Sophie Cunningham vs. the god of confusion

Poor Sophie Cunningham. The WNBA star made an oopsie by speaking the truth about how unfair and dangerous it is for biological men to compete with women in sports, and now everyone on the Left hates her.

And as we all know, no one hates better than the Left.

She’s caused such a stir that the WNBA is trying to figure out what Article XIII of their WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement really means when it says “only players who are women are eligible.” That’s a head scratcher for sure.  

It’s like the Babylon Bee reporting that the Kentucky Derby organization has convened a committee to determine what a horse is. It’ll be interesting to see how that turns out.   

Getting back to Cunningham, I have to confess I have the same cattywampus view that she has on the issue. And why do I (and nearly 75% of Americans) hold that position?

Think about it this way: nearly every sport prohibits performance-enhancing drugs (PED’s) for the simple reason they give an unfair strength, speed, etc. advantage to those using them. And what’s the primary component of the PED’s that do this? Synthetic hormones, particularly anabolic steroids and male testosterone derivatives.

Even beyond PED’s, some sports mandate separate competitive classes based on size and strength, reflecting the fact that additions in those areas give competitors an edge. It’s one reason you don’t see lightweight boxers taking on the heavyweights.

You see where I’m going with this, right?

If we do all that — and rightly so — why would we allow a biological male, complete with all their male hormones, to enter into competition with females who lack that advantage? The fact that a performance-enhancing substance is prohibited when artificially administered does not mean the same physiological advantage ceases to matter when it enters the fray naturally.

Trying to argue against that makes the “distinction without a difference” error and miserably fails to make the case that it’s “fair.” It ain’t.  

Some crazy thinking, I know.

Actually, I think a better word to describe these and similar cultural debates is confused thinking. And boy, do we have a lot of that today. It’s hard to make the case that we don't live in an age of extraordinary confusion.

What is a man? How about a woman? What constitutes marriage? What is truth? What is a human being? What is right and wrong? What is justice? What is freedom? Even what constitutes reality itself is increasingly disputed.

Heck, you’d think we could agree on what “stealing” is, but one leftist lawmaker says if people have a biological need for certain items, they should be able to swipe them.  

We have all this confusion, and yet the Bible clearly tells us that “God is not a God of confusion” (1 Cor. 14:33). And if He isn’t causing all the confusion, who is?

Order vs. chaos

Scripture makes it clear that God reveals truth, produces peace and order, and does not deceive. On the other hand, it tells us Satan is the father of lies, causes chaos, distorts God's Word, and produces deception.

Our takeaway from that is that when confusion and deception systematically replace God's revealed truth, we have biblical grounds to recognize a spiritual dimension in that confusion.

Go back to Genesis 3, and you see the start of it. God speaks, but Satan questions; God's Word is distorted, and doubt arises; truth then becomes ambiguous, which leads to the worst possible outcome: human beings decide for themselves what is true.

At that point, Pandora’s box is opened, human self-interest drives the ship, and godly wisdom goes out the window. James tells us this when he writes: “This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic” (James 3:15). The result is exactly what we’re seeing 2,000 years later: “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist” — here it comes — “there is disorder and every evil thing” (James 3:16, my emphasis).

We get a confused state described as “disorder,” a word which means not only “tumult” and “chaos” in the Greek, but also “opposition to established authority”. Does that sound like anything we're seeing today?

People in our culture constantly rebel against proper authority and standards, and deny truth just like their spiritual father:

“Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him … But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me” (John 8:43–45).

If that makes you uncomfortable, let me take it one step further and point out that God Himself can use confusion as an instrument of judgment.

Go back to Genesis again to see just one example: “Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:9). Or look to Romans 1 where Paul describes people who suppress the truth, exchange the truth of God for a lie, reject God's revelation, claim to be wise, become fools, and ultimately experience profound moral and intellectual confusion.

Of course, not every confused person is being satanically inspired or judged by God. We have plenty of ordinary human limitations which cause us to puzzle over things. Then there is commonplace human disagreement over competing truth claims, including theological ones.

But then comes the deliberate distortion of truth itself where deception and damage are the goals. When a civilization becomes confused about everything God has made clear, we should ask who benefits from that confusion.

It sure isn’t us.

Thankfully, on the issue of biological men competing in women’s sports, Sophie Cunningham and many more like her aren’t confused. The deeper issue, though, is who gets to define that reality.

The battle is ultimately over whether we will receive actuality as God has revealed it or redefine it according to our own desires. I think that when God speaks clearly, we shouldn't be confused.