The Cub Scouts are facing a transgender controversy after an 8-year-old who was born a girl but identifies as a boy was asked to leave a New Jersey pack. (Dark Dwarf/Flickr/CC)
The Cub Scouts are facing a transgender controversy after an 8-year-old who was born a girl but identifies as a boy was asked to leave a New Jersey pack.
Several readers alerted me to this story from Secaucus, New Jersey. Before I get into the heart of the issue, I want to explain why I have chosen not to identify the parent or the child.
I find it reprehensible that a grown woman would parade her child in front of the national media to advance some sort of cultural agenda. This parent is sacrificing her child's privacy and innocence for 15 minutes of fame. And I refuse to give the woman the satisfaction of reading her name in print.
The 8-year-old, who had been a member of the scouting group for about a month, was kicked out of Cub Scout Pack 87 because she is transgender. Local news accounts indicate an unknown number of parents were upset their sons were in a scouting group with a girl who identifies as a boy.
"How dare they judge me?" the child told The Record newspaper. "I don't have to explain it. It's the way I'm born."
The New York Daily Newsreports it may be the first case of a child being prohibited from participating in scouting activities because of gender identity.
But the Boy Scouts of America defended the child's ouster, pointing out to the newspaper the "child does not meet the requirements to participate in this program."
"Gender identity isn't related to sexual orientation," BSA spokesperson Effie Delimarkos told the New York Daily News.
In other words, the child was not kicked out for being transgender. The child was kicked out for not being a boy.
"It made me mad," the child told The Record. "I had a sad face, but I wasn't crying. I'm way more angry than sad. My identity is a boy. If I was them, I would let every person in the world go in. It's right to do."
The mother of the ex-Cub Scout told the newspaper she first thought her child was a tomboy "because he liked climbing trees and digging in dirt to look for worms."
"But she said she knew it was more than that by the time he was 5, and she began reading about what it means to be transgender," the newspaper reported.
Last year, the mother allowed the child to "come out as a boy" and get a short haircut. The Recordpublished an editorial calling for the Boy Scouts to reverse its decision.
"There should be some common sense applied here with regard to an 8-year-old. [Name omitted] wants to be a Scout. He identifies as a boy. There should be no need for litigation or years of court battles. He should just be allowed to be a Scout," the newspaper wrote.
Sooner rather than later, I suspect the Boy Scouts may face a legal challenge over its transgender policy. And the Boy Scouts will face further controversies when the organization is forced to confront non-binary scouts, gender-fluid scouts and genderless scouts.
The Girl Scouts already allow boys who identify as girls to sell Tagalongs and Thin Mints.
So do not be surprised if the Boy Scouts of America capitulate. They've already done it once before—sacrificing their long-cherished values on the altar of tolerance and diversity.
That's why so many families are getting involved in organizations like American Heritage Girls and Trail Life USA. Both are faith-based scouting organizations built on a firm spiritual foundation.
Trail Life USA was founded in 2013 in the aftermath of the BSA's decision to forego their core values for the sake of political expedience. Since then, they have experienced explosive growth—with more than 26,000 members.
I believe organizations like Trail Life and American Heritage Girls help will raise up a new generation of good citizens and patriots—young men and young women who will do their duty to God and country—a generation that is physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.
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Editor's Note: 2016 was a big year in the church—and in the world. This week we're looking at some of the biggest stories of the year, selected based on feedback from our readers. Thanks for reading Charisma News this year and stay tuned as we continue expanding our coverage in 2017 to include more spiritual insights on the stories that matter most to you.
This article was published March 11th.
Peek behind the curtain of some "progressive" or "hip" evangelical churches, past the savvy technology and secular music, and you will find more than just a contemporary worship service. You'll find faith leaders encouraging young evangelicals to trade in their Christian convictions for a gospel filled with compromise. They're slowly attempting to give evangelicalism an "update"—and the change is not for the good.
It's painful for me to admit, but we can no longer rest carefree in our evangelical identity—because it is changing. No doubt you have seen the headlines declaring that evangelicalism is doomed because evangelical kids are leaving the faith. It is no secret that there is an expanding gulf between traditional Christian teachings and contemporary moral values. But the sad truth is that the ideological gulf between America's evangelical grown-ups and their kids, aka the "millennials," seems to be widening too.
