Companies Like Target are Teaching Kids to Hate and Brutalize Their Bodies
Target may pride itself on labeling its products with an “LGBTQ+ Owned” icon to discern which brands are founded or owned by LGBT-identified people, but something feels sickeningly off-kilter about corporations profiting off the backs of vulnerable teens. These children and teens deserve productive therapeutic treatment and room to safely explore, not a marketing ploy that exploits their insecurities.
Prepare yourself: There’s ample rainbow-washing ahead. We got our first peek into the consumerist goodies available for June’s LGBT Pride Month with the newly released capsule collection from Target. This lineup includes kitschy graphic tees with slogans such as “They She He” (featuring cartoon images of naked people), “Trans Pride Trans Power,” “Trans People Will Always Exist,” and “Queer! Queer! Queer! Queer!” Sure, that just looks like harmless junk for adults, but these items were also designed for and are now marketed to babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, and teens.
Need to pick up a book or two on your Target trip to keep your hyperactive toddler busy? How about the “Bye Bye, Binary” board book with the tagline “Nobody puts baby in a pink or blue corner!” Or “The Pronoun Book,” a board book that one reviewer online says is a “wonderful way to explain different pronouns to babies.” Target isn’t shy about putting propagandistic books on its shelves while removing those that go against its narrative (recall Target removing Abigail Shrier’s well-researched, evidence-based book, “Irreversible Damage,” from stores).
For wearable goods, there’s a “Pride Baby Bien Proud Body Suit” for your newborn. Target even had to make sure its Spanish-speaking consumers were included in its trans indoctrination; the garment’s rainbow lettering reads “¡Bien Proud!”
I’m not convinced a young toddler has any sense of what the phrase “¡Bien Proud!” even references or would pick that out of his own volition. Rather, this feels more like Target wants parents to use their children as walking (or even crawling) billboards to affirm activists’ identities and ideologies.
However, your teen has likely been through our modern school system and, at this point, probably knows all the ins and outs of gender ideology. To signal those newfound values, he or she might want a “Queer All Year” beanie or perhaps a “Super Queer” color-block bucket hat.
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When Debating Biblical Inspiration, Let God Do the Heavy Lifting
Don’t get into a tug-of-war with skeptics about inspiration. Instead, invite others to engage the ideas first, then let God do the heavy lifting for you. The truth you’re defending has a life of its own because the Spirit is in the words. Once your friend has listened a bit, any further reasons you give for biblical authority will have the soil they need to take root in.
I want to help you solve a problem that has troubled many Christians. First, think for a moment about this statement Paul made to the Thessalonians:
For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. (1Thess. 2:13)
Now, here’s the problem. A woman I once spoke with expressed frustration with a friend who had dismissed the Bible as “only written by men.” Her insistence that the words were inspired by God was no help. Instead, it led to a fruitless cycle: The Bible is God’s Word—But it was just written by men—But God inspired those men—But men make mistakes. Round and round they went, going nowhere.
Maybe you’ve encountered this problem, too.
Here’s one way you might respond: Give specific reasons why it’s reasonable to believe the Bible is a supernatural book of divine authorship and not merely the musings of men.
For years, I have taught six of these reasons in a talk called “The Bible: Has God Spoken?” If you’ve heard the talk and are able to recall the points and explain them, you may get someone thinking. It’s a way of putting a stone in their shoe, so to speak.
This approach is much more effective, however, after something else has happened first. Before I tell you what that is, I have a confession to make.
Though I give this talk often, these are not really the reasons I personally believe the Bible is God’s Word. They are sound evidences, and they have their place (I’ll explain more on that in a moment), but they are not how I came to believe in the Bible’s authority in the first place. I suspect they’re not the reasons you believe, either, even if you’ve heard the talk and thought it compelling.
I came to believe the Bible was God’s Word the same way the Thessalonians did, the same way you probably did: They encountered the truth firsthand and were moved by it.
