Gender Blog recently reported the story of a seven-year-old boy in Douglas County, Colo., who is being "helped" by his school, his parents and a socio-political organization to make the transition toward becoming a female.

The socio-political organization is "educating" both leaders at the boy's school and his parents as to how this "gender transition" might take place seamlessly.  That organization-and a simple Google search shows that there are literally dozens in existence like it-is a group called "Trans Youth Family Allies" (TYFA-with the "A" formerly standing for "Advocates," but recently changed to "Allies" to reflect a more "professional" image according to the website).

TYFA's describes itself as "a national nonprofit that empowers children and families by partnering with educators, service providers and communities to develop supportive environments in which gender may be expressed and respected." TYFA board member Evelyn Lindenmuth articulates the organization's noble goal of developing "communities free of suicide and violence in which all children are respected..." Good so far. But her next few words belie a far more troubling agenda: "Our gender variant and transgender children are depending on us to provide new understanding. Difference isn't wrong, it just is." Translation: TYFA wants to empower children with the ability to define their own gender reality. Thus, if a boy says he is really a girl, then it is so and etc.

Like similar social engineering organizations such as GENDERPAC, TYFA foments for a genderless culture, however, TYFA exclusively targets children.  Another of TYFA's stated goals replaces parental authority with a "community" approach to "helping children make decisions regarding their gender." This notion is evidenced by the words of TYFA President Shannon Garcia:  "TYFA's position is that the needs of gender variant and transgender children are best served by a team consisting of the parents, the children themselves, health care providers who are understanding, knowledgeable and supportive, and adult transgender mentors."

TYFA holds seminars and supports other events aimed at "educating" adults to better understand their gender-confused children. A sampling of TYFA's efforts:

• The 2008 Philadelphia TransHealth Conference, Family and Youth Programming, held May 30-31.
• Colorado Gold Rush 2008, held in Denver in February. According an advertisement, Gold Rush offered a full day of seminars for families and children. The message of the seminars included helping K-12 schools "accept and affirm gender identity and expression," creating "positive media experiences" for "transgender" children, offering strategies for informing others about a child's "gender variance," and locating healthcare for "gender-variant" children. One of the participants in Gold Rush was TYFA board member "Just Evelyn," who is author of the book "Mom I Need to be a Girl," which chronicles how she facilitated her teen daughter's "transition" more than 10 years ago.
• A support/referral source for families of gender variant/transgender children ages 3-18, called "TYFA-TALK." The organization describes TALK as "an online support group and referral source for parents, grandparents and guardians negotiating the journey of raising gender variant and transgender children ages 3-18. Members will be able to ask questions, gather information and seek support and referrals from TYFA Board Members and other parents, grandparents and guardians who are also raising gender variant and transgender children."
• The organization is involved in communicating its message through the mainstream news media. TYFA Executive director Kim Pearson appeared on CNN recently to discuss the case of one young "transgender" student.

Many wonder why CBMW simply will not just go away and respectfully agree to disagree with others on the gender issue. However, as the existence of groups such as TYFA demonstrate, the gender issue, even as it plays out within the local church, is not merely a matter of who stands before the congregation and preaches on the Lord's Day (though that remains a crucial issue). The battle for biblical truth on gender in our postmodern culture reaches to the most fundamental level of human nature such that we must continue to assert and reassert, by God's grace, the truth of Gen. 1:27: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them."

Tomorrow, Gender Blog will examine a few of the many groups that TYFA considers its allies.

Are you a Christian woman serving in the local church who is in need of a fresh store of encouragement for implementing a vision of biblical womanhood in your congregation?

Then plan on attending a pre-conference seminar that will take place in conjunction with True Woman 08.  Co-sponsored by The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss, the seminar will examine issues related to biblical womanhood in the local church and will feature J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt as keynote speakers. The seminar will be held from 1-4 p.m., October 9 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center, Schaumburg, Il.  Cost is $20 and the seminar is limited to the first 200 people who register.

Duncan serves as chairman of the board for CBMW. He will present a biblical and theological grounding for women's ministry in the local church and its specific relationship to pastoral ministry.

Hunt is author of the "Becoming a True Woman" series and serves as consultant to the Presbyterian Church in America's Women in the Church Ministry in Marietta, Ga. Hunt will present a practical overview of how this theological vision works itself out in the local church. Duncan and Hunt are co-authors of Women's Ministry in the Local Church. All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of this important book.

The seminar will be followed by True Woman 08, the national women's conference for Revive Our Hearts, which will take place Oct. 9-11 at the same venue. Speakers include DeMoss, John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Janet Parshall, Mary Kassian, Fern Nichols and Karen Loritts. Keith and Kristyn Getty will lead worship. For more information or to register for True Woman 08, please see the conference website. 

