Do Women Athletes Support Trans Women in Women’s Sports?

Over the past few days, Riley Gaines (a former swimmer) and Simone Biles (the famous medal-winning (11 total in the Olympics) gymnast) have been feuding over the issue of trans women in women’s sports. Yesterday, to her credit, Biles apologized for making their disagreement personal. While she has not quite said so directly, Biles has expressed support for transgender athletes, including yesterday, when she said she wants “rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition.” (More on fairness later.) Gaines, on the other hand, has become outspoken against such “inclusion” since tying with Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle final at the 2022 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Thomas is biologically male but identifies as a woman, which allowed him to compete as a woman in that event. He went on to win the 500-yard freestyle in the same championships.

Biles is now 28 years old and has hinted at retiring soon; for a gymnast, she is past her prime. I have also noticed some other well-known female athletes who have come out in support of trans women in women’s sports. Megan Rapinoe, now-retired women’s soccer star, expressed support for trans youth, particularly trans girls in girl’s sports, in schools in 2020 via a court filing; she has become even more vocal and has broadened her support to include adult trans women in women’s sports since retiring in 2023, shortly after the women’s World Cup.

Another well-known athlete, WNBA star Candace Parker, expressed public support for the same cause in 2020 via the same court filing; like Rapinoe, she has broadened her support to include trans women in women’s sports, especially since her retirement, which happened in 2024.

A third well-known athlete, tennis star Billie Jean King (now 81), was another signatory to the same court filing that Rapinoe and Parker signed in 2020.

The pattern seems obvious: well-known women athletes who have already made their mark professionally and who are already retired, or near retirement, are expressing their public support for trans women in women’s sports. While there have been other less-famous women athletes who have expressed their support as well, I doubt that there are many (if any) young women athletes who are in favor of it; it’s understandable, of course, that they would be reluctant to express their opposition to it, however, for fear of being ostracized.

On the other hand, there have also been well-known women athletes who have expressed their opposition to trans women in women’s sports, some more directly than others. Here’s an indirect example: Now-retired tennis great Serena Williams said in an interview with David Letterman in 2013, “If I were to play Andy Murray, I would lose 6-0, 6-0. The men are a lot faster, and they serve harder. They hit harder. It’s just a different game.” Murray had recently challenged her to an exhibition match. (Williams retired in 2022.)

Tennis great Martina Navratilova, now 68, has been very vocal in her opposition to trans women in women’s sports. In February of this year, she wrote in a post on X, “I hate that the Democrats totally failed women and girls on this very clear issue of women’s sports being for females only.” Five days ago, also in a post on X, she wrote, “Riley [Gaines] is MAGA and I couldn’t disagree with her more on politics but on keeping sports safe and fair for girls and women I agree with her. As most people, republicans democrats and everything in between do also.”

In her second post, Navratilova mentions the two primary issues regarding trans women in women’s sports: safety and fairness. When Payton McNabb was 17, she suffered severe head and neck injuries resulting in long-term concussion symptoms after being hit in the face by a volleyball during a 2023 match; the ball was spiked by a trans girl. Another aspect of safety revolves around the issue of women (and girls) who have been forced to share the same locker room with trans women; the reason we know that Lia Thomas is biologically male is because Riley Gaines and other women saw him naked; the women, of course, felt unsafe.

The other issue Navratilova mentioned is fairness. I came across a rather startling UN Report in an article by Emily Crane from Oct. 23, 2024; the report was titled “Violence against women and girls in sports,” and it said that, “By 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports.” It added, “The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males.” There have also been trans women who have “broken records” while competing in women’s sports. On January 26, 2024, track-and-field athlete Sadie Schreiner, a trans woman, broke two records in the Atlantic Region Championship. Hopefully, these “records” and others like them will one day be expunged from the record books.

