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- Perhaps you've heard about the latest nutso thing that the Obama administration is going to enforce.
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- Just made the news yesterday. How is it as Christians should we respond to this?
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- We'll talk about that when we Understand the Text. Many of the
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- Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.
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- Visit our website at www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
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- Thank you, Becky. It is Friday and I typically take email from listeners and viewers of what videos and respond to it on the broadcast.
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- If you'd like to send an email to us, whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
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- I'm going to respond to two emails here and then I've got something from Denny Burke that I want to get to. This first one comes from Donna.
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- Is it possible to listen to an audio version of your videos? I have slow internet and whereas I cannot download videos,
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- I can normally listen to audio with no problem. Unfortunately, Donna, that's not in the plan.
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- We don't have anything right now where we're working on transforming all of the videos into audio, but I will tell you that we're working on posting transcripts from all of those videos.
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- So while you can't listen to them, you could read them. Go to our website www .utt .com
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- and you'll see a transcripts tab. There's only a few of them on there right now, but hopefully by the end of the month or start of June or something like that, all 112 videos or however many it is, will all be there.
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- Transcripts from all of those videos at www .utt .com. This next email comes from South Africa.
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- Dear Sir or Madam, I just want to thank you for your videos. You have answered so many of the questions that I had.
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- I have been trying to figure out a lot of things that are happening in the world and church today and your videos have helped.
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- Even within the church, one can be persecuted if one doesn't go with the trends.
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- It is good to see so many areas which I had questioned are on your videos. Thank you so much,
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- Lindy from South Africa. Thank you, Lindy, for your email. That surely was kind. Again, if you want to send an email when we understand the text at gmail .com,
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- some of these complimentary emails like that one from Lindy, I also read to our church so that they know what's happening with this ministry and how it has been reaching out around the globe.
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- Truly a blessing and I appreciate everybody for watching the videos and for sharing them also.
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- Okay, I want to get to another matter here and this is something that had happened yesterday. Denny Burke, who is the
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- Professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College, wrote a blog response to this already yesterday and I'm going to go ahead and read his blog because he's going to put it better than I can.
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- By the time you read this, the news will be all over the country. The New York Times reports that President Obama has released a letter directing every public school in the country to recognize and accept transgender identities.
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- In particular, the directive has to do with bathroom and locker room use. Here's the relevant excerpt from the report.
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- The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.
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- A letter to school districts will go out Friday, fueling a highly charged debate over transgender rights in the middle of the administration's legal fight with North Carolina over the issue.
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- The declaration, signed by Justice and Education Department officials, will describe what schools should do to ensure that none of their students are discriminated against.
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- It does not have the force of law, but it contains an implicit threat. Schools that do not abide by the
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- Obama administration's interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.
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- The move is certain to draw fresh criticism, particularly from Republicans, that the federal government is wading into local matters and imposing its own values on communities across the country that may not agree.
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- It represents the latest example of the Obama administration using a combination of policies, lawsuits and public statements to change the civil rights landscape for gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people.
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- And that's the end of the of the article portion. Denny Burke goes on. Just to be clear what this means.
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- The Obama administration is announcing its intent to coerce through force of law every public school to accept this.
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- He expects your local school to allow boys to use bathroom and shower facilities with girls and vice versa.
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- So long as the child's parents are willing to go along with their child's new identity, the school has to let students into the bathroom and locker room of the opposite sex.
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- This directive is jaw dropping. The Obama administration doesn't care whether the local or state school system supports such a move.
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- It doesn't care whether parents want male students showering with the female students or vice versa.
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- President Obama's letter requires schools to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities, even in circumstances in which other students, parents or community members raise objections or concerns.
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- The Obama administration is saying that every public school must accept the new rules or face the music.
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- It has decided that anyone, even parents who refuses the new rules, will be guilty of discrimination.
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- What is going on here? The example is very simple. President Obama feels the wind at his back in advocating
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- LGBT rights. Gay marriage is now the law of the land and gay people are now serving openly in the military.
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- Now President Obama is turning to the T in LGBT and he's making bathrooms and locker rooms the issue.
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- As the Attorney General has made clear, those who refuse to go along will be treated like Jim Crow bigots.
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- This radical directive is a heavy -handed, unconstitutional overreach in order to force
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- Americans to pretend that some boys are girls and some girls are boys.
