Here is a term we should all know: in vitro gametogenesis (IVG). If you are not in reproductive medicine, this may not be on the top of your list of words to know. But it will soon play a key role in the story of humanity. How come?
We now live in a techno-pagan culture. That’s not a recognized term. It is just what I call it. Because I cannot think of a better description. In the face of the parched life of deep disappointment that secularism delivers, the bulk of cultural leaders ache to quench their thirst with—no surprise—religion. But this is not an actual repentance. It is not a realistic reckoning to deal with the living Lord. Instead, they seek a religion that allows them to retain their autonomy, a kind of no-demand spirituality pursuing of the dream of self-determination. The virtuous, and virtual, quest is to find the authentic self. No need to get carried away about God or anything.
Thus, the movement is, in fact, a return to paganism. But there is something new here. The questing comes in a moment of bio-technology crescendo. Jacques Elul’s feared La Technique has fast arrived all its fullness. People now wield prodigious powers to redirect the forces of creation. These they direct to recreate themselves according to their passions. Such attempts always result in a self-mangling of some sort. But then, to a techno-pagan, it seems worth it.
Christians often argue that monogendered relationships are self-evidently bad because they cannot produce children. The inherent barrenness of a gay union, it is noted, should make obvious that God’s will for relational intimacy is otherwise (Genesis 1:28). But such an argument is about to lose its force. Now, in our techno-pagan times, the objection will soon be circumvented. IVG makes gametes outside the body from stem cells. It has already produced mouse eggs from mouse stem cells. Used with the already morally fraught in vitro fertilization (IVF), IVG will soon allow couples of one gender to make children sharing both their DNA. So many will.
IVG, morally used, may promise benefits. As with any tool blossoming from the commission to take dominion over the creation, there will be gleeful upsides and, growing in a sinful world, sad malfeasance. There will always be nuclear bombs alongside of nuclear power plants. That is just the way we have it.
This time, the monogendered movement’s gay and lesbian couples will scramble to use IVG to “create” children sharing both their DNA. Such widescale outside-the-body impregnations will lessen the impetus to move on from one’s monogendered relationship in order to produce children. The procedure will be hailed as a great equalizer: “We are no longer second-class couples!” “There is now no difference” will be the refrains.
Much as I love babies, I grieve this. When we seek to circumvent the logic of gender which God gave us, grave repercussions will follow. It may take generations to fully realize the devastation that will follow the artificial birthing’s. But that won’t stop the rush to do it. Even Dr. Mitinori Saitou, one of the scientists pioneering the technique, recommends a testing protocol that will take 175 years to determine if it is safe. Believe me, that kind of cautious trial will not happen.
Like the paganism of old, the current movement revels in self-destructive acts. Only now the power to do that will be greater.