Swearengin is an author, emotional & spiritual well-being coach, podcaster and content creator through his social media presence as Unconventional Pastor Paul. He talks religion and politics at times joined by his wife Ashley, a former elected official and community leader. Find him at Pastor-Paul.com.
The issue of trans women competing in women’s athletics has stirred up intense conversation - and 556 pieces of proposed legislation across forty-nine American states. But is this truly a fairness issue, as some can logically argue? Or is it political culture rhetoric crushing a chance to "love our neighbors"?
I'm a fan of women's athletics. I was a sportscaster in the 90's when federal enforcement of Title IX forced colleges to provide fair athletic opportunity for females. History has borne out the positive impact of that legislation. Yet, the numbers simply don't support the narrative that trans women are the new threat to those hard-earned athletic opportunities.
Save Women's Sports, an anti-trans organization, identified only five transgender athletes competing on school girls teams for grades K-12 in 2022. Estimates say maybe as few as a dozen trans females are competing in women’s collegiate athletics. That's a total of seventeen athletes. Is that number worth the hub-bub of more than five-hundred pieces of legislation, including one in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives?
The irony here is that those who are now championing this legislation to "save women's sports" are of the same ideology of those who opposed Title IX enforcement, categorizing it as “taking money away from the boys when girls don't even want to play.” That hypocrisy, and the sheer volume of legislative actions, tell us this is a political culture war issue. And since, sincere-hearted people can think they are caring for women, we must speak up of how that support is being used for a bevy of rights-crushing laws that include everything from criminalizing parents who offer gender affirming health care to their children (as well as a few states attempting to eliminate that care for adults) to legalizing trans discrimination in employment, housing and basic human rights.
"Doesn't an athlete who went through male puberty present a physical danger to biologically female athletes?"
Perhaps, yet few can point to actual instances where a trans woman has caused a severe sports injury specifically due to birth gender differences. My limited research shows that by far the most serious injuries in women’s sports happen in cheerleading, where no interpersonal violence occurs at all. The greatest threat of serious injury or even death in women's sports is a softball from the bat or arm of a bio-born woman.
The sad part of this is that sports has been so groundbreaking through people like Jackie Robinson, Billie Jean King and Tiger Woods. Yet, the arguments of fairness have persisted through the ages to exclude marginalized people from sports and to ostracize groups of them.
Many proclaimed it unfair that "pretty Chrissy Evert" had to compete against that "muscular" Martina Navratilova - a thinly veiled homophobic shot at the skillful and powerful Navratilova. Similar words have been spoken about Serena Williams or Britney Griner, as well men like football player Jim Brown or college superstar hoopster Patrick Ewing. We must take caution in allowing anecdotal stories of genetically caused unfairness to be used for exclusion, all the while knowing that injuries are an unfortunate and largely unavoidable component of sports, as well as genetic differences for all gender identities.
Righting wrongs always carries a cost. Accepting trans female athletes will inevitably squeeze some women out of college athletic scholarships. Were it my daughter that lost a scholarship to a trans woman I can honestly say we’d grieve the loss, but also know that our sacrifice for the affirmation of the humanness of nearly two-million Americans is worth the cost. In nearly every human spiritual tradition, there's a version of the Christian edict to “love your neighbor as yourself” and in each of these religious traditions “love” carries a cost. Trans women are more likely to self-harm than almost any other people group in our country. Shouldn't a "pro-life" be willing to sacrifice to keep others alive?
And the numbers will be very small. Remember, these are not men throwing on skirts and saying, “I’m a female athlete now.” The transition of genders takes long months of care and hard work through the red tape of the American healthcare system. The idea that males are going to transition simply to get a scholarship in female athletics costing women hundreds of scholarships is patently absurd.
As for loving our trans neighbors, it may be that Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox said it best:
"I struggle to understand... and the science is conflicting," Cox wrote as he described why he vetoed an anti-trans athlete bill that had come to his desk. "When in doubt however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion."
Cox went on to explain that the bill was addressing four kids out of 85,000 Utah school aged athletes (only one of whom was playing girl’s sports).
"Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something," Cox continued. "Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through... But I want them to live. And all the research shows that even a little acceptance and connection can reduce suicidality significantly... I hope we can work to find ways to show these four kids that we love them and they have a place in our state."
The next day, the Republican dominated legislature overrode Cox's veto and banned trans athletes from participating in girl's sports. I guess they don't consider trans people to be their "neighbors".
The fury over trans athletes is not a fairness issue. It's political people demonizing a people group in order to acquire political power - and I have 556 legislative receipts to prove it.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.