligible. They are women on their passports. They have competed in the Tokyo Olympics and have been competing for many years. We should avoid turning this into a witch hunt. Gender eligibility in sports has become a contentious issue, especially since the Tokyo Olympics. Some sports organizations have updated their rules to ban athletes who underwent male puberty from competing in women's events. However, there is no evidence suggesting that either Khalif or the boxer from Taiwan experienced male puberty. there's no evidence that they even experienced male puberty. But everyone's referring to them as a man. See where this becomes convoluted and confusing? Everyone needs to back off and allow this to play out. And we don't need Christian publications immediately accusing someone of being a man unless they have some specific information. Because we as Christians are told not to bear false witness, and we are definitely told not to judge lest we be judged. Now, I understand that doesn't mean we can never judge, but it does mean that there is a correct way we should judge, and that is based off facts, not based on just whatever we want something to be. And there's some things we can't judge unless you have, I don't know, the medical records in front of you. The IOC and the IBA adhered to different medical standards for athletes. The two organizations severed ties in 2019 when the IOC revoked the IBA's Olympic status due to concerns about the integrity, finances, and governance. At the time, the IBA president faced U.S. sanctions related to alleged involvement in drug trafficking and organized crime. Since the split, the IBA has been led by a new president who has accused Khalif and Lin, the boxer from Taiwan, of deceiving their colleagues and pretending to be women. However, the IBA no longer oversees the Olympic qualifying matches. The IOC manages these and has determined that Khalif and Lin, the boxer from Taiwan, meet the eligibility requirements. The key point is that both Khalif and Lin are women who comply with the IOC's criteria for competing in women's category. There is no valid reason to bar them from competing. However, several media houses and critics of transgender inclusion in sports have seized upon the IBA's disqualification to label Khalif and Lin as engaging in gender fraud, accusing them of trying to unfairly secure Olympic medals. Now what is hyperandrogenism? Recent controversies have taken serious issues like hyperandrogenism, where female bodies produce excessive testosterone and intersexuality, where individuals have sex characteristics that don't align neatly with traditional male or female definitions and use them to fuel an already heated debate over transgender women participating in sports. So now we have some more. Remember, we've already looked at We've looked at the androgen insensitivity syndrome. We looked at the Swire syndrome. We've looked at both syndromes, and these are where you basically have a biological woman that has the XY chromosome, all right? And then all the other issues that can come from that. Now, we have to add to our list of things, hyperandrogenism. and intersexuality, hyper androgynism and intersexuality. All right, now. This situation echoes past controversies and then they go through some of the people in the past who have had the condition of hyperandrogenism, which results in a naturally high testosterone levels. So now you could argue if you're a biological woman and you have hyperandrogenism and you're producing extra high levels of testosterone, should you be allowed then to compete? Now, I got no problem having that discussion. That's a completely separate issue, right? Well, wait a minute, you're producing an unfair amount of testosterone. Now, you could argue, well, could some men produce higher levels of testosterone than other men? And should then they be then disqualified? Like, now you have to start going through, so how Which levels are we going to test and where is the cutoff? If you have too much of this, even if you're a man or if you're a woman. Those are separate issues. All I'm trying to say is yelling and screaming that someone is transgender when there's no proof that they're transgender, claiming that they're a male when there's no proof they even went through male puberty, claiming they're a male when there may not even be any proof that they are. That's where we have to be careful and not jump into this transgender satanic panic 2.0 and try to say, let's be more rational about this. All right, they go through a number of athletes in the past who have hyper androgynism and some of the issues is created. I'm not gonna go through all the examples. Then they got in touch with a doctor. And they talked to someone who's the head of department of a part of a hospital and they get all the credentials. I'm not going to go through all of that. So they told us what hyper androgynism and its impact on a female athlete. This doctor said, a disorder known as hyperandrogenism is defined by high amounts of androgens or male hormones like testosterone and people who are normally assigned to the female gender at birth. Please note that again. Hyperandrogenism is defined by high amounts of androgens or male hormones like testosterone in people who are normally assigned to be the