A recent (April 30 of this year) poll by NBC news found that 75% of Americans agree with Martina Navratilova: trans women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports. Those who publicly express that trans women should be allowed to participate in women’s sports are the favored ones in our ultra-tolerant society, while those who express their opposition to such “inclusion” tend to be attacked; just ask Riley Gaines. My solution to this issue is to have two additional, separate categories in sports: trans women and trans men. In other words, let trans women compete, but only against other trans women, and the same for trans men. I doubt that this would ever be implemented because it would be seen as “exclusionary.”

As I’ve written before elsewhere, here’s what the Bible tells us about men and women: Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” God has made each of us as either a male or a female, and He never, ever makes a mistake.

I fear for those who identify as the opposite gender. If that is you, I pray that you will come to understand who God is and that if you trust Him, He will save you and give you contentment as the person, including your sex at birth, that He made you to be.

Does God Need Us?

I recently overheard someone say that God needs us. I didn’t hear enough to get the context of it and why he believes this, but it’s not the first time I’ve read or heard this, and I’m sure it won’t be the last, either.

Another way of asking this question is: Why did God create everything, including us? When I’ve heard or read that God needs us, the reasoning has often been something like this: God must have been lonely and therefore sad before He started creating; He created everything, including human beings, so that He could have fellowship. This line of thinking has usually come from believers. I’ve also come across darker reasoning, from non-Christians: God needed to be worshiped, and before He started His work of creating, there was nothing and no one to give Him that worship; He is some kind of megalomaniac, like the Greek “gods” Zeus and Poseidon.

I think that these kinds of thinking are in large part related to the desire of us human beings to understand God better; since our emotions are an important part of who we are, we try to imagine what God’s emotions are like. For example, I have a good friend who once asked me how God feels about people in hell. My answer was that I don’t know, but that people in hell are experiencing the just consequences of their not believing in and trusting God while they still had the chance.

There is a theological term, aseity, which refers to God’s self-sufficiency; this means, among other things, that God does not need anything or anyone. He is autonomous and is not dependent on anything for His own existence. At the same time, however, God has always had fellowship, and that is the mystery of the Trinity: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. We see this already in the first chapter of the Bible, where we read in Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’” Notice “us” and “our” in this verse, which refers to the three Persons that God is. He has always had fellowship, which I think should help people who have concerns about God’s supposed “loneliness” before he began creating.

So, why did God create us? Isaiah 43:6-7 answers this question very directly: “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” God created everything, including us, for His glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Indeed, that is our ultimate purpose: to glorify God. We are able to do this because of Him, as Philippians 2:13 says: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

Revelation 4:11 expresses this in a similar way: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” The King James Version expresses the last part even better: “and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” God created everything for His pleasure; in other words, it pleased Him to create the world and everything in it, including us.

Of all the Bible verses I came across in studying the question of whether God needs us, I think that Acts 17:24-25 answers it most directly: “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” Notice that important phrase in relation to this question: “as if he needed anything.” In other words, God does not need anything, including us!

The Biblical truth that God does not need us may be cause for sadness for some who are reading this, but Matthew Barrett in a Tabletalk magazine article from 2019 expresses why we should be very thankful that God doesn’t need us: “It is precisely because God is free from creation that He is able to save lost sinners like you and me. If God were a needy God, He would need our help just as much as we need His. What good news it is, then, that the gospel depends on a God who does not depend on us.” God is able to save us precisely because of His complete self-sufficiency; He does not need us, but we desperately need Him. If you have not put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, my prayer is that you will do so today.

What’s Wrong with Graven Images?

My dad was a pastor, and periodically, he would take ten weeks to take the congregation through the ten commandments. As a boy, I understood some of them better than others. One that I thought I had a decent understanding of was the second, which says this in Exodus 20:4-6 (NIV): “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” In the KJV, the phrase “graven images” is used instead of “idol.” (For the purposes of this post, I’m going to use the term “graven images,” for the most part.) As a boy, I pictured totem poles in my mind as examples of these. I remember thinking at the time, “Whew, that’s one commandment I haven’t broken!”