Somehow the blame for this chasm is being heaped on traditional churches. They are accused of having too many rules as well as being homophobic and bigoted. Yes, we've heard those false claims from popular culture in its desperate attempt to keep Christianity imprisoned within the sanctuary walls. But now popular culture is being aided by Christ-professing bedfellows whose message to "coexist," "tolerate" and "keep out of it" is more marketable to the rising generation of evangelicals.
The seasoned Christian soldiers are noticing these distortions of the gospel. But for young evangelicals, the spiritual haze is harder to wade through. Desperate for acceptance in a fallen world, many young evangelicals (and some older ones) choose not to take Christ out of the chapel, and so they are unwittingly killing the church's public witness. In this uphill cultural battle, mired by scare tactics and fear, three types of evangelical Christians are emerging:
Couch-potato Christians: These Christians adapt to the culture by staying silent on the tough culture-and-faith discussions. Typically this group will downplay God's absolute truths by promoting the illusion that neutrality was Jesus' preferred method of evangelism.
Cafeteria-style Christians: This group picks and chooses which Scripture passages to live by, opting for the ones that best seem to jive with culture. Typically they focus solely on the "nice" parts of the gospel while simultaneously and intentionally minimizing sin, hell, repentance and transformation.
Convictional Christians: In the face of the culture's harsh admonitions, these evangelicals refuse to be silent. Mimicking Jesus, they compassionately talk about love and grace while also sharing with their neighbors the need to recognize and turn from sin.
I know about these three types of Christians because at one time or another I have fallen into each of these three categories. My parents will tell you that even though I was raised in church, I morphed into a full-fledged feminist, told my parents they were ignorant for not endorsing homosexuality and bought into the distorted social justice rhetoric that confuses caring for the poor with advancing socialist or big government systems and demonizing the United States for its free market system.
I'm not ashamed to share my story because my experiences and those of my fellow bold evangelicals are a testimony of God's awesome, transforming power. Being countercultural for Christ isn't easy. What does the Great Commission say? Jesus commanded us to go, "teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20).
Where Did We Go Wrong?
I see so many parents scratching their heads trying to figure out where they went wrong with young evangelicals. Following the instructions of Proverbs 22:6—"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it"—many evangelical parents took their children to church and prayed with them every night before bed. Yet the values those children now hold dear do not reflect the traditional teachings of Jesus.
To be perfectly clear, I want to let you know upfront that this isn't a parenting how-to guide that, if followed, will lead your loved ones to salvation. Instead, what I can offer you is a glimpse into the world of a twenty-something who sees thousands of young evangelicals being spiritually and emotionally targeted on Christian university campuses, in college ministries and at churches nationwide by a growing liberal movement cloaked in Christianity.
Research tells us that evangelicals are drifting further away from the orthodox truths their parents and grandparents held dear.
Our churches have rarely—if ever—faced the exodus we are seeing today. This will have a direct effect on the spiritual and moral values that will shape the nation in the coming years. That is why it is urgent that concerned Christians start acting now before the situation gets worse.
The Collision of Faith and Culture
Faith and culture will continue to collide in America. The culture wars, the growth of family, the success of missions, the prosperity of our great nation—the future rests on millennial evangelicals' worldview. And that is cause for concern, because something has gone wrong with young evangelicals' theology.
The millennial generation's susceptibility to "feel-good" doctrine is playing a big part in America's moral decline. Millennials' religious practices depend largely on how the actions make us and othersfeel, whether the activities are biblical or not. For example, we only attend churches that leave us feeling good about our lifestyle choices, even if those choices conflict with God's clear commandments. We dismiss old hymns that focus on God's transforming salvation, love and mercy and opt for "Jesus is your boyfriend" songs. Or we contribute to nonprofits that exploit and misuse terms such as justice, oppressed and inequality because tweaking the language makes us feel more neutral, less confrontational.
Popular liberal evangelical writers and preachers tell young evangelicals that if they accept abortion and same-sex marriage, then the media, academia and Hollywood will finally accept Christians. Out of fear of being falsely dubbed "intolerant" or "uncompassionate," many young Christians are buying into theological falsehoods. Instead of standing up as a voice for the innocent unborn or marriage as God intended, millennials are forgoing the authority of Scripture and embracing a couch potato, cafeteria-style Christianity all in the name of tolerance.
