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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 09 December 2024

Does it amaze you as it does me, that in a generation, rainbow flags have become globally ubiquitous, that the LGBTQ+ movement is now visible in every subsection of society, including religion?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #182 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

In a few earlier podcasts, I’ve addressed what was once called Gay and is now called the LGBTQ+ movement, Pride month, and related issues like same-sex marriage.

Pride month, not just a day but an entire month, suddenly declared as a national if not global time of obeisance to immorality is particularly egregious because it is visual, “Out, Loud, and Proud” as proponents say, in your face.

In June, nearly nude people parade about on city streets wearing. chains, leather, animal fur, or artificial, exaggerated anatomical parts. This is not pride but perversion. It is not freedom. It is enslavement, bacchanalia, debauchery.

Add Drag Queen, people who now openly chant, “We’re coming for your children,” and you get human debasement on a level with anything you’ve read about in ancient pagan civilizations. Sodom and Gomorrah would feel right at home.

One highly successful marketing and messaging tool developed by the LGBTQ+ movement is the now near-ubiquitous rainbow flag.

The rainbow flag, also known as the gay pride flag or LGBTQ pride flag, is now a globally recognized symbol representing LGBTQ outward identity, support, and “pride.” The original creator of the pride flag is Gilbert Baker, a gay artist who wanted to make a proud statement through a symbol showing diversity. He believed that the rainbow was ideal because it is found in nature. The original gay pride flags flew at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade celebration on June 25, 1978.

The initial rainbow flag had eight colors, including pink to represent sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit. Today, the original colors remain except for pink and turquoise.

“On June 26, 2015, the White House was illuminated in the rainbow flag colors to commemorate the legalization of same-sex marriages in all 50 U.S. states, following the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision.” This was the Obama Administration virtue signaling.

In recent years, in the name of “inclusion,” the rainbow flag has been updated and redesigned repeatedly to represent the intersectional diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQIA2-S) communities, progress, and social justice pride.

Christian apologist and social critique Os Guinness observed, “as Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote in The Brothers Karamazov, if God is dead, everything is permitted. You can be as free as you desire to be. The only limits are the limits of your own thinking.”

Dostoevsky was half right. If God is dead, everything is indeed permitted but you are decidedly not free.In his 2024 book, Our Civilizational Moment: the Waning of the West and the War of the Worlds,Guinness goes on to say, “For Jews and Christians, the rainbow is the symbol of a divine promise–God's covenanted promise originally given to Noah after the flood as the sign of God's commitment to his creation (Gen. 9:8-17).

Whatever humanity does, the rainbow is the reminder that God will keep faith with humanity. God's faithfulness will overshadow the worst that humanity can ever do. 

For the sexual revolution, on the other hand, the rainbow stands quite literally as the symbol of Pride. It stands for the revolution and its stated objective of repudiating the Jewish and Christian understanding of the created order.”“Which understanding of the symbol is to prevail? The rainbow as a reminder of God's promise? Or the rainbow as the assertion of human pride? The recent explosion of LGBTQ rainbows across the world is a deliberate inversion of its biblical and centuries–long meaning and a massive statement of where the West is today.”

Ostensibly Christian enterprise “Sojourners” website publishes articles like “How the Pride Flag Speaks to the Promises of God” by an author who says he is a Christian and a gay man.

There is a long and growing list of Protestant churches that reject traditional biblical teaching as they embrace and promote LGBTQ+ lifestyles.

Some Christian colleges and universities now allow or embrace LGBTQ+ students and, for some, staff as well, what’s sometimes called “gay-friendly campuses.” 

Christian colleges and universities are currently under enormous pressure and some are changing their view of LBTQ+ matters because they’ve concluded they will lose financial support if they do not, or they will be scrutinized by accrediting agencies, or they have recalibrated their doctrinal views.

Meanwhile, the Word of God has not changed:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27).

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

In Leviticus 20, God lists several sexual sins, not just homosexual sins but several heterosexual sins. In God’s eyes, sexual sin is sexual sin. He is not singling out or somehow condemning only those engaged in homosexuality.

For example, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death” (Lev. 20:10).

And then also, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Lev. 18:22).

