A Response to the Department of
Justice Letter to Schools
On May 13, 2016, the Civil Rights
Division of the U.S. Department of Justice issued a letter advising schools
receiving federal financial assistance of their obligations under a federal law
regarding transgender students. The letter addresses restrooms and locker rooms as follows: “A school may provide separate
facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to
such facilities consistent with their gender identity. A school may not require
transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity
or to use individual-use facilities when other students are not required to do
so. A school may, however, make
individual-use options available to all students who voluntarily seek
additional privacy.”
The directive from the Department
of Justice (DOJ), however, does not specify how gender identity is determined. The Bible does. “In the beginning God made male
and female.” An individual is either male or female. Even surgical procedure does not
alter the gender identity one is born with, although it may alter certain
sexual characteristics.
The attitude of Christians toward
persons with confused sexual identity issues should be one of compassion, as
well as giving the Good News that repentance and forgiveness of sins, and a new
life, is available through Jesus Christ, who gives us power to overcome
confusion and power to live joyfully with a clear conscience before God.
My encouragement to the Church is
that it continue to proclaim by word and deed the Good News — that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus delivers
individuals from destructive lifestyles. God loves the self-identified transgender person so much that
Jesus died on the Cross for his or her salvation and deliverance.
As both an attorney and a leader
in the Assemblies of God, my profound objections to the actions of the DOJ in
this matter are both legal and moral. While the DOJ letter does not apply to
churches, it has raised various concerns among church leaders. For example, is
a church legally required to:
·
Allow persons to use restrooms
according to their sexual identity even if different from their gender at
birth?
·
Allow transsexuals who have
received surgical or hormonal treatments to alter certain sexual
characteristics to use restrooms according to their gender identity?
·
Allow persons to stay in hotel
rooms on church-organized trips according to their gender identity rather than
their gender at birth?
·
Refrain from making employment
decisions on the basis of gender identity?
·
The directive from the federal
government regarding restroom and locker room use, as well as the decision by
some major retailers to open restrooms to persons who self-identify as
transgender, does not protect children, youth, and adults from invasion of their
privacy by persons of the opposite sex (as defined by gender at birth). The government and certain
retailers, at the behest of radical activists, have attempted to impose a
social agenda upon others that is not consistent with concern for children, youth
or adults who do not want to share a restroom, showers, or locker facilities
with a male who self-identifies as a woman, or a woman who self-identifies as a
man, or an individual who may conveniently claim so to gain such access.
This over-reach by the federal
government communicates the critical importance of electing individuals to
office who will not seek to impose the radical LGBT agenda upon the American
people.
Above all, America needs a great
spiritual awakening — and that will require a revived church. In the words once
prayed daily in our public schools, may our hearts cry: Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and
we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.
Official
news source of the Assemblies of God
http://penews.org/news/a-response-to-the-department-of-justice-letter-to-schools
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