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“Christians cannot accept or champion any claims of ‘transableism’ for the very same reasons we cannot accept any claims of ‘transgenderism’ — because to do so would be to tell a lie.”
–WILLIAM WOLFE
In case you had any lingering doubts about the insane direction of identity politics and intersectionality, a recent Fox News report should put those to rest.
Riding the wave of everything “trans,” it appears that some healthy people are now identifying as “disabled” — or as they call it, “transabled” — and claiming that they understand themselves to be someone who “should have been born” with a disability or a handicap.
In an article, entitled “From transgendered to ‘transabled’: Now people are ‘choosing’ to identify as handicapped,” writer Deirdre Reilly notes,
“A troubling societal issue called “transableism” is attracting attention these days. Transableism is a newer term for BIID, or ‘Body Integrity Identity Disorder,’ in which a person actually ‘identifies’ as handicapped.”
According to an article published by the National Institutes of Health, BIID is an “extremely rare phenomenon of persons who desire the amputation of one or more healthy limbs or who desire a paralysis.”
That sounds crazy, right? That’s because it is. In normal times, that is, all of two weeks ago according to the clock of the sexual and moral revolution, anyone who asked to get a healthy limb amputated would be admitted for psychiatric care.
But today? Today on this edition of “the slippery slope is undefeated,” we are going to euphemistically call it “transableism” and tell people that they have to support it — or else.
Reilly continues:
“The point of ‘changing the identifier’ from a psychiatric condition (BIID) to an advocacy term (transableism) is to ‘harness the stunning cultural power of gender ideology’ to the cause of allowing doctors to ‘treat’ BIID patients by ‘amputating healthy limbs, snipping spinal cords or destroying eyesight,’ according to Evolution News and Science Today (EN), which reports on and analyzes evolution, neuroscience, bioethics, intelligent design and other science-related issues. Culturally, transableism is ‘the next abyss,’ that site also notes.”
The Fox Report references one individual in particular who has made the news with their transableism. Jørund Viktoria Alme, a senior credit analyst in Oslo, Norway, “identifies as disabled and uses a wheelchair, even though she has no physical handicap.”
Newsweek covered her case last year as well, documenting that Alme recently “recalled always wishing she had been born a woman who was paralyzed from the waist down.” Alme apparently decided to purchase and start using a wheelchair about five years ago, even though her legs function just fine.
Regarding the reaction to this, Newsweek writes: “Her story sparked a backlash, with Twitter users including some who are disabled themselves sharing their outrage.” They go on:
“‘This is so insulting. I’m a wheelchair user,’ one user wrote. ‘I went through excruciating pain with spinal & neurological damage. It’s not a joke & this to me is mocking me & others who’ve suffered awfully.’
Alme’s story was discussed during a segment on Britain’s GB News, with Shaun Bailey, a former London mayoral candidate, saying: ‘It’s insulting. If you really are disabled and it’s made your life tough in every way, you must watch that report and be so offended.’
It also caught the attention of German politician Georg Pazderski, who tweeted that in the past, Alme ‘would have ended up in a psychiatric ward.’”
In fact, as far back as 2015 (which is eons ago in revolutionary terms), Dr. Phil hosted an individual, Jewel Shuping, on his show who had blinded herself with drain cleaner “to fulfill her lifelong dream of being blind.” Shuping identifies as someone with BIID. But instead of getting the necessary psychiatric treatment to accept her functioning eyesight, she instead poured toxic chemicals into her retinas.
One of the doctors on the show with Shuping said, “I cannot imagine one physician who would willingly get to a point where they blind a patient intentionally, and that’s to me, what makes this diagnosis so very difficult.”
That’s exactly right. No doctor should ever do such a thing to a healthy patient, because one of the first things that doctors do is swear what’s known as “The Hippocratic Oath.” Within that oath is this famous command that sums up the very heart of medical ethics:
“First, do no harm.’”
Pause for a moment, however, and ask yourself this: If it sounds insane that any doctor would blind a patient with healthy eyes, or amputate a healthy leg, how much more insane is it that doctors are routinely amputating healthy sex organs from young teens struggling with gender dysphoria in the name of transgenderism? Both are awful, both are evil, and both should be illegal.
What should Christians think about this? Here’s the bottom line: Christians cannot accept or champion any claims of “transableism” for the very same reasons we cannot accept any claims of “transgenderism” — because to do so would be to tell a lie.
As the Bible reminds us in Proverbs 23:23, “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.”
Furthermore, we know that while the physical world is fallen, it is still good. Our bodies are “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God Himself (Psalm 139:14). If you have a healthy, functioning body, it is a gift from God, a sign of common grace, and a stewardship. To attempt to harm your physical body for the sake of fulfilling some delusional internal sense of identity is to “play God” with your own body in a way that rebels against God and His good designs.
Finally, for many of us — myself included — this is personal. While I am not handicapped, my mother is. She has Multiple Sclerosis and has been in a wheelchair for over 40 years. Despite dealing with this very real handicap, she has overcome great odds, raising five children, homeschooling us, and teaching us to know and love the Lord. I can only imagine that if my mother could recover her ability to walk, she would leap at the chance. And so, to consider that those who can walk would instead pretend to be paralyzed and sit in wheelchairs is just flat-out insulting — as well as being insane.
To be clear, Christians must have compassion for all those who struggle, including those who struggle with BIID. But the way we love them best, and in the most Christian fashion, to is call them to repent and believe the Gospel, and then to embrace their God-given body. Remember, Christ came to give sight to the blind and cause the lame to walk — not the other way around.
Follow William on Twitter! @William_E_Wolfe
Ready to dive deeper into the intersection of faith and policy? Head over to our Theology of Politics series page where we’ve published several long-form pieces that will help Christians navigate where their faith should direct them on political issues.