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- It is absurd and wrong. And I wonder if this may not be a bridge too far even for people who are otherwise liberal.
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- Are fathers going to be okay with their daughters undressing in locker rooms where boys can see them?
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- No matter how much one may support President Obama, what dad would go along with this?
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- Transgenderism is a fiction that harms real people and undermines the common good.
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- It is not good to treat boys as if they're girls, nor to treat girls as if they're boys.
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- That may be how some students self -identify, but indulging that fiction doesn't help them, it hurts them and it ultimately undermines the social fabric of the communities they inhabit.
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- There will be much said and written about this directive in days and weeks to come. This is going to cause unrest and conflict all over the country.
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- It is one thing for an individual to embrace a fictional identity. It is another thing for the federal government to coerce everyone else to embrace it too.
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- This is far from over. Indeed, the conflict has only just begun. Christians must not give in to the distortions of this coercive directive.
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- We must recognize that it is not only harmful to children and adolescents, but to everyone who is swayed by it.
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- Why? Because it contradicts what God has revealed to us about ourselves and about His intention for us.
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- Scripture teaches that God has made us in His image as male and female, Genesis 1 26 -28.
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- This sexual binary is one that Jesus Himself recognized and affirmed as good and right in Matthew 19 4.
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- Understand this binary used to be common sense, and this traditional understanding is no less true even if it is less common.
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- This latest transgender battle line points to a much deeper spiritual rot.
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- It exposes what has already been at the heart of the sexual revolution. The Creator's purposes for male and female must give way to the creature's autonomous will.
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- If a guy feels like he's a girl, then he is one even if his biology says otherwise.
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- The Creator's distinction between male and female must bend to accommodate the sovereign will of the creature.
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- And if God's will can be defied, then so can everyone else's. Even though in a fallen world people do experience gender identity conflicts, the
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- Scripture reveals a normative connection between biological sex and gender identity.
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- Attempts to deny this, therefore, are an attempt to suppress the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1 18.
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- That means that gender identity conflicts in children or in adults should be resolved in keeping with one's biological sex.
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- It is neither loving nor compassionate to conceal this truth from our neighbors, especially from the children.
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- Thank you, Denny Burke, for that particular article. Folks, our world needs the gospel now more than ever.
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- In fact, let me put this another way. Our world needs people who are bold about the gospel now more than ever.
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- As we read in Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for in it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
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- There are many matters in our world that need to be directly addressed, and I think this being one of them.
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- But we must always have the gospel with us whenever we confront any situation. Otherwise, we're just making a more comfortable seat for a person on their way to hell.
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- The gospel is what has the power to save a person and bring them from darkness into light.
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- So let us always be calling out sin, telling a person to repent of their sin. We identify what the sin is, why it's wrong according to the
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- Word of God, and call them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, but doing this with gentleness and respect.
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- We read this in 2 Timothy 2 verses 24 -26, Folks, if you are parents who have children in the public school system,
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- I would encourage you to pray, seek counseling and guidance about the possibility of pulling your children out of public school and either homeschooling them or putting them in a
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- Christian school. We must also pray for our teachers and those who are Christians working in the public school system that when faced with the situation here that looks like you're either going to comply or be fired, that they are going to respond according to the conviction of their heart.
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- What God in his design has said is a boy or a girl.
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- And that witness would stand even in our public school system, pray for their courage and their bravery as their faith is going to be put on the line here in this particular situation.
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- Lord, I want to pray for, I pray for our teachers. I pray for our parents. I pray for our leaders of this country.
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- It seems like the Obama administration in every way they can is trying to turn this nation into a cesspool.
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- How can we make things worse? And sure enough, the next week, something else comes out that the
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- Obama administration can do to make our moral situation in this country worse.
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- But God, we know that what's coming out of the White House is just a reflection of the hearts of its people.
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- And so I pray that perhaps, perhaps here the White House has now gone a step too far and the people are going,
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- Whoa, wait, what are we doing? Like it's suddenly dawning on people the seriousness of the direction that we are going and we would repent of our sins.
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- We would fall on our faces before you, before we fall in judgment, but God, it is not by our will, but your will be done.
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- Guide us in your truth as we seek your ways and we pray this in Jesus' name,
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- Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt
