One of the most persistently alluring but frightening themes of science-fiction films features creatures able to transform themselves into any form they'd like. The power to shift one's self into any form at any given moment by a sheer act of will, also a theme of traditional mythology and folklore, means that for the shape-shifter, nothing is permanently solid material. "Reality" is illusory because it is infinitely malleable. Reality is whatever you want it to be at any given moment.

Who would have thought even a few years ago that the conjectures of ancient mythology and modern sci-fi would become "reality" as the world's most powerful nation reverts to pagan ideals by enacting laws that essentially acknowledge the rights of shape-shifters?

Mostly unbeknownst to most of us mortals, a modern day shape-shifter can become the opposite of the sex he or she was born as, transforming into a man or woman in an instant. It doesn't matter if the biological assignment given at birth remains. Proclamation of one's sexual identity is enough. One's gender can be established by fiat. Even children may change sex just by proclamation, as the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary School guidelines affirm, stating that even if a child physiologically resembles a boy in every respect, but decides to be a girl, his new identity is to be acknowledged as the "real" one. Just to be perfectly clear, lest anyone accuse the district of discrimination, it is not necessary to declare one's self male or female at all. A student can essentially check the box "Neither:"

"A transgender boy, for example, is a youth who was assigned the sex of female at birth, but has a clear and persistent identity as male. A transgender girl is a youth who was assigned the sex of male at birth but has a clear and persistent identity as female. Gender nonconforming youth range in the ways in which they identify as male, female, some combination of both, or neither."

Unlike some sci-fi shape-shifters whose transformation is depicted as completely involuntary -- the film classic The Thing* affording the perfect example of alien creatures transforming humans into beasts that lie seeded within -- the new shape-shifters change their identity by a voluntary act of will. The men who were transformed by the "Thing" were enslaved by their new identity, completely disabled as humans and turned into devouring monsters.

But the new shape-shifters see their new forms as a means of liberation and as a way to attain new abilities and opportunities hitherto denied them by the formerly impenetrable barrier of the biological assignation of their sex.
For example, gender-shifting can allow a man to enter into areas formerly forbidden to him. As the Greek mythological tale relates, the god Zeus disguised himself as a woman in order to become safely acquainted with the unsuspecting Callisto. When the god had her entrapped, he turned himself into a man and raped her.

The modern-day equivalent of the gods visiting unsuspecting women unawares in areas where they thought they were safe from male predators just might be the ladies' public bathroom, now open in an ever increasing number of states to any man who self-identifies as a woman. The 6'4" hairy guy who just came into the women's bathroom to relieve himself is not at all what he appears to be. No; no! He is a sort of god in disguise. He has by mere will transformed himself into a woman. Move along, lady. There's nothing to see -- or fear. Don't believe your lying eyes.

Actually, the new mania of self-identification does confer a godlike status, for it moves beyond mere shape-shifting to apotheosis, to divinization by means of an act of will. All one has to do is to announce his or her new status, be it sexual, racial, or anything else. In the meantime, the rest of society must conform to the shape-shifters' demands and rules, accommodating the new gods' demands.

By embracing the magical thinking at the heart of mythology, which has been a weltanschauung the West has long rejected in favor of realistic acceptance of and examination of a material world, shape-shifters deny not only the world that continually asserts its material exigencies on us, including our sexual identity at birth, but modern science and the Judeo-Christian worldview as well.

In the case of the madness of transgenderism parading as civil rights, the entire societal structure is at stake. The eradication of sexual identity in the supposed interest of "equality" produces liminality, a disorientation and ambiguity preceding the collapse of society as new gods replace the God of Judaism and Christianity. The political and cultural changes demanded by the new gods involve the dissolution of social hierarchies, the trashing of tradition, and the complete disjointing of male/female relationships. In addition, they add total uncertainty when contemplating and planning for the future. Of course, the total confusion concerning identity may well be what is actually purposed by those who wish to enable the establishment of new institutions reflecting the new rules of the new gods. Ultimately, we are talking about the complete usurpation of the present paradigm and the substitution of a new one.

A compelling narrative is necessary to persuade the currently numbed populace that radical change is good and necessary. The creation of a new mythology helps to attain the societal malleability necessary to destroy the old order and to establish a new one. The current narrative says that you, too, can be a god. You can be anything you want to be. It is your civil right and constitutionally guaranteed.

As for those who will not bow to the new order and who will not accommodate themselves to the worship of the new divinities, they are the ones to be persecuted as abnormal. After all, one must always be ready to welcome the gods who come in disguise lest those gods be offended. And, as all common folk now know, the new gods are easily offended and will take people to court if some protest they see mere men parading as women and vice versa; mere mortals and not gods or goddesses.

At the heart of all the efforts to be other than we were created is the Devil's lie: "Ye shall be as gods." The promise of Satan is that the human being can by his or her own volition rise above the gritty world of human reality and earthly material to soar to heights formerly reserved for the Divinity. It is the lure of rising above and even ruling over the masses, creating the world according to one's own design, establishing a new order before which mere humans are to bow.

How ironic that those who laugh at and scorn the miracles of Jesus Christ as unbelievable should demand we take on faith the miracle of transformation of women into men and men into women. How amazing that those who scoff at the idea that Christ has the power to transform men and women into "Sons of the most High," as fantastical beyond belief should believe they can change themselves into entirely different creatures by the mere words of their mouths and the thoughts of their hearts. That laughter you hear is not the Devil's. The Devil knows only ridicule. He knows nothing of genuine humor, which requires humble acknowledgment of human limitations and human folly.

No, that sound probably comes from the God who is described as sitting in the heavens and laughing at the idiocies of humanity, but who still loves the men and women he created so much he gave His Son so they might know their true identities as His children.

Those who reject the grand account of Genesis, which declares God made men and women as complementary but mysteriously and irrevocably divided by their sex, reject reality. They who create a new myth, attempting to force society to accept it and to retrofit institutions to accommodate it should not be surprised when their gods fail to keep us mere mortals' loyalty and devotion. They should not be surprised when we simple-minded human beings think their gods must be crazy -- or that we think their gods will and should fail.

(*Hat tip to Nathan Bird, film aficionado extraordinaire.)

Fay Voshell may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com