Scriptural inerrancy is the quick fix that fails. Peter Speckhard takes on “pronoun bullies” in the September 2021 issue of Forum Letter. Kudos to Speckhard, associate editor of Forum Letter, for standing up to the bullies. He’s a profile in courage.
The problem is his use of the Bible. He presumes that the Bible gives us God’s eternal law embedded in the structures of life:
“But is it really an un-Christian anthropology the modern pronoun bullies are promoting? Yes. Biblical anthropology begins with, ‘In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.’”
The “image of God,” a physical likeness? The ancient Hebrews would be horrified. It’s idolatry, and having fallen into idolatry time and time again, the ancient Hebrews were dead set against it, particularly after Ezra (444 B.C.). The image of God is not a physical likeness but a task, to have dominion, to care for life on earth. And the image of God, lost in the Fall, is restored in Jesus Christ (Col 3:10). As Luther said, just as God rules over, loves, and cares for his kingdom, so we are to have dominion over, love, and care for the kingdom God has given us.
We have dominion, including taking on pronoun bullies, using common reason. We enter the public square, as everyone else does, without access to eternal law; we do not see through this world to God beneath and beyond.
What is “Biblical anthropology” after all? The anthropology in the Book of Ecclesiastes is quite different from the anthropology in Paul. For Lutherans what is basic is the sinner lost and condemned. This predicament is solved by Christ alone. Revelation is the cross alone. “The Book” cradles the Christ child, but it is not a clear glass window into God’s design; it is a stained-glass window through which the light of the Gospel shines.
Speckhard has issued a rousing call to arms. But it’s a left-hand kingdom battle, and the appropriate weapon for that battle is common reason. One good resource, among many others, is the National Association of Scholars Statement on Gender Ideology, available here.