Seth Udinski, FISM News
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On Tuesday, the president of West Texas A&M University issued a bold proclamation condemning drag shows and unabashedly reiterating his stance as president to prohibit them on the school’s campus.
Walter Wendler, President of West Texas A&M, issued the proclamation in a Tuesday blog post titled “A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing.” According to the president, the university was planning to host a drag show in partnership with the pro-LGBTQ think tank Trevor Project.
Wendler wrote,
West Texas A&M University will not host a drag show on campus. It was advertised for March 31, 2023, as an effort to raise money for The Trevor Project.
Wendler then went on to explain his personal view of human dignity, based on his profession of Christian faith and strong belief in the Christian worldview.
I believe every human being is created in the image of God and, therefore, a person of dignity. Being created in God’s image is the basis of Natural Law. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, prisoners of the culture of their time as are we, declared the Creator’s origin as the foundational fiber in the fabric of our nation as they breathed life into it.
He then delivered an articulate argument explaining why drag shows, in which biological men dress as women and behave in line with fetishized female stereotypes, are at their core deeply profane and offensive to women.
Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not. As a performance exaggerating aspects of womanhood (sexuality, femininity, gender), drag shows stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes for the amusement of others and discriminate against womanhood. Any event which diminishes an individual or group through such representation is wrong. … Drag shows are derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny, no matter the stated intent. Such conduct runs counter to the purpose of WT.
In closing, Wendler wrote,
A harmless drag show? Not possible. I will not appear to condone the diminishment of any group at the expense of impertinent gestures toward another group for any reason, even when the law of the land appears to require it.
Author’s Biblical Analysis
When I read President Wendler’s article, I was both impressed and proud of a man who, in the darkness of a secular college campus, is standing for truth.
Wendler is exactly right in his assessment. Drag shows profane women and dehumanize women for the sake of carnal entertainment and pleasure. Wendler says it brilliantly: drag is nothing more than a “slapstick sideshow that erodes the worth of women.”
Although there is certainly a difference perhaps in consequences and nature, the end result of a drag show is no different than pornography. It sexually abuses women at the expense of pleasuring consumers, who in this case are most often men with perverse sexual fetishes.
Support for drag must be found nowhere in the Christian worldview. Instead, let us defend the dignity and sanctity of women and womanhood, as we must also do for maleness.
The Christian worldview teaches that there are marked differences between men and women, and these differences are not to be mocked. Nor are they to be diminished, as many modern-age radical feminists have tried to do.
Instead, they are to be celebrated and cherished as part of the beautiful, good creation of God. One passage that illustrates this difference is 1 Peter 3:7, which describes women as the “weaker vessel.”
Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. – 1 Peter 3:7
This language does not in any way signify a diminishment in value on the part of women. Rather, it points to the obvious physical differences between men and women, as well as the many emotional and cognitive differences between men and women.
Here is an example: I do not like to cry. Weeping does not come naturally to me. I shed tears, on average, only a handful of times per year (I am not trying to evoke a “macho man” persona. Rather, I am simply telling you the truth). On the other hand, my wife cries, on average, somewhere in the neighborhood of several times a month to several times a week.
She cries when she is sad, she cries when she is happy, she cries when she is overwhelmed, she cries when she is praised, she cries when she is angry, and she cries when she is proud of her children. Not too long ago, we were having a simple conversation about crying, and from that, she began to cry!
My wife and I always have a good laugh at this story, and I tell it in no way to diminish her or any other woman but instead to illustrate the beauty and uniqueness of God-ordained womanhood. There are always exceptions to the rule, but generally, women possess a deeper understanding of emotion than men do, which makes them far more empathetic and compassionate than men.
The differences between men and women are strengths, not weaknesses. They are God-ordained, and therefore, they should be celebrated, not mocked.
So believer, when given the opportunity to engage in conversations about gender, make sure you please your Father in heaven by defending the uniqueness and beauty of the creation which He has ordained, for His glory, His good pleasure, and human flourishing.
Like everything God has created, the unique differences between man and woman are very good.
He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. – Genesis 5:2