A recent freedom of information request by BBC journalist Philip Nolan recently revealed that, under pressure from the LGBTQ+ lobbying group Stonewall, the Scottish government has now removed the term 'mother' from its government maternity policies.
Stonewall apparently argued that the word excluded people who didn't identify with the 'gender binary' from the government's maternity leave policy and it was therefore offensive and insulting to ... to what? Non-female mothers? Whatever the answer, it urged the government to replace such descriptions with more gender-neutral and inclusive terms, as featured in their inclusive policy toolkit, with the result that 'mothers' apparently no longer exist. Round one to Stonewall!
The question may justifiably be asked how such an overtly political group ⎼ masquerading as a charity certainly, but dedicated, as they are, to bringing about political change and the reconfiguration of society – can wield such coercive power over government? It surely makes a mockery of democracy? But, that apart, the fact this might be inaccurate or 'insulting' to women, seemingly airbrushing them out of existence, doesn't seem to have entered into the equation.
The inescapable truth is that, biologically, we are created male or female. It is true that a very few people – around 0.018% of the population worldwide – are born with 'ambiguous genitalia' and will require medical treatment, but for most of us our sex is determined by our chromosomes and is obvious at birth. To put it another way, whether we are male of female is written into our DNA, and is distinct and cannot be changed.
On top of that, however, what so many fail to appreciate these days is how tremendously important this is spiritually. As it is written in Hebrew, the name Yahweh contains both male and female symbols, indicating that God is neither male nor female, but that His nature and essential being encapsulate totality. This is borne out in Genesis 1:27, which states, 'So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.'
What is distinctive about the female, of course, is that she carries and births new life. A pattern repeated throughout the whole of creation, with the notable exception of the Syngnathidae family of fish, including male seahorses, pipefish and sea dragons, all of which exceptionally carry their young until they hatch.
But these species are exceptional and, for humanity, bringing to birth that new life created by the coming together of a man and a woman is something the male is totally unable to do. So the act of creation becomes in itself an expression of the totality of God, with the male providing the seed, and the female then nurturing and giving form to the new life that has been created. Again, the two aspects are complementary and complete each other - but their 'functions' are wholly distinct and special. Man cannot exist without woman, and woman cannot exist without man – and neither can exist alone.
Yet Stonewall, in its insistence on the use of gender-neutral, non-binary and inclusive terms, seeks to deny this reality, and thereby it not just demeans and discriminates against women, but denies truth together with the existence and totality of God.
That men and women should seek to identify as the opposite sex is not a celebration of true identity, as may mistakenly be claimed, but is rather evidence of enslavement to the material, making the individual blind to any reality other than that which can be seen, touched, and felt. It is the arch delusion of the devil, who seeks to blind men and women to God, in the process destroying our understanding of who and what we are, and of what we might become, and shattering any chance of restoration to that relationship with God for which we were first created.
'Mothers' cannot simply be dismissed as 'people who give birth'. Such designation denies the reality, status, and glory of what it is to be a woman. Down the centuries, women have patently suffered from being kept in positions of dependency and subservience – and in some countries of the world, of course, that shameful reality still holds good today. But women are special, just as are men, both co-equal in expression of the Godhead. So mothers should be unashamedly celebrated for who and what they are, and not downgraded to merely 'people who give birth', so as to accommodate the misguided cravings of those seeking to reconfigure existence and deny God.
We are all alike sinners, and all carry wounds and hurts that need healing. But that healing cannot be achieved by simply reclassifying reality. Rather, respecting and honouring all as made in the image of God, we need to face up to, and embrace, the truth – becoming fully what God intends us to be.
