“I Identify as…..”

I read with consternation in recent days of what many consider newsworthy regarding the resignation of the NAACP chair in Spokane, and all the surrounding commentary. From what I can ascertain, Rachel Dolezai has said she “identifies” as a black woman although her parents and family accuse her of lying and are saying she has no African-American bloodline. So it begs the question, doesn’t it, of what is the “truth” regarding Ms. Dolezai’s racial heritage.

We will hear in the upcoming weeks, as long as this story is kept in the headlines, that the “truth” of one’s race will be that with which one wishes to “identify” which is another way of saying that one’s racial identity is subjectively determined. Others will say that racial identity is genetic or perhaps familial.

Why do I even comment on this today? Because it is just another predictable and deplorable effect of the relativization of the Truth. If we so completely buy into the philosophical idea that truth is relative to the individual’s perceptions and judgment, then not only will one’s sexual identity, gender, and race no longer be objectively verifiable, but truth in all things will not be verifiable in any manner. Indeed, as the philosophers would opine, we risk falling into solipsism, and as the theologians warn, we fall into the heresy of Gnosticism.

Consider this: If truth is relative, then our judicial system is irrelevant. No judge or jury will be able to sentence anyone, sanction anyone for violations of the law. To what would a witness swear if the truth is completely subjective? Who’s relatively defined truth would prevail? How can anything be proven “beyond reasonable doubt?”

My readers, perhaps the greatest heresy of modern times is Gnosticism, i.e., the belief that the truth lies is special knowledge given to a few, a belief that denies the incarnational aspects of Truth, and a belief that brings disunity and social entropy. Gnosticism is so prevalent. What we need is a return to a true understanding of the Incarnation and how we share in that incarnation. We must return to an understanding that there does exist something and someone out there greater than me and that greatness is a Person and that Person, whom we call God, determines what is true for he is Truth and he wishes to reveal that truth to us. It is this truth for which we search and find. It’s not us; it’s him. He is the Creator; we are the creatures made in his image.