Or this, “If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them” (Lev. 20:15-16).

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says, “For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men” (Rom. 1:26-27).

“Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7).

While Christians assume different positions regarding LGBTQ+, in my understanding of the plain English of the Scripture, these sexual behaviors are matters of choice, they are individual and thus personal responsibility, they are spiritual rebellion, not mental illness. I, therefore, cannot embrace or promote heterosexual sin nor LGBTQ+ sin, but I offer these observations:

• Teaching biblical doctrines of sin, or specifically not condoning same-sex relationships, is not ipso factohomophobia, insensitive, or intolerant. Such teaching could be presented in unloving, condemning ways but need not be. God defines sin but always offers love, forgiveness, redemption, and hope. Understanding the chains of darkness, no matter what the sin, is the first step toward understanding the liberty of light.

• There is no biblical or logical justification for bigotry, hatred, gay bashing, bullying, or violence toward LGBTQ+ individuals. None. No room for tearing down rainbow flags that do not belong to us. Such acts are expressions of fear, not love and not faith. 

• Christians should support LGBTQ+ people in their civil liberties and civil rights as Americans, not special rights but constitutional rights.

• Christians should avoid labeling people because labels can imply the existence of unalterable conditions. No sin, other than the ultimate and final rejection of Christ, is an unpardonable sin or an unalterable condition. In my view, LGBTQ+ persons are not defined by their sexual orientation or behavior. Consequently, rather than call someone lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender I’d rather say a person has chosen to express his or her sexuality in these ways. The Spirit of God always offers and can enable another Way.

While I cannot endorse LGBTQ+ moral choices and while I reject the perversion of the rainbow’s divine message, I recognize that each person is made in the image of God, that God loves them, and that Christ died for them as he did for me. 

“Those people” are not our enemy.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. Or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers for more podcasts and video.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2024     

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers or https://x.com/RexMRogers.

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 19 June 2023

Perhaps you have wanted to share your convictions about June Pride issues but were hesitant to speak because traditional Judeo-Christian values are no longer welcome.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #92 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

One of the things I’ve felt about June Pride month, or rather all the issues that designation implies, is that Christians, or conservatives, two groups that overlap but are not the same, don’t seem to know how to respond or address these matters. 

The Gay Rights—later LGBTQ+—Movement has gotten the upper hand in public discourse. Their messaging is better, winning the war for public opinion.

Since 1969, the date of the Stonewall Riots at a nightclub in New York City, an event generally regarded as the genesis of the LGBTQ+ Movement, activists and advocates of this sexual liberation philosophy have marketed, promoted, and politicked their social-political message with astounding success.

At first, their strategy took on culture, then later legal and political status, resulting in an unprecedented moral acceptance, or at least acquiescence, among the majority of the American public.

Representatives of the LGBTQ+ Movement constantly claim they are victims, are not accepted or affirmed, are in danger of violence, and much more, yet the Movement possesses documentable momentum in entertainment, academia, sports, business, and religion. No sector of American society has been left untouched or even allowed to sit quietly on the sideline.

In 1978, the Rainbow Flag was first used in a Gay Pride parade.

1979 – the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

1980 – American Psychiatric Association added “gender identity disorder” to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

1993 – “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” via Bill Clinton, allowing Gays to serve in military. This law was repealed under President Obama in 2011.

2013 – American Psychiatric Association changed “gender identity disorder” to a non-negative “gender dysphoria.”

2015 – Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 US 644 (2015), same sex marriage allowed by SCOTUS.

2021 – 2023 – The Biden Administration made sexual orientation and gender identity, one of its most prominent, oft-referenced issues, advocating for advancing the LGBTQ+ Movement in virtually every corner of American life.

By 2023 – Some 22 states passed laws protecting women and girls’ sports by limiting participation to biologically determined female athletes, thus banning transgender students from participating. These laws are consistently referred to by media and online not as protecting women and girls but as “anti-trans” and thus discriminatory or even bigoted or hate legislation.

Things can and will get worse. Who would have predicted that the Los Angeles Dodgers would honor an anti-Catholic hate group of Drag Queen “Nuns” called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence as part of a “Pride Night” celebration? In doing this, the Dodgers not only exalt a perverted group, the Dodgers also attack Christianity.

