24AR29-23
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AR 29:23 - "Put the transgender empire out of business forever"
In this issue:
APOLOGETICS - a much needed resource in non-Western apologetics
TRANSGENDERISM - shutting down "what makes us human"
Apologia Report 29:23 (1,664)
June 19, 2024
APOLOGETICS
"Why Defend Your Faith If You Live in the World's Most Christian Continent?" by Agnes Makau (christianitytoday.com, Apr 9 '24) -- this review of Apologetics in Africa, edited by Kevin Muriithi Ndereba, <www.tinyurl.com/bdzhb2y8> begins with a refreshing reminder about 1 Peter 3:15: "apologetics is a gentle conversation about faith, not a fight to be won."
Makau, who serves as dean of the School of Theology at Scott Christian University (Machakos, Kenya), summarizes: "Hailing from Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, and Uganda, the contributors to Apologetics in Africa approach Christianity as a faith that has been widely accepted throughout the continent but requires contextualization. These 16 essays on cultural and practical issues give direction for the integration of faith and life in the African Christian church, which has been influenced by African traditional beliefs, colonization, Western thought, and contemporary global trends."
Makau's evaluation begins: "Kenyan New Testament scholar Elizabeth Mburu's article 'Is the Bible Reliable? Biblical Criticism and Hermeneutics in Africa' is particularly well articulated. ...
"In the face of [Africa's 'enormous variations' of] cultural diversity, it is imperative for African believers to understand some key biblical doctrines to build a firm foundation for their inferences. To me, three doctrines stand out as particularly central. The first [Christology] is well covered in this book, the other two less so."
Of the first, we learn: "When we are explaining the person of Christ, adaptations of or analogies to African traditional beliefs are inadequate and must be referenced with a disclaimer. Here are two examples.
"Christ as the ancestor: ... communication with or through African ancestors would be considered divination and therefore unbiblical.
"Second: Christ as an elder (or elder brother) ... the analogy between Christ and the eldest brother would not be pleasing to all African Christians, as its impact would be influenced by people's experiences. ...
"Whereas Christology receives thoughtful treatment throughout the book, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology) does not receive prominent attention in the biblical issues section."
Third: "Ecclesiology ...
"With regard to the doctrine of the church, important issues arise when African Christians try to align their practices on church ordinances with the ways in which African communities have traditionally recognized rites of passage such as birth, puberty, death, and burial."
Makau calls out "African dowry practices (known as lobola) can easily cause Christians to compromise their faith," briefly explaining the issues involved. "Since some church ordinances seem mysterious in their symbolic meaning and could appear to have parallels to traditional African rites of passage, magic, and occultism, addressing these matters is crucial for African apologetics. Church leaders must identify primary areas where compromise of one's faith can occur due to cultural demands and contemporary worldviews, because syncretism is thriving in the African church and creating major apologetics dilemmas. ... Ugandan pastor Rodgers Atwebembeire's chapter 'Apologetics and Cults in Africa' demonstrates what is happening too often and provides a warning for the danger that Christianity in Africa faces if the church is not established on sound doctrine." (We were encouraged to see Atwebembeire's contribution to this collection. He leads the Africa Center for Apologetics Research <www.acfar.org> - an affiliate of CFAR, which works closely with us at Apologia.)
"Overall, despite the noted omissions, this book should encourage further research and reflection on practical apologetics issues in Africa. (It would be wonderful if the book also sparked the development of more accessible and affordable apologetics resources as well.) The authors' contributions are an antidote to intellectual and emotional barriers to faith, and the contextualizing approach to hermeneutics prepares believers to give an answer for the faith they profess in their contemporary cultural setting." <www.langhamliterature.org/apologetics-in-afric>
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TRANSGENDERISM
In her April 5 post to X (formerly Twitter), Nancy Pearcey (professor, scholar in residence, Houston Christian University) asks: "How did the transgender movement emerge so quickly at the center of American public life?"
"Like many other things, it began with a flood of cash, as some of the wealthiest people in the country began devoting enormous sums of money to promote transgenderism.
"One of these people is Jennifer Pritzker, who was born James Pritzker in 1950. After serving several years in the U.S. Army, Pritzker went into business, having inherited a sizable part of the Hyatt hotel fortune.
