Josh Alexander is a 16-year-old teenager. A minor! He used to attend St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ontario, Canada. In November of 2022 he was suspended by the Renfrew County Catholic District School Board and though the suspension was lifted in January of this year, he has been “excluded” for the rest of the 2023 school year. His crime?
Taking guns to class? No!
Maybe lying to his teachers? No!
How about because he is a schoolyard bully? No!
Ah, maybe consistent truancy, without good reason? Wrong again!
OK, maybe he ‘dead named’ a transgender student? Nope! Never happened!
His crime? Well, let’s hear from Josh himself. Here is what he said to the National Post (Feb. 8, 2023) about his comments in a scheduled class discussion on the topic of gender:
“It was about male students using female washrooms, gender dysphoria and male breastfeeding. Everyone was sharing their opinions on it, any student who wanted to was participating, including the teacher.”
“I said there were only two genders, and you were born either a male or a female, and that got me into trouble. And then I said that gender doesn’t trump biology.”
Josh simply expressed his religious convictions when invited to participate by his teacher, and said he believed there are only two genders. And when the woke authorities were finished figuratively keel-hauling him, Mr. Alexander was booted out of school and days later arrested by two of Renfrew’s finest (least I think they were the town’s finest) for trespassing when he looked to return to the classroom. Canada is becoming less tolerant with each passing school board election - and against minors no less!
Is THIS what our veterans perished for on the beaches of Dieppe, France – said by one historian to be “the nine bloodiest hours” of Canadian history … or in Ortona, Italy with its fierce house-to-house, hand-to-hand combat? Are progressives so afraid of those with alternative views that do not conform to their echo-chamber … that they will ‘punish’ children, not yet adults?
Group think, brimming with misguided teachers, psychologists and angry school board elites, fat on cancel culture, are turning Canada into a free-speech gulag, reminiscent of something you would expect to
encounter in Iran, Russia, even China.
OK, so I understand that two transgender students in his class disapproved of Josh’s Christian beliefs. BUT WAIT A MINUTE! Does the idea that there are only two genders not align with Catholic theology? This was a Catholic school – right? I understand that within the Catholic faith dynamic there are essentially four broad identities - rejectionists, traditionalists, reformist and re-constructionists, but has the original Christian message and its vision as embodied in the person of Jesus Christ become so distorted and fallen so deeply that the Vatican now supports a society without sexual differences … one that ultimately eliminates the anthropological basis of the family?
Our federal government website (Justice-Law Website, Government of Canada) seems clear on what the prohibited grounds of discrimination are:
“3 (1) For all purposes of the prohibited grounds of discrimination are race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, disability ...”
Is this description merely government double-speak or political window-dressing to make Canadians feel warm and fuzzy about themselves, because the optics in this story suggest that ‘discrimination’ only flows in one direction – from left to right. Stupefyingly, Josh is not permitted to voice his biological beliefs (science) or his Christian ones either – even within a Catholic school no less!
Where views (especially those of minors) are deemed to not be in step with prevailing cultural group-think, pronounced anathema by educators and seen as existential threats to the Borg collective, then we have entered a new dark age. With today’s curriculum a mix of wokeness and progressivism, no wonder our school system is collapsing under the weight of its own stupidity.
No one here is disaffirming that human right is fundamentally important and to be enjoyed by all Canadians. Still, genuine democracy permits a variety of points of view in the market place – including points of view that others disagree with. You cannot call yourself a democracy while arresting others, even children no less, who have a view culturally unacceptable to a different religious conviction.
I seem to recall that when moral issues were at stake, Jesus never bent to cultural pressure. There was His conversation with the Samaritan at the well (John 4:7-9) … His meal with a tax collector (Matthew 9:11) … His healing on the Sabbath (Luke 13:14) … and, one of my favorites, Jesus apparently eating without washing His hands first (Mark 7:1-23). When I brought this important biblical ‘truth’ to the attention of my mom …. she swatted me and said “You’re not Jesus.” I washed my hands!
Euthanizing children is a moral issue.
Using pharmacological solutions as a quick abortion fix for social failure is a moral issue.
When educators teach it is acceptable to racially discriminate against children, or teach children to judge the worth of others based on their race and ethnicity, it is a moral issue. The CRT idea that white people are socialized into an inherently racist worldview (consciously or unconsciously) but non-whites are not because they have an ability to “see it”, is bizarre, intellectually illegitimate, morally deficient and absurdly dishonest. Did I miss any other descriptors?
The sexualization of children is a moral issue.
Removing parental insight and oversight or not securing informed consent from parents or guardians responsible for a child’s welfare or MAID protocol is a moral issue.
Telling prepubescent and preadolescent children that long-term outcomes are certain, evidence-based and safe is a moral issue. To illustrate, there is extremely limited published research on the impact of chest surgeries on pediatric and young adult population.
