The Front Page Cover
2016 The truth will set you free
Featuring:
Why Jonathan Merritt Is Wrong about Conservative Christians and the Transgender Debate
by Michael Brown
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Facebook's Been Targeting Conservative Individuals for Years Facebook is in damage control following allegations that its curators purposely suppressed conservative opinion in the trending topics section. But another equally if not even more troubling issue the mainstream media is "overlooking" is that this isn't Facebook's first time censoring "unsavory" opinions.
For years now, individual conservatives have had their pages shut down for espousing the Right ideals. The Media Research Center chronicles numerous examples here, including anyone from the conservative group "Chicks on The Right" to the Center for Medical Progress to even "a Canadian page critical of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau."
For years now, individual conservatives have had their pages shut down for espousing the Right ideals. The Media Research Center chronicles numerous examples here, including anyone from the conservative group "Chicks on The Right" to the Center for Medical Progress to even "a Canadian page critical of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau."
One of the victims happens to be Fox News commentator Todd Starnes, who writes about his being blacklisted from Facebook in 2013: "Facebook blocked my page and removed a message I had posted that invoked Paula Deen, the National Rifle Association and Jesus Christ. ... Had I been reading Saul Alinsky's 'Rules For Radicals,' wearing a Planned Parenthood ball cap and smoking a joint, Facebook would've left me alone." He says his page is still "subjected to random censorship by the Facebook gods."
Facebook claims this is all just a misunderstanding and that it would never stoop to such a low. Indeed, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg met with 16 Republican pundits and politicians Wednesday to smooth things over. Yet the evidence suggests employees have been censoring conservatives for years. If media outlets were truly concerned about the implications, they'd include the years-long attack on conservative individuals in their coverage. -The Patriot Post
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Lt. Gen. Boykin Fired for Free Speech
Lieutenant General William G. "Jerry" Boykin spent 13 years of his 36-year military career in Delta Force, two years as commander, and finished in 2007 as George W. Bush's Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. Our publisher, Mark Alexander, knows Boykin personally and confirms he's an outstanding patriot. Boykin's not a fan of Barack nObama's PC potty policies, saying on social media, "The first man who goes in the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery."
He was subsequently fired by Hamden-Sydney College. Here's his story, as told by Boykin himself:
Hampden Sydney is the 10th oldest college in America and is one of the two Men's colleges left in America. Let me begin by saying that it is a fine school with some very good young men who give me hope for the future. There are also a few very good faculty members who I consider to be good friends and true patriots. They stood with me through this whole situation as the school made the decision to terminate me and I appreciate everything that these friends at the school did to try and help.
The bottom line is that I oppose these so called "Bathroom" bills that let men go into women's locker rooms, showers, and toilets and I have been very public about it. When I said in Orlando that "...the first man who goes in the restroom with my daughter will not have to worry about surgery", the LGBT community once again came after me, claiming that I was calling for violence against transgender people.
Well, that is simply not the case and I have never called for violence against anyone. I was referring to perverts who will use these policies to get into locker rooms with girls and women, and I object to that. My statement was meant to be humor and not a call for violence, which everyone in my audience understood as humor.
Nonetheless, I gave the LGBT community just what they needed to pressure the college leadership to terminate me and they did.
Such views will be silenced by the "tolerant" Left in their quest for total power. -The Patriot Post
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TSA Stands for Terminally Slow Agency
Memorial Day weekend is coming, and with it the beginning of the summer travel season. And the Transportation Security Administration is the headache in your vacation plans. Recently, the screening lines in major airports have become unbearable. Some 4,000 passengers at Chicago O'Hare International Airport missed their flights because they were waiting for hours in TSA security lines. About 400 of them missed their flights in the last weekend alone. As every bureaucracy is wont to do when confronted with ineptitude, the TSA blames Congress' budget cuts. According to the TSA's numbers, the number of TSA agents declined while passengers rose since 2011. Combined with a social media campaign, the pressure is on Congress to fix the problem.
But the TSA hasn't exactly been frugal with its resources. The agency recently spent $1.7 million on marketing, money on new uniforms and even a female hologram to manage passengers. This doesn't sound like an agency that's cutting costs to focus on its mission — a mission it's performing poorly, by the way. Last year, a Department of Homeland Security audit found that the TSA could not detect threats 95% of the time. As Investor's Business Daily rhetorically asks, "If a private company wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, hired workers who failed to do their job 95% of the time, and then forced people to wait in line for hours, how long do you think they'd be in business? So why is the TSA being treated any differently?" IBD adds, "It's almost as if the nation's airports have turned into mini-Soviet Unions, where instead of waiting for bread, people stand in line for hours to be poked and prodded."
