Identity Influences Behavior

I identify as… (fill in the blank). Abraham Lincoln asked, “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs do you have?” You’d be surprised how many people answer five, not four, without even thinking. The other possible answer is two, depending on which word you emphasize (legs or you). During the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama said, “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig” which was taken by an angry McCain campaign as an “out of bounds attack on running mate Sarah Palin.” Still, the truth at the heart of the statement stands. Do what you will with a pig, it will always be a pig.

The point is simply that just because you call something by a different name, doesn’t make it so. So what does that have to do with our quest for truth? As always, our final arbiter of truth is God’s Word which never changes no matter how much current trends attempt to discredit or change meanings or standards.

The Bible is very clear.

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen. 1:27). Not only was man created as male and female, but all creatures were too. Six times in Genesis 6 and 7, God reiterates the phrase “male and female” referring to the pairs Noah was to take aboard the ark. Since all of creation, except for eight people (Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives) and the animals that Noah was told to bring aboard, was about to be destroyed in a worldwide flood, how would the earth be repopulated by man or beast if the natural binary order wasn’t adhered to. No matter how much of “nature” is denied, two women can’t produce a baby.

Since time began,

Satan has tried to thwart God’s design for mankind through lies and deception. And man, who rebels against God has been a willing dupe. Consider the latest evil-inspired teaching raging across our country in schools: CRT, Critical Race Theory. I’d like to focus on the word “theory.” Webster’s defines it this way, “a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action.” In the science community, theories are proposed to spawn discovery of truth. But they are still theories…until proven.

CRT, which has its roots in Marxism, is based solely on race. If you’re white, you’re an oppressor. If you’re black or brown, you’re oppressed. It promotes identity in the color of your skin. As an oppressed person, you are encouraged to adopt a programmed behavior, to act certain ways, demand certain things, and blame others. As an “oppressor” you’re guilty of anything and everything creating all the ills endured by the oppressed. Never mind the concepts of hard work and diligence on one hand or bad decisions and choices on the other hand. By the way, if this “theory” is true, we’d have no successful blacks or no down-and-out whites.

The questions is,

“Do you identify as what CRT says the color of your skin dictates?” Don’t buy the lie. Racism has always been with us. In Biblical times, Jews and the half-breed Samaritans hated each other. In more modern times, slavery was practice by blacks on blacks as well as by whites on blacks and even whites on whites. But that’s not the point. Anyone reading this is not and has not been part of a group systematically oppressed by another group. As much as we might want to blame somebody else for our current condition, we can’t.

So how do you identify yourself? Can you be honest? Are you disciplined or lazy? Dedicated or lethargic? Accountable or a blamer? Whatever your current state, you can improve it by a decision. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, your identity is in Christ. The Bible says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28 emphasis added).

If you don’t know Jesus,

and you want to, it’s not too late. He loves you in spite of your warts. There’s nothing you’ve done that is so bad that He would refuse you. In fact He says, “…the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” (John 6:37). What does it mean to “come to Him”? It means to admit your sin has driven a wedge between you and God and on your own, there’s nothing you can do to remove that. But Jesus will when you come in humility and tell Him you want to become part of His family. For a more detailed explanation, see “Steps to Salvation” on this site.

For those of us who already know Jesus, our identity is not defined by the world, but by the God who created it. “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another…” (1 John 1:7). Let’s make sure our behavior is consistent with our identity.