In gender dysphoria, medical intervention or gender-reassignment under a surgeon’s scalpel (e.g., phalloplasty, metoidioplasty, vaginoplasty, mastectomy) before in-depth psychotherapy is a moral issue. The same people who do not want to punish young criminals because their minds are still developing, see no absurdities in pushing their gender affirmation dogma and mutilating children’s bodies whose young minds are also still developing, so they can be their ‘real’ sex, instead of their ‘fake’ sex.
Johanna Olson–Kennedy, a pediatrician from Children’s Hospital L.A., believes there should be no minimum age for a double mastectomy. And if a girl should later regret it, her answer: “If you want breasts at a later point in your life, you can go and get them.” Imagine – a real life Josephine Mengele walks among us.
The political and ideological indoctrination of children in Canadian schools is real. The radical social agenda that populates our “sexuality-education” in schools, trumpets queer ‘affirmation only’ theory and denies biological truth, makes it a moral issue.
Pushing on kids “documentation pronouns” where the risk that a person’s biological sex could obscure and miss a patient’s life-saving screenings and procedures is simply a teleological necessity, with a ‘greater good’ triumphing, is a moral issue.
Medical and surgical professionals expecting children to make monumental, irreversible, life-impacting decisions before they are old enough to understand, is a moral issue.
The sexual trafficking of minors is a moral issue.
Adults telling kindergarteners to call their anatomy parts by their proper name, yet preferring to use trivial, innocuous-sounding language for their medical ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ surgical procedures, have lost credibility and any moral high ground. “Top surgery,” a euphemism for a bilateral mastectomy, on children to create a masculine chest is a moral issue.
In Parts One and Two of “The War on Children”, I highlighted the role government policy (Bill 89) medical institutions (MAID; Toronto Sick Kids) and childhood education (School Boards; Queer Theory) are playing in the assault on children. In Part Three we move deeper down the rabbit hole.
All Things Gender
When it comes to gender identity, overwhelmingly the majority of the human population is male or female persons – genetically and biologically. Into this world of male/female are a small number of babies born who are intersex, where biologically they have ambiguous genitalia so that their reproductive abnormalities do not seem to fit typical definitions of male/female. In Klinefelter Syndrome for example, males have one extra X chromosome (47 XXY). Interestingly, even the Intersex Society of North America) (isna.org/faq/third-gender) does not endorse DSD (Disorders of Sexual Development) as a third sex.
Being Intersex however should not be confused with Transgenderism, Non-Binary or Gender Dysphoria (GD). While a transgender person has a gender identity that differs from their biological sex at birth, a non-binary individual asserts that there are more than two definitions (male/female) of a single thing. Chelsie Reed, author of Sexpert: Desire, Passion, Sensations, Intimacy, and Orgasm to Indulge in Your Best Sex Life, writes unperceptively:
“Gender identity is a social construct of what we think is masculine or feminine and where we think we fit in those categories. Gender identity does not have to be connected to our bodies, it is more about how we feel we fit in our community and society as a whole.”
In Canada 0.2% of the population aged 18 and older identified as transgender and 0.14% non-binary in a 2021 census.
While ideological trends are creating groups that try to cancel out sexual differences, thankfully no barriers need exist between Christ and another person,
regardless of gender.
Gender Dysphoria on the other hand is the experience where a person identifies psychologically or emotionally as a male or female … but this identity does not correspond to their biological birth sex. Dysphoria – means to be “unhappy, unsatisfied” and according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the bible on psychiatric disorders, approximately 0.005 to 0.014 percent of adult males in America identified gender dysphoria and about 0.002% to 0.003 percent of adult females. (1)
This incongruity can certainly be a source of deep discomfort, distress and anxiety. I am sympathetic to their angst. Nevertheless, it is still a continuum of feeling and experience …. because biology still dictates the gender! This is why transgender activists and queer theory try to differentiate between sex and gender … because this way, people can be the gender they prefer or feel to be. The “gender options” available out there are mind-boggling. If you feel connected to space - you are Astral-gender; if nature is your thing, think Bio-gender! Should you feel you share qualities with outer space, call yourself Cael-gender. My favorite? Gyra-gender – “Having multiple genders, but understanding none of them.”
Activists will tell us there are male/female only because parents and culture tell us so. So, they argue there is no such thing as universal truth, while trying to convince us that gender fluidity IS a universal truth. Too funny!
What does all of this have to do with the ‘War on Children’? The answer is that gender-identity theory is not science-based teaching, but a dangerous socio-political philosophy that is trying to normalize a mental disorder … and among other things, make puberty a disease. What we have here is a mass experiment on our children, one that wants to convince those with dysphoria that they have a disordered body … and minors should seek out ways to be ‘fixed’ with hormone blockers, testosterone and double mastectomies. (2). Oh, yah – and don’t tell the parents!
