By Chuck Marshall
Published April 13 in The Christian Post
One brief comment- the Christian Post chose to change a few things on my OP-Ed, I've decided to post it below on my blog in its original form.
Original Title was; "To This Decision We Leave Our Children"
We require 13 years of age for certain movies, 18 years of age for cinema with adult content and language, 16 years of age to drive, 19 years of age for a person to be drafted for war or to vote, and 21 years of age to buy a gun or to drink alcohol. However, we are OK with children making life-long decisions regarding their reproduction and their physical bodies regarding sexuality as young as their pre-teenage years. This is a decision regarding something they have almost no understanding of before puberty. They're children. Even during puberty and through adolescence the human body is a work in progress, not a finished physique.
Explaining and addressing concerns for children regarding their gender and their sexuality is like speaking French to an English speaker who has never taken French. They simply don't understand the situation. At all. So, why are we presenting them with the concept at all?
The role of parents and the schools is to prepare children for life. I fail to see how presenting and elaborating on the concept of “gender dysphoria” does anything but cause children confusion and stress at a time in their lives when they're just trying to figure out who they are as a human being. Suggestion is a powerful thing, and vulnerable children will tend towards solutions to uncomfortable feelings that are often not in their best interest. We are no longer the protector of our children when we suggest they can choose their gender. We are part of the problem.
This is the consequence of twisted adult minds in schools and abusive parents who see children as a project and a victim, not a person with a future life they are taking away. I can handle virtue-signaling parents and teachers when the consequences are minimal to anyone but themselves and those unfortunate enough to have to hear them. This patience stops when they start to suggest this change is a good solution for these young, confused minds.
I ponder where our society has gone in that our own children are not safe from us. I think about who should be the moral characters and authorities regarding all this, if not the parents? The Doctors. Where are the doctors and where is the Hippocratic Oath; “First, do no harm?” How could any doctor, in their right mind and with the best intentions for a patient, encourage them to proceed with a life-altering procedure when the patient is incapable of understanding the consequences? Is there any guilt or doubt in their mind while they do it? When administering hormones or drugs that will sterilize the child for life, do they think about that fact? As they remove healthy body parts that will mutilate them for life, does it occur to them that this is a child they are dissecting? The psychiatrists. Where are the psychiatrists? Why did they cede control over gender dysphoria to the drug makers and the surgeons when this is so obviously a psychological problem? The churches. Where are the churches? Words cannot express my horror towards the many churches that have shown such cowardice these last few years with their regard to modern society and its latest barbaric fad.
May these churches heed these words: “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely and your tongue mutters wickedly. No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case for integrity, they rely on empty arguments, they utter lies” (Isaiah 59: 2- 4).
All puberty blockers should be banned. All gender surgeries should be restricted to 21 or older without exception. All directions or explanations regarding gender options should not be presented in any school whatsoever under college age. Those suffering or who think they are suffering from Gender Dysphoria under the age of 21 should get an abundance of therapy, fresh air, restricted internet access, exercise, and dietary review. Let's figure out what's wrong here. Only after all options have been reviewed and studied for these psychologically confused youngsters should anything else be considered.
All other actions should be categorized as child abuse by the parents and/or teachers, doctors, and psychiatrists. Mutilating young bodies to help them with a condition that is purely mental should result in the arrest and prosecution of the guilty surgeon. All pharmaceuticals selling puberty blockers and other gender “adjusting” drugs to children and young adults today, should have legal action taken against them for the irreparable and life-long damages caused to so many minors.
Sometimes I wonder at the reaction of our society to all this. I feel like a German citizen during the Holocaust, sitting in my home as the Nazis haul off my Jewish neighbors. The parents, surgeons, and child predators remove children from schools and convince them of something impossible. They then convince them to commit a form of suicide that will supposedly make them feel better. After it’s all done, the children and their families must deal with the physical and emotional consequences of the drugs and surgeries, often resulting in real suicides. The ordinary US citizen ignores this mental deportation of our children. They’re too afraid to speak up even in the face of brutal reality.
The good Germans must have rationalized their neighbors’ disappearance also. They must have justified it because they too were afraid to speak up. “Maybe it is for their best. Maybe it is helping them. Maybe they’re better off in resettlement camps. Maybe the drugs do work. Maybe they are sending them to Palestine. Maybe they really can change their gender and be happy.” German citizens are notorious for having uttered the comments “We didn’t know” when asked about the Holocaust after WWII. What they meant was "We didn’t want to know". Meanwhile the millions choked on the gas. How many lives will be ruined after all this is over because we, the adults, convinced ourselves this is all somebody else's problem and maybe it's for the best ?
“So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truths is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no intervention” Isaiah 59: 14-16
