Tag Archives: gender

What Lies Beneath, Part Two: Education, Families, and Our Future

September 13th, 2023 |

For decades, leaders from all political parties have stressed the importance of strengthening families and addressing the crises of fatherlessness, poverty, and loss of hope. We must continue work in these areas, bringing people of all cultures and social domains together for the good of future generations. We have also seen huge steps forward for minorities and women in all sectors of the economy and society, though there is still much work ahead so all can flourish.

Events in recent years are undermining all the progress we have made and render the aforementioned concerns hollow at best. Gender extremists, representing a miniscule percentage of the population, but fueled by big pharma and social media, are now demanding that young children be indoctrinated and sexualized by educators that reject the biological family, affirm Marxist ideology, and believe that anything goes when it comes to sexual experimentation and identity. The apotheosis of this civilization-destroying ideology is the recent lawsuit filed by the Attorney General in California against the Chino School District.

District officials, in keeping with trends in other states and several European nations, wanted parents informed about their childrens’ decisions to alter their names, gender identity, and personal pronouns. Please note that these leaders were NOT rejecting toleration or kindness, and even exposure to what I think are ideas best left to the family. They just wanted to keep parents in the loop!  The reason for the lawsuit is concern for the “welfare of marginalized students” who need “safe spaces” for their “expression.” Right now, parents must approve of any medications for their kids and sign permission slips and waivers for a variety of activities…EXCEPT when it comes to abortion services and gender identity! Of course, any child subject to violence must be protected.

What lies beneath these actions are complete disdain for the biological family, recruitment of vulnerable children into a future of medical dependency, and a public school system more concerned with radical ideology that with the essential education for the complex world of the 21st century. This is more than protecting a few vulnerable kids in need of psychological help so they become comfortable in their bodies. This is a demonic agenda that makes the exception the rule, and the state the arbiter of truth.

Recently in another state, the government would not allow parents to remove their children from exposure to gender and sexuality indoctrination, declaring that exposure to pornographic materials and alternative lifestyles were important and could be corrected at home. Such inanity must be opposed with compassion and conviction.

We can do better. Thoughtfulness demands that we debate these issues with civility, and return final authority to the families, not the state. Every person of any identity or worldview deserves kindness, but toleration is not celebration and primary formation of character rests at home. 

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We Know Better, Part Two

June 7th, 2023 |

The majority of people around us glance at headlines, read some favorite posts, and then go about their hard-working days, offering their skills in service of others, providing for their families, and finding moments of community service and leisure when they can. If pressed on some of the blaring headlines, many shake their heads and assume that most people know better than to take “social influencers” and political extremists seriously.

There is one problem with this simplistic view: the shrieking voices are only the front for real people and networks that aim for power over the populace and remaking their world in their image.

We know better…but often feel powerless. Here are some hot issues that seem to have few answers:

Caring for our environment is good and needed, but climate activism is a cover for trillions in wealth transfer from middle-and working-class people to huge autocracies that desire control over food and energy.

The gender anarchy mentioned in last week’s essay is framed as human rights, but the real agenda is the destruction of the nuclear family and government oversight of children.

“White supremacy” does have some adherents, and must be condemned at every turn. Other forms of intolerance are given a pass, however, and pathways to reconciliation and peace are undermined as grievance culture offers no forgiveness, redemption, or hope for an end to hatred.

We know better, and there is a way forward. Here are some principles that thoughtful women and men can embrace with a view to flourishing communities:

First, everyone we meet is created in God’s image and has value. This is the starting point for the mutual love and respect that are essential in a pluralistic society. With very rare exceptions, each is also biologically male or female. This does not limit liberty, but liberates identity. 

Second, the pursuit of truth in noble and not merely subjective. Whether it is historical knowledge, scientific research, journalistic inquiry, or critical thinking, humble, relentless pursuit of wisdom is needed. Truth exists outside our perceptions and we will always be building on previous centuries of discovery.

So far, we have touched on essential categories of anthropology (the universals of being human) and epistemology (the nature of knowing).

Third, we can find common virtues and values that help us work for the common good, even as we debate ideologies, philosophies, and religious convictions. Such first principles include freedom of conscience/religion, access to education and economic opportunities, strengthening biological and blended families, and a commitment to universal virtues such as kindness, patience, tolerance, and thoughtfulness.

Fourth, we must reject labeling and libeling persons while we debate serious issues. Reversion to profanities and vulgarities obscures serious inquiry. We must learn to process our reactions and turn them into considered responses. This does not mean turning away from obvious evils.

Fifth, we must reaffirm what is appropriate for children and what is best left to adulthood. Until the last decade, the boundaries were quite clear. Now we see public perversion celebrated and themes that were only for adults being imposed on children. There is no place for grooming, trafficking, and propagandizing vulnerable children and youth.

Sixth, we must start decentralizing federal power in the West and restoring administrative oversight to local and state governments. We need universal ethics but local stewardship that is accountable. We must rediscover subsidiarity – the notion that responsibility begins with the individual in a family, then families in voluntary community (church, synagogue, etc.), then local governance, then state governance, and only as a last resort, federal oversight. We must reverse the Leviathan of central control that has been growing exponentially for the last 100 years.