To better serve the American people, Congress should abolish the agency and re-outsource the security duties to private companies. No private company would be allowed to fail like this. Only the government is too big to fail. -The Patriot Post
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Our Racist Trees
by DANIEL GREENFIELD
by DANIEL GREENFIELD
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{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Mickey Fearn, the National Park Service Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance, made headlines when he claimed that black people don't visit national parks because they associate them with slaves being lynched by their masters... Yellowstone, the first national park, was created in 1872 in Wyoming. Slavery was over by then and no one had ever been lynching slaves around Old Faithful anyway. But false claims die very hard. Now Alcee Hastings, an impeached judge, and a coalition of minority groups is demanding increased "inclusiveness" at national parks. High on their list is the claim that, "African-Americans have felt unwelcome and even fearful in federal parklands during our nation's history because of the horrors of lynching." What do national parks have to do with lynchings? Many national parks have trees. People were hung from trees. It's guilt by arboreal association...
{familysecuritymatters.org} ~ Mickey Fearn, the National Park Service Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance, made headlines when he claimed that black people don't visit national parks because they associate them with slaves being lynched by their masters... Yellowstone, the first national park, was created in 1872 in Wyoming. Slavery was over by then and no one had ever been lynching slaves around Old Faithful anyway. But false claims die very hard. Now Alcee Hastings, an impeached judge, and a coalition of minority groups is demanding increased "inclusiveness" at national parks. High on their list is the claim that, "African-Americans have felt unwelcome and even fearful in federal parklands during our nation's history because of the horrors of lynching." What do national parks have to do with lynchings? Many national parks have trees. People were hung from trees. It's guilt by arboreal association...
Mike Lee takes aim at nObama's housing rule
by Susan Ferrechio
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ Sen. Mike Lee is hoping this week to upend President nObama's push to ensure diversity in communities around the country, by blocking any federal spending for that plan... Lee is the sponsor of an amendment to the 2017 transportation and housing spending bill that would prevent any federal spending on nObama's Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule. That rule would tie federal community grants to the demographic makeup of communities around the country in an effort to make them more attractive to "families with different income and ethnic profiles." But Lee's language would defund the effort. The Senate may take it up on Thursday as part of the debate on the spending bill... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2591725
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Conservative Leaders Demand Hearing
On IRS Privacy Violations
by CHQ Staff
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{conservativehq.com} ~ A who's who list of 104 conservative movement leaders, organizations, and lawyers have sent House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz the attached letter and Memorandum of Cause for Hearings on Schedule B Violations... The letter and Memorandum of Cause allege and describe serious violations and evasions of the Internal Revenue Code by California Attorney General Kamala Harris and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman with regard to the confidentiality of donor names and addresses on Schedule B of Form 990 filed by nonprofit organizations with the IRS. Harris and Schneiderman are using state charitable solicitation licensing schemes to collect Schedule B donor names and addresses in dragnet fashion, even though their state laws do not require them to acquire that confidential federal tax return information. They are demanding and collecting this information by choice, and in ways not authorized by the federal tax code. The tax code and IRS interpretations place severe restrictions on state officials’ acquiring and using such information... http://www.conservativehq.com/node/23165
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Nothing Requires America
to Take in All These So-Called Refugees
by Alex Grubbs
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Mark Levin
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{cnsnews.com} ~ On his show Monday, nationally syndicated radio show host Mark Levin explained why the American people do not need to take in "all these so-called refugees" from the Middle East and elsewhere... “There’s nothing that requires America to take in all these so-called refugees – all these people from other parts of the world,” Levin said. “We get to decide who comes here, or at least we’re supposed to.” “nObama went on in his clip, as he spoke to the young folks there at Rutgers University, ‘Building walls won’t do that. It won’t boost our economy, and it won’t enhance our security, either. Isolating or disparaging Muslims – suggesting they should be treated differently when it comes to entering this country – that’s not just a betrayal of our values, that’s not just a betrayal of who we are. It would alienate the very communities at home and abroad,’ and he goes on. …
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liar-Hilly's Libya War Led to ISIS Takeover, Crucifixions, Loss of Rights for Women
by Daniel Greenfield
