Disregarding The Body – Podcast
The Crisis of our Time
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art
Companion Posts
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Starting Again
I was born in the sixties. But I am not a child of the 60’s. My family was lower-middle class, and by the standards of the time, traditional in most every way. Dad was a minister. If he or mom had lived into their 90’s they would not have imagined the social changes we have witnessed in the last 20 years. It would be too easy to say the sexual revolution of the 60’s caused all this change, as some conservatives maintain. But the roots of this change go back much further than the swinging 60’s.
So I’m embarking with some misgivings on a survey of cultural history. There are deep intellectual and cultural traditions that have shaped our everyday lives. We’ve come to a point in the Western world where the statement “I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body” is comprehensible to many public leaders, at least in public. That phrase would be completely incomprehensible to my parent’s generation, in public or private, not to mention every preceding generation. It is still incomprehensible to many, if not most people today. But if you express your bewilderment in public, say at many workplaces in the Western world, increasingly the odds are you will be regarded as stupid, immoral or worse. You may be reprimanded for your irrational “phobia.” You might even have your career derailed. If you broadcast your view on a public forum, say Twitter, expect the Twitterati to pounce with the ferocity of a caged unfed Tiger. In certain parts of the world you may even be charged with a hate-crime for your expressed incredulity at the latest massive cultural shift. (See the following posts, here & here.)
As a 60’s poet might say, “The times they are a changin.”
The tectonic cultural shift in the last 20 years is quite breathtaking. Regardless of what you think about gay marriage, we have gone from year 2000 where the majority of Americans were opposed to gay marriage to today where normalization of Transgenderism is fast approaching.
A long and winding road brought us to this point. I want to offer a thoughtful and hopefully generous exposition, from a Classic Christian point of view, of how we got here. As I go, I’ll be documenting some disturbing current events. (Read my next post). I hope that even those who disagree with Classic Christianity will find here a fair and readable assessment of our state of affairs. (post continues page 2)
When National Security Turns Against the Created Order
One of the most striking features of our cultural moment is how thoroughly gender ideology has seeped into institutions charged with safeguarding the public good. Universities, medical associations, school districts, and corporations have all been reshaped by DEI frameworks that treat gender identity as a sacred category beyond scrutiny. But the recent whistleblower report from inside the National Security Agency (NSA), published by City Journal, reveals something even more troubling: this same ideology has taken root within our intelligence community—an arena where ideological capture is not merely misguided, but dangerous.
According to the whistleblower, a “very small number” of transgender-identified employees and activists inside the NSA wield outsized power, effectively steering workplace culture, intimidating dissenters, and introducing radical ideological commitments into the agency’s operational environment. This is not simply about workplace inclusion. It is about an activist minority leveraging institutional mechanisms to impose a worldview on the nation’s top intelligence analysts.
As the whistleblower puts it:
“There is a very small number of them, but they wield an enormous amount of power. And outside of the sick stuff, you also see a prevalent Marxist philosophy going on with these people in their chat rooms. They hate capitalism. They hate Christians. They’re always espousing socialist and Marxist beliefs.”
This hatred of Christians is not a vague dislike of religion in general. It is a targeted hostility toward those who still hold to Christianity’s historic teaching that human beings are created male and female, and that Jesus Himself affirmed the creational design of marriage as one man and one woman (Gen. 1:27; Matt. 19:4). In other words, their contempt is aimed precisely at those who uphold the biblical anthropology that gender ideology seeks to overthrow.
The whistleblower recounts that when ordinary analysts raised concerns—reminding coworkers that the agency’s mission is to protect the United States and identify adversaries—they were met with instant denunciation:
“They just got hammered. They would just start coming out with ‘transphobe’ and ‘homophobe’ right away or calling you a ‘racist.’ And that’s why a lot of folks are still hesitant to say anything, because you still have people at these agencies in those key spots. It infected everything.”
This is precisely how ideological capture works: not by persuading the majority, but by ensuring that dissent is costly. When the enforcement mechanism is social punishment, accusations of bigotry, or professional marginalization, most people keep their heads down. And in a place like the NSA—where people can lose clearances or career prospects for being viewed as “hostile” to DEI priorities—silence becomes the only safe strategy.
The theological undertone here cannot be ignored. When an ideology that denies the givenness of the body also breeds contempt for those who affirm the God-given meaning of the body, the conflict is not merely cultural—it is spiritual. What the whistleblower describes is a workplace atmosphere where those who hold to Christian teaching on creation, marriage, and sexual morality are treated not as colleagues, but as enemies.
The implications are sobering. Intelligence agencies depend on clarity, objectivity, and moral seriousness. An environment where analysts fear speaking honestly, or where ideological activists dominate key positions, is an environment where national security itself becomes compromised.
What this whistleblower describes is not an isolated phenomenon. It is part of a larger pattern: elite institutions across the country now treat gender ideology as a non-negotiable orthodoxy, and they enforce it with missionary zeal. When even intelligence agencies are reshaped by activists who “hate capitalism” and openly disdain Christians, we are no longer dealing with neutral bureaucracies. We are witnessing the politicization of institutions that were never meant to be political.
Defend God’s Good Creation
How a School, a Therapist, and a Stepmom Unmade a Family
A recent Genspect essay recounts a heartbreaking story of a mother, Jeannette, and her daughter, Sophia, whose bond was shattered when ideology and adult interference replaced family love.
Sophia was a bright, gentle girl raised by a progressive, open-minded mom who taught her that womanhood could take many forms — that she didn’t need to become a boy to be free. But when her parents divorced, Sophia’s sense of belonging faltered. During a summer with her father and new stepmother in 2019, she abruptly refused to return home, emailing her mother that she was now “transgender” and needed space to “process.”
