It's Thursday, October 10, 2024. I'm Albert Moeller and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Well, one of the things that makes our time different than virtually any age before is that we now see these giant storms coming. we actually see them forming. We have satellite images, we have all kinds of radar images, and we have the maps and the computer modeling that tells us not only what is happening but what is likely to happen. And that's why for days we have been watching after Hurricane Helene and its devastation, we've been watching Hurricane Milton as it was forming out in the very warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and now headed directly for the Gulf Coast of Florida. And as we know, the forecast was pretty firm just going into even the last two or three days about what was likely to be the direction of the storm, the general area of the impact of the harshest part of the storm, and the severity of the storm itself. And we are talking about a remarkable storm. It went from one to four and then to five on the Saffir-Simpson scale of the severity and strength of hurricanes. And the forecaster said that the storm would likely hit the Tampa Bay area and it would likely hit as a category three storm. But as I'm recording right now, it is too early to know exactly how the storm has progressed across its own path and just exactly what has happened. But we do know this is a storm that was expected. It was indeed predicted to have catastrophic impacts, and thus our hearts are with the people. They're in Central Florida, all the way from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast. One of the remarkable sentences about Hurricane Milton is that it was expected to hit the West Coast of Florida as a Category 3 hurricane, and it was expected to exit the East Coast of Florida still as a hurricane. That would in itself set it apart as a very historic and indeed catastrophic storm. So we're going to be following this, but right now our hearts are with the people there in Florida and with all who are trying to help. We are very thankful for first responders. We're thankful for the technology, frankly, because without this technology, these storms would come out of nowhere with an even deadlier impact. We also, of course, are looking at all kinds of questions about human nature, the response to this kind of news, even when the deadliness of the storm is predicted. And this is especially true for some, for instance, who decided to stay on boats in Tampa Bay. And you look at this and you say that is absolute madness. But we are looking at a phenomenon that, though very eccentric, does not shock us because it happens just about every time. some storm like this comes upon us. One Christian observation about this, Christian worldview observation about this, is that when we think about the role of government, we think very often, especially as conservatives, we think of government primarily as a threat because the larger government gets, the more it intrudes within our lives. But at the same time, as Christians we know, there is a proper role for government. And that's very clear as you look at the succession of governmental texts, say, in the Old Testament, but especially in a text like Romans 13, which is clearly addressed to Christians, and not just to Christians anywhere, but first of all to Christians right there at the center of the Roman Empire in Rome. fully authoritative for all Christians everywhere throughout time till Jesus comes. But the point is that in times like this, you recognize that we do need a government, and we need a government for a couple of reasons. Number one, we need a government to be able to respond to this kind of giant, comprehensive disaster with something that's bigger than what we can do at the level of our family or extended kin or our neighborhood, or even, say, what our church can do. There's going to be a role for family and for kindred structure and for neighborhoods and, of course, for churches. But when it comes down to the giant questions like, say, building highways and bridges and when you're talking about water systems and sewer systems and you're talking about health care systems and all the rest, there's simply no way for that to happen without a government that serves for the cause of human flourishing. So we need to pray for all concerned. We are talking about a matter of life and death, but we're also talking about many dimensions of how the Christian worldview leads us to think about some of these things at a level deeper than just what's the latest headline. Okay, as we look at some other fronts as we are thinking about today and the days ahead, we have been tracking for years, frankly, the story of Jack Phillips, the baker there in Colorado who has been made, well, let's just say accidentally famous because of the efforts taken against him and his bakery when you had different governments taking actions that would have coerced him against his Christian conscience to use his artistic ability against his convictions. Indeed, his conviction about the sinfulness of homosexuality, the wrongness of homosexuality and homosexual relationships, and the rightness of marriage as a union of a man and a woman, which is to say he wants to make wedding cakes that are consistent with his convictions, which, after all, does require an artistic expression. So it's not just, say, putting words on a marquee or a sign out front. This is about artistic expression, and he is an artistic baker. And, well, you've had at least some victories, but, you know, here's where we just need to recognize that even as you had Jack Phillips basically escape from the clutches of the progressivists earlier in some developments, the other side just doesn't give up. Activists were on him the very first day they could be at him on the issue of making claims of discrimination. And just recently what happened in the case of Jack Phillips is that Colorado's Supreme Court Tuesday