The LGBTQ+ Movement continues to log one success after another in its push for social revolution affirming their views. Why?

Why have American institutions and the public so rapidly embraced the amoral and immoral views of the LGBTQ+ Movement, making them a virtual new cult religion in America?

The answer is in part because the Movement’s messaging tactics have been strategically, consistently, ruthlessly, and sad to say effectively pursued. The Movement

1)   changes or hijacks the meaning of words. Word definitions are considered fluid, are weaponized, and leveraged against those who disagree.

2)   demands its vocabulary be used in media or even by those who disagree such that when others do this, they’ve already conceded the argument. For example, being expected to use gender identity pronouns for trans individuals that do not align with their biological birth sex.

3)   argues all criticisms or critiques are rooted in transphobia and are ipso facto intolerant, bigoted, hateful. 

4)   demands its views not just be allowed or tolerated but saluted, celebrated. 

5)   recognizes no truth but its own ever-changing “truth.”

6)   argues immoral behavior is freedom of expression.

7)   contends sexual behaviors are not choices as such but evidence of who LGBTQ+ people innately are in their identity.

8)   co-opts the Civil Rights Movement and vocabulary, arguing all sexual choices are civil rights.

Meanwhile, many Christians have been asleep at the switch, seemingly unaware or unconcerned about this lie marching through American institutions.

Clearly, Christians need to respond. “We need to speak clearly and consistently about biblical norms. The title of Dr. Albert Mohler’s most recent book has it exactly right: We Cannot Be Silent. This means we need to ready and willing to engage in public debate and dialogue. We also need to present a compelling counter-narrative. If we fail to do that, the mainstream narrative will win by default; theirs will be seen as the only plausible position to take…(It) is our responsibility as Christians to promote the public good, especially when it comes to protecting children from damaging parental practices and destructive ideologies…(And) there is the need to preserve religious freedom—above all the freedom to preach the Bible and proclaim the gospel—which is increasingly threatened by the demand for LGBT rights (a demand that invariably translates into the suppression of those who continue to stand firm on biblical norms).”

Christians must support not simply the value of personal and public morality for the good of individuals but also for the ongoing potential of free government that cannot survive without citizens embracing moral restraint on their own.

Why? Because the less people voluntarily restrain themselves, the more the government must do it, and thus the less ‘freedom’ society will have, and the more ‘tyrannical’ government will become. 

John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Recognize Pride month for what it is. Pride month is not about freedom. Those who pursue the lifestyles it references already have freedom. Pride is about promoting licentiousness and tyrannically demanding affirmation from anyone who disagrees, e.g., legally attempting to force businesses to display rainbow flags.

So, what do we do?

Well, remember this: No matter how rational, articulate, historically and biblically justifiable our presentation, we cannot argue people into right views, correct theology, or changing their sinful behavior. Because the other side rejects God and truth, they are virtually “un-convincible.” So this is not a “May the best ideas win” contest.

In his book, We Will Not Be Silenced, (2020), Erwin Lutzer said, “If we think we can fight against deceived culture by winning the war of ideas, we are mistaken.

The best ideas do not win very often in a culture obsessed with empty utopian promises.” 

Only the Spirit of God can ultimately change hearts. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” Eph. 6:12.

In Christians in a Cancel Culture, (2021), Joe Dallas reminded us that “to preach the gospel we have to speak the truth about man’s sinful nature and his need for salvation.” This is our “compelling counter narrative.”  But it’s not about our arguments. It’s about the Word and Spirit of God.

So how do we do this?

1. Listen. No need for sermons. Listen for the hurt. People pursuing LGBTQ+ lifestyles experience a boatload of emotional, spiritual, mental, physical trauma. This is one reason they constantly talk about wanting “affirmation.” They are human beings made in God’s image and loved by him even if they do not know or acknowledge this truth.
2. Ground your comments in the Creator who loves and created human beings in a manner that granted them blessings via heterosexual marriage, not in other sexual behaviors that fall short.
3. Don’t be hateful, ever, but recognize that if you share the truth, you, not just your comments, may be rejected or despised.
4. Be honest, kind, speak the truth in love, but by all means speak the truth.
5. Share the Gospel, ultimately, the greatest transformative power on earth through which all sinners can become New Creations in Christ.