Britain's Labour-led government has unleashed the hounds of biomedical and cultural revolution in recent days, voting to allow expanded research using and destroying human embryos, the development of animal-human hybrid embryos, the development of "savior siblings," and now equal access to IVF technology regardless of sexual orientation.

Until a few weeks ago, British law required IVF clinics to take a child's need for a father into consideration when IVF services were sought. Now, this requirement has been removed and the new language simply requires attention to the child's "need for supportive parenting." This opens the door for widespread use of IVF technology among single women and lesbian couples.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown indicated his "unequivocal support" for this move earlier in the week and the proposal passed in Parliament by unexpectedly wide margins.

As The Times [London] reports:

The Government had been prepared for defeat but won the free votes by majorities of 75 and 68. The decisions mean that the legislation will grant the most significant extension to homosexual family rights since gay adoption was sanctioned.

It will stop fertility clinics turning away lesbians and single women because their children will not have a father or male role model. While the current law does not block such therapy, it is sometimes used to justify refusals.

The debate in the government and in the media included threats such as this published in The Guardian [London]:

Whatever opponents to the new wording might actually be trying to do, they're not going to be able to stop lesbian couples or single women from having babies if they really want to. If fertility clinics become wary of taking them on as patients, says Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, "They will go to backstreet suppliers, who are often using unscreened sperm. Indeed, there was a case four or five weeks ago of a man who was successfully prosecuted for running - I think it was called Man Not Needed - a private sperm service. They weren't screening the sperm, and it was being delivered in dirty coffee flasks. And that's the consequence. These women will not not have children - they'll just have children through dangerous methods." They might also try unprotected sex, for example, increasing their risk of contracting HIV.

That passed for a serious moral argument -- asserting that society must sanction children born without any expectation of a father because "these women will not not have children."

The case for the bill was also propelled by social analysis such as this, also from The Guardian:

But "there's nothing magical about fathers," says Susan Golombok, professor of family research and director of the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, and co-author of Growing Up in a Lesbian Family. "Fathers who are very involved with their children are good for children. But fathers who are not very involved - they aren't as important, and can even have a negative effect. It's a very simplistic notion to think that fathers are important just because they're male."

Don't boys need male role models? "The thing is that fathers make absolutely no difference to their children's development of masculinity or femininity," she says. "Studies that have looked at single-parent families have not found that boys are less masculine or girls less feminine. In fact, it seems that parents make very little difference to the masculinity or femininity of their sons and daughters. The peer group is more important, and the stereotypes that are around them in their day-to-day life. Even in families where parents try hard to influence their children's gender development, where they try to stop their sons being very masculine, for example, and try to make them more gender-neutral, actually find that whatever they do makes no difference whatsoever. Fathers are important more in terms of emotional wellbeing, not in terms of role models.

Well, there we see the bold verdict -- there is nothing magical about fathers. And as for the role of fathers, they "make absolutely no difference to their children's development of masculinity or femininity."

Does this "expert" actually believe this? Does any sane parent? "Absolutely no difference?"

The research routinely cited in these reports looks remarkably like the "research" of figures such as the late anthropologist Margaret Mead, whose "research" has been widely influential but also revealed to be largely fabricated.

The subversion of the role of fathers is nothing new and this British move is just another monumental loss for children. Our societies are straining under the weight of father absence and unfaithful or disengaged fathers. Far too many fathers have been the cause of their own absence. Far too many single mothers have decided to have children who will never know their fathers. Far too many marriages have ended in divorce and the evacuation or ejection of the father from the picture. Now, add IVF technology to that list, as single women and lesbian couples are to be allowed the same access as married heterosexual couples.

But don't cry over that spilled milk. The experts are sure that there is nothing magical about fathers anyway.

[Editor's note: On Tuesday Gender Blog began a four-part series by Randy Stinson on baseball and biblical manhood. In today's final installment, Stinson, who serves as president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, gives the final three ways in which he uses the game of baseball in the lives of his two sons to build Christian character and cultivate biblical masculinity.]

Thanks Coach: Gratitude

As with most youth sports, baseball is carried on the shoulders of thousands of volunteers.  Each week my sons have opportunities to express gratitude to the many men and women who make their experience possible.  This makes them more mindful of others who are serving them in other venues as well.

Principle for Manhood: Thank every coach after every practice.  Thank every coach and umpire (if possible, they often leave before the team has cleared the dugout) after every game.  Thank the concession stand workers for their time.  Thank the grounds crew (as available) for their work on the field.  You will find yourself more grateful as you join your sons in their expressions of gratitude.

Shake it Off! Leadership and Encouragement

A common expression from one player to another is to "shake it off" after a botched play or minor injury.  Baseball requires a lot of mental toughness and good leadership on the field means you are encouraging teammates to "shake it off" to be ready for the next play.  Typically, focusing on a failure in baseball means that you will not be focused on the next play which means another failure.