At the time I got married, my wife and I knew a young believer, Kim, from South Korea. After his father died, he went back to South Korea for the funeral and other events associated with his father’s death. He was present for some gravesite rituals, including a shaman performing an exorcism designed to remove any evil spirits from the area. We don’t know if there were idols present or not, but there was a kind of altar where people could place offerings. When Kim came back to the States, he began to act and speak rather strangely. While we didn’t witness this, others reported that he had, for example, stood on a table at his university (he had an assistantship as a graduate student) and spoken harsh words to others there. Ultimately, he was granted a Master’s degree but lost his assistantship. At the time, my wife and I were rather young Christians, so we didn’t know what to make of all this.

I mentioned in a recent post that my wife and I are part of a church which is largely Asian. Some of our brothers and sisters are from a Buddhist background; in Buddhism, graven images are common, so for Buddhists, it is rather normal for them to have such images in the house. When someone with such a background comes to faith in Christ, they typically remove the graven images from the household. However, there’s a problem, as you might imagine, when only one spouse comes to faith in Christ; the unbelieving spouse, understandably, doesn’t want to give up his or her idols. One might think that the effect of these images is largely symbolic, but not necessarily so. Here are a few stories that we have heard over the years, not necessarily about people of our church.

  • There is a family where the wife is a believer, but the husband is not. However, he has seen the love of our congregation shown to his family, particularly during his wife’s recent illness, so prayerfully, he will come to faith in Christ. We pray that this will happen for his own sake, of course, but also for the sake of the rest of his family; members of their family have been having bad dreams, and there were graven images in the house.
  • There is another family where the husband recently came to faith in Christ and got rid of his idols; his son had been having bad dreams that had affected his ability to work. Those dreams have been lessening, so prayerfully he will be able to work more.
  • In yet another family, both the husband and wife came to faith in Christ about the same time, and they got rid of their idols. Their child had been having seizures, and it didn’t seem like epilepsy, according to a doctor. Thankfully, the seizures have stopped.

A couple of years ago as our congregation was reading through the Bible, one thing that became very apparent was that the primary reason the Lord allowed His people, the Israelites (both the northern ten-tribe kingdom and the southern two-tribe kingdom) to be taken into captivity was their idol worship. I also came across some verses earlier in the Old Testament which link idols to demons. One prominent example is Deuteronomy 32:16-17, which says, “They [the Israelites] made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons, which are not God–gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.” Notice the second part of that second sentence: “They sacrificed to demons.” In other words, when the Israelites sacrificed to graven images, in reality they were sacrificing to demons. The first part of Leviticus 17:7 gives a commandment against sacrificing to idols with these words: “They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves.” In the KJV, the word “devils” is used in place of “goat idols,” and the ESV uses the phrase “goat demons.”

Lest we think that this linkage between graven images and demons is only in the Old Testament, the Apostle Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 10:19-20: “Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.”

While I can’t know for sure, it seems likely that what our friend Kim and the other people I mentioned have experienced is due to some kind of demonic influence. I don’t know enough about it to say more than that, but I don’t think that the strange behavior and the bad dreams, particularly of young children, are coincidental.

In the American church, preaching about the second commandment is often focused on how we can all have idols if we’re not careful: money, material possessions, position, and people are some examples mentioned. And this is true–let’s see; what’s the name of that TV show? Oh, yeah; American Idol–23 seasons and counting! However, it is also true that for some people in American society–and elsewhere–other examples of idols exist, in the form of graven images. If you are a Christian and you have any such images in your home, I urge you to get rid of them. If you are not a Christian, my prayer is that you would put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ today.

Resurrection Body Scars?

The question in the title is one that I had never thought of before. It came to my attention because of a book that a brother in Christ gave my wife and me a while back called Being God’s Image by Carmen Joy Imes. Her thesis is not simply that we are made in God’s image, but that we are God’s image. When I began reading the book, I didn’t know if that distinction would make much of a difference in the inferences and conclusions she would make; however, it didn’t take long to discover that it did.

