“Gender Ideology Harms Children,” Says Pediatric Organization

They urge “educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts—not ideology—determine reality.” They go on to give eight reasons why gender ideology harms children. They argue that conditioning children to accept that being transgender is normal and healthy is “child abuse” and that “a person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking.”

Gender ideology does harm children because it teaches them something that goes completely against God’s good design. Beginning in Genesis, we know that God created “male and female” (Genesis 1:27) and that design was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Now in our sin-cursed and fallen world (Genesis 3), some people struggle with their maleness or femaleness, and these people need compassion and love. But this does not mean that we should reject God’s design and simply do what feels right. Emotions—however strong—do not replace the absolute truth of God’s Word. It is God’s Word that must serve as the starting point for our thinking as we lovingly come alongside others and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

We need to be proactive in teaching our children to start their thinking with God’s Word. The secular world is growing increasingly aggressive in promoting an ethic where everyone does what’s right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25); many young people, even those in the church, are being drawn into this kind of thinking. We need to point our children continually to God’s Word as the firm foundation for determining morality. We can’t simply do what’s right in our own eyes—we are accountable to our Creator!

And we also often need to be reminded of the good news of the gospel. Transgender individuals—like all of us—need to hear this good news. They need to know that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), but that “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21) in order that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.