The 3 - June 9, 2024

This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, includes a groundbreaking declaration from medical professionals encouraging colleagues to refrain from supporting gender-change treatments and surgeries.  Also, a California lifeguard is fighting back after being suspended from his job for not flying LGBT flags at work. Plus, a large United Methodist jurisdiction in Africa representing 1.2 million members has announced it is leaving the denomination.

Medical professionals call out those who support gender-change procedures and treatments

Almost 100 medical professionals have signed on to a declaration that challenges the participation of those in the profession in treatments and surgeries that are intended to help a person change his or her gender.

The Christian Post reported that "... the American College of Pediatricians unveiled the 'Doctors Protecting Children Declaration.'" It went on to say:

The statement was signed by nearly 100 medical professionals, including physicians, nurses, psychotherapists and behavioral health clinicians, as well as “other health professionals, scientists, researchers, and public health and policy professionals.”

The article noted that the Declaration...

...asked “the medical professional organizations of the United States” to “stop the promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex.”

“Instead, these organizations should recommend comprehensive evaluations and therapies aimed at identifying and addressing underlying psychological co-morbidities and neurodiversity that often presuppose to and accompany gender dysphoria,” the signatories added.

The Christian Post story said that:

ACP Executive Director Dr. Jill Simons elaborated on her concerns about the U.S. medical establishment's current protocols on how to care for trans-identified minors.

“This declaration was authored by the American College of Pediatricians, but really it was developed from the expertise of hundreds of doctors, researchers and other healthcare workers and leaders who for years have been sounding the alarm on the harmful protocols that continue to be promoted by the medical organizations in the United States,” she said.

Simons said that the "American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry are involved in the support of these “harmful protocols.”

At a press conference to announce the declaration, "Dr. Andre Van Mol of The Christian Medical and Dental Associations cited statistics finding that 'the natural course of gender dysphoria is desisted by adulthood, conservatively, in 85% of the cases unless it is affirmed.'”

More information on the Declaration can be found at DoctorsProtectingChildren.org.

California lifeguard suspended from job for not displaying LGBT flag

A lifeguard in California, Jeffrey Little, requested a religious exemption from having to participate in displaying an LGBT Pride flag, but was ultimately denied and suspended from his job last year. According to an article at The Stream: 

In March 2023, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors passed a resolution requiring all county-operated facilities to fly the Progress Pride Flag during the month of June, according to the complaint. June is “Pride Month.”

The article states:

Little, who was the captain of the lifeguard unit at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades, requested a religious exemption on June 18, and was told a day later that another employee of the fire department could raise the flag at the beach stations in order to accommodate his faith. Meanwhile, Little was moved to Dockweiler Beach in nearby Playa del Rey, which did not have working flag poles at that time. However, just before his shift was set to begin on June 21, a fire department section chief visited Little’s new location, modified the flagpoles, and ordered all the lifeguards to raise the Progress Pride Flag at their stations.

When Little discovered this, he consulted with colleagues and removed the flags. The article says that he was ordered to restore the display.  The Stream story says: "On June 22, Little was suspended from his job and denied paid time off that he had already earned. The fire department also told people who were not authorized to have personnel information that Little had requested a religious accommodation."

So, in late May of this year, Little filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The article notes that "Little’s lawsuit seeks damages, a temporary restraining order, and a permanent injunction protecting his religious freedom." FoxNews.com reported recently that, "The fire department granted him a partial accomodation..., assuring him that he will not be held personally responsible for raising or lowering the LGBTQ flag for the remainder of the month, according to the Thomas More Society."  But his attorneys, according to the story, do not believe that is enough.

Over 1 million United Methodists in Africa leave denomination as large jurisdiction departs

Throughout the years, a major group comprising the United Methodist denomination as it has struggled around the issue of Biblical sexuality is the membership of the denomination on the continent in Africa. At numerous General Conferences, representatives of what has been called the "Global South" would show up and support American Methodists in their fidelity to Biblical teaching regarding homosexuality. 

Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy wrote on the Juicy Ecumenism website: 

United Methodism’s largest overseas jurisdiction has voted to quit the denomination in response to the church’s divorcing sex from marriage at its governing General Conference earlier this month.

The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast voted on May 28 to exit the denomination. In 2022, this conference reportedly had over 1.2 million members. So, its departure means over one tenth of United Methodism has in one day left the denomination.

Tooley attributes a United Methodist News Service's e-mailed news digest.  He cited a video that had been posted on Facebook, and he wrote:

...the decision-making process for the Ivorian Methodists transpired over only a couple weeks after the United Methodist General Conference concluded May 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina. At that General Conference, delegates removed the church’s longtime stance that sex is only for marriage between husband and wife. Adultery and extramarital sex were removed as chargeable offenses for clergy, along with homosexual behavior.

The quickness of the Ivorian exit may inspire other United Methodist regions in Africa to act likewise. United Methodism in Africa is overwhelmingly conservative and displeased with United Methodism’s new direction set by the recent General Conference. African delegates at the General Conference were widely ignored and already underrepresented, thanks to an unfair representation formula. Plus, over 70-90 delegates, at least one quarter, and perhaps one third, failed to get U.S. visas.

Furthermore, as Tooley notes, African churches did not have an agreement providing for a way to leave the denomination, as American churches had for a while.  However, he said that it's not apparent about whether or not the UMC exercises clear ownership of African church buildings.