Upon taking office, President Donald Trump used executive orders to reverse many of the gender-ideology policies enacted during the Biden administration.
However, as of press time, Trump’s Department of Justice had not sought dismissal of United States v. Jonathan Skrmetti (in which the Biden Department of Justice protested the state of Tennessee’s ban on “gender transition” procedures); instead, it requested that the case continue. Although the new administration does not support the original argument for the U.S. government joining the lawsuit, it acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s ruling on Skrmetti could impact pending cases in lower courts.
With that in mind, and in response to today’s cultural and political shifts, Christians must ask this question: “What is the cost of staying silent?”
Proverbs 31:8-9 (NIV) instructs, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. … Defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Those verses urge believers to protect some of society’s most vulnerable – children.
An attempt to deceive
Despite Trump’s executive orders, an ongoing argument in current debates – unthinkable just a generation ago – is whether minors, whose brains are not fully developed, should make permanent decisions about their bodies.
The tragic story of Chloe Cole, who underwent gender-transition procedures as a minor and later detransitioned, underscores the irreversible harm such decisions cause. (See The Stand, 8/24.)
However, in late 2024, Justice Sonia Sotomayor downplayed the risks of transgender medical procedures for children, ignoring the profound, lifelong consequences of such “interventions.” During oral arguments for United States v. Jonathan Skrmetti, Sotomayor said, “Every medical treatment has a risk … even taking aspirin.”
Advocacy groups such as the Human Rights Campaign push these procedures as “medically necessary,” embedding transgender ideologies into public policy and education while normalizing confusion from a young age. The Left’s use of manufactured terms, such as gender-affirming care, is both misleading and harmful. Such deception erodes safeguards for the vulnerable and glorifies moral chaos over biblical truth.
But Isaiah 5:20 warns, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.”
A call to action
The normalization of moral relativism – where truth is fluid and gender is interchangeable – exacts a heavy cost, not only on children whose lives are irreversibly altered, but also on the fabric of a nation that drifts from biblical principles.
It’s not just a political debate; it’s a moral one.
Jesus warned in Matthew 18:6: “But whoever causes one of these little ones … to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Temporary confusion does not justify permanent decisions.
Testimonies from detransitioners reveal the psychological toll of prioritizing transient feelings over immutable truths.
After all, Scripture clearly states that “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).
That’s why parents, pastors, policymakers – and all believers – must stand firm, rooted in God’s Word, when it comes to the shifting sands of gender ideology that surround them. They must truly consider the cost of staying silent as a sea of sin threatens to engulf their children.
This is a call to action – not just to speak up but to live out the truth of God’s Word and to defend what is right. The soul of America – and the souls of children – are depending on it.
