Last week Missouri lawmaker Ben Baker introduced legislation that would give a parental advisory board final say over library events and would penalize libraries that expose children to material that is not age-appropriate. This bill is being proposed in response to Drag Queen Story Hour events, a phenomenon that began in San Francisco in 2015, and within the next few years made its way across the country. The popularityof these events across the country last summer drew widespread attention to their problematic nature.
Here in Minnesota, Hennepin County libraries scheduled fifteen “Stories Together With Drag Performers” events in 2019. At one of these events, the performer wore a miniskirt with his legs spread at eye-level with the children he was reading to. This is not the only time that these events have gotten out of hand. Last summer photos of a drag queen story hour event at a Portland library showed children lying on topof drag queens in a sexual manner. The photos were taken down shortly after they began to draw attention online. And as Libby Emmonspointed out, there would have been no reason to remove the photos had they been innocent. Emmons goes on to write of the event,
…photos of kids laying atop grown men who are wearing sexualized female costumes, and encouraging gender fluidity gives truth to the lie that drag story hour isn’t about sexuality or sexualizing children. Children are drawn to sparkles and glitter, and using those things to make sexuality seem like mere play is nothing more than grooming kids to be sexual objects, not participants.
It is not fear-mongering to say that children are being sexualized at these events. These events really put children’s safety at risk, and there is no acceptable reason for parents or libraries to hold these events.
“Deidra” sobbed uncontrollably as she explained why she had to have an abortion. Deidra is a 19-year-old freshman at North Carolina State University, the first in her family to go to college, and has her sights set on being a Physician Assistant. She loves the Lord, is active in her church and her parents have raised her well, teaching her God’s standards of purity and abstinence until marriage. Despite all that, Deidra and her boyfriend went “too far” and now, here she is at Gateway Women’s Care, scared to death and too afraid to tell her parents she’s pregnant. As this intelligent, capable young woman sits in front of me, the words tumbled out…
I’m so scared to tell my parents I’m pregnant. I have to have an abortion because my parents can never know I’ve been having sex; they would be horrified and I’d rather go through an abortion than have to face them and disappoint them.
Unfortunately, Deidra’s response is extremely common. It is heartbreaking to witness the genuine fear and indecision that many Christian girls experience when faced with an unplanned pregnancy and how it drives girls to NOT seek help from those who love them the most—their parents. These fears are why “good” Christian girls abort and why their parents will most likely never know.
How then should we talk to our children about sex, purity, unplanned pregnancies and abortion? More than ten years of experience at Gateway Women’s Care has shown me that quite often there’s a piece missing from the “talks” parents have with their daughters and sons. Without knowing it, we are leaving no doors open for our children to come back to us should they stray. We are making good, strong cases for purity until marriage and yet neglecting to communicate the message of grace: that we are there for them no matter what, and should they make a mistake—in this case, get pregnant—it is safe for them to come to us for help and support.
Since 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in all 50 states, men and women around the country have marched every year to commemorate the lives lost to abortion. Almost 50 years later, legalized abortion has resulted in the deaths of over 61 million unborn babies.
The numbers are staggering, especially when one stops to consider that every one of those babies was someone’s daughter or son, sister, brother, grandchild, niece or nephew. But far more earth-shattering is the fact that we live in a nation that nonchalantly approves of this evil at the rate of 39 murders per hour.
In the face of the evil of abortion, we cannot be silent—it is an injustice that demands a response. The March for Life is one of the ways that we respond. It is one of the ways that we tell the world and our nation that abortion is not acceptable, that babies should not be stripped of their right to life, and that women deserve better than abortion.
As we march, we should keep in mind that hope in the face of the evil of abortion can only be found at the cross, so we turn to God, praying for his justice and his mercy for both the sinner and the sinned against, knowing that apart from God the abortion industry will not be defeated. God works through his people, but his people can accomplish nothing apart from him.
In the past few years, a growing number of male athletes have taken home awards in women’s sports. Rather than decry this trend as unfair or sexist, many media figures and politicians have celebrated itas a mark of inclusivity and progress because the men placing in these events identify as female. Reducing maleness and femaleness to one’s “gender identity” ignores the reality that men and women are different, and that the differences between the sexes are not based on how a person feels.
Responding to this trend, nine states are currently considering or planning to take up legislation that would protect women’s sports by preventing biological males from competing in young women’s sports teams. Additionally, Congressman Greg Steube (FL-17) recently proposed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act which would prevent schools that allow biological males to compete in women’s sports from receiving Title IX funding.
These bills take seriously the fact that men and women are different and that there is good reason for having separate girls’ sports teams. The 2018-19 competition season in Connecticut saw two biological males dominate high school girls track in, beating the teenage girls in the event and costing them potential scholarship opportunities. This isn’t because female athletes do not work as hard or train as well as male athletes, but because of the physical differences between men and women.
The opening of a New Yearis a time for looking back and looking forward. We look back to remind ourselves of God’s blessings, and we look forward to a new year, renewing our commitment to our values and resolving to live in light of God’s truth.
This past year has seen a lot of good. In 2019, 21 states passed pro-life laws finishing a strong decadein the fight for life. And the Trump administration’s new Title X rule has diverted federal funds away from abortion providers, funneling them to life affirmingpregnancy centers, instead. The most recent CDC report on abortion rates brought with it both good news and bad news, with overall abortion rates falling, but a troubling increase in the use of the abortion pill.
Additionally, this year Minnesota saw an important victory for religious freedom when a federal appeals court protected Carl and Angel Larsen’s First Amendment rights.
But at the start of a new year, there is still work to be done. 2019 also saw an increase in assisted suicide, as well as continued attacks on life and those who speak up to defend it.Radical ideology has striven to replace common sense policies in sports, and religious foster care and adoption agencies have had a year of ups and downs as they fight for the freedom to affirm God’s design for marriage and family.