Jeannette was stunned. The girl she had raised to resist gender stereotypes now claimed an entirely new identity — one cheered on by her father’s household and a school eager to celebrate its “first trans student.” Overnight, Sophia became a cause célèbre. Teachers and peers praised her courage; administrators turned her transition into a learning moment.
Behind the scenes, the stepmother — a licensed therapist — encouraged Sophia’s defiance, texting her about new names and pronouns while implying that Jeannette’s doubts were bigotry. Courts then intervened: when Sophia mentioned once that she “wished she weren’t alive,” a judge ruled she should stay with her father. Jeannette’s parental rights were effectively erased.
Three years later, she has seen her daughter only twice — once in a mediated therapy session and once at a brief coffee meeting. Sophia, now identifying as “non-binary,” appears to have abandoned the transition path but remains distant. Jeannette blames not her child, but the adults who orchestrated the rupture — the therapist, the school, and the self-appointed “glitter family” that replaced real kinship.
The article ends with her bitter clarity:
“No matter how many tens of thousands of children are afflicted by this madness, the worst of the insanity always can be traced back to the adults—the ones who should know better, but never do.”
We live in a world where a child’s confusion becomes a social victory, and where parental love is recast as an obstacle to liberation.
Read the full story at Genspect: When the Glitter Family Is Already Family
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When Science Silences Itself: Censorship in Gender Medicine Research
In recent years, debates around gender medicine have become some of the most polarized in the scientific and cultural landscape. What was once the realm of cautious inquiry has, in many institutions, hardened into dogma. Researchers who raise empirical or ethical concerns about puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgical interventions for minors increasingly find their work censored or discredited—not through evidence, but through social pressure and editorial gatekeeping.
A new paper by J. Cohn in the Journal of Controversial Ideas shines a bright and uncomfortable light on this phenomenon.
In “Censorship of Essential Debate in Gender Medicine Research,” (see below) Cohn exposes a disturbing trend in modern medicine: the systematic censorship of scientific debate in the field of gender medicine. The piece reveals how leading medical journals and professional societies have created an echo chamber that suppresses scrutiny, silences dissent, and promotes ideology under the guise of science.
The Core Problem: Debate Is Being Shut Down
Cohn argues that medical research on gender dysphoria—especially regarding hormonal and surgical interventions for minors—has been overtaken by advocacy rather than evidence. The core claim is simple but explosive: major journals like JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine routinely reject well-documented critiques of published research, allowing false or exaggerated claims to circulate uncorrected. Letters highlighting factual or methodological errors are blocked, and even platforms like PubPeer have removed accepted criticisms without explanation.
This, Cohn warns, is not merely academic malpractice—it is a corruption of science itself. When editors silence valid scientific debate, public policy and medical practice are shaped by untested assumptions and political pressure rather than by evidence.
What the Evidence Actually Shows
The article points to a striking fact: despite the confident tone of many advocacy-driven statements, there is no scientific consensus on the effectiveness of medical transition, especially for youth. Systematic reviews—the gold standard of evidence—consistently find the evidence base to be weak or of very low certainty. The long-term outcomes of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries remain largely unknown.
Even basic questions about etiology, persistence, and predictors of benefit in gender dysphoria are unresolved. Yet, U.S. medical bodies have promoted these interventions as both safe and necessary—often claiming they are “lifesaving” while dismissing alternatives like psychotherapy or watchful waiting.
False Claims and the Refusal to Correct Them
Cohn provides concrete examples of misinformation that have been published and then protected from correction. Some articles claim that regret rates after transition are “low” or “rare,” despite the fact that true rates are unknown because of poor follow-up and incomplete data. Others assert that randomized controlled trials would be unethical—a claim that is scientifically indefensible, since experimental rigor is what distinguishes genuine medicine from ideology.
Cohn recounts instances where he attempted to submit brief corrections or letters to editors, only to see them rejected without explanation. One such letter challenging NEJM was dismissed; another, initially accepted by JAMA, was later withdrawn before publication. In both cases, his critiques were grounded in empirical evidence.
How Journals and Societies Reinforce Error
The article describes what Cohn calls a “closed loop” between medical journals and professional associations. Guidelines by groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics cite the very same uncorrected journal articles that overstate the evidence for gender transition. The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: advocacy-based claims become the official line, while attempts at correction are buried.
The International Picture: Caution Abroad, Ideology at Home
Outside the United States, several nations have already reevaluated their approach. Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom have all pivoted away from automatic medicalization toward a more cautious model emphasizing psychotherapy and holistic care. The 2024 Cass Review in the U.K. and a 2025 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services review both acknowledge the same reality: the evidence for pediatric gender medicine is extraordinarily weak.
Why This Matters
The censorship of debate in gender medicine is not just a matter of professional ethics—it directly affects vulnerable patients and the integrity of public trust in science. When unsupported claims about safety and efficacy are treated as settled facts, doctors cannot give truly informed consent, and policymakers are misled into endorsing experimental treatments for children.
Cohn concludes with a reminder drawn from JAMA’s own editorial policy: “The integrity of the scientific process hinges on the free exchange of scientific ideas grounded in rigorously conducted inquiry.” That principle, he argues, is being betrayed by the very institutions charged with upholding it.
The Way Forward
True science welcomes scrutiny. It is strengthened by disagreement and refined by debate. Cohn calls for the restoration of open, evidence-based discourse in gender medicine—a return to the first principles of inquiry: transparency, humility, and courage. Until that happens, medical journals risk losing what makes them credible in the first place.
The article ends with a simple warning that resonates far beyond gender medicine: when science silences itself, ideology rushes to fill the void.
You can download a PDF version of this article for easy sharing and reference.
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Grace and Truth