This contemporary mindset is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian whose Christian convictions put him at odds with the Nazis and cost him his life, called "cheap grace." In his book The Cost of Discipleship Bonhoeffer wrote: "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
Right now cheap grace theology is proliferating around evangelical Bible colleges, seminaries and Christian ministries.
Christian Doctrine Hijacked
It is not that millennial evangelicals were not taken to church by their parents. It is that their training has been hijacked by ineffective and sometimes intentionally distorted doctrine.
As constant and pervasive as the attacks on Christianity are at public universities, it is important to remember that millennials' worldviews do not start taking shape after they move out of their parents' houses. Their understanding of Jesus' teachings and cultural convictions begin to form while they are still at home and under the influence of their local church.
What I hope and pray evangelical parents and leaders come to realize is that the church has been too trusting. In our jampacked lifestyles, parents have treated Sunday school as they do softball or ballet class—drop off the kids for an hour then pick them up and hope they learned something.
Early on in my Sunday school teaching days, my co-teacher and I followed the curriculum pretty narrowly, the exception being that my co-teacher had an outstanding knowledge of biblical history that he imparted to the kids.
We taught all about Jesus' birth, resurrection and saving grace. Thinking the fluffy kids ministry curriculum covered all of the necessary bases, I felt confident these kids had a firm grasp on their Christian worldview. Boy, was I wrong!
One day my co-teacher and I decided to play "True or False." We casually went down a list of worldview questions with our class, sure that our little evangelicals would nail every question correctly.
No. 1: Jesus is God. "True." Great job.
No. 2: Jesus sinned. "False." Bingo!
No. 3: Jesus is one of many ways to heaven. "True." What?!
Shocked is the only way to describe how I felt. Hadn't they been listening to us? When I asked who taught them that, one girl said, "Coexist." Yes, these young evangelicals had been listening to their Sunday school teachers and their parents, but they had also been listening to their public school teachers, TV celebrities and rock stars.
Youth ministers, volunteer leaders and pastors also have to start preparing these kids to deal with the very real hostility that faces young evangelicals.
If we never talk about abortion in church, how can we expect the rising evangelical girl to calmly explain the option of adoption to her frightened best friend who just admitted she is pregnant?
What will surprise you is how much young evangelicals actually crave honest discussions about abortion, sexuality, sexual exploitation, feminism and radical Islam. My friend and Evangelical Action adviser Richmond Trotter has two non-negotiable topics when addressing youth: creation and life. Having volunteered in church youth ministry since 1996, Richmond is not afraid to have serious discussions about what Scripture says about abortion, evolution and homosexuality. Make no mistake: The trend away from biblical truth is not concentrated in the hipster city limits. It is unfolding in the crevices of America's plains, hills, mountains and swamplands. All across this nation, "old-fashioned" conservative evangelicalism is being traded in for a bright and shiny, mediocre Christianity.
If America's evangelicals disengage from the public square and fail to engage the rising generation of Christian leaders, then we risk losing our public voice, then our religious liberty, then liberty altogether.
What Happened to the Religious Right?
The last several decades witnessed tremendous evangelical influence in the United States. Leaders such as Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Paige and Dorothy Patterson, James Dobson, and James and Betty Robison made a bold impact on America's families, churches and government. Now that those few leaders are aging or retiring, or have died, there are very few traditional evangelical leaders left holding the torch and even fewer candidates to whom they can pass it.
But religious convictions in America are not on the verge of disappearance just yet. There is still hope. In the book God Is Alive and Well: The Future of Religion in America, Gallup Inc. Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport ensures: "Christianity will prevail in the U.S. America will remain very much a Christian nation in the decades ahead, albeit less so than in the past because of an increase in Americans who don't have a religious identity."
Heed the Warning Signs
Evangelicals and culture warriors in the U.S. do not have to look far to discover what happens when Christian denominations give up on their traditional convictions and teachings. All we have to do is look at the dwindling memberships of mainline Protestant denominations.
In order to safeguard the trajectory of young evangelicals, we must uphold the authoritative Word of God. It is imperative that those in a position to influence millennials have transparent and honest discussions about the culture wars evangelical youth are already engaging. Otherwise they will be silent and accepting in the face of persecution and false doctrine.