Seventh, all of the above rest on integration of personal agency, helpful relationships, moral systems, and goodwill. In other words, we must see each other as whole persons in community, with spiritual, emotional, relational, vocational, and economic facets of life woven together. For more of this vision, see our new book, Life in 5D: A New Vision of Discipleship available at www.discipleshipdynamics.com.

We know better. We can do better. There is hope. And today’s deep thinking and disciplined action will build a better destiny for ourselves and all around us.

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We Know Better, Part One

May 30th, 2023 |

In all my advising, speaking, and writing I aim for kindness, thoughtfulness, and true toleration. Being able to debate with civility and find consensus where possible will always be my aim. Most people I speak with – of all faiths or none – want this world of peace and principled living. We often diverge on ideas and policies, but converge on creating contexts for courageous conversations.

The tragedy of our current era is that a minority of noisy and privileged “influencers” want to replace conversation with condemnation, debate with defamation, and evaluation of ideas with erasure from the public square. The amount of gaslighting and projection is deeply disturbing. Here are some examples.

A Florida education bill keeping sexualized material out of K-3rd grade is condemned (by those who have not actually read the bill) as an attack on gay rights and violence toward transgender students. The absurdity of this is clear to anyone with a conscience, but fear keeps people from affirming that some things are better left to the family and delayed until adulthood.

Parents wanting curricular transparency are reviled as terrorists. Why are public educators afraid of people knowing what happens in a classroom?  School choice is branded as defunding public education, classist, racist, and worse…even though it is minority families that need and want it the most.

Women’s athletics is being undermined by biological males. Even with a year or two of hormones, the physical advantages of males make a mockery of the progress of the last half-century.

For some, balancing a federal budget and evaluating spending is cause for violence in the streets. We can balance a budget and care for all important facets of government – it just takes courage, innovation, and a commitment to efficiency in service of the end users, not jobs for public workers.

We know better.

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and a beacon of human rights, economic opportunity, technological innovation, and humanitarian concern. Yet she is libeled as evil, even “apartheid” because she wants peace and security. The number of anti-Jewish incidents in the West is 5X more than the purported “islamophobia” that captures attention.

Gender anarchy, the recruitment of vulnerable children to a lifetime of dependency on the state, the subversion of the biological family, and hatred toward any values deemed traditional are the new normal among the chattering classes.

We know better.

There is hope.

We know male and female identity are permanent realities for all but a miniscule percentage of the population. We also know that men and women display many similar traits and a wide spectrum of expression, personality, and interest. We need to help people get comfortable in their own skin and stop pretending they can be another gender/sex.

We know that class and race often bring conflict and that only humility, hope, and systems changes will open opportunity for all. The way forward is not printing money for reparations, but opening access for flourishing to all.

We know that traditional Christians and Jews are no threat to freedom.  Their beliefs and values, however, are in stark contrast to the pagan-secular subjectivities that rule social media. Will we have the maturity to debate these ideas, or will elites insist on marginalization and persecution?

From our own family and personal budgets, we know that increasing debt only delays the reckoning ahead. If we managed our finances like federal and some state governments, we would all be in trouble!

We know better.

In Part Two, we will look to some principles that can build a better future. For this week, let’s commit to moral clarity, kindness, and thoughtfulness, aiming for conscientious consensus where possible. Our future depends on it.

Tags: influencers, Florida, gay rights, transgender, public education, athletics, federal budget, Israel, apartheid, gender  

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Being Human: Ancient Wisdom and Eternal Hope, Part 1

April 12th, 2023 |

Until the last few decades, all civilizations and religious traditions affirmed the uniqueness of humankind and biological male and female identity. Marriage was reserved for relationships that (at least potentially) produced the next generation and secured the common good of the tribe or nation. Alongside this common heritage have been all kinds of permitted (and even religious) sexual behaviors, but the primacy of identity and family continuity were enshrined in law and tradition.

We are in the midst of post-rational, post-empirical, and post-human subversions of the created order. Subjective notions of “gender identity” trump all science and any questioning of another’s feelings leads to castigation and accusations of fomenting violence. Toleration is a one-way street with the purveyors of anarchism and nihilism, as they are dedicated to the complete subversion of the biological family and silencing of “cisgender” and “heteronormative” worldviews.

A trans-identifying person kills three adults and three children at a private school in Nashville, TN. Instead of universal mourning and normal investigations, advocates are making the perpetrator the victim and suppressing the manifesto behind this horrific attack. This is a complete inversion of the truth. We are now celebrating violence in the name of pseudo-historical oppressions.

Advocates for unlimited gender identities are also deliberately undermining the authority and influence of the biological and adoptive family structure. Using the public education system and social media, they assist struggling children and young adults with concealing their explorations from parents. Even worse, parents that will not affirm gender transitions are marked as abusive and these radicals want the state to remove transitioning children from their homes!