Adolescence can be a very troubling stage in life, but now with the passage of Bills C-6 (June, 2017) and C-4 (Jan. 2022) the Canadian Wild West … North … South … and East can be experienced in every hometown. The impact will be profound, and the damage to young bodies on current and future generations irreversible. (3)
Any suggestion that puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or gender reassignment surgery for minors is supported by methodically rigorous long-term studies and has few negative outcomes, is false and pathological.
For the Christian, ground zero for any discussion on gender identity is surely the binary division of Genesis 1:27, where we read … “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” But do not tell that to “Christians for Biblical Equality” (CBE). They maintain that Christendom has laboured under this false understanding for some time … when in fact, there is an intermediate class of folks known as androgynies. I am speechless! So, a birth defect is elevated to the status of normal so they can tear down normal? Wow!!!!!
The intention of God our Creator is that both genetically and biologically, manhood and womanhood, are realities – realities never intended to be severed from biology. You might ask, but what did the folks know about genetics back then? Nothing! However, we DO know that genetics is in harmony with biology – and the writers of the Bible did know about biology. Notice the references to male-child and female-child in the Bible:
Gen. 17:10 - “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, and thy
seed after thee; Every male child among you shall be circumcised.” (KJV)
Some of you might be thinking, yes but in my NIV, ESV, NASB, it says “male” – not male-child. Fair enough! But if you will read further -in context - you will see v. 12 (8 days old) … v. 13 (born in your household). So, I’m not trying to create a straw argument here.
Lev. 12:2 - “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a
male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.” (ESV)
Again – context shows that a baby boy is in mind.
Ex. 1:16 - "When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the
delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it [baby] is
a girl, let her live."
Ketanji Brown Jackson, now a U. S. Supreme Court judge, is unable to define the word “woman.” How do you advocate for women then? Gender activism has morphed into idiocy – Supreme Court justices included!
Before any child was old enough to express any kind of gender identity, preferences or behavior – they fundamentally identified as one of two distinct genders: male or female. And nothing in the Scriptures … or 5,000 years of recorded history shows that a person’s biological sex can change into something else or someone else. On top of this, the overwhelming evidence on gender identity is that there are cognitive differences between men and women which are very real. Cutting off a penis or taking breast-enhancing drugs does not a man or woman make. Gender fluid advocates do not have science in their corner – just foolishness, a commitment to social reconstruction and their own fairy-tale nonsense.
Transgender activists are particularly fond of Matthew 19:12. Jesus is speaking about marriage/divorce and as He does, He seems to have a cultural awareness of what we are dealing with:
"For there are eunuchs who were born that way; and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others -- and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it" (NIV)
To be clear, Jesus is affirming three things here:
a. Design - Three kinds of men who are given to not marry. But there is not a single classical, N.T. or Patristic Greek lexicon that translates eunouchos as a hermaphrodite, androgyne, or any other term related to transgender, intersex or homosexual persons.
b. Creator - The reference to an existing kingdom of heaven
c. Context - Remember, Jesus is addressing marriageability. He is not addressing
eunuchs as a transgender or intersex option … or even as an exception to
maleness/femaleness.
Jesus’s statement in verse 12: “The one who can accept this should accept this” is a repetition of what He said in verse 10 … that not all men can abstain from marriage. However, Jesus is not making reference to trans-gender people … and telling His disciples to “Just get over it”. So, while some men are born without reproductive organs and are incapable of heterosexual reproduction – it has no bearing on whether trans-gender behavioral expressions are acceptable. Sorry, but Jesus does not agree with Lady Gaga.
Cutting off a penis or taking breast-enhancing drugs
does not a man or woman make. There are real cognitive differences between men and women –
put there by our Creator.
I do think that Jesus here has some awareness … consciousness … mindfulness of variance -- that while “some are made eunuchs by men … some are born that way!” Still, and this is important, whatever concept of intersex conditions [in-betweenness] Jesus might have … we should notice that his response is NOT to deconstruct gender or dismiss gender – BUT to reaffirm Creation’s intention between man and woman as God’s blueprint.
Did you know that Feb. 6, 2023 was the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, a violent practice that touches an estimated 200 million women and girls? Wow! I mean, only a Philistine would be tone-deaf to this plight. Yet - closer to home, we promote the same violent practice, but by a different name - ‘gender-affirming’ surgery.
In Canada conversion therapy is illegal. However, after life-altering gender reassignment surgery, hospitals will provide an abundance of services to meet a patients’ psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual needs to mend them. Patients for life sounds profitable!
I am not advocating that believers metaphorically storm the bastille or drive the neo-pagans from the north lands called Canada. But I am placing ‘in-our-face’ public realities – realities that place the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of our children and grandchildren at great risk. Moms and dads need to engage. This war against children is real! It is intentional … destructive … and evil. This ideologically-driven politics of sexuality, under Satan’s influence, has them in the cross-hairs and will not rest until everyone is chanting the same mantra of trash. Pope John Paul II was right when he described our Enlightenment society as a “cult of death”. It is! Only salt (Matthew 5:13) and light (Matthew 5:14) stand a chance against it!
For Christians it is easy to slip into conflict avoidance, preferring to (a) embrace that all-too-familiar quietist interpretation of Romans 13 where Paul says to submit to the powers that be ... or (b) cite Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:39 where He talks about not “resisting an evil person” but turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39). Is this really what Jesus had in mind? Are believers to quietly pray, but not picket? Should Caesar be allowed to do what Caesar has always done – impose his values and tell us what we will do and when ... with no right to non-violent disobedience that resists phony, politically-charged talking-points? To believe this – is to be mistaken because if Matthew 5 forbids any form of resistance, then Jesus Himself contradicted His own teaching.
In an intense act of civil disobedience Jesus aggressively resisted the money changers in the outer courts of the Temple (Matthew 11:15-17). Flipping tables around the place (in the temple area no less) seems dramatic – don’t you think? Exploiting the poor is a moral issue.
How about the soldier who whacked Jesus across the face (John 18:19-24)? This was not protocol! Jesus certainly protested this ‘police brutality,’ calling out the hypocrisy of the high priest and non-violently challenging His accusers to provide evidence for their allegations. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” says v. 22. I was reminded that people will often avoid responding to the substance of a good argument by criticizing someone’s tone. It’s a great ploy, but Jesus does not fall for it.
Then there is Jesus’ hair-raising language in Matthew 23 where He calls out the Pharisees (does it matter whether they are religious leaders or politicians?). You gotta love the pictures He paints: hypocrites (6x), blind guides, blind fools, a nest of vipers – and all very public, I might add. Precisely WHAT had they neglected? Jesus says, “The more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.” Moral issues indeed.
The example and actions of Jesus belie the idea that confronting evil demands a quietist interpretation. I could make the same point using the apostle Paul who protested frequently when government edits demanded loyalty to it, not Jesus and His kingdom. We can respect government, even bad government, but when secular forces push us to act in opposition to the values of the kingdom, we must respectfully decline.
Once you substitute clear thinking and biblical truth
for beliefs that make people feel good,
it’s all downhill after that.
If the frightening details of this 3-part series “The War on Children” all seem like an imagined Grimm Brothers fairy-tale, it is not. If anything, it is more ̶ a Robert Browning Pied Piper legend come true, where people politely march forward to the sound of a soothing recruiter and ultimately just vanish. Is this what we wish for our children – that they just vanish?
Vanish from a childhood that should be filled with making mud pies and riding dirt bikes, not undergoing ‘top’ surgery;
Vanish from a childhood that should be safe, nurturing and affirming, not one that pushes adult predatory fantasies and sees children as a means to an ideological end;
Vanish from a childhood that should be developing their minds and social-emotional capabilities, through healthy play, literature, and exploration, not littering their young paths with hyper-sexualized books in libraries or confusing transgender distortions based on ‘feelings.’
“Where have all the prophets gone?
Long time passing.
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?”
Jesus once said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe [curse] to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.”
Jesus takes the violation of childhood innocence extremely seriously. Christian parents need to see the threat against their children, in the same way and get involved. We cannot sleep-walk into the future, saying “We did not know.” A child’s innocence needs to be protected! “OnlySaying…”
(1) The American Psychiatric Association (APA) bible is the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is the manual used by clinicians and researchers to diagnose and classify mental disorders. In 2013, with the release of DSM-5, the diagnostic label Gender Identity Disorder (GID) was reclassified as Gender Dysphoria.
Then, in May (15th) of 2019, the U.N’s World Health Organization changed the classification of transgender in its diagnostic manual – saying it is no longer a mental or behavioural disorder. They wanted to remove the “stigma” (their words) associated with the term disorder.
OK, so why then does the APA still refer to Addiction … Binge Eating (BED) … Gambling, Sleep … and Hoarding as disorders? Are there not stigmas associated with these as well?
(2)Google the child-friendly cartoon called ‘The Genderbread Person’ (later “The Gender Unicorn”). It was developed for the purpose of teaching elementary children to move away from the either/or of gender and sexual orientation categories.
(3) Lisa Littman published a peer-reviewed detransitioner study (Littman, 2021) where over 40% noted online influence encouraged them to believe transitioning would help them. [See “Individuals Treated for Gender Dysphoria with Medical and/or Surgical Transition who Subsequently Detransitioned: A Survey of 100 Detransitioners.”]
(4) At the private American School of London (ASL) in the U.K., a chart (“The Check-Your- Privilege Chart) is given to children so they can audit their 'privilege' and 'victimhood'. Coming soon to a school near you.
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