Breakpoint

Increasingly, when confronted with a person who experiences gender dysphoria, doctors and psychologists are allowed to offer only one diagnosis: the patient is transgender. As recently as a few years ago, this was a mental disorder diagnosis, and steps would be taken to align the mind with the body. Today, it's just the opposite. Gender dysphoria means being born in the wrong body, and treatment is to align the body with the mind. This is the expected diagnosis and path of treatment even when the patient is a child. All voices, even the most qualified voices, that dare to be critical of this way of treating gender dysphoria are silenced. No dissent is allowed. Dr. Allan Josephson is the former head of child and adolescent psychology at the University of Louisville. In 2019, he was effectively fired for participating on a Heritage Foundation panel where he questioned gender transition for minors. With the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, Dr. Josephson is suing the university, but his situation highlights the experience of other scientists who reject current transgender medicine as premature and irresponsible. One critic, who served as an expert witness in Josephson's case is Dr. James Cantor, a Canadian clinical psychologist with a history of taking unpopular stands. Following a new "policy statement" by the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding gender transition in minors, Dr. Cantor published a "fact check" calling out what he saw as the Academy's "systematic misrepresentation" of the medical literature. "Not only did AAP fail to provide compelling evidence" for claiming that gender-dysphoric minors should be immediately and unquestioningly transitioned, Dr. Cantor argued, but "AAP's recommendations are despite the existing evidence." To be clear, Dr. Cantor is no religious fundamentalist. He describes himself as a gay atheist who isn't afraid "to barbecue sacred cows." Like Josephson, he too has faced backlash for challenging the dominant transgender narrative, specifically from a scientific perspective. Last year, Cantor was booted from an online forum of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality for questioning the case for gender transition of minors. He resigned in protest, concluding that the Society had "ceased to be a scientific organization." Dr. Cantor is reacting to what he thinks is a breakdown of the scientific process and a substitution of ideology for evidence. He described this breakdown recently in an interview on the Upstream podcast with my colleague Shane Morris: "We're no longer allowed to discuss the issue itself. And in this case, [it is] the solid science that over and over again is getting silenced because it's not matching up with what makes people feel good." Cantor understands that, after puberty, around 80 percent of gender dysphoric children spontaneously revert to identifying with their biological sex. He also notes that despite all of the false certainty proclaimed about the condition, transgender identity itself is still poorly understood. In many cases, Cantor believes, it is almost certainly the result of other mental health issues not being treated, like borderline personality disorder. Because of this, he especially opposes the common practice of threatening parents of gender dysphoric children with the possibility of suicide, calling it "essentially emotional manipulation." In the conversation with Shane, Dr. Cantor compared the way gender dysphoria is dominating the mental health conversation, particularly when it comes to children, with the 1980s and 90s, when a craze over repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse swept the field. It was eventually rejected as pseudoscience, but not before it wrecked countless lives and families. In fact, Cantor thinks that the demographics of people who thought they had been abused as children are "very similar" to patients now being held up in support of childhood gender transition. "That era," warns Cantor, "did not end well…And here we go again. We didn't learn a thing." Because science advances based on self-correction, criticism, and dissent are vital for fixing bad theories and identifying mistaken assumptions. On the transgender issue, more than any other right now, dissenting voices are silenced. Though such scientific malpractice is reversible, for those whose identities, lives, and very bodies are now being experimented on, much of the damage will be permanent.

