21AR26-02

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AR 26:2 - Fear and free speech

In this issue:

GENDER - "the first case of a child being removed from parents who did not support transition"

SOCIAL JUSTICE - a great new, book-length Christian response

Apologia Report 26:2 (1,507)
January 12, 2021

GENDER

Thanks to secularization and the consequent loss of absolutes, can the West restrain the Left's increasingly aggressive cultural influence? "Boys and Girls: Worries grow over treatments that can leave children sterile" (Economist, Dec 12 '20, pp60-62) begins: "'We thought we were going to see a psychologist, but it was a nurse and a social worker,' says Ms Davidson (both her and her daughter's names have been changed). 'Within ten minutes they had offered our child Lupron' - a puberty-blocking drug. 'They brought up the drug directly with our child, in front of us, without discussing it with us privately first.' There was no mention of other mental-health issues, which are known to increase the likelihood of gender dysphoria, the feeling that you are in the wrong body. 'There was no therapy on offer and we were just brushed aside when we raised it.' ...

"Meghan belongs to a wave of children across the Western world who have identified as transgender in recent years. America had one gender clinic in 2007; now it has more than 50. Piecemeal evidence around the world suggests that three-quarters of children expressing gender dysphoria at such clinics are adolescent girls, whereas until recently it was roughly evenly split. An increasing number are also de-transitioning, choosing to revert to their previous gender. Unfortunately, if children have already begun a medical transition, including hormone treatment, it can leave them infertile and unable to have a full sex life."

The Tavistock clinic, "England's only specialist youth gender-identity centre" was the target of a recent judicial review, the result of one detransitioner who "claimed that the clinic should not have allowed her to take puberty blockers and later undergo testosterone treatment and a double mastectomy." London's High Court ruling on transgender teens "could have global repercussions." The court ruled: "it was 'highly unlikely' that a 13-year-old [is] mature enough to consent to such a procedure, and that doctors treating 16-and 17-year-olds may also need to consult a judge before starting.

"Trans activists argue that a long-marginalised group is now finding its voice in popular culture. Their critics retort that vulnerable teenagers are losing themselves in an online world which adulates anyone who comes out as trans. Both could be right. 'Being straight is boring,' says Meghan's younger sibling."

The Economist did an informal poll among "people who had identified as trans when they were children. Most of those who were critical wanted to be anonymous for fear of losing their jobs or being branded bigots on Twitter." One, a pediatrician, said: "In any other branch of medicine, if you were causing permanent sterility with body-altering surgery and cross-sex hormones, you had better have some pretty strong data.... But we're already going down that road with no strong data at all." In the meantime, referrals to the Tavistock clinic "have surged 30-fold in a decade. ...

"At least half a dozen medical studies show that between 61% and 98% of children presenting with gender-related distress were reconciled to their natal sex before adulthood. However, all these studies looked at children with early-onset dysphoria. One recent study on adolescent dysphoria among girls suggested that in many cases it is brought on by the influence of the internet, by female friends who have transitioned and by the miseries of puberty. ...

"Laura Edwards-Leeper, a professor of psychology at Pacific University in Oregon who helped found America's first transgender clinic for children and teens in Boston, says she gets many emails from parents 'desperate to find a therapist who wil not just blindly affirm that their child is trans'. Ideally, she said, an adolescent with gender dysphoria would have been regularly seeing a therapist, who encouraged them to explore other possible causes for their feelings and had a comprehensive psychological assessment before being put on blockers or hormones. 'It is very rare that even one of these things happens,' she says."

Australia's capital and the state of Queensland, "have outlawed 'conversion therapy' in relation to sexual orientation or gender identity. So too have some American states. ... Many people would say it is wrong to try to convert gay people into being straight. But the implicit definition of trans conversion therapy risks outlawing any counseling that helps children decide whether their dysphoria is permanent or a phase, and what to do about it.

"A backlash is beginning. In Sweden, after a 1,500% rise in gender dysphoria diagnoses among 13-to-17-year-old girls in 2008-18, more media coverage has focused on the problems of children transitioning. ... Finland has recently released stricter guidelines, recommending different treatment for early-onset and adolescent-onset dysphoria, and encouraging patients to seek counseling. ...

