Obama’s Transgender Decree

On May 9, the Obama Administration declared (in essence) that forcing people to use bathroom facilities based on their God-given plumbing was state-sponsored discrimination.  A few days later, the president issued a directive requiring every public school in the nation to accommodate transgender students – under Title IX guidelines.  Boys who identify as girls (and vice versa) must be allowed to use the bathrooms and locker rooms and shower stalls of their choosing.  They must also be allowed to play on the sports teams of their choosing.  School districts that dare defy the administration’s directives could face lawsuits and lose millions of dollars in federal funding.

“There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.

“It’s an outrageous attack on our Creator Himself, upon human sexuality and morality and a further advancement of the flagrant attack on religious freedom in our culture,” Southern Baptist Convention President Ronnie Floyd told Todd Starnes of FoxNews.  The leader of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination said the president’s decree is an extreme over-reach by the federal government and he called on Christians to speak out.  “Sooner or later we have to determine that enough is enough,” he said.  “It’s not going to change until Christians get involved in this battle.”

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to fight the Obama Administration’s decree, telling a gathering of Republicans, “Obama is turning bathrooms into courtroom issues.”  He went on to say, “Our country is in crisis and Texas must lead the way forward.”  Abbott said he is working alongside the embattled Republican Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina “and we are going to fight back.”

One of the most forceful rebukes came from Tennessee Republican Congresswoman Diane Black.  “I believe the Obama Administration is now directly responsible for endangering our students,” she said.  “It is worth nothing that this directive does not carry the force of law – and I would encourage Tennessee school officials to continue following their consciences.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told Starnes that Congress must intervene to stop what he called an imperial president.  “If the president chooses to go forward with this outrageous order – then congress should begin impeachment proceedings,” he said.  Perkins said the decree should be “resisted with every legal and moral instrument we have available to us in this country.”  He went on to say, “Every parent, every school board in America should absolutely refuse to sacrifice the safety of their children for the threat of taking away nine federal pennies that make up every educational dollar,” he said.

“Resist!”  That’s the message from Penny Young Nance, president of Concerned Women for America.  “The left always uses children to accomplish its goals of social re-engineering,” she said.  “The adults closest to these children should decide what’s best for all the children in the school.  Safety and kindness should be the guiding principles, not threats from the bullies in Washington.”

My fellow Americans: The time has long since come for all Americans to stand up and defy this president's immoral agenda.  If losing federal funding is the price we must pay to protect women and children – then so be it.  Don’t betray what we know to be true and right for the government’s ‘30 pieces of silver.’

And to my fellow Christians: For far too long American pulpits have remained silent on controversial cultural issues.  Preachers don’t want to rock the boat and parishioners don’t want to cause trouble.  Our beloved country stands at the edge of a great moral abyss.  It is time to render to the higher authority of God what is God’s, and to defy the president (Caesar) and save the nation.  Don’t sacrifice our children on the altar of political correctness!

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel