If you want a point of contact with others in the evangelical world or even with unbelievers who are still living off of the Christian capital of the past, the next time they say that this executive order (or other similar issues) is just a matter of common sense, then just say, “No, it’s not common sense, it’s Christian.” 

Recently, I was listening to the “Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” on the radio.  I always enjoy their conversation while I am driving my car.  They were talking about President Trump’s executive order forbidding “transgender females” from participating in women’s sports, and Clay used the popular term “common sense.” He said it is just a matter of common sense.

For some reason (although I hear the term all the time), his comment about common sense just about threw me into an angry rant.  It was a little like when I was a child and fell on the floor kicking my legs and arms into the air—the old temper tantrum (if I did that today I probably could not get up from the floor).  So, is forbidding men to participate in women’s sports a matter of common sense?

I said to my wife “No, it’s not common sense, it’s Christian.” It’s a matter of the Christian Faith, not some neutral universal ethic. That’s what Clay should have said, and that’s what Christians should be saying. It’s Christian to forbid men from participating in women’s sports.  A good teaching moment for my wife. And I thought, is this a good time for a short op-ed article for The Aquila Report?

I preached a sermon about 30 years ago on the problem with the term “common sense,” but I guess that sermon did not change the world as I thought it would, being a younger, self-confident preacher as I was.  I’m not sure it even changed many in my congregation. Maybe I need to pull it out of the dusty file box and preach it again sometime.

What I said in my sermon is that the term “common sense” is neither common nor does it make sense. First, it is not common.  Common implies everyone agrees, but not everyone does agree.  About 50% of Americans (according to the most recent national election) do not agree with Clay’s view of common sense.  Most of those voted for Kamala Harris for President.

For many Americans the executive order makes no sense at all.  If you love someone of the same sex, then it makes sense to either hook up, marry them, or change your gender to become the opposite sex.  If you believe that you are a women trapped in a man’s body, then it probably makes sense to participate in women’s sports, once you have the requisite surgery or have taken the proper medication. Thus, since a man has chosen to become the opposite sex, he is now a she, and it makes sense for him (or I mean she—or I mean him#+*#+*) to participate in women’s sports.  It makes perfect sense to oppose Trump’s executive order.

For a Christian, transgender females participating in women’s sports does not make sense because God’s word tells us that it is wrong.  God made mankind with two sexes—male and female (binary).  Each sex was created with certain attributes and with differences in strength and physical power.  God is the ultimate source of sense (or what it means to be sensible), and if God’s word forbids it, then it does not make sense.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding (Prov. 3:5).”

I think evangelicals as a whole do agree with Trump’s executive order.  However, on second thought, considering the popularity of “Evangelicals for Kamala,” I’m not sure what evangelicals believe anymore.

So, transgender women participating in women’s sports is neither common nor does it make the same sense to everyone.  What makes sense to one person may be foolishness to another.  Apart from God’s word everything becomes relative.  This is why there is no universal validity to common sense.  It’s a little like the concept of natural law.  In a Christian culture it makes sense, but in a secular society it is fodder for the Devil.

I know Clay meant well, but he has not really considered what he is saying.  An appeal to common sense has replaced an appeal to the Christian Faith, at least for now.  If you allude to Christ and his law in the public square today as a basis for your beliefs, you may be called a religious bigot.  It not a matter of common sense, but rather it is a war between two religions, and the sooner we recognize it, the better off we will be.

A major problem for the days ahead is that if the opposite political party regains power in four years, then sympathy for perceived victims and the right to choose will again become political weapons as they were under the previous president.  Men participating in women’s sports will be considered a matter of common sense once again.

If you want a point of contact with others in the evangelical world or even with unbelievers who are still living off of the Christian capital of the past, the next time they say that this executive order (or other similar issues) is just a matter of common sense, then just say, “No, it’s not common sense, it’s Christian.”  It’s time to cancel not only men from participating in women’s sports, but also to cancel the idea of common sense.

Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn.