According to the Associated Press, racial bigotry and American slavery from 160 years ago fuel the controversy engulfing Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s bid for an Olympic gold medal.

It’s not Khelif’s XY chromosomes or high testosterone levels. It’s racism. That’s it. That’s why many sports fans object to Khelif’s participation in the women’s division. The objections aren’t based in fairness or concern for women athletes. Nope. Racism.

Man cannot comprehend true happiness outside the kingdom of God. The pursuit of happiness is a fool’s errand. That errand leads XY men to live life as XX women.

In a story headlined “For female athletes of color, scrutiny around gender rules and identity is part of a long trend,” writer Noreen Nasir argues that “female athletes of color have historically faced disproportionate scrutiny and discrimination.”

Nasir further claims that the “dehumanization and objectification stretches back to chattel slavery, when enslaved black women were valued for auction based on their physical appearances and skills that were seen as more masculine or more feminine.”

Well, Khelif has male chromosomes and testosterone levels that go along with XY, not XX.

I don’t know whether Khelif has a bat and balls. It’s really none of my business. I do know elevated testosterone levels give Khelif a decided advantage over women. I do know my objection to Khelif competing as a woman has nothing to do with racial bigotry or chattel slavery.

I objected to William “Lia” Thomas competing in NCAA swimming as a woman. William is a white man. As far as I know, his ancestors weren’t dehumanized during chattel slavery.

The Associated Press, no different from the International Olympic Committee, has jumped on board with the worldview that man is his own god. Man — not God or science — determines gender and everything else.

The IOC adopted the standard that whatever is on your passport has final say when it comes to gender. Khelif was raised a girl; therefore his XY chromosomes have no standing. Anyone who objects to this heretical standard is labeled as racist, homophobic, transphobic, and out of step with the way of the world.

This thinking is fueling the gender chaos sweeping American culture.

In St. Louis, hundreds of Life Time Fitness gym members have been engaged in a battle with management over a 50-year-old man who has self-identified as a woman. He acquired state-issued identification backing up his false claim. Life Time Fitness feels handcuffed, so the bat-and-balls homeless man has been showering with women and children. The manager at Life Time Fitness, a young black woman, has been defending the man’s right to do so.

The manager believes she’s making a righteous stand. In her mind, she’s Rosa Parks 2.0. Protecting the rights of a mentally deranged white man who wants to shower with women and children is a form of racial justice. She’s bought the lies of corporate media. She’s bought the lies of a society that aggressively rejects a biblical worldview and promotes man as his own god.

The Associated Press is preaching to a choir, a congregation that believes happiness — not obedience, salvation, and eternal joy — is the purpose of life.

The Declaration of Independence’s promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is the most misapplied passage in American history. Many scholars, particularly Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., argued that “pursuit of happiness” meant something different in the 1700s and to the nation’s founders. It wasn’t about chasing happiness. It was about acquiring it and enjoying it, meaning we have the right to life, liberty, and the enjoyment of happiness.

But let’s not take the interpretation of Schlesinger, a famous historian from the 1950s and 1960s. Let’s turn to John Locke, an English philosopher from the 1600s. Locke’s writings inspired Thomas Jefferson to include the “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.

Locke’s understanding of the pursuit of happiness came from Aristotle. Happiness had nothing to do with pleasure or satisfying desires. Locke deemed those imaginary.

Locke wrote:

The necessity of pursuing happiness is the foundation of liberty. As therefore the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake no imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty. The stronger ties we have to an unalterable pursuit of happiness in general, which is our greatest good, and which, as such our desires always follow, the more are we free from any necessary determination of our will to any particular action.

In modern secular America, we’ve reduced happiness to the pursuit of our wildest and most pleasurable fascinations. We’ve convinced ourselves that we cannot truly be happy unless our every desire is met. This mindset is antithetical to Christianity. The Bible teaches us that a man’s desires are corrupt and sinful. The Bible prioritizes obedience, salvation, and joy.

Man cannot comprehend true happiness outside the kingdom of God. The pursuit of happiness is a fool’s errand. That errand leads XY men to live life as XX women. That errand leads to excessive drinking and gambling, drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, pedophilia, homosexuality, theft, lying, abortion, you name it.

Imane Khelif wants nothing more than to be happy, a fleeting emotion that creates confusion and bad decision-making. It’s YOLO – you only live once – thinking. YOLO blinds. It replaces long-term vision with instant gratification.

Thomas Jefferson, this nation’s founders, and its early citizens believed in YODO — you only die once. They believed in eternal life through obedience to God, salvation through Christ, and joy through the Holy Spirit.

Divergent worldviews, not bigotry, are at the root of the Imane Khelif controversy.