Since the launch of The Washington Stand’s (TWS) new podcast, “Outstanding,” experts have tackled issues like the “trans patriarchy,” the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and artificial intelligence. The podcast’s most recent episode tackles the pronoun debate and how Christians should approach the idea of “pronoun hospitality” and what it means to stand for truth in a world increasingly led by lies.
“One of the most important battlegrounds in the sexual revolution is the war over words,” podcast host and Family Research Council senior fellow Joseph Backholm said. “First, there was an effort to redefine words like ‘marriage,’ ‘hate,’ ‘love,’ and ‘woman.’ There is also an effort to police which words can be said, and, in other cases, require certain words to be said. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.” Backholm was joined by Andrew Beckwith, president of Massachusetts Family Institute as well as Quena Gonzalez, senior director of Government Affairs at FRC.
Sticks and stones may break the bones, but apparently, words also hurt people — specifically school administrators. In the podcast, Beckwith highlighted a recent case at a school in Massachusetts, where a Christian teacher was required to include her pronouns in her signature line, which she refused to do.
“Interestingly, it hasn’t been … a student who identifies as the opposite sex or some fluid gender that wants special pronouns and the teacher objects,” Beckwith said. “It’s the administrative apparatus of the school that’s requiring this — whether it’s in staff meetings or, in particular, the case of referencing the signature block for the online directory.”
The use of preferred pronouns in the American language was not a hot topic until recently, the guests agreed, and already, it’s having a tremendous impact on religious freedom. The justification of the school’s requirement, according to Beckwith, was that the state of Massachusetts had “added gender identity as a protected class under state nondiscrimination laws, including in the area of education.” But, he explained, “[T]hat’s not what the law says.”
According to Beckwith, this scenario has “arisen multiple times in recent years in Massachusetts” and will most likely continue to surface there and abroad. After covering potential fallouts and consequences, Backholm asked how Christian’s ought to respond. As he put it, some Christians will cave and use a person’s preferred pronouns, saying, “It’s not that big of a deal. This is just a matter of courtesy. This is just kindness.”
Both guests on the podcast discouraged believers from adhering to the pronoun narrative and instead encouraged them to stand up for the truth.
“No one is born in the wrong body when it comes to sex. Nobody is born in the wrong body, period. God just doesn’t make mistakes,” Gonzalez said. “If we [Christians] begin to bow the knee to this, we give in little by little. I think we get sucked into this idea of pronoun hospitality, and pretty soon we’re telling lies.” Instead of participating using preferred pronouns, both Beckwith and Gonzalez referenced the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3, motivating listeners to “fear God more than Nebuchadnezzar” and to stand firm for truth in love.
“It's really interesting that the act of obedience that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were called to was just to stand. They weren't asked to argue,” Gonzalez pointed out. “They didn't have to give a defense until the king called them and asked for an explanation, in which case they gave a very simple defense [which was], ‘We can’t not obey God.’ That was it. It was very simple. … I think we’re called to stand. We’re called to not move. We’re called not to bow the knee.” That, he said, is what will make “the people of truth stand out.”
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