John and Maria begin their discussion reflecting on Facebook. They share their experience and the heightened fear around the Facebook outage of 2021. Maria then asks John to reflect on two BreakPoints that he offered this week. The first BreakPoint John revisits was on Jeff Bezos's work to manipulate cells in an effort to live longer, and potentially forever. Maria and John then revisit a piece on Grandparents, both sharing special stories of their relationships with their grandparents. John highlights the special role grandparents have in culture, and offers a unique opportunity for inspiration and training through The Legacy Coalition. Maria then asks John's insight on the federal government's budget deliberations. John provides a worldview framework for why we struggle to understand the rise in national debt and the conflict surrounding the budget. Then Maria asks John to offer a Christian perspective on the issues the federal government is engaging in local school boards and why our mitigating institutions seem dull and fragile right now. -- Stories Referenced in the Show -- Everyone Wants to Live Forever Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is among a group of billionaires looking for the secret to immortality. Bezos funds Altos Labs, a startup pursuing breakthroughs in biological reprogramming technology. The ambitious new field has already seen some promising, not to mention terrifying, results in animal testing. Biological reprogramming technology attempts to revert cells to an embryonic state. If successful, this could unlock the potential to "rejuvenate" organs, perhaps entire bodies."BreakPoint>> The Unique and Crucial Calling to Grandparents Grandparents are among the most recent group of people to be labeled "toxic" in our culture. Even before the pandemic, more and more parents of adult children are victims of what has been called "relational minimalism." It's a brutal reality for many.BreakPoint>> Congress passed a bill to fund the government into December. But questions remain over the debt ceiling and Biden's agenda The US government went into Thursday embroiled in a game of three-dimensional chess with time running out and trillions of dollars at stake. The first dimension was a must-do: fund the government by midnight to avoid it shutting down. In a typical shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees stop getting paid and many stop working; some services are suspended and numerous national attractions and national parks temporarily close. The second dimension is an even bigger must-do: raise the national debt ceiling, an artificially imposed borrowing limit, before an estimated deadline of 18 October. Failure to pay its bills would see the US default for the first time in history. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has warned that the effects would be "cataclysmic" and cost 6m jobs. The third dimension is not quite a must but it feels that way to Joe Biden and Democrats: pass a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill and a $3.5tn partisan package that expands social services and tackles the climate crisis. Both are stalled by divisions between Democratic centrists and progressives, along with Republican eagerness to deny Biden a win The Guardian>> Plan would give every Ohio K-12 student a voucher to attend private school It's called the backpack scholarship program, and it would direct the state treasurer to create "education savings accounts" for any student who wanted one starting in the summer of 2023. The accounts would be filled with either $5,500 (K-8 grade) or $7,500 (9-12 grade) in state dollars annually and could be used to pay for things like private school tuition, homeschool supplies, after-school care, advanced placement testing fees or educational therapies. MSN>> FBI and Justice Department will help protect school employees amid uptick in violence over COVID-19 policies and critical race theory' The Justice Department and FBI were ordered Monday to help protect school employees across the U.S. following an uptick in violence against them. Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI and other agencies "to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend." The order comes after the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Joe Biden about the "immediate threat" local schools and boards are facing. CBS>> -- Recommendations -- Lancaster, PA The Legacy Coalition - Grandparent Summit My Reading Life - Ann Bogel The Culture of Narcissism - Christopher Lasch

In the 19th century, India was coming to grips with the modern world. While British companies, like the East India Company, helped modernize India through trade, British missionaries, like William Carey, helped modernize India through culture formation. One of the more creative interactions with the west happened in Bengal through the work of Christian missionaries. For example, when Krishna Mohan Bannerjee was a child, he attended the School Society Institution started by David Hare, a watchmaker from Scotland. Though Hare's faith commitments are unknown, he was concerned about social welfare in Bengal and started several noteworthy schools in the area. Hare recognized Bannerjee's potential and pushed him to continue his education, first in Pataldanga, and eventually at the newly founded Hindu College (now Presidency University) in Kolkata. Bannerjee thrived at Hindu College, where the atheist headmaster, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, advocated for free discussion and debate on any and every issue and profoundly influenced Bannerjee. When his father died of cholera in 1828, Bannerjee was forced to support himself through manual labor, and yet, still excelled in his studies. After graduating from Hindu College in 1829, Bannerjee got a job teaching at David Hare's school. In 1829, Scottish missionary Dr. Alexander Duff noticed that Christian missions in India had only reached the lower castes. Duff proposed a new mission strategy of offering education in English in the sciences and biblical studies, in order to help upper-caste Hindu students see the contradictions in their own beliefs and move toward Christianity. Like so many others, Duff connected Western learning and success with Christianity. He believed that making Western learning and the Bible available would inevitably lead to conversions. Bannerjee began to attend Duff's lectures and even visited Duff's house for serious discussions about religion and philosophy. In 1832, Bannerjee converted to Christianity. His conversion came at great cost: Hare fired Bannerjee from the school, Bannerjee's wife was forced to return to her father's home, and a firestorm erupted in the local press about Hindu College. Ironically, Bannerjee's conversion was blamed on the atheist, Derozio, and the popular headmaster was forced out. Bannerjee moved to the Church Missionary Society School, where he served as headmaster. He studied theology at Bishop's College and became the first Indian to be ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church in Bengal. Before long, Bannerjee became the foremost Indian apologist of his day. Prior to 1865, Bannerjee followed the lead of Duff and other missionaries in seeing Hinduism as nothing but superstition and idolatry that needed to be destroyed. However, his entire approach to apologetics eventually changed, and he began to argue that Christianity was actually the fulfillment of Hinduism. He noted how sacrifice was the most important ritual in the earliest forms of Hinduism. Further, he showed from the Vedas, the Upanishads, and other Hindu writings that Prajapati, the Lord and Supporter of Creation, sacrificed himself to save humanity, and did so by taking on a mortal body. This, Bannerjee argued, prefigured Jesus' incarnation and sacrifice on the cross. Bannerjee's efforts to find a doorway from Hinduism to Christianity grew out of his love for his country and his culture. He wanted to reconcile Christianity and modern education with Indian culture. In keeping with this goal, he became heavily involved in a wide range of social organizations in Bengal and worked for social reform. He opposed the caste system, polygamy, idolatry, the sale of girls into marriage, and sati, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. He also supported the education of women, seeing it as a yardstick for measuring the social progress of a country. Beyond his work as an evangelist and apologist, Bannerjee was a critically important figure in the Bengal Renaissance, bringing modern ideas of scholarship and social justice to India and developing an approach to Christianity that honored Indian culture while remaining firmly anchored in the British evangelical tradition. He was a remarkable example of contextualizing the Gospel to India, and applying the biblical worldview to all areas of life. For Bannerjee, this started in school, inspired by a teacher who taught students to desire wisdom, seek truth, and follow honest inquiry. Eventually, this pointed Krishna Mohan Bannerjee to love God with all his mind, and to love his neighbors as himself.

