Tiffany Elkington
Charity, the love of others, is truly a rewarding life pursuit. It can enhance our lives and provide us lifelong interpersonal connections with others.
Sometimes opening ourselves up to knowing what another person is going through or has gone through enables us to be kinder, more empathetic, and more loving. I like to picture a God that really knows me and also would like me to really know others.
Since I'm seeing a lot in my Facebook feed -- especially from practicing Christians -- about the Olympic boxing match and the "travesty" of a "man" punching a woman, I've decided to post something here to give my dear friends and family the opportunity to know more about our human family, to gain further light and knowledge, if you will.
My apologies in advance to my non-Christian friends and family for going down a bit of a Christian rabbit hole here. I promise the knowledge concerning these matters is good regardless of religious affiliation or non-religiosity.
Paul, from the New Testament, spoke about charity and what it is and also what it isn't. In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth..."
Paul continues...
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
Knowing more about others enables us to mature and become more charitable. We may currently be a bit in the dark, viewing things "through a glass, darkly." Humility allows us to be teachable, to be willing to look through a new and oftentimes more enlightened lens. Sometimes greater knowledge creates cognitive dissonance and may clash with things we already know or believe. Sometimes gaining knowledge can be uncomfortable. But on the positive side, knowledge can open us up to greater understanding and compassion. It can enable us to have a wider lens with which to view the world.
Charity -- pure love -- requires us to know one another, to be enlightened about one another. In this particular case of the female boxing match, it's very likely Khelif (one of the boxers who some are calling a man) could be a person presenting with all the outward "parts" of a female but may have 46XY chromosomes. Sometimes a person, maybe not Khelif since the testosterone levels were high, but some folks have a degree of AIS (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) where their cells don't process testosterone so they're XY but appear female. Regardless, it's very possible Khelif presented at birth as a female. There's all sorts of human conditions that can break from the typical, cleancut versions of male vs. female. Perhaps Khelif lived childhood as a female. They lived adolescence as a female. They moved into adulthood as a female. And eventually they entered the upper echelons of female sports as a female.
At some point, they probably underwent some sort of scientific testing required from sports authorities that led some sports organization to say, Hm, is this person really a female??? Now mind you, it's very possible there was no indication to Khelif or Khelif's parents, family, friends, doctors, etc., up until that point that Khelif was anything other than female.
So this is where charity comes into play. There are some people who are not clearly 100 percent male or 100 percent female. It is my opinion, that to truly be a Christian -- not a symbolic Christian, a Christian in name only -- to be a performative, life changing true disciple of Jesus -- it is our duty to love everyone exactly how God gave them to us. Period.
Being intentionally mean to Khelif in order to double down on "being right" is not Christian and I would argue it's pretty uncomfortable to watch Christians be mean, intentionally or unintentionally, to somebody because they haven't taken the time to learn about the many ways humans are born.
I would imagine Khelif has been pretty distraught over the news from some sort of "scientific" test that says they're "in between" male and female.
The decision-making officials in these sports organizations may not know exactly what to do either when someone is "in between" either. Two different sports governing bodies may come up with two entirely different verdicts on what it means to be female.
Let me just argue this: We need to give grace to people who are born this "in between" way. We need to be compassionate and not persecute or ostracize or mock them.
At the end of creation, God declared: "It is good." If God could call this wide variety and diversity of human family good, then who am I to say otherwise. Creation is good exactly how it is.
I've posted a video that shares more details about the middle ground between females and males. I hope you'll take the time to receive further enlightenment.
Another video that is specific to sports and the difficulties that can arise when trying to define gender is from the series "Sports on Fire" episode 4 "She Runs Like a Man." That video is currently available through Amazon Prime.
I highly recommend both.
Here's my last plea. Let's put in the time to move from an elementary school/secondary school understanding of gender into something more enlightened so we can know more and be better to each other.
(Note actually from me: this BBC documentary began production in 2009 and was released in 2011. There was no gender axe to grind at the time. This is simply a documentary made on the topic of Disorders of Sexual Development.)
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