The most basic gift parents can give their children is this: protection. There is much more to parenting than guarding their sons or daughters, but, in a loving home, there cannot be less.
For years, America has gone in the opposite direction. Led by a presidential administration embracing the claims of radical gender ideology, much of America has backed the concept of “transgender” identity. The LGBTQ lobby has advanced its cause by presenting this issue—“trans rights”—in the language of the civil rights movement. The implications of this philosophy are clear: if you do not support boys “transitioning” to become girls per their “brain sex,” you are on the wrong side of history.
But our nation has not only encouraged this concept culturally. The federal government has funded procedures that facilitate gender “transitions,” thus normalizing “transgenderism” administratively. A whole branch of medicine—which is not medicine at all—has been created through this policy program. Major hospitals have increasingly endorsed this momentous shift in child medicine, creating entire wings oriented around “gender-affirming care.”
Thankfully, in recent days, all this has changed. In a new executive order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,”1 President Trump has altered the federal government’s stance toward the new gender ideology. The government will no longer “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” body-warping (and soul-corrupting) procedures. Surgical “transitions,” cross-sex hormone injections, and other elements of “gender-affirming care” are hereby defunded. (Families harmed by these actions can sue for damages. Further legal ramifications will likely unfold in positive directions.)
The church of Christ is not fundamentally a partisan organization. However, believers in the United States cannot miss the significance of this turnabout in federal policy. The LGBTQ lobby has caused untold damage to American children, including many of our most vulnerable youth. Instead of harming our young people in the name of pagan sexuality, they will now be protected from gender ideology and its horrifying effects. With regard to these developments, we should give abundant praise to God for His kindness to our country and our children.
After many decades of the “war on children,” we are seeing a shift in outlook unfolding in our country. Let us continue to pray and work toward this end. In an age when many continue to push ideas and policies that wreak havoc on kids, let us stand between such destructive theories and our children. Even as God the Father guards us from all danger through His Son and Spirit (John 10:28), let us protect our precious little ones.
1. President Donald J. Trump, Executive Order 14187: “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” January 28, 2025, Federal Register, Volume 90, Issue 21, https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/FR-2025-02-03/2025-02194.
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