With the release of Christopher Nolan's "Odyssey" set for Friday, actress Ellen Page (who now goes by Elliot) has been making the rounds on the interview circuit.
For anyone with a heart, it's been tough to watch.
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None of that makes sense. It's incoherence masquerading as profundity.
But anyone familiar with Page's journey knows the confusion didn't begin with that interview. Five years ago, Stephen Colbert interviewed her when she still understood herself to be Ellen.
Watching it today is strangely heartbreaking.
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Page spoke with staunch conviction. The world, she explained, would essentially end by 2030 because of climate change. The Jussie Smollett attack was undeniable evidence of a culture overflowing with hatred. Donald Trump was responsible not only for political division but for violence committed by complete strangers.
Her emotion was palpable; her certainty was absolute.
Looking back with the benefit of time now, virtually none of it was true.
The Smollett story collapsed under the weight of its own deception. The apocalyptic predictions proved wildly overstated. Time has a funny way of exposing what instant emotion often obscures.
Still, none of those things are what strike me most anymore. What I'm left thinking about is the tortured person making all those absurd claims.
Today, Ellen Page asks the world to call her Elliot as she pretends to be a man.
She has surgically altered her body, permanently changed her appearance, and continues living as someone she must truly believe herself to be. Millions applaud the transformation. Magazine covers celebrate it. Award shows affirm it. Interviewers carefully avoid asking obvious questions.
It's all part of the elaborate dance our culture now demands where no one is permitted to say what almost everyone quietly recognizes:
Something is deeply wrong.
I don't mean wrong in the sense of political disagreement. I mean wrong in the sense that this appears to be a profoundly hurting human being searching for peace in places that cannot provide it.
That should break a Christian's heart.
One of the saddest consequences of our cultural moment is that compassion has been redefined as affirmation. If someone sincerely believes something about themselves, even something demonstrably disconnected from biological reality, we're told the loving response is to reinforce the belief.
Scripture paints a very different picture of love. When Paul commands believers to speak "the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15), he makes sure not to separate those two ideas.
Truth without love becomes cruelty.
Love without truth becomes sentimentality.
Biblical love refuses both: Jesus never mocked broken people, but neither did He leave them in deception.
He met the woman at the well with astonishing compassion while gently exposing the emptiness of the relationships she had pursued. He rescued the woman caught in adultery without pretending adultery wasn't destructive. He loved people enough to tell them the truth because the truth was the very thing capable of setting them free.
Hollywood is filled with people who will enthusiastically affirm almost anything, except the one truth that could actually heal a human soul. Scripture tells us that we are not self-created creatures who discover ourselves by looking inward. We are image bearers who discover who we are by looking to the One who made us.
That is not an oppressive message.
It is a freeing one.
If our identity is something we invent, we carry the crushing burden of constantly reinventing ourselves. But if our identity is received from our Creator, we are finally free to stop searching and start resting.
That is why Christians must refuse both mockery and dishonesty. We should never delight in another person's confusion, nor should we participate in and facilitate it. We have to love people more than that.
Real love does more than affirm someone's feelings.
It points them to Christ, because only He can give the identity, peace, and hope every restless heart (including Ellen Page's) is ultimately seeking.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