Then remember, our foundation is still the solid rock. The Word of God is our source of strength and hope.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Gal 6:9

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023  

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 12 June 2023

June Pride Month dates to the Clinton Administration. How is it that a month ostensibly dedicated to freedom is morphing into a month of demands, cultural repression, and even legal backlash?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #91 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life. 

June Pride month has become a cultural tour de force. Despite LGBTQ+ advocacy groups proclaiming people who choose this lifestyle are somehow at extreme risk, their interest and ideology is making seemingly unstoppable headway at every level of society across the country.

No field of human endeavor in American life is immune from pressure to participate without reservation in a celebration of a percentage of the population’s decision to pursue immoral behaviors.

We celebrate Mothers on a given day and Fathers on another day. We salute Veterans on their day and remember their courage and sacrifice on Memorial Day.

Even the country’s birthday, July 4^th, is, well, a day. LGBTQ+ lifestyle choices somehow rate an entire month of societal observance.

LGBTQ+ is the only group, or community, or movement, as its proponents now claim, that is rhapsodized for a decision to engage in sin. Think about it? Is there a day or month celebrating adulterers? The promiscuous? Pedophiles? No there is not. Only people who decide to express themselves sexually in an LGBTQ+ manner are socially celebrated.

We could say, “Pride, who cares? It’s a free country,” with the corollary that people already enjoy the liberty to choose any form of sexual expression, short of harming others. While Christians believe it is immoral, for example, to cheat on one’s spouse in an affair, or pursue sexual gratification outside of marriage, or engage in homosexuality, still, these behaviors are not illegal, and I am not arguing they should be.

But while “It’s a free country” may allow for individuals to pursue LGBTQ+ behaviors, including celebrating their own Pride parades or festivals—

it is another thing to turn that “free country” upside down by demanding unreserved, cult-like affirmation—no disagreement tolerated—of LGBTQ+ lifestyles, including Pride activities, transgender ideology in grade schools, blocking parents from being informed about their child’s trans choices, legally demanding transgender males be permitted to participate in female athletic events, and forcing social institutions to provide “non-binary” options in bathrooms, locker rooms, and much more. There is nothing “free” about any of these expectations, only authoritarian, tyrannical ultimatum.

“The concept of Pride Month has been heavily commercialized; many companies incorporate Pride Month imagery in packaging, commercials, press releases, social media, and so forth. Even within the LGBTQ community, some object to these developments, seeing them as insincere pandering.”

In Manhattan, surrounding the plaza at Rockefeller Center, 193 flagpoles each fly a “Pride” flag.

The US Army Military Police Corp issued a meme featuring a rainbow flag behind the symbols of each branch of the Armed Forces.

The Department of the Air Force published a social media meme saying, “Celebrate Pride Month,” featuring a rainbow background, the seal of the Air Force, and a soldier in silhouette saluting. No American flag is portrayed. What, one wonders, is the silhouette soldier saluting? It is illegal for an armed services member to salute anything but the American flag.

The U.S. Dept. of Education issued a Pride month rainbow colored meme saying, “Happy Pride Month.”

San Francisco Police raised a rainbow flag along with the American flag and stood at attention saluting both.

LGBTQ+ activists have been masterful in developing both their plan and their messaging, the latter of which often twists constitutional, political, and religious principles to make it nearly impossible to disagree without sounding like a so-called “hater.”

But Pride month is not a harmless expression of love, freedom, and happiness, as its proponents and sycophants contend. Pride is not about freedom or “see me,” or “you are welcome here.” All those who pursue LGBTQ+ lifestyles are already free, seen, and able to do whatever they wish in American society.

Rather, Pride is about disavowing moral restraint in the name of sexual liberation, more accurately described as licentiousness. Pride promotes an ideology that is anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-morality, anti-sexual fulfillment, anti-humanity-made-in-the-image-of-God.

Pride Month is modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah, and if this seems like an overstatement, I challenge anyone to watch video of a Pride parade in a major American city and tell me it is not a public orgy of vile wickedness far beyond anything Mardi Gras or Carnival have contemplated.

Pride, “an ideology that triumphs human desire and power over a meaningful, embodied human nature eventually ends up targeting the most vulnerable: women and children. This is evident in the absurd and nihilistic way women are no longer able to be defined or defended in everything from athletics, to locker rooms, to Supreme Court confirmations.”

“The direct harm is also evident in Queer Theory’s calculus that exposing children to adult sexuality is a necessary part of social liberation. Videos went viral this week of provocatively dressed men dancing while young children pressed cash into their G-strings at a “Drag the Kids to Drag Pride” event. In the name of Pride, Kellogg’s put cartoon characters on their cereal box urging kids to pick their pronouns and reminding them that no matter who they love, they’re too awesome to fit in a box. Also taking a knee in obeisance to Pride, WaPo featured a salvo for why ‘kink’ is for kids too.”

This is resulting in “heart-breaking yet predictable chaos and disruption of childhood. The rapidly rising numbers of minors seeking to hormonally halt puberty and mutilate their bodies before they are old enough to drive a car should convince us that something has gone catastrophically wrong and that, regardless of any particular person’s good intentions, this is far from a benevolent movement.”

Pride “is a creed that reduces and redefines the human person and calls them by their sin.”

“Pride month is not about human dignity. It is about human deification.”

“We need to raise and influence children to be so secure in their identity in Christ that the world can scream at them, throw temptation in the path and subtly condition them… and it will all land on infertile soil. Because they know that they were created in the image of God.”

“At least four strikingly sinister ironies define the secular celebration of gay pride month.

First, is the false advertising that says we are devoting merely a month to the celebration of homosexuality when, in truth, our culture demands the near-constant celebration of homosexuality every day and every month of every year.

Second, is waving the banner of ‘pride’ over a lifestyle choice that is transparently sinful…

Third, is the insistence from our sinful culture that anyone who opposes the infinite manifestations of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle is on the ‘wrong side of history.’…

Finally, the LGBTQ+ movement has attempted to steal from God himself, one of the most significant demonstrations of redemptive love in the Bible. When most people in our culture see a rainbow, they do not think of God’s patient determination to extend salvation to a sinful humanity but instead recognize a symbol of destructive sexuality.”

“The Christian responsibility in a confused culture…is to stand on the truth of the Word of God and on the grace of Jesus himself…The Bible says that Jesus came into this sinful world full of grace and truth (John 1:14). We must present ourselves to this sinful world in the same way.”

How can we respond to June Pride Month?

o   Don’t hate, don’t be hateful—ever. Don’t speak the truth with anything but love, but by all means speak the truth. Only the truth of God’s Word can transform a sexually confused culture.

o   Don’t participate. You need not attend Pride parades or festivals.

Certainly, do not take your children. If your workplace buys into Pride, you can opt for low key, polite and respectful ways to not participate.

o   Learn whereof you speak. In other words, don’t “Just say No,” but Know why you say No, why you disagree, why, how, and what God’s Word offers that is immeasurably more hopeful than the message of false ideology coming from Pride activists. Know how to respond to non sequiturs like “love is love” with biblical understanding.

o   Ultimately, Christians are called to be witnesses of the Way, the Truth, and Life (John 14:6; Acts 1:8).

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023  

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 13 April 2023

It seems Transgenderism is having its historical cultural moment, but what really is this about and how should Christians respond?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #80 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Transgenderism or Trans ideology, the “T” in LGBTQ+, is experiencing something of a historical moment. While trans activists claim trans people are marginalized victims, trans ideology is now the dominant view in public education, media, social media, entertainment, athletics, government, even the Pentagon and the White House.

Now trans ideology is taking hold of corporate marketing in America.

“America clearly is in the throes of a cultural campaign for transgender rights, privileges, and immunities. It is a multi-faceted movement at once entertaining and dangerous.”

“It is not only major corporations, including Nike, Proctor & Gamble, and Anheuser Busch that have jumped aboard the transgender bandwagon. 

Universities and now, the federal government and the judiciary are all in.”

“The transgender glorification movement truly has transitioned into high gear.”