female gender at birth. Numerous medical symptoms such, and then they give a number of them, things that can lead to excessive hair growth, acne, irregular menstruation, can result from high androgen levels. So you can be a woman with these high androgen levels and they can manifest itself in different ways. right? Maybe severe acne, maybe excessive hair growth. And obviously you can think of some of the things that could be very difficult for a woman then to deal with. But they are a woman. They just are producing high levels of testosterone and other androgens. She further noted, Athletes who have hyperandrogenism also face serious social and psychological difficulties. Their mental health and self-esteem may suffer as a result of the stigma and scrutiny associated with the disease. Furthermore, treating the illness frequently calls for medical procedures that have potential negative consequences on general health and function in addition to their own set of side effects. See, now you're talking about human beings with a condition that can be very damaging physically and psychologically. This is not just something to yell at and call people names. When asked, is it fair to question a female athlete's gender due to hyperandrogenism, the doctor said, it is critical to understand that hyperandrogenism does not determine an athlete's gender on its own. Gender identity is a very personal experience that is not exclusively based on biological characteristics. Now, I know immediately Christians will yell at that, and I got no problem having a disagreement with that, right? We can get into gender identity versus biological. We can get into that discussion, all right? All I'm saying is you can have a biological woman who can have hyperandrogenism producing higher levels of these androgens than testosterone, etc. You can have a biological woman who can have the XY chromosome. That does not make them a man. All right? because it's much more complicated than that. That's all I'm trying to say is we have to look at this in a much more careful way in order to show respect to show that we care about truth, and to show that we love even our enemies, and that we do not bear false witness. Because Christianity should be the place the world comes to hear careful, compassionate, rational, logical, and truthful discussion about controversial issues. Furthermore, it can be detrimental and discriminatory to question an athlete's gender based on their hormone levels. This can perpetuate stigma and have an impact on the mental health of athletes. Just because of a hormone level, you can't question someone's sexuality or their gender based off a hormone level. She emphasized how medical justice should not be about labeling athletes as male or female based on a hormone measurement, but rather about giving them the same chances and support. Ultimately, despite the controversy and public scrutiny, Iman Khalif has consistently identified as a woman and the IOC has permitted her to compete in the Olympics as such in light of this. This matter should be considered settled. Now, I don't know if it should be considered settled. I'm not saying I'm going to go that far. And I got probably 30 other articles here. We've already been at this for 51 minutes. So here's what we know. Iman Khalif has identified and participated in boxing as a woman for a good portion of her life. She has even been defeated by eight other women. There is no evidence she ever has, there's definitely no evidence that she's transgender. There's definitely no evidence that she ever even experienced male puberty. So at this point we can see that she's a biological, as far as we can tell at this moment, is that she's a biological woman. However, she may have conditions that would explain higher levels of testosterone, may explain having XY chromosome. There are other things that can explain it. At this point, we don't know. Because the test that, now remember, she competed before and there's never been an issue. And then in 2023, there was an issue by an organization that the Olympics no longer recognize. And that organization has not released the test. Look, we don't know what did they test, what did they find, what was the situation. There's still a lot of information. Some would say that the tests are not even valid. We don't know. But it doesn't take much. You just throw something out there and then, boom, Christians are jumping all over it and accusing people of things. We should be the last ones to do that. You know what our thing should be? Whoa, whoa, whoa, everyone, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. We're talking about a human being. Let's be careful how we speak of this human being. Let's try to figure out the facts. Now, if it's determined that Khalif is a man, a biological man, and a biological man has been competing against women, then that's an issue that needs to be discussed. absolutely needs to be discussed. And then we'd be like, why did the Olympics allow a man to compete in this area? And if they allow a man to compete in this area, then are they going to allow biological man? Then we get into a big discussion. And that is a—I am all for having that conversation. I'm saying the Khalif situation may not be as simple because of all the information that we