The 3 - April 4, 2021

This week's edition of The 3, featuring three stories of relevance to the Christian community, spotlights a court victory for a college professor who declined to refer to a male student as female.  Also, the "Trangender Day of Visibility" was commemorated last week, as the agenda advances and some lawmakers push back.  Plus, North Dakota lawmakers voted to provide protection for churches from unfair restrictions in the midst of a public health emergency.

Professor disciplined for not affirming male student's ID as female wins court case

Nicholas Meriweather is a philosophy professor at Ohio's Shawnee State University.  According to the Alliance Defending Freedom website, a male student in the professor's class had informed him that he was transgender and demanded that he be referred to as a woman, which Professor Meriweather refused to do.  The student filed a complaint with the university. 

ADF relates:

University officials ultimately rejected any compromise that would allow Meriwether to speak according to his conscience and sincerely held religious beliefs. Instead, they formally charged him, saying “he effectively created a hostile environment” for the student simply by declining to use the feminine pronouns demanded by the student. Later, they placed a written warning in his personnel file and threatened “further corrective actions” unless he articulates the university’s ideological message.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has issued a ruling in favor of the professor's free speech right. It stated, in part, “Traditionally, American universities have been beacons of intellectual diversity and academic freedom,” adding, “They have prided themselves on being forums where controversial ideas are discussed and debated. And they have tried not to stifle debate by picking sides. But Shawnee State chose a different route: It punished a professor for his speech on a hotly contested issue. And it did so despite the constitutional protections afforded by the First Amendment. The district court dismissed the professor’s free-speech and free-exercise claims. We see things differently and reverse.”

"Transgender Day of Visibility" proclaimed in midst of flashpoints on trans agenda

Last week, the President declared a "Transgender Day of Visibility," and according to the Family Research Council, Biden used the occasion to promote the so-called Equality Act, described by FRC as "a piece of legislation that we know would corrupt the family, advance abortion, and harm many people, including women, medical professionals, religious schools, and even the very members of the LGBT community that the bill claims to protect."

The FRC article, written by Travis Weber, also takes to task the contention by CNN that "biological sex" is "a disputed term that refers to the sex as listed on students' original birth certificates." He writes: "Thankfully, Americans are not ready to give up this cultural fight against truth and reality. Courageous state legislators in Arkansas are taking a stand. The Arkansas legislature recently overwhelmingly approved the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act...that prohibits doctors from performing gender transition surgeries on minors and bans taxpayer funding from covering them." 

It's worth noting that a bill criminalizing gender transition treatments on minors is currently pending before the Alabama House of Representatives, after already passing the Senate.

Weber writes:

For minors who grow up to regret their decision to transition, the effects are devastating. Victims like Keira Bell say medical professionals should have challenged her when she claimed she wanted to transition. But she acknowledges, "When you are that young, you don't really want to listen." Legislation like the SAFE Act would have protected impressionable young people like Keira from making similarly harmful mistakes.

North Dakota passes bill to protect churches during health crisis

As I have reported throughout the coronavirus pandemic, there were governmental entities who place restrictions on churches in the name of public health that they did not place on other types of gatherings.  Lawmakers in North Dakota decided they would do something about that if another public health emergency would occur, according to The Christian Post, which reported that Governor Doug Burgum signed the bill last week.

The article says:

The new law prohibits state government health officials from, among other things, issuing emergency orders that treat religious bodies worse than secular entities unless a compelling state interest exists.

The bill passed unanimously in the state Senate, 46-0 and cleared the House with an 88-4 margin.  The Christian Post quoted ADF Legal Counsel Greg Chafuen, who stated: “We commend North Dakota for making it clear that officials can’t use a public crisis to discriminate against religious operations while promoting secular ones, and we encourage other states to pursue similar legislation.”