Earlier this morning, Rachel Held Evans appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” to promote her book A Year of Biblical Womanhood (see above). I have the book and intend to review it, but some of the errors in her remarks this morning were so serious that I thought they deserved a response in advance of the review.
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California Outlaws Therapies Aimed at Changing the Sexual Orientation of Minors
On Saturday, California became the first state to ban therapy practices that attempt to change the sexual orientation of minors. The new law states, Under no circumstances shall a mental health provider engage in sexual orientation change efforts with a patient under 18 years of age… Any sexual orientation change efforts attempted on a patient under 18 years of age by a mental health provider shall be considered unprofessional conduct and shall subject a mental health provider to discipline by the licensing entity for that mental health provider. This means that even if a minor wants help in battling same-sex desires, mental health professionals in California are not allowed to…
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Death Threats for Opposing Gay Parenting
Rupert Everett is gay actor who is probably best known for his role in the 1998 film My Best Friend’s Wedding. He recently made some remarks against gay parenting that have resulted in threats on his life. What exactly did he say? The Huffington Post has his exact words: [My mom] thinks children need a father and a mother and I agree with her… I can’t think of anything worse than being brought up by two gay dads… Some people might not agree with that. Fine! That’s just my opinion. The article goes on to talk about the backlash that Everett is getting from gay rights groups. They are predictably…
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The Slippery Slope and the Definition of Marriage
Some people tend to be wary of slippery slope arguments, but when it comes to defining marriage the slope really does appear to be pretty slick. Take note of this story out of Brazil, which is known for its progressive views on social policy. CNN reports that a Brazilian official recently granted a civil union to a man and two women who are living in a polyamorous relationship.
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President Obama and the Rhetoric of the Gay Marriage Debate
One of the main rhetorical strategies of gay marriage supporters has been to frame the issue as the next phase in the struggle for civil rights in America. As a consequence, they brand traditional marriage supporters as “bigots” who support “discrimination” equivalent to that of Jim Crow. For the most part, that rhetorical strategy seems to be working. This means that if you are a Christian who believes the Bible, there are many who simply believe you to be a morally retrograde bigot.
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Is it crazy and hateful to suggest that gays can change?
Last week, Albert Mohler appeared on the CNN program “Out Front” with Erin Burnett to talk about Chick-fil-a and the gay marriage debate (see video below). In the course of the discussion, Mohler explained briefly what the Bible teaches about moral renewal in the life of a Christian. In short, he argued that the same Christ that redeems sinners also helps them to “change”—i.e., to put aside those things the Bible defines as sin.
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The good, the bad, and the ugly of Chick-fil-a Day
The scene above is disconcerting. It’s a video of a man in Tuscon, Arizona who visited Chick-fil-a on Wednesday and who did so as an act of protest. He orders a free water at the drive-thru and then proceeds to give the Chick-fil-a worker the “what for.” The video was featured in the news because the guy was the CFO of his company and subsequently lost his job after he posted the video on YouTube.
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How To Fight the Culture War
Kevin DeYoung has a fantastic post on how Christians ought to conduct themselves in the culture war. He writes: Call it what you want-a culture war, a battle of ideas, an ideological struggle-there is no question we have deep division in America. The most obvious division right now concerns homosexuality. When Dan Cathy’s off-handed, rather ordinary comment in of support traditional marriage sends big city mayors out on their moral high horses wielding the coercive club of political power-and when the subsequent response from middle America is a record-breaking avalanche of support for Chic-fil-A–you know there is more than a skirmish afoot. I know every generation thinks they are facing…
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Slanted Reporting on the Boy Scouts in NY Times
Now here is a curious way of reporting. The headline in The New York Times reads this way, “Boy Scouts to Continue Excluding Gay People.” What’s so strange about this headline? Well, for starters, it casts the Boy Scouts in a negative light, as if they’ve taken some proactive step to stick it to gay people. But that is not at all what’s happened here. The story is simply about the fact that the Boy Scouts have not changed their policy on membership vis a vis homosexuals. The policy is now what it has always been. It hasn’t changed.
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The Little Boy Who Wanted To Be a Girl
I witnessed one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen last week. It was a report on NBC’s “Dateline” about an 11-year old child named Josie Romero. Josie looks like a normal little prepubescent girl. Only it turns out, that Josie was not born as Josie but as Joey. Josie was born biologically as a boy. Yet somewhere along the way, he decided that he liked behaving and dressing like a girl.