"Some parents in Quebec, which has its own curriculum, are also objecting. When Catherine, a consultant, asked to see the content of her six-year-old's sex-education class, the school refused, so she made a freedom-of-information request. It turned out teachers are told that 'Children can begin to explore their gender identity between the ages of 3 and 7' and that sex is 'assigned' at birth rather than observed.

"The Australian Family Court has in recent years removed itself from decisions about giving blockers and hormones and even surgery for teenagers, unless parents disagree. Instead, it has recently seen the first case of a child being removed from parents who did not support transition. The ruling was hardly reported in the press." [2] (Ah, the press. Once an advocate, soon an opponent?)

Also see:

* "Canada's teen transgender treatment boom: Life-saving services, or dangerous experimentation?" (National Post, Dec 14 '20) <www.bit.ly/2KtDNLP>

* "Transgender activist makes argument for all children to be put on puberty blockers until they can determine identity" (Washington Examiner, Dec 14 '20) <www.washex.am/3qXTWtH>

* Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, by Abigail Shrier <www.amzn.to/2XwDtPA>, with this Nov 7, '20 article (by the author): "Gender Activists Are Trying to Cancel My Book. Why Is Silicon Valley Helping Them?" <www.bit.ly/2XxWCRe>

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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Have you experienced a sense that today's culture is being bullied by an outsider? Just remember: Bullies are never a Christian's real enemy. In fact, a former bully might just become your greatest ally.

Somewhere you may have heard the saying that an ideology is a religion bereft a foundation. Into the vacuum of the West's advancing secularism, social-justice advocates have imposed their inflexible and intolerant views like a tsunami across the land. With malevolent cunning, bit-and-bridle have been applied by interests bent on their own designs pushing a proud self-assured philosophy of conquest unconstrained by traditional morality.

Thaddeus J. Williams begins his recent book, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth [1], by pointing out the pivotal role one's worldview plays (6). He follows this with competing examples by two kinds of social justice champions. These continue to appear in each chapter. In doing so, Williams gives us a book that will not be read just once, but will likely become a resource for continued reference well into the future.

Williams brackets the book with insight from Jonathan Haidt (one of many injustice warriors you'll discover and want to learn more about). Haidt <www.bit.ly/2LKF3cF> is a valuable secular authority providing a balanced approach to understanding the conflict in our culture. Williams notes that if we can't have hard conversations, we won't rise above political tribalism and self-righteousness. Further, "There is simply no worldview-neutral way to think about or act out justice" (7). Throughout the book Williams gives examples of conversations focusing on important questions that have been hijacked and reinterpreted in our day (9).

He offers broad advice - grounded in experience - on areas where we need to be especially watchful. If your effort to target ideas leaves people feeling like they're your target instead, everyone loses. Remember, they are your fellow image-bearers, who are made to know their Creator's love, but have instead been seduced by bad ideas (11).

Williams provides many other examples in this collection of useful references. In one he concludes that the only thing in our culture which seems to not have been reinterpreted in terms of injustice is worship: "In short, social injustice is first and foremost a matter of misplaced worship" (14). He goes on to set the bar high to challenge the disciple-making which lies ahead of us.

Can you tell that we took a lot away from our first pass through Confronting Injustice? Before you begin, it might help to create lists for your ministry toolbox that you'll soon be filling in as you read. Provisional titles for your collections:

* Common cases of redefined terminology to watch out for

* Good responses to entrapping accusations

* Heroes who stand up to social-justice tyrany

* Examples of creative biblical thinking

* Self-defeating social-justice tactics and strategy

* Originators of godless-worldview thinking

* Fact-checking resources

* Tips for recognizing potentially unfruitful encounters

* Resources for further study

Are you ready to lose your freedom to even encourage reason? If successful, that's where social-justice oriented critical-theory attacks are headed. Perhaps you won't face such loss of freedom in your lifetime, but what about the next generation? As of today, are you prepared to watch your best new defense-of-reason effort die repeatedly? Can you find His love's strength when it's rejected at every turn, resisting the urge to respond in frustration? How can you convey hope when communication is ruthlessly shut down?

At times Confronting Injustice can be technically challenging. (Have you encountered "cisheteropatriarchy" yet?) This book won't appear on many devotional reading lists, but do yourself a favor and take up the challenge. Others whom you have yet to meet may well be glad that you did.

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask About Social Justice, by Thaddeus J. Williams (Zondervan Academic, paperback, 288 pages) <www.amzn.to/2Lq9FkM>

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