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{frontpagemag.com} ~ liar-Hilly Clinton continues defending her illegal Libyan regime change war. Meanwhile here's what life is like for women and men under ISIS rule in Libya... A leading international rights group on Wednesday released a report documenting atrocities by Libya's Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliate - including instances of "crucifixions" and shooting a man to death for "cursing Allah" - in the coastal city of Sirte, a stronghold of the militants. And that's not all. Men were flogged for acts such as smoking or listening to music, and fathers were ordered to "marry off their daughters" to the group's fighters as ISIS spread a wave of terror among the townspeople... http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/262908/hillarys-libya-war-led-isis-takeover-crucifixions-daniel-greenfield
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Dopes, Doping, and the Russian-Iranian Nuclear Threat
by Cliff Kincaid
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{aim.org} ~ The Russians have been doping their athletes, but we are the dopes. In a scandal worse than failing to deal with ISIS, the nObama administration has been caught facilitating the nuclear buildups of Russia and Iran... The lives of millions of Americans and Israelis hang in the balance. Playing a pivotal role over the years in America’s decline and the rapid rise of Russia and China stands Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state who met for an hour with Donald J. liar-Trump on Wednesday. Kissinger has also served as a “tutor” to liar-Hilly Clinton in foreign affairs. “I was very flattered when Henry Kissinger said I ran the State Department better than anybody had run it in a long time,” Mrs. liar-Clinton remarked during one of the Democratic debates. What some conservatives have cynically called the “invisible government,” as represented by the Council on Foreign Relations and such figures as Kissinger, seems well-positioned to come out on top in November no matter who wins... http://www.aim.org/aim-column/dopes-doping-and-the-russian-iranian-nuclear-threat/
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nObama’s Hiroshima Trip Fuels Questions,
Concerns From American Veterans
by Morgan Chalfant
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{freebeacon.com} ~ Barack nObama will become the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima later this month in an unprecedented move to push for a world without nuclear weapons... The White House has cheered the move as an opportunity for the president to honor the dead of World War II, and more specifically those who died when the United States dropped the first deployed atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. But some retired U.S. veterans, including some from World War II, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about nObama’s forthcoming trip offered tepid if not critical perspectives of the move. Some characterized the trip as unnecessary and potentially damaging...
{freebeacon.com} ~ Barack nObama will become the first sitting president to visit Hiroshima later this month in an unprecedented move to push for a world without nuclear weapons... The White House has cheered the move as an opportunity for the president to honor the dead of World War II, and more specifically those who died when the United States dropped the first deployed atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. But some retired U.S. veterans, including some from World War II, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about nObama’s forthcoming trip offered tepid if not critical perspectives of the move. Some characterized the trip as unnecessary and potentially damaging...
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Classified Details of Iran’s Treatment
of U.S. Sailors Will Shock Nation
by Adam Kredo
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{freebeacon.com} ~ The classified details behind Iran’s treatment of several U.S. sailors who were captured by the Islamic Republic during a tense standoff earlier this year are likely to shock the nation... according to one member of the House Armed Services Committee, who disclosed to the Washington Free Beacon that these details are currently being withheld by the nObama administration. Rep. Randy Forbes (R., Va.) told the Free Beacon in an interview that the nObama administration is still keeping details of the maritime incident under wraps. It could be a year or longer before the American public receives a full accounting of the incident, in which several U.S. sailors were abducted at gunpoint by the Iranian military. “I’ve had a full classified briefing” from military officials, Forbes told the Free Beacon. “It could be as long as a year before we actually get that released.”... http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congressman-classified-details-irans-treatment-u-s-sailors-will-shock-nation/
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Canada's Trudeau Hits One MP, Grabs Another
by Brian Lilley
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{truthrevolt.org} ~ Progressive golden boy Justin Trudeau showed his authoritarian colors on Wednesday as he threw a temper tantrum in Canada's legislature, grabbing one member of Parliament and elbowing a female member in the breast. Why?... Trudeau was upset that opposition MPs had taken a few moments longer than he liked to begin voting on a key piece of his legislative agenda. Trudeau's Liberal government had made a motion to shut down debate on a bill that would allow assisted suicide in Canada. Opposition MPs on both sides of the issue claim the government bill is flawed and needs more debate and changes. When Trudeau said no, they stalled a little and that is all it took for him to fly into a fit of rage. When Conservative and New Democrat MPs had stalled for a whole 46 seconds after the vote had been called to order, Trudeau got up from his seat, marched across the aisle and began manhandling other members of Canada's legislature...