currently have. which seems to state that Khalif has always identified as a woman, has always competed as a woman, and has even been beat by other women. Now, will more evidence come out? I'm assuming it will. Will this be discussed moving forward? I'm assuming it will. What should the Christian approach be? Stop. pay attention, listen, and let's try to find out what the truth is. Let's try to find out what the truth is. And if we can, great. If there's any, and once we find out the truth, then we can speak accurately to what the truth is. Now what I fear is there are going to be people standing behind pulpits just saying crazy and ridiculous things. I'm afraid to even look on the Sermons 2.0 app right now. I'm afraid to even look around. I believe by Monday there's going to be probably sermons where people are saying horrible things. I'm worried that people are going to walk into my church on Sunday saying ridiculous things about it, and I'm going to have to call them out going, stop with this nonsense. We have to pursue the truth. Now, the truth may end up supporting the people that are currently making certain claims. that's great. That still doesn't justify making the claim now. Making the claim now before you have the evidence, and then if the evidence later comes out and supports your claim, doesn't mean you were right in making the claim in the first place. It just means that you ended up being right, great, but you could have been wrong. What we need to do is wait and try to gather facts. And there's a lot of contradictory facts right now. I don't know if Kalief has any of the conditions or the disorders that I have laid out. I don't know if they have any of them, but I know that there's medical explanations for higher testosterone levels, higher androgens, higher—all of—X, Y chromosome. There are explanations for these, and it's like many Christians don't understand how complex some of these issues are. Now, I've tried to be careful. I've tried to make sure I stated everything correctly. If I mispronounced anything, I do apologize for that. Again, one of those articles, I had the audio. I was going to play the audio for you, but it completely disappeared, which really frustrates me, OK? Because I wasn't prepared. I'm like, I don't even need to worry about this page because I can just play it, and I'll worry about the other pages. And then next thing you know, the page that had the most medical terminology, then OK. But I felt like I did pretty good. I think I corrected the one. All right. And I and there are other articles I have here. See, here's one article. Khalif was proven to have XY chromosome, according to, again, a test that we haven't seen, that's from the IBA, which sparked outrage throughout the sports world and beyond. XY chromosomes indicate that an individual is a male. However, certain conditions can allow a woman to present XY chromosomes. It remains unconfirmed which condition Khalif might have, if any at all. And then the IBA has an ongoing dispute with the Internal Olympic Committee. The organization is banned from the Olympics and some believe that this claim is less than trustworthy. There is no indicator that Khalifa is transgender. This would raise entire different ethics concerned about her Olympic eligibility. But she has never identified as anything other than a woman, and there is no indication that she identifies as intersex either. So there's no proof that she's transgender, no proof that she's intersex, there's no proof that she's anything other than a woman who may have a condition that could explain certain things, but we don't know for sure. Now you would think if she's a man, would be a probably some you think some evidence would have emerged quickly now maybe it will and she has fooled everyone she was a man she's not even transgender she's just a man pretending to be a woman and everyone's gonna find out soon but she's not transgender there seems to be no and from the country she's from i guarantee you she can't be transgender All right. And I'm looking here, I've got more, I've got more, I've got so many articles here on this. It says, Khalif was never known as a dominant champion or an overpowering physical specimen, even, or even a particular hard puncher. So she was never seen as anything. There was never like, wow, she's got more power. She's more dominant. She's more strong because she's a man, never an issue. And then now all of a sudden, oh my goodness, she's a man. Like why you think at some point this would have been addressed in the past. She was born, Amein Khalif was born in northwestern Algeria. Her father initially didn't approve of girls participating in boxing. Please note. Father didn't approve of girls participating in boxing. But Khalif said she gave up soccer as a teenager to pursue her new passion, even though she had to travel 10 kilometers each way to the gym. Khalif eventually caught the attention of Algeria's national team, making her major tournament debut in 2018 with a first-round loss. Now the International Boxing Association World Champions. Now the International Boxing Association World Champions. She lost five of her first six elite level bouts, but improved and excelled. So she lost the first five of her six elite boxing matches. Her father didn't approve of