The importance of arming the next generation of evangelicals cannot be overstated. If we continue to follow the example of mainline Protestants, evangelicalism will have a gloomy future. We must offer sorely needed leadership, but before we can do that, we need to know exactly whom and what we are up against.
Chelsen Vicariserves as the Institute on Religion and Democracy's evangelical program director. Prior to joining the IRD, she worked for Concerned Women for America. She holds a bachelor of science in political science and history and a master's degree in international politics. Her articles on evangelicalism and public policy have appeared in TheBlaze, The Christian Post, andRealClearReligion. She recently wrote her first book, Distortion, from which this article is excerpted.
In her book Distortion: How the Christian Left Is Twisting the Gospel and Damaging the Faith, Chelsen Vicari reveals the disturbing truths behind liberal teachings. Using her own experience, Vicari shows how the deception impacts Christianity and the church. This book can be found wherever Christian books are sold or at amazon.com or christianbook.com.
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Does Thomas Sowell's Retirement Signal the End of Black Conservatism?
(Video Screenshot Image)
On December 27, 2016, at the age of 86, Thomas Sowell published his last column.
After publishing dozens of books and hundreds of columns, Dr. Sowell's retirement may mark the beginning of the end of an era of black intellectuals who were champions of political and economic liberty. Other black scholars like Walter Williams, W.B. Allen and Shelby Steele are all in their 70s or 80s, and there does not seem to be a cadre of like-minded black scholars in their wake.
While in Atlanta for Christmas, I stumbled upon a June 1994 issue of National Minority Politics magazine at my parent's home. The magazine began as a newsletter in the 1980s and eventually became a monthly periodical that was renamed Headway before publication ceased in 1999. Willie and Gwen Richardson published Headway to feature leading black and Hispanic conservative voices like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Raoul Contreas, Roger Hernandez, Linda Chavez, Kay Cole James, Deroy Murdock and others.
The magazine hosted leadership conferences that created conversations between minority conservatives and politicians like William Bennett, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Phil Gramm and Gary Franks. Many of Headway's events were captured on C-SPAN in the mid-1990s.
The political philosophy of Headway included the following:
Strong families: The foundation of any stable society is–first and foremost–strong families in every community. We should stress to our youth the importance of marriage and keeping families together.
Individual responsibility: Almost every human being is endowed with the necessary means to be successful–a sound mind and the ability to think, reason and make choices. These natural gifts are accompanied with the equal obligation to take responsibility for one's actions.
Free enterprise: Our nation has been the most successful on earth in fostering and promoting a free enterprise system with opportunity for all. Strengthening this system is our best hope for a thriving economy in the future.
Less government: The size and influence of government at all levels must be minimized in order to guarantee a free society. Government should play a role in performing certain functions, like maintaining a strong defense, but we should not expect government to solve all our problems.
Strong Defense: Although it is not America's role to be the world's policeman, there are sometimes threats to American lives and interests which we cannot tolerate.
Community-based problem solving. Rather than looking to the federal government to solve local problems such as crime and education, we can and should develop solutions in our local communities.
Good taste and common sense in popular culture: The level of violence, promiscuous sex and immoral behavior on television, in movies and in music lyrics should be reduced as it has adverse effects on society, especially our children.
Compassionate conservatism: While stressing the importance of free enterprise and less government, we must recognize our responsibility as a society to help those who help themselves or who are unable to help themselves through no fault of their own.
What's missing from this list is an issue that became a defining position of the conservative coalition in the mid-1990s: abortion. With the rise of Newt Gingrich as the 50th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the passing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 1995, abortion became a centerpiece of American conservatism beyond the concerns of economics and public policy.
Before that, abortion had not been a centerpiece of black conservatism because many black conservatives were more aligned with classical liberal political philosophy and Austrian economics, like Sowell and Williams, rather than religious-right conservatism.
The inclusion of pro-life politics into political and economic conservatism inadvertently took the wind out of the sails of many conservative African American scholars who were more concerned with issues of political and economic liberty. For example, black conservatives like Condolezza Rice, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, John McWhorter, Kiron Skinner and the like, have never made abortion a key issue.
Sadly, it seems that with the retirement of Thomas Sowell, and the inevitable retirement of scholars like Walter Williams, Shelby Steele, black scholars, as champions of political and economic liberty, will continue to fade away if abortion remains the litmus test for identifying one's allegiance to conservatism. This is the end of an era. Black conservatism was its most winsome and popular when it primarily addressed issues other than abortion.