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Senate GOP Provides Support for nObama’s War on the Suburbs and US Property Rights
by S. Noble
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{independentsentinel.com} ~ Mitch McCon-nell and the Senate Republicans joined with Senate Democrats to support Barack nObama’s war on the suburbs... Senate Republicans had an opportunity to end nObama’s Housing Rule by supporting the Mike Lee amendment. It would have defunded the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule but instead they chose to support the fake amendment put forward by Susan Collins which will allow nObama and the Democrats to continue to socially engineer every neighborhood in America. Collins amendment is toothless – completely – and every Senator knows it. Lee’s amendment to defund AFFH was tabled by a vote of 60 to 37. Republicans opposed to Lee’s provision pushed the fake amendment by Sen. Susan Collins. It’s to give them cover as they let nObama run rampant over the Constitution and all property rights in the country... http://www.independentsentinel.com/senate-gop-provides-support-for-obamas-war-on-suburbs-and-us-property-rights/
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Why Jonathan Merritt Is Wrong about Conservative Christians and the Transgender Debate
by Michael Brown
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{townhall.com} ~ I commend author and blogger Jonathan Merritt for reminding us that whenever we hear the words “homosexual” or “transgender,” we are not just talking about issues, we are talking about people – people created in God’s image, yet fallen like the rest of us, people for whom Jesus died, people whom the church is to called to reach. We can never be reminded of this too much. Unfortunately, Merritt is quite wrong in arguing that “conservative Christians will lose the transgender debate.”
Writing on ReligionNews.com, Merritt offers three main reasons to support his contention: 1) conservative Christians “focus on ideology while ignoring people”; 2) they “prooftext from scripture while ignoring science”; and 3) they “rely on fear while ignoring facts.”
According to Merritt, who himself is same-sex attracted but has previously and publicly recognized homosexual practice as sinful, the church will lose the transgender debate the same way it lost the gay marriage debate. He writes, “In the early 2000s I began predicting that the battle over gay marriage was already over. My conservative friends called me crazy, but time proved who was right. Because conservative Christians seem hellbent on perpetually making the same mistakes ad infinitum, today I’m predicting that the transgender conversation is over. And once again, conservative Christians will be the authors of their own demise.”
In reality, the battle over gay “marriage” is far from over one might even argue that last year’s Obergefell decision marked the real beginning of the battle rather than the end of the battle while the debate over transgender issues has barely begun.
Not only so, but there is little comparison between the question of whether two people of the same sex should be allowed to “marry” and the question of whether society needs to recognize and affirm an infinite number of gender possibilities.
Let’s review each of Merritt’s points.
Is it true that conservative Christians “focus on ideology while ignoring people”?
Some might be guilty of doing this, just as some Christians focus on theology while ignoring people, but everyone I speak to about the transgender issues is focused on people rather than ideology.
How so?
First, they are focused on the people affected by transgender activism, such as the many schoolchildren who are being negatively affected and whose cases are now coming to public attention, or the women who have been sexually abused in the past and have now become unintended victims of transgender activism.
Do these people not matter?
Do we overlook other victims – including innocent little children – because they are not part of the LGBT spectrum?
Second, all the conservative Christians I speak to are interested in those who identify as transgender as well, and whenever I speak at churches or church conferences, I talk about the unimaginable struggles these people endure. And the pastors and congregants want me to address these things because they are Christians and because they care.
Many a time I have asked the hypothetical question, “What do you when a man shows up in your church service wearing a dress and wig, carrying a Bible, and saying, ‘Amen’ during the service?”
The answer is simple: Invite him to join you for lunch after the service, build a relationship with him, and help him find wholeness and harmony between his inner being and outer being.
In short, wherever I speak, I tell these fellow-conservative Christians that we need hearts of compassion and backbones of steel and that we are to reach out to the people with compassion while we resist the agenda with courage.
It’s true that I’m only one voice, but I am one of many, and, to repeat, whenever I’m asked to address these sensitive and difficult questions, I’m asked to emphasize the church’s call to compassionate outreach and care.
Writing on ReligionNews.com, Merritt offers three main reasons to support his contention: 1) conservative Christians “focus on ideology while ignoring people”; 2) they “prooftext from scripture while ignoring science”; and 3) they “rely on fear while ignoring facts.”
According to Merritt, who himself is same-sex attracted but has previously and publicly recognized homosexual practice as sinful, the church will lose the transgender debate the same way it lost the gay marriage debate. He writes, “In the early 2000s I began predicting that the battle over gay marriage was already over. My conservative friends called me crazy, but time proved who was right. Because conservative Christians seem hellbent on perpetually making the same mistakes ad infinitum, today I’m predicting that the transgender conversation is over. And once again, conservative Christians will be the authors of their own demise.”
In reality, the battle over gay “marriage” is far from over one might even argue that last year’s Obergefell decision marked the real beginning of the battle rather than the end of the battle while the debate over transgender issues has barely begun.
Not only so, but there is little comparison between the question of whether two people of the same sex should be allowed to “marry” and the question of whether society needs to recognize and affirm an infinite number of gender possibilities.
