This week's edition of The 3, featuring three stories of relevance to the Christian community, features a sampling from the Presidential debate in Tuscaloosa, AL, and candidate's comments regarding gender issues. Also from Alabama, a drag show met with opposition from church leaders. Plus, while military promotions will be handled differently that in the previous few months, the Department of Defense's policy on abortion is still coming under fire.
Gender issues have significant presence in Tuscaloosa Presidential debate
One of the major developments of our time, one that has special relevance to Christians who believe in the Biblical viewpoint of sexuality, is the gender identity movement, that can range from support for surgeries or treatments that falsely claim to change a person's sex to allowing male athletes to compete on female sports teams to allowing males and females to share private spaces, such as bathrooms or locker rooms.
Several aspects of that agenda showed up in the discussion at the recent Presidential debate in Tuscaloosa, and each candidate made statements related to the issue. The New York Post reported that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stated his belief that parents should decide whether or not minor children should have these treatments, stating, “I trust parents...I stood up every single time for parents to be able to make the decisions for their minor children..." He added, “The minute you start to take those rights away from parents, you don’t know, that slippery slope, what rights are going to be taken away next..." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated, "You do not have the right to abuse your kids. This is mutilating these minors, these are irreversible procedures...," adding, “We cannot allow this to happen in this country..."
Meanwhile Governor DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley attempted to compare their records on matters of gender. The Post reported, "DeSantis touted sweeping legislation that he signed into law in Florida earlier this year that banned providing minors with puberty blockers or hormone therapy and outlawed performing sex-reassignment surgeries on children."
The article went on to say that Haley......was forced to defend her handling of state legislation in 2016 that sought to ban transgender individuals from using restrooms that don’t align with their biological sex.DeSantis responded to Haley by saying, “I signed a bathroom bill in Florida, so that’s obviously not true..." Haley commented: “I also say that biological boys shouldn’t be playing girls sports, and I will do everything I can to stop that because it’s the women’s issue of our time.”
DeSantis had accused the Haley of killing the so-called bathroom bill.
“When I was governor, 10 years ago, when the bathroom situation came up, we had maybe a handful of kids that were dealing with an issue and I said, ‘We don’t need to bring government into this,” she said.
“Now, 10 years later, we see that this issue has exploded. And this shows how hypocritical Ron continues to be. When he was running for governor [in 2018] and they asked him about that, he said he didn’t think bathroom bills were a good use of his time,” Haley added, referring to an answer DeSantis gave at a Florida Republican gubernatorial forum, where he said would “not pass a law” related to transgender bathroom issues and would rather “stay out of that.”
Albertville, AL venue hosts drag show, event raises questions, challenge for LGBT community
After expressions of concern by leaders in the Christian community in the Northeast Alabama city of Albertville, Alabama, a drag show was staged at a local venue. WAFF Television reported that about 250 people attended and that there was a strong police presence there. The station's website said:
Chief J.T. Cartee says safety for everyone was the number one priority and offered another avenue on how to express their concerns.
“Don’t get mad. Pray. I’ve talked to some of the people involved in organizing the protests and they have agreed that it’d be better to hold prayer vigils at their church. Why don’t you join in and pray with them? Prayer is far more powerful than protest,” Cartee said.
But, as 1819 News reported, the city did not have jurisdiction to allow people to protest on-site, since the event was on private property. But, it had been reported that churches in the area were encouraged to have prayer vigils during the week leading up to the event.
The 1819 News piece was written by Jennifer Oliver O'Connell, who made some valid points - I didn't agree with them all, but this passage is worth noting:
The gospel being preached to young people about drag queens is:
- You must be an exhibitionist to be yourself and be seen
O'Connell challenged "the local church in Albertville" with this question: "How can you present that message to the LGBTQ community this Christmas season?"And the biggest lie:
- You must embrace another persona in order to be loved – who you are is never enough
If there are people in the community of Albertville living a life of fear, hiding in their secrets, then I would think the goal on both sides would be to offer a place of safety and openness, but most of all freedom to reveal those problems and get help. Despite the bill of goods the LGBTQ community sells, pretending to be someone or something else is not normal, and it will not make you free.
- No one will accept you if you reveal your secret life
The story of Christmas is about how love came down to redeem a fallen world – to set the captives free. The prophecy in Isaiah 9:3 about the coming Messiah promises, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
AL U.S. Senator allows some military promotions to go through, continues to oppose military abortion policy
Many have lauded the attempt by U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville to call attention to the Department of Defense policy to use taxpayer dollars to pay for its members to travel across state lines to have abortions. Tuberville was not blocking any military promotions; he merely, using a rule in the Senate, called for the Senate to approve the promotions one-by-one, rather than in bulk. The Senator has been vilified for his stance, and until a rule change was approved recently by a Senate committee, was able to successfully challenge the policy.
The Daily Citizen reports that the Senator "believes this policy violates the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the government from using taxes to fund or promote abortions. Though the DOD’s healthcare policy doesn’t directly fund abortions, it uses taxpayer’s money to facilitate them, which the senator argues is illegal."
The website notes that Tuberville "...stopped his almost nine-month hold on the Senate’s group military promotions..., several outlets reported, announcing he wouldn’t oppose promotions of three-star generals and lower-ranked officers." The article goes on to say: "His hold on four-star generals and admirals will reportedly continue, as Tuberville vocally supports vetting people controlling the U.S. military." The catalyst for the Senator's actions, according to The Daily Citizen: "The senator’s opponents were prepared to vote on a resolution temporarily changing Senate rules to force the contested promotions through."
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