Life Matters - August 8, 2022
“The White House has threatened to take away all of our school lunch resources for poor and underprivileged kids if we don’t comply with their mandates.” – South Dakota Governor, Kristi Noem.
The above referred to mandates are President Biden’s LGBTQ+ “inclusive” executive orders applied via his Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack’s directive to public school boards requiring school personnel to comply with the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title 1X, a law which prohibits sex-based discrimination. Originally written to protect women in the field of work, etc., Biden has broadened its application to be “inclusive” of all Biblical perversions of sexual “orientation.” And yes, all still means all, about the time I think I know what all that includes, I discover another added letter, number, or symbol. I think it’s LGBTQI+ now, and I’ve given up on keeping up.
As President Biden attempts to punish (i.e. persecute) non-compliance to his new interpretations of Title 1X, there are government officials in positions where they can “push back” against it. Governor Kristi Noem is one of those “resisting the devil” in this mad pursuit to legitimize “pleasures” that are both anti-God and anti-nature as God designed it. Let us keep praying for Noem and all involved. “The message is simple,” said President Biden at a “pride” event hosted at the White House, “Pride is back at the White House.” Biden then proceeded to sign executive orders to advance “equality” for LGBTQI+ individuals, including those in the aforementioned interpretation of Title 1X. For those of us who are believers in the Bible being the Word of God, a confrontation with this “pride” evil is inevitable. For Governor Noem the confrontation has happened by blocking transgender men from competing in women’s sports and by not having “inclusive” school bathrooms. As if to underline that this is indeed a spiritual “culture war,” President Biden, at the above “pride” event, continued, “Right now, there are young people sitting in their bedrooms, doors closed, silent, scrolling through social media, staring at the ceiling, wondering if they’ll ever be loved.” While I want to be sure to acknowledge that such poor young people are in desperate need, the “culture war” we are in is less about an agreement that there is a need and more about how to meet that need. As Libby Stanford writes in Education Week, “LGBTQ youth have higher rates of suicide and are more likely to suffer from mental illness than their non-LGBTQ peers…”
To understand that remedy for a problem, we must first understand the problem – right? If my problem is a broken bone, a chiropractic treatment won’t help. If my problem is merely that I need an adjustment by a chiropractor, then an amputation only exacerbates the problem. And so on…
The problem with secular remedies for gender dysphoria, etc., is not the acknowledgment that there is a problem. The problem with secular remedies is, first of all, a misdiagnosis of the problem, and second, a misrepresentation of the remedy. I do not profess to understand everything from the space of my kitchen table, but I do understand from the Bible that the culture war we are engaged in at the present time is a war where “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12) And I also understand from the Bible that feelings are fickle and may or may not be an evidence of Truth. The litmus test of truth is, after all, Truth. The higher rates of suicide are a spiritual problem, as are the “sittings in bedrooms, doors closed, silent, scrolling through social media, staring at the ceilings, wondering if they’ll ever be loved!” When such problems are faced up to as the spiritual fall-out of a feelings fixated, self-centered experience and exhilarating vistas of the grace of God by His comforting acceptance of us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17)
Life Matters!