a girl boxing. Where, where is this anywhere showing that this is a, you think her father would be like, Hey, she was a boy, right? Unless the father is in on the conspiracy as well. Khalif was one of Algeria's first three Olympic women boxers sent to Tokyo three years ago. She won her opening bout but lost her second to eventually gold medalist Kelly Harrington of Ireland. So again, she's lost plenty of times to other women. All right. I'm looking here. And yeah, I'm going here reading. Okay, another person says, personally, I don't think she has done anything to cheat. I think it's the way she was born and that's out of her control. The fact that she has been beaten by nine females before says it all. So actually nine, she'd been beaten by nine, not eight. So I knew it was somewhere between 8 and 11. So she lost her first 4 or 5 out of her first elite level. That article right there, that's from the Associated Press. So once you start digging into this, her father didn't want her to box because he didn't want a girl to box. I mean everything seems to point that she's a female. Now, if her body's producing higher levels of these things, then we can have that conversation. But clearly, there's nothing that would indicate at all in her entire boxing career that she's ever had an unfair advantage. Because she's been beaten multiple times. And she's not even known for being a powerful puncher, even in her weight class. So, a lot of this is just pure. You know what this reminds me of? And I'll stop with this because we're at 63 minutes. I think I've covered everything I could possibly cover. I lived through it in the 1980s, which calls it the Great Satanic Panic. where everyone was like, there's teams of Satanists roaming about, and it was crazy living through that in the 80s. Utterly nuts. A little bit of paranoia, a little bit of fear, and then people just start saying and doing and acting in ridiculous ways, making outrageous claims, and come to find out it's all bogus and it's based off not anything true. We saw the panic and again, everyone knows how much I love Salem, Salem, Massachusetts. Everyone knows how I love that place. And I go to anything I can go to learn about that and how, you know, witches, there's witches everywhere. And then everyone's panicking and then people start dying because of fear. Now I understand there are legitimate concerns. legitimate concerns about how things should work in athletics when it comes to people who are transgender, and who should be able to compete and who should not be able to compete. And those are true and necessary discussions that must be determined, and there must be some reason brought to those discussions. there should be reason, there should be fact, there should be logic, and we should seek to do the best to protect women in sports so that they can compete and have success and not be taken away by people who have an unfair advantage or people who are not women. I'm very much in support of that and don't in any way misconstrue this or mischaracterize or accuse me of something that's not true. But at the same time, because there is concern there. We don't let that turn into a wild witch hunt where we start accusing people of being something that they are not and accusing them of things that are not accurate because Christianity should be the place that people come to and go, hey, the world out there is yelling and screaming and there's accusations and that's chaos, but go find a Christian because they will be compassionate and empathetic and they will speak truth and they will put away lying and they will not bear false witness and they will not participate in gossip and slander, and they're not going to judge in an unfair way because Christians care about truth, and they love people, and they care about people, and they even love their enemies, and they don't want to bear false witness because they treat people with dignity and respect. The only problem is, nobody turns to Christianity for that because Christians don't do any of that! including me probably sometimes. I am just as guilty as anybody else, so don't let me make this that I'm somehow better than everyone else. We're all guilty of it. We need to stop it. Now, I don't know how this is going to play out. I don't know what evidence is going to come forward. Everything right now is changing. But the more articles you read, when you have the father saying, hey, I didn't want my daughter to be a boxer, that means that even when she was little, the father considered her a girl, okay? And again, you're in a country, you're in a Muslim country. Everything about that country would not allow for her to be transgender or allow for transition or anything like that. So, and why could she compete, compete, compete, compete? No problem, no problem, no problem. And then all of a sudden in 2024, she's a man. Whoa, wait a minute. When did this controversy start? And if she was a man, she obviously is not very good boxer considering she lost her first five elite fights, or four of the first five or five of the first six elite fights. I don't, I put that article away. She's been beat by, you know, nine women. Nobody perceives her as having an unfair advantage, but then all of a sudden in one fight, oh, look at that. That's a man killing a