of this week dismissed a lawsuit against him, a lawsuit brought by a transgender woman, but it was dismissed on procedural grounds. That is to say it was in one sense misfiled at the wrong level of court. There are other issues that pertain here, but what's really interesting is that at least one of the judges on the Supreme Court who was dissenting from dismissing the case on procedural grounds Well, he came back saying that it gave Phillips, that is the Baker quote, a procedural pass. So you'll notice that it is not just liberal activists, it is also liberal judges who are a huge problem here. And before we leave the case of Jack Phillips, because I promise you, one way or another, I'm afraid you're going to see another case filed, and then another case filed, and then another case filed. Especially when it's thrown out, a case is thrown out for procedural grounds, someone learns from that and comes back and refiles it in a different way. And this is just a warning to all Christians everywhere. Those who are pushing for the leftist movement in this society, the unraveling of creation order, and the absolute celebration of the LGBTQ movement, all related identities, relationships, etc., they're not going to rest until you say you agree with them. That is exactly what they are pressing. This is why Christians have to know we can't do that. And we can't do that, and even as we can't, we know that we may pay a price for not doing that. And this is where it's absolutely right to push back. And this is why I'm thankful we have groups, organizations, institutions that will defend Christians and others in the public square and, frankly, make a specialization of that. And with a lot of legal firepower, I'm very thankful. But at the end of the day, it is just a sobering reminder of the fact that the other side doesn't take no for an answer. And we see that right now in the issue of abortion, but we see it across the board. on the LGBTQ revolution as well. And here's where we need to recognize it's not just a problem in the United States. I want to turn to a development that has recently taken place in Europe, where the European Union has now been ordered to recognize gender identity changes. As the New York Times reports, quote, the European Union's top court on Friday of last week said governments in the bloc, B-L-O-C, that means the group, must recognize legal changes to a person's gender identity and name made in other EU nations, a milestone ruling that rights campaigners say will give transgender people more freedom to live and work around the region, end quote. This decision was handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union And it was because a man who had citizenship in both Britain and Romania was identified as transgender and, quote, challenged a decision by a local civil record authority in a Bucharest court. That Romanian court had rejected the man's application to change his gender identity on official documents, but because another EU country had approved it, Well, now you have this court saying that every member state in the European Union must extend full recognition when there is a non-binary or transgender new identity. Now, you look at that and you say, well, that's very European. I mean, that sounds about right when you consider the progressivism and the secularization that has taken place in Europe. And on so many of these trends, you have seen Europe ahead of the United States, but you understand this is exactly parallel to some of the things going on, at least in the strategy of LGBTQ groups here in the United States. Now, we have a federal system. We are a nation of 50 states. We're not a union of independent states, although There are huge questions about just how independent many European nations now are. I mean, they are just now redefining marriage effectively in Romania by this ruling. But you know, there's some huge issues at stake here. For one thing, you have the Christian principle of subsidiarity. And I bring it up from time to time because it's just absolutely necessary to understanding what's going on here. That Christian understanding of subsidiarity reminds us that the greatest truth and authority exists at the most basic unit. And it worked both ways. So it works fundamentally by saying that, for instance, if something's healthy at the level of the family, it is likely to lead to healthy neighborhoods. And healthy neighborhoods will lead to healthy communities, and healthy communities can lead to, say, healthy states, or healthy regions, or provinces, and healthy provinces can lead to healthy countries. But the Christian worldview reminds us that it works the other way as well. If you have a family that is not healthy, you're not going to have a neighborhood that is healthy, or at least if a sufficient number of those families in the neighborhood aren't healthy, the unhealth goes up, and then the unhealth goes up to the next level, and then the unhealth goes up to the next level. Now, there's even more to that Christian understanding of subsidiarity. It also has to do with authority. So, for instance, take a child. What is the right proper authority over the child? It's not the President of the United States. It's certainly not the Secretary General of the United Nations. It is mom and dad. And so that subsidiarity says that the greatest authority and the greatest health subsides. That's why it's called the doctrine of subsidiarity is because it subsides at the most basic unit. The greatest subsidy is in the most basic unit. And so now you're looking at the European Union. Now, the European Union is an abstraction. I'm not saying it's not real. I am saying that it's a union, supposedly, of all of these European nations that have joined it. But you know what? They still speak different languages and they still have different customs. And by the way, given the Schengen Agreement, as it was known, they would have a common passport and you were not to have to go through passport