Principle for Manhood: Never correct another player while on the field.  Good leaders on the field offer encouragement, and remember to keep a "short memory" and to "shake it off."  Strategies for improvement can be discussed in the dugout.

Father, Where Art Thou? The Decline of Baseball

It is sad to me that one of the greatest sports is experiencing something of a decline at the youth recreation level.  Some have argued that the proliferation of highly competitive travel teams have caused this demise.  I think the socio-cultural phenomenon of absent fathers, however, has created the giant gap between recreation and competitive players and thereby created the need for more competitive venues. Baseball requires at least two people.  You cannot play catch with yourself.  You can't pitch to yourself, and you can't hit grounders to yourself.  Normally this is where dad comes in.  But where is he?  Is he working too much, abandoning his family altogether, or is he just emotionally absent? 

Over the next decade, fewer and fewer boys will enjoy the incredible father-son moments of playing catch, hitting grounders, spending hours discussing the nuances and character-building aspects of the game.

Principle for Manhood:  Encourage the church to stand in the gap and embrace the fatherless young men around you.  Mentor them, teach them the Gospel, and maybe toss the ball a time or two with them.

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3    Part 4

[Editor's note: On Tuesday Gender Blog began a four-part series by Randy Stinson on baseball and biblical manhood. Today, in Part 3, Stinson, who serves as president of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, gives four more ways in which he uses the game of baseball in the lives of his two sons to build Christian character and cultivate biblical masculinity.]

Strike 3!  Failure

The dreaded strike out.  It is one of the worst feelings in baseball.  You stepped up to the plate, had at least three opportunities and failed, and now you are walking back to the dugout with fans and peers looking on. Your failure is abundantly obvious.

Hitting a pitched ball is notoriously one of the most difficult tasks in all of sports, with a 30% success rate being deemed very high.  When you get to the plate, the odds are that you are going to fail.

Principle for Manhood: My boys are not to pout, hit the ground with their bat, throw their helmet, look incredulously at the umpire, (or their father in the stands), or go to the dugout and sulk.  It is childish, hurts morale, and reveals a serious character flaw.  You are going to fail.  Baseball teaches it every inning. By its very nature, baseball is a humbling game.

When You Can't Find the Plate: Humility

Sometimes, even the most consistent pitchers have outings when they just cannot "find the plate."  Usually possessing great control, a pitcher cannot, for some reason, throw a strike.  Few things are worse than being the center of attention, unable to perform a duty that you know you can normally perform.

Recently, one of my sons found himself in this position.  As ball after ball, and walk and walk mounted up, it was obvious he could just not "find the plate."  Most parents hate for their sons to be pulled from a game.  Not me.  I was relieved when the coach, on his own, ended the fiasco.

In the car, after the game, I led my son to pray a prayer of gratitude for the humiliation.  Why?  Because it was a gift.  God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.  The cultivation of humility in a poor pitching performance should cultivate gratitude to God.

Principle for Manhood:  While we want to practice hard and play the game well, we will see the bobbled ground balls, failure to find the plate, overthrows, and missed fly balls as evidence of God's mercy to us as he places things in our life to help us become humble.  We do not want to live in such a way that we invite the active opposition of God.

Keep a Short Memory: Resilience

One of the most important skills to cultivate in baseball is keeping a short memory.  A swing and a miss has to be immediately forgotten because another pitch is coming.  A missed ground ball has to be immediately forgotten because another batter is coming to the plate.  A dropped pop fly must be immediately forgotten because another one is surely on the way.

The phrase, "keep a short memory" encourages the cultivation of resilience. It is good for a young man to get knocked down, only to have to get right back up again.  Biblical masculinity requires resilience, a Godly toughness.

Principle for Manhood: In the wake of a mistake or botched play, your personal disappointment must be secondary to the next play, which will be happening...approximately five seconds from now.  Self-preoccupation and self-pity are enemies of masculinity.

Winners and Losers: Grace, Mercy and Honor

This is not the part about "its how you play the game."  This is where it's time to discuss that someone wins and someone loses.  My concern for my sons is how they act in each situation.

When they are winning big, do they taunt the other team or laugh at their poor play?  When they are losing big, do they pout, cry or make excuses (the umpire, the weather)?  While competition can be bad, I think there is something inherent in us that strives for victory and loathes defeat.  Genesis 3:15 illustrates a profound struggle and a crushing victory.  Paul uses language of competition when he alludes to contending for the Gospel. (Jude 3) and also striving for sanctification (1 Cor. 9:24-27).

Principle for Manhood: The inward desire to embrace victory and avoid defeat is an opportunity to point ourselves to the Gospel.  In our losses, we congratulate our opponent on their great victory and purpose to strengthen our weaknesses.  In our great victories, we honor our opponent by extending grace.

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3    Part 4