woman. And OK, well, let's let's let's wait and see now if it's proven that she's a biological woman, but has an unfair advantage because of one of the conditions we mentioned. where she's producing more testosterone or maybe because she has an XY chromosome that they can prove that that gives her an unfair advantage, then you know what? We need to have that discussion and we need to rewrite the rules and figure out a way to make it more fair. But there's no evidence in her career that she has an unfair advantage. But if she does, then okay, let's discuss that. But guess what? She could still be a biological woman and yet have an unfair advantage because of these conditions which we've outlined. That's a whole different discussion. Now, if it's proven she's a man, then we can argue, okay, so what were the Olympics thinking? Why? Was there deception involved here? How did she get away with this? I just wanted to bring clarity and rationality to this situation. All right. I do apologize that the audio that I wanted to play, which would have stated all, I think I stated all of those terms pretty accurately. I think I did, right? I was so focused on hyper androgynism that when I saw the term androgen insensitivity, I wanted to say, I was going with hyper androgynism, but androgen insensitivity syndrome, 46XYDSD, got it. And then the Swire syndrome, I always want to say Sawyer, 46XYDSD. I think I got all of those. I think I got those pretty accurate. I think I did. I think I got her name correct. I think that's the correct way to say it if I'm incorrect. The other boxer, Karini, I don't have it in front of me. I think I got that name right. Hyperandrogenism, I got that right. Intersexuality, I got that right. I think I got most of them correctly. Testosterone, I got that. I think I did. I think I got most of it right. And the only reason, I'm always worried about getting it right, but I'm even more so in this discussion, because if I mispronounce one thing, I have spoken for 70 minutes, people will focus on the one thing I messed up on to attack me instead of considering everything that I said in its totality. And I hate that sometimes about how people will attack you on one thing and ignore everything that you said. I tried to be fair, I tried to be accurate, I tried to look at all the different perspectives, and I started off with the Christian article. And I think the Christian article is strongly misleading, and we'll see if the Christian post is challenged on it. They're definitely being challenged on it in the comment section, which I am happy to see. Now you do have the others immediately just saying, satanic, demonic, and it's a man and this is wrong. And of course, people are trying to correct them going, whoa, whoa, there's more to this story. So we'll see. All right, you can email me. And again, let me make it very clear. This is a developing story. There will be more information. There will be changes. If more information comes out that goes against things that I have presented to you, I got no problem offering that clarification. If there's evidence that comes out that kind of confirms the things that I have stated, well, then maybe I will present that or not. At that point, I have no desire to turn on the microphone to go, see, I told you so. Now, sometimes you have to do that, especially if you're getting lots of emails of people attacking you. But my goal here is to try to really just remember there's a human being involved in this story. There's a real human being involved. You may disagree with a human being. I think sometimes as Christians, just remember, again, there's no evidence that Khalif is transgender. There's nothing. There's no evidence that she's intersex. There's no evidence that she's anything other than a female, maybe with some of these conditions, but we don't know. But just remember, I'll go ahead and throw this out there, every human being, who's a part of the LGBTQ, well, all the different letters that may be added, but the LGBTQ community, I just go with the basic ones, the LGBTQ community, just remember, they're human beings. They're human beings created in the image of God, and they have an eternal soul. You may disagree with their ideology, you may disagree with their philosophy, you may disagree with their sexual preference, but they're still a human being. And as much as we may want to fight against the ideology or fight against their concepts and their ideas, we still at the same time want to demonstrate compassion and love to the people, because what we should ultimately want for people whom we disagree with is not to humiliate them, scream at them, yell at them, and embarrass them, but what we should want is to speak about what sin is and have no problem condemning sin, but we do so not in order to just destroy someone, but in order for someone to come to the truth and become saved so that they can have eternal life in heaven versus eternity in hell. Sometimes we're more interested in winning a debate and winning an argument than we are in having compassion and loving the person. A person is not a debate to be won. A person is someone that we're supposed to love because we're supposed to love even our enemies. And we're not to be overcome by evil, but we are to overcome evil with good. God bless.