"In 2013, he announced a male-to-female gender transition and was celebrated in the press as the 'first trans billionaire.' Almost immediately, he began donating untold millions to universities, schools, hospitals, and activist organizations to promote queer theory and trans medical experiments.
"This money was allied with political power, as Pritzker's cousin, Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker, signed legislation in 2019, his first year in office, to inject gender theory into the state education curriculum and to direct state Medicaid funds toward transgender surgeries."
As her source, Pearcey cites "Inside the Transgender Empire" by Christopher F. Rufo, from Imprimis, the journal of Hillsdale College (September 2023). <www.tinyurl.com/ywwfzbd3>
Rufo explains: "The sudden and pervasive rise of this movement provokes two questions: where did it come from, and how has it proved so successful? The story goes deeper than most Americans know.
"In the late 1980s, a group of academics, including Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin, Sandy Stone, and Susan Stryker, established the disciplines of 'queer theory' and 'transgender studies.' These academics believed gender to be a 'social construct' used to oppress racial and sexual minorities, and they denounced the traditional categories of man and woman as a false binary that was conceived to support the system of 'heteronormativity" - i.e., the white, male, heterosexual power structure. ...
"In a collection of essays <www.tinyurl.com/vewf88aw> titled Transgender Marxism, activist writer Rosa Lee argues that trans people can serve as the new vanguard of the proletariat, promising to abolish heteronormativity in the same way that orthodox Marxism promised to abolish capitalism. ...
"Lurie Children's Hospital, through its outreach presentations in Chicago public schools, encourages teachers and school administrators to support 'gender diversity' in their districts, automatically 'affirm' students who announce sexual transitions, and 'communicate a non-binary understanding of gender' to children in the classroom. The objective, as one version of the presentation suggests, is to disrupt the 'entrenched [gender] norms in western society' and facilitate the transition to a more 'gender creative' world. School districts are encouraged to designate 'Gender Support Coordinators' to help facilitate children's sexual and gender transitions, which, under the recommended 'confidentiality' policy, can be kept secret from parents and families.
"In effect, this results in a sophisticated school-to-gender-clinic pipeline. ...
"According to survey data, up to 80 percent of trans individuals suffer from serious psychopathologies, and one-quarter of black trans youth attempt suicide each year. 'Gender-affirming care' largely fails to solve these problems, yet the doctors use these failures to justify even more extreme interventions up to the final one: genital reconstruction. ...
"A doctor at a major children's hospital "in a blue city," speaking on condition of anonymity, had this to say about what puberty blockers do to a child's mind, body, and soul:
"This medication is called a 'gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist' and it comes in the form of monthly injections or an implant. And because it simulates the activity of this hormone, it shuts down the activity of the hypothalamus. ... I always think that if someone were to ask me, Where is it that you would look for the divine spark in each individual? I would say that it would be somewhere 'beneath the inner chamber,' which is the Greek derivation of the term hypothalamus. To shut down that system is to shut down what makes us human."
Rufo concludes: "This is why we must fight to put the transgender empire out of business forever." <www.tinyurl.com/yc7eueau>
Update: The anonymous doctor in Rufo's exposé was Eithan Haim, who took the bold step of "coming out" in a January 2024 video interview <www.tinyurl.com/3nedf8sk>. Earlier this month, the 33-year-old surgeon was indicted on four felony counts of violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). See Rufo's report, "DOJ Indicts Doctor Who Exposed the Barbarism of 'Gender-Affirming Care'" (City Journal, 06 Jun '24, <www.tinyurl.com/bdes6seye>)
A potentially significant resource related to the above controversy is the recently released book by Logan Lancing with James Lindsay, The Queering of the American Child. <queeringbook.com> Its subtitle will be of interest to long time Apologia Report readers: "How a New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids." (A quick scan of the contents suggests that the term "cult" was well advised.)
The back cover begins: "American children are learning a lot about sex, 'gender,' and sexuality in their schools. District administrators, teachers, and even librarians are obsessed with pushing inappropriate topics onto kids, all in the name of fostering 'inclusion.'"
Especially noteworthy: Chapter 7, "Queering Developmental Psychology" - covers how "Queer Activists captured the AACAP (The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) long ago." <www.tinyurl.com/2s3jzu2f>
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