The affirmation of denial. . .

As I was driving in my car, a radio report spoke of a governmental entity (I did not hear which) that was considering the denial of gender affirming treatment to be the equivalent of child abuse and itself the cause for the removal of children from their home and from the care of their parents.  It is certainly not the first we have heard of such things nor will it be the last.  Though the UK and other nations have scaled back the intervention of this kind in the life of a child, those in charge of media and government in the US have continued to march forward in the cause of forcing parents to consent to the gender whims of their young children.  That is itself a shock but not a jolt that comes out of the blue.

The whole name of this -- gender affirmation -- is itself a contradiction of  terms.  This does not affirm anything except the curiosity or whim expressed by a child that in any other generation would not even be thinking or talking about such things.  In our age, it has become the sacred truth that has no basis in fact or history but dare not be refused.  No matter that statistic after statistic refutes the idea that such gender affirming care reduces the rate of suicide (contemplated or attempted), those who are intent upon this path have replaced truth with feeling and, not in the least, with guilt upon those who would dare to deny what they believe is obvious.

Performing transgender surgeries, providing hormone-based transgender therapies, providing puberty blockers to children under the auspices of so-called “gender-affirming care is neither good medicine nor is it good for the mental health of the children.  Parents, placed in the difficult position of being both guilted into such treatment and bullied by the media, educational systems, and government, are put in the crosshairs of such false truths.  If they will not say it, we must.  Gender affirmation is child abuse.  Gender dysphoria among adults will be treated as they, their insurers, and their rights of majority age allow but in children it is the cruelest of abuse to rob them of their childhood, cut away reproductive organs, and use hormones to prevent their ordinary development -- among those who are least equipped to know the difference between feeling and truth, whim and reason.

What is even worse is that some churchly institutions (of higher education, medicine, and counseling) are actually doing the dirty work of this abuse.  The largest Catholic health system in the United States, CommonSpirit Health, is violating their own Roman Catholic moral teaching and identity is performing just that -- doing the transgender surgeries, providing hormone-based transgender therapies, prescribing puberty blockers to prepubescent children and then is actually financially subsidizing the same through its own employee benefits packages.  They are surely not alone.  How many faith based organizations are also financially subsidizing medical institutions and these procedures and therapies, providing all forms of modern contraception (including abortifacients), performing elective abortions, and doing surgical sterilizations?  My guess is close to 100%.  What do you think?

This does not affirm anything but denies the basic truth of Scripture, the common witness of Christian tradition, and the doctrine we have believed, taught, and confessed in the Name of Christ since the earliest days of Christianity.  This is the affirmation of denial and while we might not be in a position to make it stop on the level of the media, we can certainly control our educational, medical, and counseling institutions so that we are not complicit in this.  Rome has a larger stake in this pie than the Lutherans but all of us together owe our Lord and His people transparency and honesty in this regard so that Christians know where their institutions stand.  Caveat emptor.