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)
Sex Rejection News – March 7, 2026
A Supreme Court Case Shows This Debate Isn’t Going Away
This past week a ruling by the Supreme Court in Mirabelli v. Bonta highlights just how deeply gender ideology is embedded in American culture. The case arose after California policies allowed schools to facilitate a student’s gender transition while keeping parents in the dark. Teachers and parents challenged the policy in court, arguing it violated both religious liberty and parental rights.
After years of litigation—moving through federal courts and all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States—the Court ruled 6–3 that such “gender secrecy” policies likely violate the Constitution and restored an injunction blocking them statewide. The Court emphasized that parents, not the state, are the primary guardians responsible for decisions about their children’s upbringing and mental health.
One thing is clear: issues surrounding gender ideology are now deeply woven into schools, law, and public policy. The fact that disputes like this must be settled at the Supreme Court level shows that the debate will not disappear simply because one political party wins an election or two. This cultural conflict is likely to remain with us for years to come.
Courage.
Source: Thomas More Society
Truth Spoken at UN Human Rights Council Meeting
Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council this week, Chris Elston (Billboard Chris) argues that so-called gender-affirming care for minors is causing irreversible harm to children. He testifies truthfully that treatments such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries interfere with normal development, sterilize young people, and remove healthy body parts.
These practices are driven by ideological activism rather than sound science, and he describes them as an unregulated experiment on vulnerable children—many of whom, he says, have autism, mental health issues, or trauma histories. He believes the compassionate approach is to affirm children as they are without medical intervention.
Elston also warns that government authorities are increasingly overriding parental rights in transition-related disputes and calls on United Nations member states to act to protect children’s right to grow up with their bodies intact.
View his speech here.
When Adults Let Children Define Reality
A recent Atlantic essay, “In Defense of Effeminate Boys,” argues that boys who display feminine traits should simply be accepted as a natural variation of the male sex—not pushed into rigid stereotypes or steered toward gender transition.
The author reports sharply divided reactions: harsh criticism from activist circles, but quiet support from many readers—including some inside LGBT organizations who privately share his concerns but feel unable to speak publicly.
At the center of the debate is what the author calls one of the most dangerous and consequential ideas in modern history: the belief that we must “let the kids lead.” In this view, a child’s declared gender identity overrides biological sex, and parents are expected to affirm it—even if it leads to medical interventions.
The deeper problem, he suggests, is that this reverses the role of parents. Instead of helping children understand reality, many adults now feel obligated to let children define it.
What are we doing to our children?
Companion Post
More News on Page 2
God’s Beauty: Tetons – May ’25
These are a few photos from my Spring 2025 Trip to Wyoming. The Grand Teton National Park is a ‘bucket list’ marvel. God has blessed us with a beautiful world. Enjoy it.
Postscript: After the Traces: Questions and Pushback
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Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we stand on the peak and look back. Peter Leithart, in his Postscript, knows what some readers are probably asking: Is this too much?
Too much to see the Trinity everywhere? Too much to claim that creation hums with perichoresis — mutual indwelling?
Leithart hears the pushback — and answers it head-on.
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Some theologians worry. They say: “Wait a minute — you can’t compare the relations inside the Trinity to human relationships.” After all, God is God. We are creatures. Isn’t that gap too wide?
Others say: Sure, God is relational — but “perichoresis” should only describe the divine Persons, not families, friends, music, time.
Some call this “creeping perichoresis” — like theological kudzu, spreading where it doesn’t belong.
Leithart says: fair points. The Triune God is unlike us — but the Bible itself keeps drawing these connections.
God is Rock. Sun. Light. Father. Husband. Shepherd. Warrior. The language is earthy — unembarrassed. Scripture doesn’t panic about analogies. It expects us to think with them — carefully, yes, but boldly.
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Jesus prayed, “Father, may they be one as we are one.” The church’s unity is not a copy of something else — it’s a participation in the divine dance. “I in them, Thou in Me.”1John 17:23 That’s not poetry — it’s the Gospel.
Paul echoes it too: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”2Col 1:27 “In Him we live.” We are in Him — and He in us. The Spirit dwells in us — and we dwell in the Spirit.
It’s not fusion — it’s fellowship. Distinct yet intertwined. And it’s more than metaphor. It’s how salvation works.
Of course, the pattern must be handled with care. The Trinity’s inner life is not just a diagram for human society. But if creation is the handiwork of the Triune God — then why wouldn’t the shape of the Maker echo in the shape of what’s made?
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Some scholars say: “But God’s ways are too high, too different.” True. To an extent. But the Bible never makes us choose between transcendence and analogy. Scripture is full of bold images: “Like a father,” “like a mother,” “like an eagle.” The world is crafted to say something true about its Creator.
The clue is baked into Genesis: humans made in the image of God. Image-bearers carry resemblance. Not identical — but truly reflective. Think of us as being angled mirrors, reflecting God into the world and through our worship, summing up the praises of creation back to God.
As Leithart puts it in the final paragraph of the book:
“Of course, the biblical analogies must be handled with care. Of course, we must not conclude that, because we grasp something of how human beings relate, we know exactly what sort of relation the Father has with the Son. But we should be no more anxious about these analogies than Scripture is, and we should certainly not be so anxious about the limits of human knowledge and speech that we are reduced to silence. We worship a God who is Word; he has spoken, and he expects us to speak his words after him. He expects us to learn how to use everything he has revealed and named to honor, praise, and tell of him, because that is the destiny for which everything was created.”
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So, Leithart argues, the pattern of mutual indwelling doesn’t flatten Creator and creature. It celebrates the fact that creation is designed to mirror the triune love at its heart.
We don’t just “balance” opposites. We dwell in the swirl. We find the traces — and the traces find us.
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So here’s where he leaves us: the world is not a cold machine or a random accident. It’s a living song, a word woven of words, a dance of difference that holds together in the embrace of Father, Son, and Spirit.
Find the traces. Follow them home.
The Trinity leaves fingerprints on every inch of creation.
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I welcome any questions or comments. [Don’t worry, your personal info will not be given to anyone.] Thanks!