Unforced Errors

The enemy has a hopeless goal: to somehow defeat, in some sort of cosmic rematch, the One who defeated Him through His crucifixion and resurrection. It is unattainable, certainly, but the enemy does not give up and desires to paralyze and harass the people of God. Galatians chapter 6 states:
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Sin has its consequences, and when individuals trample the image of God by denying His plan for gender and sexuality, that is a path that leads to degradation, to inner turmoil, and perhaps a desperate act of ending one's own life. All because of a lie - the lie that they can change God's fixed biological framework, that somehow they are greater than He.  The enemy will lie to us about all sorts of things and attempt to attack where we are vulnerable.  We have to stand against His deception and embrace the truth of Scripture.

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In Proverbs 13, there is a striking contrast between the consequences of embracing sin and walking in righteousness. A passage in that chapter reads:
13 He who despises the word will be destroyed, But he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
14 The law of the wise is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.
15 Good understanding gains favor, But the way of the unfaithful is hard.
16 Every prudent man acts with knowledge, But a fool lays open his folly.

Even though the Transgender Day of Visibility has been observed on March 31 for a number of years, it received undue attention this year because it fell on Easter Sunday, and the optics could not have ben worse; the observance of the day, accompanied by a Presidential Proclamation, raised the ire of Christian leaders. Why such a day is even observed in the first place is troubling, and transgender individuals have received an unbalanced amount of attention these days anyway. 

Recently, the death by suicide by a female who presents as "non-binary," received an inordinate amount of attention.  Certainly, young people who are confused about their sexuality need to ideally have Biblically-centered counseling that can help them walk through their confusion and discover who God has really made them to be.  They don't need to be told that they can identify as another "gender" and be enticed with the false premise of facing treatments and surgical procedures to somehow override their biology. 

Oklahoma teenager Nex Benedict certainly needed truth - but she bought in to lies and ultimately took her life. And, her death has become used, inappropriately, to further a particular agenda. The Christian Post reported on March 15:

On Feb. 8, Benedict's grandmother Sue, who served as her legal guardian, called 911 reporting a head injury. In a police video at the hospital that was later released, Benedict claimed that she poured water on three girls in the bathroom after they made fun of her for the way she dressed.

The next day, Benedict was rushed to the hospital, where she died.

The Education Department subsequently announced on March 1 that it was investigating the school district for allegedly failing to respond to "sex-based harassment."

An autopsy report released Wednesday by the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office found that Benedict died by suicide via a toxic level of pharmaceutical drugs.

That didn't stop politicians from positioning Benedict as a hero and a victim.  

The New York Post reported that, in Oklahoma:

Superintendent of public instruction Ryan Walters spoke out after many online continue to suggest the student’s death is linked to a fight in a school bathroom a day earlier, despite police and school officials saying Benedict’s death appears unrelated.

“I think it’s terrible that we’ve had some radical leftists who decided to run with a political agenda and try to weave a narrative that hasn’t been true,” Walters told the New York Times.

“You’ve taken a tragedy, and you’ve had some folks try to exploit it for political gain.”

The Post article continued:

“You always treat individuals with dignity or respect, because they’re made in God’s image. But that doesn’t change truth,” Walters told the Times.

“I really see there’s a civil war going on, where the left is really fighting for the soul of our country … They are undermining the very principles that made this country great, our Judeo-Christian values and our traditions in this country.”

Well, it turns out that Nex Benedict had another component that had perhaps drastically affected her life:  The Post-Millennial reported:

However, after a brief mention in a Washington Post report on her death, Red State and independent journalist Jeremy Lee Quinn discovered that Benedict had been molested by her father for year. He is currently in prison for failing to register as a sex offender after he was released from prison.

Again, the medical report ruled the death a suicide; the assault, in which Nex appeared to be the aggressor, if it unfolded the way she reported it, was not responsible for her death.  The Post-Millennial story also said, "Benedict left notes that were 'suggestive of self-harm' as well."  Last Thursday, the website stated:

The final autopsy report was released on Wednesday and found "no lethal trauma" despite various head injuries such as contusions, lacerations, abrasions, and hemorrhages, according to pathologist Dr. Ross Miller.

Benedict also suffered nonlethal injuries to the neck, limbs, and torso, per the report.

On yesterday's Meeting House, I referenced a piece by Ben Johnson at The Washington Stand regarding the Transgender Day of Visibility, which fell on Easter Sunday this year, and a Presidential proclamation was issued.  Johnson writes:

“Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our [n]ation,” Biden wrote. Since people who identify as transgender “help America thrive,” they deserve the “fundamental freedom to be their true selves,” Biden’s 2024 statement states.

But how can trans-identifying people do for America what they cannot do for themselves? One study found, the moment someone begins to identify as transgender, “the most common outcomes were worsened mental well-being (47.2%); worsened parent child relationship (57.3%); unchanged or mixed grades/academic performance (59.1%); and a narrowed range of interests and hobbies (58.1%).” A growing list of whistleblowers know what everyone who works in gender clinics quietly admits: Teens who identify as transgender suffer from an array of psychological comorbidities, including autism, depression, and bipolar disorder aside from their “gender dysphoria.”

The warning is clear: depart from God's ways, and there is unnecessary pain and suffering that will result. Life in this world can be challenging enough without people making uniformed decisions on the way they feel about their sexuality rather than objective, biological standards. People are making unforced errors and is bringing untold amounts of permanent damage into their lives. 

The Bible says that "the way of the unfaithful is hard."  Now, that doesn't mean that Christians will not experience a hard life, a life that contains tribulation and heartbreak - some of it the result of self-inflicted mistakes, still other trials coming as the product of the people or circumstances around them. We can ill-afford these unforced errors of deliberate sinful behavior.  But, the fact is, God gives us the strength to endure the challenges of this life and even when we sin, we can confess our sins and receive His forgiveness.