Why do secularists push so hard for LGBTQ-themed books in school libraries, drag queen story hours, and LGBTQ characters in children’s content? Because they know that stories influence children, and they want to capture the minds of the next generation. And a new study confirms that, yes, these stories do what they’re intended to do.
The study involved children ages 5–6 and 9–10. The kids were divided into three groups: a control group that viewed no video, a group that watched a story about a transgender-identifying individual named Jazz, and a group that watched a video about a crayon that was red on the outside but blue on the inside. They wanted to see if watching these stories changed children’s views on “gender essentialism,” which is defined by the Oxford Reference dictionary as “the belief that males and females are born with distinctively different natures, determined biologically rather than culturally.” And what did they find?
The study found that children who had viewed the “Jazz video” consequently had “(a) greater understanding of transgender identities and (b) no overall differences in gender essentialism, but (c) lower gender essentialism on three specific measures (gender immutability, innate toy behaviours and innate preferences).”
In other words, the personal story made a difference in the children’s views (interestingly, the more abstract story about the crayon had no such effect). That’s why LGBTQ activists push for LGBTQ content and characters everywhere—they want to influence as many children as possible because, on their own, children understand there are two genders: male and female. But children can be easily confused and guided in a dangerous direction.
Now, I don’t often agree with vehement atheist Bill Maher, but I do agree with his recent statement about LGBTQ indoctrination:
[Children will] believe anything and just want to please grown-ups, and they don’t have any frame of reference, so they normalize what is happening. That’s why endlessly talking about gender to six-year-olds isn’t just inappropriate, it’s what the law would call entrapment, which means enticing people into doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do.
Yes, this is entrapment—and it’s hurting children of all ages, planting seeds of confusion about who they are and what their identity is. The result is sky-rocketing rates of gender confusion and scores of children becoming patients for life on the highway of gender hormones, surgeries, and interventions. It’s a war on children, which is part of the war on the family. Satan knows the family is the first and most fundamental of all human institutions God ordained. It is the backbone of the culture. It is the education unit God uses to pass on a spiritual legacy and impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ.
So what can Christian parents do? Well, children are always going to be exposed to stories—especially as our world continues to push those sorts of stories into the limelight. Children need to learn to interpret those stories through the lens of the Word of God (starting in Genesis—the foundation for marriage, sexuality, and gender).
Children need to learn to interpret those stories through the lens of the Word of God (starting in Genesis—the foundation for marriage, sexuality, and gender).
They need to be taught that they can’t trust their feelings—our hearts are sick and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). We can’t trust the feelings that pour forth from them; rather, we’re commanded to guard our hearts (see Proverbs 4:23). So instead of living life by how we feel or by how a particular story makes us feel, we live our lives by the truth of God’s Word, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
That’s a vital skill we need to be teaching the next generation so they won’t get sucked into the destructive ideologies of our day.
This item was discussed Monday on Answers News with cohosts Roger Patterson, Dr. Marisa Tillery, and Avery Foley. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum, broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel, and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:
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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken
This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.
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