The reports have moved from the tabloids into the “paper of record”—Bruce Jenner has embraced a transgender identity and is “transitioning” from male to female. The New York Times has a report today as well as a glowing commendation from Nicholas Kristof celebrating Jenner’s “courage.” Kristof writes: At first, there were snickers, but, lately, the tone has been respectful. And news reports say Jenner is planning to chronicle the transition in a program for E! television channel and in an interview with Diane Sawyer for ABC News. All this, and comments by family members, suggest that Jenner is willing to be a role model and help educate the world on…
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The Girl in the Tuxedo
Jean Lloyd shares a little bit of her story today at The Public Discourse about how she grew confused about her gender and sexuality in her teenage years. She compares her experience back in 1985 to what a child with the same struggles might experience in 2015. The differences are stark and tragic. The pathways to wholeness that were available to her in 1985 have largely been cut-off to today’s adolescents. If you don’t read anything else today on the internet, read this. The consequences of the sexual revolution are massive, and they have an impact on the lives of children. Be sure to read this one all the way…
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Christian baker to be forced into bankruptcy for refusing to participate in same-sex wedding
I’ve written numerous times about this case over the last two years (original report above), but this just in today: “Same-sex marriage decision forces Christian bakers’ bankruptcy.”
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Do we owe it to our neighbors to vaccinate our kids?
There’s a measles outbreak in California, and some GOP politicians are sounding an uncertain note on vaccinations. This is obviously a contentious issue today as so many parents are opting out of mandatory vaccinations. Michael Gerson enters the fray with a column titled “Vaccines and what we owe to our neighbors.” He writes:
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An “evangelical” church in Nashville embraces gay marriage
A couple weeks ago, I noted Elizabeth Diaz’s feature-length article in Time magazine arguing that evangelicals are changing their mind about gay marriage. Today she has a follow-up piece about Nashville, Tennessee’s GracePointe Community Church which has become “one of the first evangelical megachurches in the country to openly stand for full equality and inclusion of the LGBTQ community.” The church’s pastor, Stan Mitchell, made the announcement at the end of a sermon a few weeks ago. You can watch it above beginning at 44:52.
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No grand bargain with the sexual revolutionaries
Yesterday, Mormon leaders announced a kind of via media on gay rights. In a public statement, leaders agreed to …support legislation where it is being sought to provide protections in housing, employment and some other areas where LGBT people do not have protections, while ensuring that religious freedom is not compromised. In other words, the church proposes to give a little in order to get a little. If I understand their statement of principles correctly, they are now willing to acknowledge sexual orientation as a protected class along with religion, race, and sex. They are willing to do this in certain “areas” of public life, so long as religious liberty…
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No one can really redefine marriage
Last week I read a report about philosophy professors who believe the debate about marriage is over. For many (perhaps most) of them, the question has been settled. There is no rational basis to privilege the union of one man and one woman in our laws and culture. To do so is the equivalent of bigotry. Or so these professors believe. And that is why many of them are no longer treating it as a matter up for debate. Conversation over. It struck me that while many people in our culture will evade this discussion in a similar way, that doesn’t close the issue. Why? Because an ostrich with his…
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Will Christians be allowed to serve as judges in California?
The religious liberty implications of our culture’s moral transformation on homosexuality continue apace. The big news out of California yesterday is something that we should all take note of. I don’t know how else to view it except as a foreboding sign of things to come. Yesterday, the California Supreme Court ruled that state judges could no longer hold membership in the Boy Scouts of America. Why? Because the Boy Scouts allow gay scouts but not gay Scout leaders. As far as the California Supreme Court is concerned, the Boy Scouts discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, and that violates their code of ethics. The Los Angeles Times reports,
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House GOP’s “mere flight and disgrace” on abortion
I just read the news that Congressional Republicans have decided to abandon plans to vote on a bill protecting unborn children capable of feeling pain. According to the report, these “pro-life” lawmakers have decided to forsake the unborn for the sake of political expediency. The going got tough, and they got going. It is the definition of what Proverbs 24:10-12 warns against: If you are slack in the day of distress, Your strength is limited. Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He not consider it who…
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Inside the Evangelical Fight Over Gay Marriage
Elizabeth Dias has a feature-length article in Time magazine titled “Inside the Evangelical Fight Over Gay Marriage.” The usual suspects are brought forth as evidence of a shift among younger evangelicals: Justin Lee, Matthew Vines, Brandan Robertson, etc. Nevertheless, I’m skeptical about the young “evangelicals” profiled in this piece. It is not even clear from the article whether we are dealing with bona fide evangelicals or those who are leaving evangelicalism. Can they in any meaningful sense be considered bellwethers for a movement defined by convictions that they have largely abandoned? I don’t think so. It is indeed telling that at Vines’s recent conference, “most of the panelists advocating change…