“The cultural shift, especially in corporate marketing, has been nothing short of seismic. Where once Jack Daniels whiskey was presented as a sophisticated spirit, with ads depicting entertainment icon Frank Sinatra, the Tennessee-made alcoholic beverage now is branded by drag queens, in a timid genuflect to the LGBTQ+ movement.”

Other companies on the bandwagon include Ulta Beauty, Olay, Tik Tok, Instacart, Tampax, Nike, Kate Spade, Crest, and many more.

“One of the strangest kowtows to the LGBTQ+ campaign has been Hershey’s chocolate. During WWII, Hershey’s was one of a number of products that became closely identified with the American armed forces, especially the Army GI. 

Eight decades later, the universally recognized brown Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bar wrapper markets itself as a “HER-SHE’s” treat and advertises yet another biological male transgendered to female.”

“Last week, female swimmer Riley Gaines was violently assaultedat San Francisco State University for daring to speak about the unfairness of male athletes competing against females.”

This goes way beyond trans boys or men accessing restrooms designated for females.

Recently, the highest profile trans marketing is Anheuser-Busch featuring a biological man, Dylan Mulvaney, who identifies as a woman on their Bud Light cans. Supposedly, Mulvaney is celebrating "365 days of girlhood" This resulted in both backlash from Country Music stars and the general public evidenced by pictures of Bud Light stacked unsold in stores, and resulted in the usual charges of bigotry and intolerance from the Left aimed at these musicians, the public, and conservatives. 

Kid Rock shot up a case of Bud Light with a rifle. Ted Nugent called the partnership with Mulvaney the "epitome of cultural deprivation."

Meanwhile, you have to wonder what corporations are hoping to accomplish. Not market share, for sure. The number of adults in America described as transgender is totals less than 1%. And Anhueser-Busch has lost some $5 billion in value since the Bud Light can debacle.

“Disney experienced this last year, as it offered up a number of entertainment releases with woke messaging, which were routinely avoided by audiences, leading to losses. There was the gay rom-com movie “Bros” that basically defined a woke motion picture release, and it was not even supported by the gay community, becoming one of the biggest bombs of 2022.”

Some suggest this move to woke-ize their image and products is all about the companies' Corporate Equality Index score, a ranking overseen by a major LGBT+ lobbying group, the Human Rights Campaign.

“'Workforce Protections', 'Inclusive Benefits', 'Supporting and Inclusive Culture', and 'Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible Citizenship' are all used to determine how a company compares on the all-important ranking…The CEI falls under umbrella entity ESG, stood for 'Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance', and its 'ethical investing' movement, which funds ideological projects including those that phase out fossil fuels, promote unionization, and maintain racial and gender equality hiring quotas.”

"While being Transgender has become the latest trend, gender clinics and stakeholders who profit from transitioning young people want to normalize transitioning, so they use people like Dylan as a pawn in their game and lobby companies to be more 'inclusive,’…The more we see trans people everywhere, the more likely kids will want to become like them."

But while this may be Trans Ideology’s big moment, since the entire movement is based upon lies, its seeming success is not without consequences.

Being a “she matters. Without a ‘she’ and a ‘he’, we wouldn’t be we. They wouldn’t be they. You and I wouldn’t be. Period. We live in a culture that is increasingly more hopeless and meaningless because of the determination to be genderless. Our DNA determines our sex/gender, but anytime we deny God’s design for humanity, disaster always follows.”

“We’re not avatars living in some make-believe world. We’re all bound by the same scientific and moral laws. This is reality. Tragically, many have no use for what it actually is. They want to conjure up a surreality untethered from facts and consequences.”

Allow me to pause and say there is such a thing as gender dysphoria, meaning there are people who struggle with who they are biologically. This is real, and it is usually painful. Those who struggle with gender dysphoria need help, “acceptance and affirmation,” to use the trans ideology phrase, not for transitioning by denying their God-given sexuality, but acceptance and affirmation of them as human beings made in God’s image, persons who need our loving care pointing them to the Sovereign Creator God who makes no mistakes.

So nowhere in this podcast am I subtly suggesting people struggling with gender dysphoria should be ridiculed, rejected, much less hated or abused.

