“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.” Luke 17:2
For centuries, the abuse of children has been considered one of the worst crimes a person could commit. Child molesters often find themselves outcasts even in prison. Societies look harshly upon those who endanger their children. It’s a standard that’s nearly universal.
That’s why it is so chilling to see the ABC television network air an episode of its 20/20 news magazine that features and celebrates transgendered children. Barbara Walters interviews with gushing sympathy the family of a 10 year-old boy who thinks he is a girl. The boy’s parents have encouraged him to live as a girl for the last three years [1]:
This past Christmas, Riley Grant received a present that can be described as bittersweet — a video game that allowed her to morph a digital body into anything she wanted. Almost immediately, Riley, a 10-year-old transgender girl who is biologically a boy, adopted a virtual female persona. If only life were so easy, that she could punch a button and turn into a girl.
“She has a birth defect, and we call it that. I can’t think of a worse birth defect, as a woman to have, than to have a penis,” Riley’s mother, Stephanie, told Barbara Walters. “She talks about the day she’ll have a baby. That’s not in her future. But she sees herself as growing up to be a woman.”
According to the parents, the child first informed them that he was in the wrong body when he was 2 years old. That’s right, two years old. Just today my own two year-old informed me that he was a turtle. He even swam at me with a sinister turtle voice. I called his bluff, yet these parents wouldn’t think of denying their child the right to be who he/she really is.
I have no doubt that this child has serious problems — much more so than my son’s turtle identity disorder. I have no doubt that it is difficult raising such a confused child. I also have no doubt that what these parents have done is a dereliction of their duty as guardians of their child. God can redeem even the deadest of us, so I pray that before it’s too late, they will realize what they have done. For they have sacrificed their child upon the altar of the spirit of the age.
May God help them.