A federal court in California has issued a decisive ruling that cuts through the fog of ideology and reasserts a truth as old as Scripture itself: parents are not optional in the lives of their children. In striking down “gender secrecy” policies in public schools, Judge Roger Benitez affirmed that neither the state nor school bureaucracies have the moral or constitutional authority to hide a child’s struggles from those entrusted by God with their care.
This case also exposes a troubling political and moral contradiction. Rob Bonta, California’s Attorney General—widely seen as positioning himself for a future gubernatorial run—defended these secrecy policies by arguing that parents must be excluded “for the child’s protection.”
The court rejected this premise outright, noting that it presumes parents are the primary threat to their own children.
From a Christian perspective, this logic is deeply inverted. Scripture consistently affirms parents as the primary moral guardians of children, not the state. A government that trains children to withhold intimate truths from their parents is not practicing compassion; it is undermining trust at the most foundational human level.
The irony here is impossible to miss. Progressives rightly condemned the Catholic Church for decades for fostering cultures of secrecy that isolated children from parental protection and allowed harm to flourish. Yet many of those same voices now defend gender secrecy in public schools—policies that likewise instruct children to conceal sensitive information from their parents. Secrecy was once understood as a danger. Now it is celebrated—so long as it serves an ideological end.
Judge Benitez ordered California to include the following statement in all relevant materials:
Parents and guardians have a federal constitutional right to be informed if their public school student child expresses gender incongruence. Teachers and school staff have a federal constitutional right to accurately inform the parent or guardian of their student when the student expresses gender incongruence. These federal constitutional rights are superior to any state or local laws, state or local regulations, or state or local policies to the contrary.
This ruling restores moral clarity. Care for children and respect for parents rise or fall together. When secrecy ends, truth—and genuine protection—can finally begin.
In a striking and carefully argued Newsweek editorial, bioethicist Moti Gorin and psychiatrist Kathleen McDeavitt urge liberals to reconsider their assumptions about pediatric “gender-affirming” medical care. Their appeal is unusual not because it is partisan, but because it is not: both authors identify as liberals and were contributors to the recent review issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services titled Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices.
The authors begin by acknowledging widespread distrust of HHS—especially among progressives after years of controversy surrounding public health institutions. But they argue that skepticism should not excuse disengagement, particularly when the evidence concerns vulnerable children.
Their central claim is straightforward: many organizations and professionals trusted by the political left have embraced a medical model for pediatric gender distress that is not supported by strong scientific evidence.
A Fragile Foundation for a Sweeping Medical Practice
The editorial traces the origins of today’s “gender-affirming” approach to a small and methodologically weak Dutch study involving just 70 adolescents. Most of the participants were same-sex attracted, and all who proceeded to medical transition were rendered sterile. One patient died from surgical complications, others were excluded from analysis due to adverse outcomes, and some were lost to follow-up. Yet despite these limitations, the study became the foundation for a sweeping international medical practice involving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sometimes surgery.
Gorin and McDeavitt argue that serious ethical concerns have since been minimized or obscured. They note reports of unfavorable findings being buried, including completed suicides among minors placed on hormones. They also highlight the role of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which removed age limits for medical interventions under political pressure while failing to warn patients about risks such as permanent sexual dysfunction.
The HHS review, the authors explain, reached conclusions that should alarm anyone committed to justice and evidence-based medicine. The risks documented in the review include infertility, impaired sexual function, decreased bone density, delayed cognitive development, and irreversible surgical consequences.
Progressive Countries Lead the Retreat
Importantly, the authors point out that this reassessment is not driven by conservative politics. Some of the first countries to restrict pediatric medical transition were progressive social democracies, including Finland and Sweden, followed by the United Kingdom. These nations conducted systematic reviews and concluded that the benefits of medical transition for minors were unproven and outweighed by the harms.
The editorial closes by proposing an alternative: non-medical therapeutic support that helps young people manage distress without rushing them into irreversible interventions. Most adolescents, the authors note, will see gender-related discomfort resolve over time. While the issue remains politically polarized, polling shows that a majority of Democratic voters already oppose pediatric medical transition.
Gorin and McDeavitt’s plea is simple but bracing: liberals should read the HHS review for themselves (link above). Doing so, they argue, is not a betrayal of progressive values—but an affirmation of them.
Welcome back to the Podcast. I’m glad you’re here with me today. We’re tackling a big cultural question—the growing obsession with what can be called the promise of disembodiment. That’s the idea that our bodies don’t matter, that they’re just clay to be reshaped, husks to be discarded, or even obstacles to the “real” self.
Today, I want to walk with you through this lie, why it’s so appealing, and why the Christian vision of the body offers a much more beautiful, hopeful truth.
Naming the Lie
The cultural signs are everywhere. Abortion framed as a right to bodily “autonomy.” Gender ideology claiming male and female are optional. Assisted suicide presented as dignity. Even futuristic fantasies of uploading our minds into machines. (Yeah, there are some technologists out there that are presenting that as a possibility.)
All of these share the same root assumption: the body doesn’t matter.
“Those of us who know that we were created in God’s image have no choice but to acknowledge our bodies, those awkward earthly vessels that matter and cannot be manipulated as if they were raw material for our disembodied wills.”
That’s exactly it. Either the body is a gift with meaning—or it’s just raw material, something to use, discard, or redefine.
And when we lose the sense of the sacredness of the body, Leibovitz warns,
“Take away this belief in the sacred character of the body and it becomes not a temple but a speed bump.”
A speed bump. Something in the way. Something to get past. That’s the lie we’re facing.
Why the Lie Is Attractive
Let’s be honest—this lie is appealing because it promises freedom. If my body doesn’t matter, then I can do whatever I want with it. I can erase biological sex. I can evade the consequences of sex. I can even reject life itself if it doesn’t feel worth living.
But this so-called freedom is actually a prison. Leibovitz writes:
“When you do away with the sanctity of the body, you invite tyranny, because you are no longer bound to acknowledge what is real, only what is willed.”
If all that matters is my will, then whoever has the strongest will gets to impose their version of “reality.” And that’s not freedom—that’s bondage.
The Christian Response
Here’s where Christianity gives us something radically different.
The very first chapter of the Bible declares:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27).
Jesus himself reaffirms this in Matthew 19:4: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?”
The Apostle Paul drives it home: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19–20).
The Christian response to the lie of disembodiment is simple but profound: your body matters. It’s not a mistake. It’s not an accident. It’s not raw clay for you to remake. It is God’s creation, God’s gift, and God’s temple.
Why This Matters Today
This isn’t just theory. It affects the way we live right now.
Children are told they can “change” their sex.
The elderly are told their lives are no longer worth living.
The unborn are treated as disposable tissue.
And technology dangles the fantasy of living without flesh at all.
But Christians know better. As Leibovitz reminds us:
“The rejection of the body is the rejection of limits, and the rejection of limits is the rejection of responsibility. And where responsibility vanishes, so does love.”
That’s the key. Love requires limits. Love requires responsibility. Love requires embodiment.
Think about it: Christ didn’t love us from afar. He took on flesh. He bore our sins in his body. He rose bodily from the grave. Real love shows up in the flesh.
It is no good to say: “Be warmed, be filled, go in peace” to the poor person (James 2:15-16). You gotta give them a cloak. You gotta give them food. That’s what it means to love your neighbor.
The True Promise
So what’s the alternative to the lie?
It’s not escape. It’s not disembodiment. It’s resurrection.
The gospel promises that these very bodies—frail, weak, mortal—will be redeemed. Paul writes in Romans 8:23 that we await “the redemption of our bodies.” Christ himself is the guarantee, the firstfruits of the resurrection.
So, no, we don’t hope for disembodiment. We don’t hope for escape. We hope for restoration, fulfillment, resurrection glory.
Friends, the promise of disembodiment is a lie. It sounds like freedom, but it ends in alienation and death. The true promise is this: your body matters. God made it, Christ redeemed it, and the Spirit indwells it.
So let’s live that truth with courage and joy. Let’s reject the lie. And let’s proclaim to the world: our hope is not to leave the body behind—but to rise with it, made new, forever.
Thanks for joining me today on the Podcast. Until next time, remember—your body is a temple, and your destiny is resurrection.