Let’s review each of Merritt’s points.
Is it true that conservative Christians “focus on ideology while ignoring people”?
Some might be guilty of doing this, just as some Christians focus on theology while ignoring people, but everyone I speak to about the transgender issues is focused on people rather than ideology.
How so?
First, they are focused on the people affected by transgender activism, such as the many schoolchildren who are being negatively affected and whose cases are now coming to public attention, or the women who have been sexually abused in the past and have now become unintended victims of transgender activism.
Do these people not matter?
Do we overlook other victims – including innocent little children – because they are not part of the LGBT spectrum?
Second, all the conservative Christians I speak to are interested in those who identify as transgender as well, and whenever I speak at churches or church conferences, I talk about the unimaginable struggles these people endure. And the pastors and congregants want me to address these things because they are Christians and because they care.
Many a time I have asked the hypothetical question, “What do you when a man shows up in your church service wearing a dress and wig, carrying a Bible, and saying, ‘Amen’ during the service?”
The answer is simple: Invite him to join you for lunch after the service, build a relationship with him, and help him find wholeness and harmony between his inner being and outer being.
In short, wherever I speak, I tell these fellow-conservative Christians that we need hearts of compassion and backbones of steel and that we are to reach out to the people with compassion while we resist the agenda with courage.
It’s true that I’m only one voice, but I am one of many, and, to repeat, whenever I’m asked to address these sensitive and difficult questions, I’m asked to emphasize the church’s call to compassionate outreach and care.
Merritt next claims that we “prooftext from scripture while ignoring science,” with specific reference to passages in Genesis stating that God made human beings male and female (see Genesis 1:27).
Once again, he is mistaken.
First, it is hardly prooftexting to point to a divine order in creation, one that distinguishes between male and female as well as celebrates those distinctions. In stark contrast, transgender activism often includes or is itself part of the larger war on gender, as if “the gender binary” was itself evil and constricting. (For thorough documentation, see in particular Chapter 5 of Outlasting the Gay Revolution.) So, it is good to reiterate the divine order in the midst of the current debate.
Second, conservative Christians are not ignoring science when we refuse to embrace the latest LGBT scientific talking points, and just as Merritt cites several studies which apparently point to a biological or genetic component to transgender identification, there are other studies which say the opposite, while there are still others – probably representing the majority – that embrace an agnostic position. In short, we are simply not convinced that there is clear scientific evidence for transgender identification, other than cases such as intersex individuals whose cases I always mention or those with biological or chromosomal abnormalities whose cases I also mention whenever addressing this.
The reality is that transgender activists expect us to embrace someone’s self-identification absent any scientific evidence, meaning that Bruce Jenner is now to be recognized as Caitlyn simply because that is how he now self-identifies. And should his biology and chromosomes affirm that he is a man, we are still expected to embrace him as a woman.
In that sense, it is transgender activists who sometimes ignore science and who open the door to the very dangerous slope of “perception is reality.” (For a striking example, see my video on the man who became a woman then became a mythical dragon.)
Finally, Merritt claims that conservative Christians “rely on fear while ignoring facts.”
Again, some may be guilty of doing this, but from my vantage point, it is the transgender activists and their allies who want to deny the facts.
How many examples do we need of men walking into ladies’ changing rooms because they now have the “right” to be there?
How many lawsuits will have to be filed on behalf of high-school and middle-school girls negatively impacted by the new bathroom/locker room policies?
And what would Jonathan Merritt tell the women’s shelter worker named Candy who called my radio show to tell me how the women in her shelter in Boston have been terribly upset because the government requires that a man who identifies as a woman has to be accommodated at their shelter – meaning, given a bed next to other women and given access to the common showers. But when the women voiced their complaints when this happened, they were told nothing could be done. This HUD ruling even applies to men who dress as men and look like men but who claim to identify as women, no medical or psychiatric documentation of the alleged transgender identity is required.
Where is Merritt’s Christian concern for all these women and children? And what of the increasing number of cases involving heterosexual predators who are using these new laws to gain access to bathroom and fitting rooms and locker rooms?
It appears that Merritt, in his desire to empathize with those often misunderstood and put out by the church, has now caricatured conservative Christians as uncaring ideologues. In the process, he has mischaracterized the very group that the transgender community needs the most, since true wholeness is ultimately found in the gospel alone.
As for the stance we must take as followers of Jesus, as I’ve said over and again, we can reach out to those who are marginalized without sacrificing our children on the altar of political correctness and radical LGBT activism.
I invited Jonathan Merritt in joining me on the front lines as, together, we resist radical LGBT activism while reaching out to LGBT individuals with compassion.
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