One inference she makes–although she refers to it as a speculation–is that in heaven, our resurrection bodies will retain the scars that our earthly bodies had because Jesus’ resurrection body retains scars from His crucifixion. They (her scars) “are, after all, part of my humanity.” As I continued to read, however, she didn’t do much to nuance her speculation with examples, except for scars from her own C-section, a birthmark removal, and a slash on her toe. I agree with others who have said that some scars can be beautiful because they are a kind of victory of health over injury. I was wondering, however, about those who have deformities: skin damage caused by severe burns, for example. I wondered about those physical scars which may be less immediately obvious, such as blindness and deafness. I thought about paraplegics, like Joni Eareckson Tada. I thought about former drug addicts who still bear the evidence of that former addiction on their arms. And what about the scars of those who have suffered severe physical abuse?

I thought about the fact that I have been blind from birth in one eye; when I was a child, it bothered me somewhat because it marked me as “different” even though no one ever made fun of me for it. In fact, over the years, my current ocularist has done such an incredible job of carefully fashioning my prosthesis and keeping it polished that people have expressed surprise when I have mentioned that I have one; they can’t tell the difference between my two eyes. And I have been joking with my wife and kids about it for years! (Phrases like “keep an eye on it.”) However, regarding my resurrection body, I have always assumed that I will have binocular vision.

When I think about resurrection bodies, I have also pondered mental disabilities. When I think about my sister who was mentally handicapped in this life, I enjoy imagining her in heaven, probably singing and dancing as she liked to do here! However, I do not believe that she has her limiting mental handicap anymore. My daughter, who’s a believer, has autism; although she’s rather high-functioning, will she still be autistic in heaven? I don’t believe so. I believe my sister and daughter will retain their unique personalities, but not their mental disabilities.

Earlier, I mentioned physical abuse; would Imes say that believers will retain the emotional scars from that abuse in heaven? Probably not, but why then would the Lord give them resurrection bodies retaining any physical scars resulting from that abuse?

What does the Bible say regarding this matter of resurrection body scars? Ephesians 5:27 tells us, “and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” While this verse clearly, and primarily, refers to the fact that we will be sinless in heaven, “without blemish” is also a reference to the Old Testament animal sacrifices that the Israelites were required to make. This is an indication that our resurrection bodies will also be without blemish.

Imes makes the assumption that because of the scars on Jesus’ resurrection body, we will also retain our scars on our resurrection bodies. However, let’s look at a couple differences between Jesus and us. First of all, Jesus was both fully human and fully God, except that He never sinned. He bore our sin to save us, and His scars are both a proof and a reminder of what He did for us. In John 20:27, we read, “Then he [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.'” The next verse: “Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” Jesus’ scars were proof that He was the same man Who had been crucified more than a week before. As others have written, they will be a reminder to all believers for eternity of His sacrifice, which is our salvation.

Another difference between Jesus and us in relation to our scars becomes clear when you think about it: His body was in the grave for a mere three days; our current bodies, in contrast, will have been in the grave for a lot longer than that! (Except for those who die shortly before His return.) Think about Adam, for example, the first man; his body has been in the earth for thousands of years. In Genesis 3:19, the Lord tells Adam, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Ecclesiastes 3:20 reminds us of the same thing: “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.” Does it make sense for the Lord to recreate our resurrection bodies with the scars that our original earthly bodies (which will be dust by then) had? I think not.

1 Corinthians 15:51-54 gives us a glorious picture: “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.'” Our resurrection bodies will be immortal; those of us who know the Lord will live forever–without scars!–with Him! If you don’t know and love Him yet, I invite you to accept Jesus as your Savior; you will discover the kind of peace and joy that only He can give.