How did we get here? It is one thing to tolerate consenting private adult behaviors in a pluralistic society. From the 1970s to the 1990s, this was the major demand of advocates for alternative lifestyles. As each accommodation was met, more demands emerged, culminating in 2015, when the Supreme Court affirmed the right of monogamous gay marriage. OK, finally all people are now equal before the law, right? Wrong! Suddenly scores of identities and new victims are created out of whole cloth, and previous psychological disorders are now causes for celebration and consequential physical mutilation.

Until recently, gender dysphoria was a psychological disorder affecting less than one-half of one-percent of the population. Today, this has metastized to 10-20% of adolescents. The social pressure to “explore” has overtaken normal development where most outgrow any confusion. The notion that a child barely able to dress themselves can decide to change identities is utterly insane – yet this is being “affirmed” by elites, and any restrictions on exposing children to sexual content are regarding as fascist and “book burning.”

What do rational and religious people do in this moment? In the next article, I will propose compassionate and wise pathways forward. Here are some first thoughts toward a recovery of “normal.”

First, there is no place for bullying, intolerance, and violence as we affirm our convictions. Genuine liberty means living with our differences, not shutting down debate.

Second, toleration is not always affirmation. People of varying philosophical, political, and religious views can be good neighbors, even friends.

Third, defending the “normal” includes reminding the world that human identity, biological sex, and the importance of family are values shared by billions, not just White Christians in the USA.

Fourth, religious communities must exemplify love and justice and empower all women and men toward their full identity, purpose, and contributions to our world.

Fifth, we must build a coalition for protecting vulnerable children and adolescents from sexual materials that should only be for adults (and even then, the scourge of addiction to pornography is ignored by the radicals). Drag shows, sexualized books, school curricula, and social media content must not triumph over parental influence and the social good. We CAN teach kindness and toleration without inviting the vulnerable to “explore” what should only be adult decisions.

Sixth, we must weather the attacks and realize that the adversaries of what is good will ultimately devour themselves. We are seeing this as very liberal voices are being castigated for affirming female identity and resisting the trans invasion of bathrooms, private places, competitive sports, and other arenas that women have fought for parity with men.

Seventh, and most important: We must articulate a vision of being human that is liberating, rooted in virtue, and leads to flourishing for persons and communities. The gender debates are obscuring serious issues of economic and racial justice that need attention.

Friends, we are not bigoted, crazy, irrational, intolerant, or on the wrong side of history as we desire clarity concerning human identity, biological sex, and moral virtue. We now turn to articulating the beauty and wisdom of “normal.”

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Certainties for 2023, Part 2

January 24th, 2023 |

As we look ahead to a new year, there are often feelings of hope and trepidation, a sense of a fresh start battling with nascent fatalism that wonders if life can change. The good news is that while we cannot control all the decisions of others or the events around us, we can prayerfully make wise decisions. Here are four more certainties for the coming year.

Fourthly, apocalyptic climate change propaganda will continue, along with reasoned pushbacks that call for environmental sanity that does not impoverish the working classes around the world. Global prosperity will always include a carbon footprint, and only elites sheltered from economic realities are promoting draconian policies. Thoughtful women and men will call for both/and approaches that sustain economies while developing amazing new technologies.

A fifth certitude is that many women and men will question traditional religious values and “deconstruct” their faith, while millions more find the freedom of the gospel. This paradox is reflected in the New Testament as the writers expect global evangelization and great apostasy, with awakenings matched by persecution. Serious Christians and healthy local churches will be places of intellectual, spiritual, and social refuge for women and men searching for meaning and truth. God hears the prayers and records the tears of millions crying out for an awakening.

Sixth, the gender chaos of the LGBTQIA+ movements will continue, but thoughtful men and women will offer nuanced responses to this anarchy, and its deliberate recruitment of vulnerable children and adolescents. Underneath the social trends is the deconstructionism of post-modern and Marxist ideologues that desire the end of the biological family and the remaking of human persons as transhuman group members, rather than male and female individuals with freedom. The good news is that reasonable people are seeing through the nonsense and offering ways forward that allow adults liberty while shielding children from nefarious agendas.

Finally, the new year offers an invitation from God to all: will we find our identity, peace, and rest through faith in Christ, or will we pursue our own idols and finish another year in frustration? Five questions that can help us as we aim for a flourishing life: 1) Will we live in humble reverence before God or make self-fulfillment our chief aim? 2) Will we allow the Lord to heal and bring hope, or will we wallow in fatalism? 3) Will we relate to others with love and wisdom, or see people only as a means to an end? 4) Will we discover and articulate a life mission that honors God and serves others, or live for momentary pleasures? And 5) Will we offer each day of work as an act of worship, or merely trudge along and live for Friday night? For more on these dimensions of life, go to www.discipleshipdynamics.com and discover the abundant life Christ has designed for each of us.

Please join me in welcoming the challenges and opportunities ahead. We are not alone. Our Lord is with us, and there are millions of faithful and thoughtful sisters and brothers praying for and with us.

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