“Team TERF” and the truth about men and women

Comedian Dave Chappelle is under fire for comments made in his latest Netflix special, The Closer, and there’s a lesson for Christians to learn.

“Gender is a fact,” Chappelle declared, as he defended Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Rowling has suffered vicious character assassination for her insistence that being a woman is defined on biological grounds, and not self-identity.

Chappelle notes that Rowling has been called a “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), a term he says belongs on the list of words “transgender people make up to win arguments.” He announces, “I’m team TERF.”

As expected, this caused a stir, within Netflix and far beyond.

Taylor Ashbrook, who works for the Human Rights Campaign, tweeted: “As a transwoman… That special felt so lazy and disingenuous and I’m really disappointed.” GLAAD wrote on Twitter: “Dave Chappelle's brand has become synonymous with ridiculing trans people and other marginalized communities.”

Netflix employee Terra Field, who identifies as transgender, decried the special as attacking “the very validity of transness.” A showrunner for Netflix show Dear White People, Jaclyn Moore, who also identifies as transgender, wrote on Instagram: “I won’t work for @netflix again as long as they keep promoting and profiting from dangerous transphobic content.”

Chappelle isn’t alone. Joe Rogan, another provocative comedian, has caught his share of heat for platforming several “gender-critical” guests on his podcast, including Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters and Meghan Murphy, a feminist journalist who was booted from Twitter after calling a man who identifies as a woman, “he.”

Last week, Rogan posted a screenshot of a page on healthline.com that says, “Yes, it’s possible for men to become pregnant and give birth to children of their own.” His caption sarcastically read: “PLOT TWIST!”

There is plenty for conservatives and Christians to take issue with when it comes to Chappelle’s and Rogan’s material and delivery. Still, their willingness to highlight the basic facts of human biology, even amidst fierce criticism, is welcome. In a day when questioning the sexual revolution takes courage, mainstream influencers have the power to infuse much-needed sanity into the cultural conversation.

The fact that pushback against the denial of the scientific categories of male and female extends beyond Christian and conservative circles is not surprising. While Christians root our acknowledgment of the differences between men and women in the Bible, special revelation alone is not required to see this dichotomy.

Instead, general revelation, which is knowledge made available to both Christians and non-Christians through observation, inductive and deductive reasoning, and other learning processes, is sufficient in recognizing these characteristics. General revelation is why a growing chorus of cultural influencers is beginning to cry foul about the gender revolution.

However, while secular sanity can help push society in the right direction, general revelation will always require the need of special revelation’s final authority. It is Christians who can get us to the truth that counts with certainty. Influencers like Rogan, Chappelle, and others can tell us truths about who humans are, but only Scripture and the gospel tell us why.

Genesis 1:27 says that human beings are made in God’s image. As such, humans have special value that surpasses that of any animal or plant. The same verse demonstrates that part of what it means to be made in His image is to be made male and female. These distinctions are rooted in creation, reaffirmed throughout Scripture, and repeated by Jesus (Matthew 19:4). The marriage of the two reflects Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:21-22) and, therefore, the gospel.

Christians must declare with courage what is not just biologically true, but biblically true. Our courage should far surpass that of comedians and public celebrities who understand that the transgender ideology is a lie. We must not fear cancelation or criticism. We know that the same good God who made the universe and everything in it is also love (1 John 4:8). Therefore, any truth revealed by God is an affirmation of love.

Our calling is not to join “Team TERF,” but to be on Team Truth.