control going from EU country to EU country. But you know what? The very real threat of terrorism has put an end to that, also human trafficking. And so many nations are now going to be redefining that Schengen Agreement, so you better keep that passport handy in Europe. But it's just an indication of the fact that, and by the way, the EU is not the USA. And so we're not talking about a federal government, we're talking about a union, which is a partial union. But you know what? You have to ask the question, are many of the countries going to stay in the EU if they're told you have to toe the line when it comes to transgender identity? If it's recognized in one country, you have to recognize it in your country? Well, let's just say Romania and Hungary and Poland are in a different situation than some of the more liberal nations in Europe. And by the way, this parallels the fact that they are among the less secular of the European nations as well. Now, we're also not talking about something that's just an easy overlay, because I'm not saying there are no liberals in the countries of Hungary or Romania or Poland. But say in Poland, you have abortion laws that are quite a bit more restrictive than what you have in the rest of Europe. How long is it until the EU or some EU court says you can't do that anymore? So it's going to be very interesting to see where this goes. But I raise it not just because it's interesting, but because it really does illustrate what happens when you have these kind of international courts that are ruling on something as basic as personal identity and gender, sex, and marriage in the family. And we recognize there's going to be no way that there won't be those who try to do the very same thing here in the United States. And it's not just what might happen at a federal level here in the United States. It is that there are those on the left in the United States who want us as a nation to be a part of these kinds of international tribunals and accountable to them. And this is just another illustration of why we must do whatever it takes to make sure that does not happen. Well, all right, now let's just next look at the transgender issue in terms of American teenagers with the new story. The New York Times was hot on the story. Azeem Garashi of the New York Times tells us that three percent of American high schoolers identify as transgender, and the headline tells us this is a finding of the first national survey. As the reporter tells us, quote, about 3.3 percent of high school students identify as transgender and another 2.2 percent are questioning their gender identity, according to the first nationally representative survey of these groups published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. So that's Tuesday of this week. It's our federal government, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and there is the estimation that in this first massive study, about 3.3% of high school teenagers identify as transgender, and another 2.2% are, we are told, questioning their gender identity. Now, you can do the math. 3.3 plus 2.2 equals 5.5. And so we're told that roughly 5.5 out of 100 teenagers is identifying as either transgender or as questioning their gender identity. Now, the study also tells us that, quote, transgender and gender questioning teenagers reported alarmingly higher rates of bullying at school, persistent sadness and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, according to the survey. Now, I just want to stop there for a moment, and I want to work backwards, because I think we're all brokenhearted to know about this reality. And the number is interesting, but frankly, the tragedy is bigger than the number. And we are looking here at teenagers who are reporting being bullied, persistent sadness, suicidal thoughts and behavior. So let's just bracket for a moment, that is to say, set aside conceptually just for a moment the transgender non-binary issue. and understand that these are teenagers who are in deep distress, and that should concern us all. But here's what we need to notice in worldview analysis, what the world's doing with this. And so this article, the CDC report, all the rest, it is going to be used, and indeed in this article, basically being used to say that if you do not celebrate the transgender non-binary revolution, and if you're not willing to celebrate it when it comes to the children and teenagers you know, then you are the problem and you are the cause of this psychological distress and depression, persistent sadness, suicidal thoughts and behaviors. And, you know, our worldview says that, well, that kind of thing could surely happen, and we want to understand that. But we are looking at the truth of the situation, which we cannot deny. We're looking at God's gift of gender. We're looking at a biblical understanding. And we actually believe that if you try to subvert or deny that, that is going to lead to persistent sadness and to depression and to suicidal thoughts and behavior. So we really are looking at a clash of worldviews here. And what is common to all in this clash of worldviews is the fact that we genuinely are concerned for these young people and want to help them to get over this distress. But we're in absolute opposite positions in understanding why there is such distress. It is, on the one hand, the LGBTQ activists would say, because conservatives, and in particular Christian conservatives, won't go along with the revolution and just applaud and affirm transgender and non-binary identity. And, of course, we as Christians have to say, well, you know, we believe what we're doing is affirming these young people by affirming creation order and affirming their place in creation order. and their beauty and their worth and their dignity by the Creator's design. And we're trying to help them to find wholeness, at least in terms of their identity, by understanding that they are who God made them to be. And obviously, we want to