In Hebrew, the word shalom means "peace, wholeness, reconcliation, harmony." When a Jew uses Shalom or Shalom Shalom as a greeting, they are wishing full, uniting, peace to another person. They are wishing wholeness and flourishing to another person, to find soundness and peace in their lives. It's a beautiful greeting to wish someone.
We live in a time where culture is actively pursuing the fracturing of wholeness in people by affirming sin and sinful lifestyles. Sin fractures shalom. Richard Platinga writes this: "If shalom in the Hebrew Bible refers to the vital flourishing of all things in right relationship with one another, then sin can be described as that which corrupts, distorts, and taints that universal flourishing."
Though all sin creates this fracturing of shalom, where we can see it most plainly being affirmed in our culture right now is in the affirmation of transgenderism. There are a lot of reasons we are seeing the rise of this besides the obvious pride and worship of one's own self and desires. One major reason is the low view this culture has of the human body. We see examples of this cultures low view of the human body in many hot topics today besides gender ideology, including abortion and sexuality. The church itself has been guilty of promoting a low view of the human body as well, with roots reaching back to early Gnosticism. How many of you have seen the meme Christians have posted on social media that states, "You are not a body. You are a soul. You have a body?" That statement is Biblically false. The truth is we are embodied creatures. We are both soul and body. This is what it means to be human. Scripture teaches a very high view of the body.
Transgenderism teaches a very low view of the body. It actively promotes a transcending of the body, to your most real inner you based on subjective changing feelings. It promotes an ideology, that makes a person's soul (mind, emotions, will) be at odds with his or her own body. This is not shalom. It is the opposite of shalom. It is a fracturing of a whole person into different opposed parts (soul against the body, body against the soul).
For those suffering with gender dysphoria, the cultural solution is to accept the person's chosen identity, and then encourage them to change the body to fit that chosen identity. This of course can never truly happen. The mutilation of the body will not change that person's sex. Nor will hormone therapy. Doing so may change their looks, but it will not change their sex. They will just continue as fractured people, at odds with themselves and reality. The body does not lie.
The loving response to someone struggling with gender dysphoria is to desire true shalom for that person, for that person to find peace, harmony, and wholeness between their souls and their physical bodies. This is done by helping that person wade through all their feelings and the lies they are believing and make peace with the body that God lovingly created for them.
Comments