Advocates
Protecting
Children
Advocates Protecting Children is a 501c3 (non-profit) organization, EIN #87-3081103. Advocates Protecting Children was incorporated on November 9, 2021.
Doctrine
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
God & Gender Ideology
Two of the most common lies taught by gender industry activists, especially to young children, are that “One can be born in the wrong body,”[i] and that “God made a mistake.”[ii] Although we have already discussed arguments that defeat the first lie, the second lie can similarly be dismantled by investigating the only three corollaries that can flow out of the idea that God might err: 1) God is cruel, 2) God is incompetent, or 3) God doesn’t exist.
God Is Cruel
One of the claims that transgender rights activists frequently make to support belief in a gender spectrum (infinite genders), as opposed to a binary (male and female), is diversity. They argue that gender is like skin color or like the variety of animal species in nature. They assert that God—if they address God at all—isn’t a limited or limiting god, but a god who celebrates diversity in every aspect of his creation.
However, if God is sovereign and omnipotent (all-powerful), and God intentionally creates persons whose inner landscape (their “gender”) is mismatched to their outer landscape (their physical sex) then we can only conclude that God is cruel. To specifically design a creature whose mind and body are at odds with one another is to create a lack of integrity (here meaning integrated-ness, or symbiosis of the system) which must by definition cause the creature pain and suffering.
The transgender narrative explains this pain and suffering as a result of societal non-acceptance. But no matter what one experiences at the hands of others, certainly the very state of existing at war with oneself creates its own inherent pain and lack of peace. To believe that God would deliberately curse someone to live in disharmony with himself, or be required to undergo extensive and life-long medicalization through human-handed surgery and drug treatment in an attempt to achieve harmony, is to paint God as a sadist.
God Is Incompetent
Most religious holy texts are clear on three points about their deity: God is omnipotent (all-powerful), God is omniscient (all-knowing), and God is omnipresent (all-seeing). Biblical references to these three characteristics include...
The Congregation
"I know where you live--where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name."
Revelation 2:13
Families Are Under Attack
Children and youth are being pulled into the gender cult and announcing to their parents that they are transgender or genderfluid or nonbinary.
Husbands and wives are announcing new gender identities, and demanding that their spouses participate, or leaving their spouses and children to pursue their new lifestyle.
Families are being told by "experts" that they must affirm their loved one's new gender identity, lest their husband or wife or child commit suicide.
People who realized that the brave and stunning promises of the gender cult were lies that left them psychologically, emotionally, and physically damaged are leaving the transgender community, but finding few if any resources for healing beyond it.
The Church Can Help
The church is strategically placed to be able to respond to all of these needs.
Whereas secular mental health caregivers may lose their licenses if they speak truth to these hurting individuals, thanks to so-called "conversion therapy" bans, the church still operates under First Amendment religious freedom protections, and can offer real help and healing to individuals and families who have been wounded by gender ideology.
The church may be the last and only place where hurting people can get honest and ethical help for gender identity struggles.
How do we find a godly posture on gender ideology?
What should the church's role in gender healing be?
Children & Youth
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."
Matthew 18:5-6
Recommendations for Youth Groups
on Ministering to Transgender-Identified Youth
What might be the best response for youth groups when kids announce a transgender identity at church?
Ultimately, the church (and by extension the youth group) is meant to spread the gospel and make disciples for Christ. Keeping that goal in mind, one can start to parse out what the youth group's role might be when it comes to an issue like transgender ideology.
Perhaps the three most important things to consider are:
1) what Scripture says,
2) how the child's parents want to handle their child's identity issues, and
3) upholding truth for everyone in the youth group.
A church whose foundation is built upon scripture is likely to agree that God created humans to be either male or female.
While personality and preferences may be on a continuum between what society considers “masculine” and “feminine,” sex (maleness or femaleness) is binary, determined by God, and fixed from the moment of conception. To interpret otherwise suggests a possibly heretical deference to cultural tides over biblical truth...
Unfortunately, nearly every “expert” in the culture will tell the family that they must “affirm” the child’s idea that s/he is a different gender. By the time the parents come to the youth group leader they have likely already been misled by the teacher, school counselor, principal, therapist, and/or pediatrician that if they don't affirm the transgender identity the child will commit suicide...
Christian parents and youth leaders can say, “By asking us to call you they/them instead of she/her, you are asking us to do something that we don't believe God agrees with. God made you the sex you are, and the Bible is very clear that people only come in two varieties: male and female. There is no escaping that reality. If we must choose between offending you or offending God, I'm afraid we're going to have to choose to offend you.”