But I am also saying that these individuals with genuine difficulties represent a very small percentage of the population. Many more people embracing trans and other non-binary postures are involved in choices rooted in hearts blinded by sin.

Simply because people choose to willfully deny God’s definition of sexuality does not mean the rest of the population must accommodate their every predilection.

“When you deny what you really are, you deform your mind, you warp your personality and instincts, you disguise and mutilate your actual nature, and thus it becomes virtually impossible to live a normal life…But you will always find yourself challenged when around normal people because you know you are denying your own normality. Men are men and women are women, and if they try to be what they are not, they are going to have some serious issues. It is inevitable.”

Increasingly of late, we’re seeing transgender mass shooters, most recently Aubrey Hale in the tragic killing of Christian school students and personnel in Nashville.

This does not mean all trans people will become shooters, but neither does it mean we should ignore this development.

Aubrey Hale’s “fact-denial caused (he/)her to become so psychologically unstable and morally obtuse that he/)she wanted to (die and take others along.) And, quite frankly, it is totally the fault of the transgender ideological movement. They encourage people to be what they are not, to reject their own nature, and to live totally opposite what they truly are. Leftist transgender ideology is completely, and forever, to blame for every one of these people who get screwed up and filled with hate against those who are trying to help them be what God made them to be and wants them to be. And they end up crying for help but finding no answers. Because the Left, by denying God and true nature, has no answers.”

What trans identifying people need is not transition to a gender that is not their biological sex. 

What they need is spiritual transformation of their heart. They need, like all of us, the truth of Scripture: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17).

The Lord promised, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezek. 36:26).

Not physical transition but spiritual transformation is what transgender people need to secure lasting peace.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.  

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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 11 January 2023

Have you noticed the seemingly unstoppable force of transgender ideology in the past few years? And have you wondered if people, the culture even, would ever say, Now, wait a minute?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #63 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Transgenderism, or trans ideology, is the belief that human sexuality is not biologically determined, is not what’s now called “binary” meaning only two options, male or female, but is rather something that is psychologically determined, and that sexuality is socially constructed and a matter of individual decision.

This rather astounding anti-science, ahistorical, anti-common sense, anti-biblical, irrational view has rapidly reached a level of majority acceptance in the American population.

With the 2015 Supreme Court of the United States decision in Obergefell vs. Hodges, allowing for the legal existence of same-sex marriage, sexual liberation activists immediately shifted their focus to transgenderism. 

While much groundwork and other social developments took place earlier, in just the past eight years since that court case, trans ideology has come to dominate American public education from kindergarten to graduate school.

Trans people and ideas are now commonly presented in television media and even more extensively online. And the idea of being trans, that a boy can “identify as,” meaning become a girl, and a girl can transition to become a boy is now considered by trans activists, many within the American public, and at a few points of law to be a civil right.

Now, to disagree or in some way to be perceived as an obstacle to trans individuals pursuing their trans lifestyle is to be considered not simply intolerant and a bigot but also a legal impediment, perhaps someone guilty of hate speech, which of course means you could find yourself in a lawsuit.

The speed and outright steamroller with which trans ideology conquered American culture has been both amazing and disheartening to watch.  

Aren’t there any cultural elites moral enough, brave enough, reasonable enough to stand up against this? Is there no one to point out the dangers and degradation? Do people really believe what trans activists are saying and demanding?

We’ve been treated to a long list of not only school curriculum being given over to devilish sexual ideas but also to public displays, like Drag Queen Story hours at local libraries where elementary school children are invited.

Why would the American Library Association support this kind of perverted nonsense, for children no less?

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, a Drag Queen Brunch with lewd videos featured on the event’s website is now being promoted.

“Drag queen depravity…celebrates that which is shameful and normalizes that which is perverse. And it does so in the most exaggerated, even overtly demonic form, with Drag Queens wearing Satanic horns while reading to tiny little children.”

“The Michigan Department of Education has adopted a radical gender theory program that promotes gender ‘fluidity’ beginning in elementary school and encourages teachers to facilitate the sexual transition of minors without parental consent.”