confront them with the gospel, but we also want to confront them with the good news that they in themselves represent the glory of God in creation and in creation order. And we believe the cause of the distress is those who want to undo creation order. And we would see the evidence of what that leads to in terms of all the unhappiness experienced by these teenagers. One other thing comes up, and this is also clear, and that is there's an imbalance in terms of the number of young people going one direction or the other in terms of their assertion of identity. But it's also really clear that particularly among female young people, among girls and young women, there is at least some phenomenon of social contagion, which is to say the numbers begin to look, well, like they're following a pattern where an increased number of young women or girls identifying as non-binary or transgender actually leads to an even bigger number of adolescent girls reporting the same thing. By the way, the LA Times, I'm sure that's not a coincidence given the way the coastal regions of the United States are in so many ways generally more progressivist than the inland country. You have a man who is writing an article for the Los Angeles Times entitled, Why Adults Shouldn't Worry When Kids Are Gender Non-Conforming. And here's a man who writes about having lunch or brunch with his old friend Dan, and as he tells us, halfway through his breakfast burrito, he casually mentioned that his youngest child has started identifying as non-binary. The author says, I'd known Brady, that is the child, since early childhood, and they, there comes the pronoun, had always known their own mind and been unafraid to speak it. That they were owning their identity with such ease, bypassing the decades of confusion I went through before realizing I was trans, felt like cause for celebration. But now you realize all of a sudden that this is a writer who identifies as trans and writing about young people identifying as trans or non-binary. And again, the worldview collision comes down as to whether or not you see this as good news of self-expression or very sad news of defiance of creation order. Later in the article, this particular trans writer speaks of this contagion I mentioned, of the fact that there is influence, clearly social influence and social pressure in the lives of many teenagers in particular, teenage girls on this issue. And he says, when you see these kinds of groups, they are formed for safety and support. And then this line, quote, this isn't social contagion, it's solidarity, end quote. Oh, wow. Well, here we're looking at a biblical pattern that when sinners, and I don't use that as a term just to dismiss them. I mean, this is evidence of human sin, revolt against creation order. And when you look at this, you realize that what sinners want is the fellowship of fellow sinners. And one of the things that's being demanded of us in the LGBTQ revolution, especially in the T in the non-binary part, is we are being asked to go along with someone's assertion that we know not to be true. And so we are really looking at a problem. You can understand why if you have a social group of support that says, look, we will say what you want us to say. No wonder you have the development of these kinds of cliques and other groups for, quote, solidarity. As we come to a conclusion for today on this issue, I want to mention that there was a front page story in The New York Times about the presidential campaign as related to at least in part the transgender issue. And I just want to say the bottom line in all of that is that guess what? Guess what? Americans aren't as ready to, say, move ahead with policy procedure and even public affirmation with the transgender agenda in the same way that they so quickly folded, at least large parts of our society folded, on the issue of, say, the L, the G, and the B. And I think it is because when you're looking at the defiance against creation order, the T is in a category all into itself. The transgender non-binary is in a category all into itself. And one of the things I want us to think about in days ahead, we'll have opportunity, what is being demanded of us is this giant exercise in mutual self-delusion. And, you know, you can find it quite comfortable to join this mass exercise in mutual self-delusion, because we get all kinds of affirmation. The liberal media will love us. You know, many people who are activists in our community will say, we finally saw the light and joined the right side. But this is where we as Christians can't see this merely as an issue. I just want to end today on this issue by saying we have to see all the human beings involved in this as individuals who are persons made in the image of God. Made male or female for God's glory. And so we can't join this kind of contagion in the sense of celebrating a revolt against creation order here, not because we just are in principle against revolting against creation order. We are. But it is because we do not believe that will lead to human happiness, but to incredible human sadness and indeed even tragedy. So maybe even thinking about this today will lead you to pray for a young person you know who may be struggling with some of these issues. And we pray for them that they will come to know the glory of God and the glorious purpose of God in their lives in such a way that they understand that they are not an accident and that God has a purpose for them. And that purpose is reflected even in how he made them. As we're praying, we'll continue to pray for the folks in Florida. and we'll be watching these developments together. Thanks for listening to The Briefing. For more information, go to my website at albertmohler.com. You can follow me on Twitter or X by going to twitter.com forward slash albertmohler. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu. For information on Boyce College, just go to boycecollege.com. I'll meet you again tomorrow for The Briefing.