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I Belong (5): Comfort in the Visible Church
Local churches are the visible expression of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. King Jesus reigns over, rules, governs, cares for, and provides for his people in and through these churches. This is the visible church. Belonging to a local church is essential for you and me. It is a non-negotiable if you truly love Christ, because to love Christ is to love the church of Christ, and this next part is really important to think about because God uses means inside local churches to save His people from their sins and misery.
Church. Think about that word. Church. What is it? What does it mean? Does it refer to a building where people meet to worship God? Does it signify the public worship of God? Does it mean the one organized and global body of believers prior to the Reformation? Does it represent the elders or leadership of a particular body of believers? Is it a verb describing the process of teaching and discipling unbelievers? I think it’s safe to say the word church means different things in different contexts. Would you agree?
With this in mind, we need to think very carefully about the word church in the Bible and in the world today. And I hope these simple thoughts help you think rightly about Christ’s church and belonging to it. If we think rightly about Christ’s church, we can find great comfort in belonging to Christ and his beloved church.
How would you think about the difference between a true Christian worshiping God from the heart in a local church and a self-righteous hypocrite who is unregenerate, doesn’t truly believe, and is simply going through religious motions in the same church? Think about Judas. Take a look at John 13:21-30. You’ll notice that none of the disciples suspected Judas would betray Jesus or that he was the “son of destruction” (Jn. 17:12). Eleven of the disciples were truly united to Christ by faith, learning from him, and following him. One was covert fraud. And from the outside, no one could tell the difference, at least initially. So, in one sense, Judas was a disciple, and in another sense, Judas was not a disciple.
The same is true of the church. There is an external or visible and internal and invisible way to think about church. You can see a local church. In that local church are people who confess Christ together. Among those people confessing Christ are people who are truly united to Christ by faith alone. Yet, alongside them are self-righteous hypocrites who have only the appearance of godliness (2 Tim. 3:5).
Consider from Matthew 7:15 that there are false prophets in the church that look like sheep but are actually ravenous wolves. Consider that according to Matthew 7:21-23, people will confess the Lord and do works in his name but will perish on Judgment Day because they didn’t truly know Christ and were workers of lawlessness. Consider the parable of the sower and its explanation in Matthew 13. Some people receive God’s Word with joy but only endure for a little while because they have no root. Consider the parable of the weeds and its explanation in Matthew 13. The sons of the kingdom and sons of the devil coexist in the world and the church. Consider 1 John 2:19 which explains that some in the church don’t endure in the faith. Consider 1 John 4:20 which explains that some will confess “I love God” but hate their brethren thus proving their confession a lie.
It is true and sobering that there will be self-righteous hypocrites among those who confess Christ. They are part of the community of faith, part of the church, but do not actually trust in or love Christ and cannot always be identified.
So, in one sense self-righteous hypocrites belong to the church.
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Grove City College: Report and Recommendation of the Special Committee
“By any standard, GCC remains one of the most conservative colleges in the country. We regret that we cannot expand this report to highlight the evidence in support of that statement. But we commend the many employees and trustees whose teaching, writing, speaking, administration, and leadership continue to make “Freedom’s College”22 a unique institution in American higher education and in the conservative firmament.”
Statement of the Grove City College Board of Trustees February 16, 2022
The Board of Trustees is aware of recent commentary questioning whether Grove City College may be changing its mission, vision, or values. Our duty of care and loyalty includes stewardship of the College’s mission—an honor and responsibility that we take most seriously.
We unqualifiedly reaffirm GCC’s Christ-centered mission and commitment to a free society, traditional values, and the common good. That has not changed one iota and will not change on our watch. Fidelity to the College’s founding principles secures GCC’s unique place as an oasis in American higher education. In particular, the Board categorically rejects Critical Race Theory and similar “critical” schools of thought as antithetical to GCC’s mission and values.
In his written statement addressing the matter, President McNulty attempted to balance confidential personnel matters with assurances that remedial steps would be taken and more may be appropriate.
To that end, and with the encouragement of President McNulty, the Board has established a special committee to review alleged instances of mission[1]drift, summarize facts, identify remedial actions already implemented by President McNulty, and recommend any additional measures that may be appropriate.
On April 13, 2022, the Grove City College Board acted on the Report from the Committee. Read the Board Report.
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