John and Shane field a question from one listener for resources to support a Biblical practice of marriage. Another listener asks for resources for a child who enjoys art, but is trying to understand artistic expression from a Christian worldview. In the latter part of the show, a listener asks if secular is a term Christians should use if "every square inch" belongs to God? To close, John and Shane discuss if "agree to disagree" is a good tactic to have in worldview conversations, if it is loving or actually harmful.

Business experts are noticing an increase in Gen Z-ers' need to know they're doing things well. "Sixty-six percent of Gen Z say they need feedback from their supervisor at least every few weeks in order to stay at their job," writes Ryan Jennings, a generation expert, "Considering Gen Z grew up in digital environments full of real-time feedback (likes, comments, shares, etc.), it's not surprising [they have] an elevated appetite for feedback at work." On the other hand, many believe Gen Z is the most narcissistic generation. It's not hard to see why, when young people are constantly taught to live "their" truth and cut out "toxic people" - which is mostly anyone who makes them feel bad. Incredibly, the latest peer-reviewed data shows that Gen Z-ers know they have this tendency, and don't really like that about themselves. So, there's hope after all. Growth of any kind requires being willing to listen to others, even when they tell us things we don't want to hear.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is among a group of billionaires looking for the secret to immortality. Bezos funds Altos Labs, a startup pursuing breakthroughs in biological reprogramming technology. The ambitious new field has already seen some promising, not to mention terrifying, results in animal testing. Biological reprogramming technology attempts to revert cells to an embryonic state. If successful, this could unlock the potential to "rejuvenate" organs, perhaps entire bodies. On the one hand, there's nothing unusual or controversial about the human desire to go on living. Christianity affirms that death is not a natural part of life in the strictest sense. It's a result of the fall. Death is, to borrow a phrase from theologian Neil Plantinga, "not the way it's supposed to be." Scripture calls death "an enemy." When Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, He wept at the death of his friend and the pain it caused, even though He clearly planned on turning that funeral into a party. At the same time, the desperate race for immortality is not an attempt to reverse the effects of sin. Rather, it reflects how desperate man without God is to exert complete control over the cosmos, and to have life on our own terms. Jeff Bezos is certainly not the first person in history willing to go to such extreme lengths to stave off the inevitable, only the latest and most resourced. Some speculate that this is nothing more than a mid-life crisis for the 56-year-old tech mogul. After all, Bezos's 25-year marriage ended in 2019, and, in July, he stepped down as CEO of one of the biggest and most powerful companies in the history of the world. Perhaps he's just looking for ways to spend his $200 billion. It would take a lot of trips to outer space to spend that fortune. Perhaps he's reacting to the age-old truth, that even all the wealth in the world cannot ultimately satisfy a hole in the heart that is God-shaped. Another, more ancient billionaire once lamented, "When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind." Of course, if life truly is meaningless in the first place, more of it won't fix the problem. The Bible teaches that we can never be satisfied until we are reconciled with the God who made us. Until then, we remain enemies, selfish rebels at war with life itself. Living forever in this state wouldn't be an accomplishment. It would be a nightmare. Genesis tells us that, after the fall, God kept Adam and Eve from the Garden in order to prevent them from eating of the Tree of Life: Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. God's actions were as much of mercy here as of judgment. Later, King Solomon would describe how God "set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what [He] has done from beginning to end." We are created beings created for eternity. C.S. Lewis famously put it this way, "If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." The desire for immortality ultimately points us to, and can only be satisfied by, God Himself. He made us to live forever. He is life itself. The eternal life we seek, both the why and the how, is only found in Him.

In 2020, Chinese box office revenue officially surpassed that of North America. Shirli Li writes in the Atlantic, "Filmmakers and actors have always been subject to bosses who decide which movies get to soar at the box office….Now, more than ever before, that boss is Beijing." Fast and Furious star John Cena demonstrated this deference in May when he posted a back-bending apology to China, in Mandarin, for calling Taiwan a country. Another example is the potential ban facing Marvel's The Eternals because its director, Chloé Zhao, criticized the Chinese Communist Party … eight years ago. Repeatedly, U.S. film companies posture as courageous defenders of human rights when they vocally oppose laws in states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. But then they're deafeningly silent about doing business in China, a country actively imprisoning more than one million Uyghur Muslims, hiding the presence of massive slave labor camps and no freedom of any kind when it comes to journalism. Hollywood, it seems, mostly just listens to the money. The hope has always been that Western values would somehow infiltrate China and change it from the inside. But the opposite is happening. There's nothing like the allure of massive profit to drown out our collective conscience.