‘Gender Ideology Harms Children’

Southern Evangelical Seminary President Dr. Richard Land Says He Is Grateful for Doctors Speaking Against Child Abuse and Dangerous and Perverse Political Correctness

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The state of North Carolina and Gov. Pat McCrory continue to face a firestorm of opposition regarding the recently passed controversial “bathroom bill.”

Last week, McCrory responded to the backlash, according to the Washington Post, by signing an executive order aimed to calm those reacting negatively. “McCrory said he was expanding protections for state employees, which would prevent these workers from being fired for being gay or transgender,” the Washington Post reported. “He also said he would seek legislation restoring the right to sue for discrimination.”

The governor, however, left the most controversial portion of the bill intact—mandating that transgender people use bathrooms that correspond only with the gender on their birth certificate.

Evangelical leader Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary (SES, www.staging.ses.edu), recently addressed the timely topic of gender ideology in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which is heard on nearly 400 stations nationwide.

“Finally, the adults in the room are speaking up!” Land said. “The American College of Pediatricians has issued a preliminary statement to be followed by a complete statement this summer. The headline of the statement says it all. The pediatricians did not bury their lead: ‘Gender Ideology Harms Children.’”

Land went on to list the bullet points of the statement, which are:

Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health—not genetic markers of a disorder.
No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex. Gender (an awareness and sense of oneself as male or female) is a sociological and psychological concept, not an objective biological one.
A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking.
Puberty is not a disease, and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous.
According to the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, as many as 98 percent of gender confused boys and 88 percent of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.
Children who use puberty blockers to impersonate the opposite sex will require cross-sex hormones in late adolescence. Cross-sex hormones … are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and cancer.
Rates of suicide are 20 times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBQT-affirming countries.
Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.
One of the three doctors issuing the American College of Pediatricians statement was former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Paul McHugh, who has said that transgenderism is a mental disorder that warrants treatment and that those who promote sex reassignment surgery are contributing to a mental disorder.

The statement, according to The Daily Caller, continued, “Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse. … When an otherwise healthy biological boy believes he is a girl, or an otherwise healthy biological girl believes she is a boy, an objective psychological problem exists that lies in the mind not the body, and it should be treated as such.”

Added Land, “I am grateful for these pediatricians who are speaking up against this dangerous and perverse political correctness. Gender ideology does harm children and families, and it’s time that we stood up to the tragedy of using children as a way to further activist agendas.”

SES is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. Many courses focus on societal issues from a Christian worldview, delve into scientific apologetics or contemplate creation research.

SES explores ethical issues through its “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program; for more information, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu. Southern Evangelical Seminary also recently unveiled a new apologetics blog at www.WhyDoYouBelieve.org, where Land and other SES voices address the most pressing issues of the day.

Land is featured in his nationally syndicated daily radio commentary, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” which airs on almost 400 stations nationwide, including nearly 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” is also podcast daily on the free SES mobile app and airs locally in the Charlotte, N.C., area every weekday. The “Bringing Every Thought Captive” television program, hosted by Land, airs on the NRB Network Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and midnight EST. “Bringing Every Thought Captive” also reaches nearly 2 million households in the Chicago area on the Total Living Network. For details about stations, times, downloads and more, click here.

Land has taught as a visiting or adjunct professor for several seminaries and has authored or edited more than 15 books. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England and his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University. Land also earned a Master of Theology (Honors Program) degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the Outstanding Graduating Student. Dr. Land was the 2013 Watchman Award recipient from the Family Research Council for his leadership on moral and cultural issues. He also received the Phillip E. Johnson Award for Liberty and Truth from Biola University in 2010. Land served previously (1988-2013) as president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention’s official entity assigned to address social, moral and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families. In 2014, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow of the ERLC’s Research Institute, and in 2015, he was named in the top 15 of Newsmax’s “Top 100 Christian Leaders in America.”

Southern Evangelical Seminary invites visitors to its web site to join the more than 20,000 people who have already downloaded the SES Apologetics App for Windows mobile devices and Android and Apple phones and tablets. Those with the app can get the very best news and information in Christian apologetics, including articles, audio, video, blogs and more from today’s most able defenders of the Christian faith—William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, Frank Turek, Hugh Ross, Gary Habermas and other well-known speakers, authors and teachers.

Southern Evangelical Seminary has been ranked as one of the top graduate programs for General Christian Apologetics by TheBestSchools.org’s “Top 10 Graduate Programs in Christian Apologetics.”

For more information on SES, visit its web site at www.staging.ses.edu or its Facebook page, follow the SES Twitter feed, @sesapologetics, or call (800) 77-TRUTH. For more information about SES’ “Ethics in Emerging Technology” program, visit www.ethics.staging.ses.edu.

For information on SES or to set up an interview, contact Deborah Hamilton at 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096, ext. 102, or Beth Harrison, 610-584-1096, ext. 104, [email protected].

Southern Evangelical Seminary is a leader in apologetics education—teaching students to defend their faith and talk intelligently, passionately and rationally about what they believe and why they believe it. The accredited Christian college and seminary offers a wide variety of bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. Programs can be completed through residence in the Charlotte area or online. The award-winning education at SES is distinctively Christian and focused on evangelism and world-engaging defense of the Christian faith—Christian Apologetics.