He’s Alive

In the mid-1980s, when I was a young believer, I heard a song called “He’s Alive” by Don Francisco. This song tells the story of Easter morning from the viewpoint of Peter, and as I drank in the story through the song, I cried and cried. Throughout my years as an ESL teacher (of adults), I sometimes played this song for my students, and some of them cried as well; regardless of their emotional response, they were very attentive, taking it all in. What is it about this song that is so powerful? Listen to it for yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWD-VbJIWEw The lyrics are in the video, but I’m also printing them here; there are some slight differences in wording for accuracy. As you listen, imagine that you were Peter on Easter morning.

The gates and doors were barred and all the windows fastened down
I spent the night in sleeplessness and rose at every sound
Half in hopeless sorrow and half in fear, the day
Would find the soldiers breaking through to drag us all away

Just before the sunrise, I heard something at the wall
The gate began to rattle, and a voice began to call
Hurried to the window, looked down into the street
Expecting swords and torches and the sound of soldiers’ feet

There was no one there but Mary, so I went down to let her in
John stood there beside me as she told us where she’d been
She said, “They’ve moved him in the night and none of us knows where
The stone’s been rolled away, and now his body isn’t there”

We both ran toward the garden, then John ran on ahead
We found the stone and the empty tomb just the way that Mary said
But the winding sheet they wrapped him in was just an empty shell
And how or where they’d taken him was more than I could tell

Something strange had happened there, just what I did not know
John believed a miracle, but I just turned to go
Circumstance and speculation couldn’t lift me very high
‘Cause I’d seen them crucify Him, and then I saw Him die

Back inside the house again, the guilt and anguish came
Everything I’d promised Him just added to my shame
When at last it came to choices, I denied I knew His name
And even if He was alive, it wouldn’t be the same

But suddenly the air was filled with strange and sweet perfume
Light that came from everywhere drove shadows from the room
Jesus stood before me with His arms held open wide
I fell down on my knees and just clung to Him and cried

He raised me to my feet and as I looked into His eyes
Love was shining out from Him like sunlight from the skies
Guilt and my confusion disappeared in sweet release
And every fear I’d ever had just melted into peace

He’s alive, He’s alive, He’s alive, and I’m forgiven
Heaven’s gates are open wide
(Repeat last two lines)

I can feel the fear at the beginning of the song as Peter and Jesus’ other followers are in hiding in a locked house, afraid that the Roman soldiers are coming to take them away. Peter hears the rattling gate and a voice, but it’s Mary, who tells him that Jesus’ body is gone. Peter and John run to the tomb and confirm what Mary had said. John believes a miracle has happened, but Peter, in large part because of his denial (3X) of Jesus after He’d been arrested, is weighed down by confusion, guilt, and anguish. Then back inside the house, Jesus appears to Peter in a bright light; Peter runs to Him and clings to Him. Jesus raises Peter to his feet, and when Peter looks into His eyes, he sees Jesus’ love and forgiveness.

If you read John 20:1-9, you will see that Don Francisco has included many of the details from that passage in this song. It is not recorded in Scripture that Jesus appeared to only Peter as described in the climax of this song, yet we can imagine that it could have happened.

On the most fundamental level, this song has been very powerful to me because it’s all about Jesus’ forgiveness–of Peter and everyone else who has ever put their trust in Him. And Jesus’ resurrection is proof that He is Who He claims to be: the Son of God, the Savior, the Messiah.

If you are already a believer, may you experience Jesus’ love and forgiveness in a special way during this Holy Week. If you have never put your faith and trust in Jesus, I pray that you will investigate more about Him.

If you’re interested in reading about Palm Sunday and Good Friday, especially in relation to understanding the shouts of the crowds on those two days, you can read something I wrote here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2022/04/07/give-us-barabbas/ If you’re interested in reading about evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, click here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2021/03/24/evidence-for-the-resurrection/

Regardless of whether you have already put your faith in Jesus or not, may you have a very blessed Good Friday/Easter weekend!