Finally, we're left with the question of whether or not there will ever again be a coalition of black and Hispanic scholars who have the political philosophy like the one outlined at Headway magazine? Or, is the best yet to come?
Anthony Bradleyis Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics in the Public Service Program at The King's College in New York City and serves as a Research Fellow at the Acton Institute.
This article was originally published at Acton.org. Used with permission.
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President Obama Made a 'Midnight Sneak Attack' on the Second Amendment
(Reuters photo)
Our friend Liz Sheld of PJ Media brought to our attention another example of Obama's perfidy in transferring power to President-elect Donald Trump.
Although Obama likes to empty out Guantanamo Bay of dangerous terrorists and commute the sentences of criminals guilty of breaking federal firearms laws, says Sheld, he doesn't like law-abiding American citizens to possess firearms.
Ergo, as he heads out the door of the White House, Obama's putting the finishing touches on a new policy that would deprive recipients of disability insurance and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) of their Second Amendment rights. The administration will now characterize those citizens as "mental defectives," thereby having their ability to own a firearm subject to the federal Gun Control Act.
Supplemental Security Income helps blind, disabled and elderly people with little to no income. Previously, it was understood that "mentally defective" referred to one's mental health. Citizens who have been institutionalized against their will are restricted from owning a firearm. The new definition of "mentally defective" has nothing to do with being mentally ill, says Sheld.
Sheld also points out the new rule does not make clear how an individual could appeal the agency's decision to deny Second Amendment rights. Wrote the NRA, "The rule would not provide those subject to its terms the ability to defend their suitability to possess firearms before the actual loss of rights took place. In other words, it offers no due process on the question of losing Second Amendment rights."
Instead, observes Sheld, a victim of the new regulations would have to petition for his constitutional right to own a gun because he poses no threat to the public safety. Has it even been established that SSI recipients are responsible for the "gun violence" the administration has been targeting? Do we know what percentage of gun criminals are on SSI?
While Obama has no idea how many or what percentage of criminals who use guns are on SSI, we do know of Harvey Lembo, a 67-year old retired Maine lobsterman who is confined to a wheelchair.
Lembo, who is hard of hearing and winces in pain when he moves from his motorized wheelchair to a stuffed sitting chair, said he just got tired of people ripping him off, so he bought a gun—legally.
Prior to shooting burglar Christopher Wildhaber, Lembo said he had lamented to a friend over the weekend that he was tired of having his one-bedroom apartment burglarized—five times in six years, he said, the most recent incident just two weeks prior.
"I never planned on using it," Lembo said.
One night, he was awakened—he's not sure by what—and noticed that the clock read 12:04 a.m. He saw a shadow pass from the kitchen toward his living room. At first, he thought it was his cat, Mittens, but the shadow was too big.
"I pulled my gun out from under the pillow, got in the wheelchair, rolled out here and he was standing here at my pills," Lembo said during an interview. The room was lit by the light he leaves on all the time.
Lembo said Wildhaber told him, "I'm here to rob you like everybody else."
Lembo described the burglar as clean-cut, wearing khaki shorts and a white T-shirt. He ordered the man to sit on the coffee table against a wall while he called police.
"I told them, 'I got him under a gun. If he makes a move, I'm going to shoot him.'"
"I don't know what he was on, but he was out of his mind," Lembo said, demonstrating how Wildhaber kept looking down and covering his face with his hands.
When Wildhaber bolted toward the kitchen and the apartment's front door, Lembo turned and fired, putting a slug in the fleeing man's shoulder.
Lembo said he had never seen Wildhaber before. He suspects the person who stole from him last month, taking prescription pills that included morphine and oxycodone, $1,000 and the key to his safe deposit box, had spread the word that he was an easy mark.
Although Lembo isn't a Second Amendment activist, he said having a gun seems like common sense now.
"Everybody should bear arms," he said. "If everybody beared [sic] arms, we wouldn't have this [crime] problem.
"I don't think anybody is going to come in here now," Lembo told the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.
Click here to read Liz Sheld's "Obama Administration Yanks Second Amendment Rights from SSI Recipients."
Click here to read the full account of Harvey Lembo defending himself and his home.
This article was originally published at ConservativeHQ.com. Used with permission.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
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