Trans workers are now suing for healthcare benefits, and there’s more: medical professionals, as well as others, are saying men can give birth, men are competing as women in women’s sports, physicians and children’s hospitals are surgically removing healthy body parts to create the appearance of the other sex.

California has become a “sanctuary” state for transgender children and their families. California “passed legislation that protects parents and their children from legal ramifications for pursuing cross-sex medical treatments, while also blocking California courts from enforcing out-of-state court orders revoking custody for parents who allowed their children to get illegal sex changes.” 

“California’s Department of Education urges kindergarten teachers to dispel gender stereotypes, laying groundwork ‘for acceptance, inclusiveness, and an anti-bullying environment,’ because ‘some children in kindergarten or even younger have identified as transgender.’” 

An “Ohio school district tells teachers not to notify parents about students’ name and pronoun changes.”

Prison systems, meaning states, meaning taxpayers, are bearing increased costs, risks, and legal challenges because of transgender activism and confusion.

Social media is a major contributor to gender confusion.

“Placating the mob has led to the rise in dangerous euphemisms like "gender-affirming care," a phrase that means the exact opposite of what it claims. In today's world, "gender-affirming therapy" means telling a girl she can be transformed into a boy, but "conversion therapy" means telling a girl she's a girl. The corruption of reality has led to the rise of a pseudoscientific cult that performs irreparable mutilation on kids, with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and life-altering surgeries.”

But at long last there is some pushback. 

Oklahoma has banned “gender-affirming care” for those under 26 years old, arguing a person’s brain is not fully formed until that age. 

The Ohio Board of Education voted against President Biden’s expanded LGBTQ+ Title IX protections.

In an article entitled “They Paused Puberty, But Is There a Cost?” the New York Timesfinally admitted “gender affirming care” is dangerous.

Scientific evidence trumps what the woke media wants us to believe. 

“America’s war on truth, science, and children has rendered America increasingly an outlier in the Western world. (But thankfully,) more and more European countries are rejecting the perverse” sexually aberrant views of leading American hospitals, universities, and news media.  

“Swiss citizens ‘are entered into the civil registry as male or female, with no other option.’ The Swiss Federal Council declared, ‘The binary gender model is still strongly anchored in Swiss society.’

Sweden…has also broken with America on the transgender issue. 

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare ended the practice of prescribing puberty blockers for minors under age 18; and…mastectomies will only be offered in the rarest of circumstances.”

England is now backtracking on its activist transgender-friendly laws and culture, in part because the costs, financially and emotionally, are becoming too great to ignore. 

Even a trans psychologist who helps teens transition says it’s now ‘gone too far’.”

To protect children, re-establish educational priorities in schools, and to restore common sense, the state of Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis are beginning to wage war on transgender activism. In various laws, so has Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

By the way, the media does not typically note that these laws protect girls and women but rather describes them as “anti-trans” laws, trying to win the battle of vocabulary by making these states and lawmakers into haters.

“On the social scale, a major con is the allegation that an individual can change his or her gender. ‘Society has accepted a destructive lie that you can create your own reality and define your own identity,’ says author Ben Shapiro. 

‘Transgender isn’t real,’ says women’s advocate and author Kara Dansky. ‘It was simply made up. Words like gender identity don’t have any meaning. Every single human being is either a male person or a female person.’”

“According to a new Trafalgar Group/Convention of States Action poll, 78.7 percent of Americans oppose sex changes, puberty blockers, and transgender-related medical procedures for kids. An overwhelming amount of voters believe minors should have to wait until they are at least 18 to make the life-changing decision about their bodies.”

Sex reassignment surgery does not work. A boy or man cannot ever become a girl or woman, or vice versa, no matter what ideas and ideology are embraced, no matter what meds are taken, no matter what irreversible mutilating surgeries are endured.

To argue that sex is not determined at biological birth is to argue against the God who created us in his image, male and female created he them, who created every human being for a purpose, and who loves us one and all, including those who struggle emotionally.

While it is true that gender dysphoria exists, that individuals emotionally struggle with their sense of themselves, and it is Christian to say we should care for and care about these people, still, this does not change reality. Trans transitioning simply trades out one set of problems for far more.

So, it is heartening to see some pushback, some practical acknowledgement the world God created and what’s best for human beings.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. 

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.