When Johanna Olson-Kennedy and her team began their research into the effects of puberty blockers on children in 2015, the research was supposed to last for two years. Yet, as Azeen Ghorayshi of The New York Times reports, neither she nor her team have published their findings nearly a decade later.

When asked why, Olson-Kennedy stated, “I do not want our work to be weaponized.” Those concerns stem from the fact that the study found the 95 children recruited to participate did not show signs of improved well-being as a result of the puberty blockers.

In response, Olson-Kennedy argued that the lack of impact was due to the children being well-adjusted before beginning the trial. In 2020, however, she stated that roughly a quarter of the kids were depressed with significant anxiety and suicidal tendencies.

The negative response toward the decision to withhold the results of “the largest grant that’s ever been awarded in the US on the subject” isn’t sitting well with the scientific community, including those who are generally supportive of transgender rights.

Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist and transgender youth expert, noted that Olson-Kennedy’s refusal to publish her findings is “contrary to the scientific method. You do research, and then you disclose what the results are. You don’t change them, you don’t distort them, and you don’t reveal or not reveal them based on the reactions of others.”

And that is especially the case when negative reactions to the research appear to be justified. After all, Olson-Kennedy’s research is not the first to point to puberty blockers being a poor way to address gender dysphoria in kids.

The US trails the world

Similar research was conducted in England a little more than a decade ago, and both were attempts to mirror the findings of a study from the Netherlands in the 1990s and 2000s. That study, released in 2011, found that children with persistent gender dysphoria experienced fewer depressive symptoms and improved behavioral and emotional states after receiving puberty blockers.

As Ghoravshi describes, “The findings were highly influential even before they were published, and clinics around the world opened to treat transgender adolescents with puberty blockers and hormones.”

The problem is that no other study has been able to replicate those results. In fact, the only consistent findings are that puberty blockers can negatively impact bone growth and result in fertility loss in the children who take them.

As a result, the National Health Service in England has stopped prescribing them outside of clinical trials, and several other European countries have done the same.

In fact, the United States is one of the few countries left where puberty blockers are still used to treat children who claim to have gender dysphoria. And, at this point, it seems clear the decision to do so is motivated by politics more than science or a genuine desire to help hurting kids.

The line between confidence and conceit

I bring this story up today because I believe it’s important, particularly on politically and culturally charged issues, to remember that there are empirical reasons to believe that the Bible is correct. Whether it’s transgenderism, abortion, homosexuality, or a number of other topics about which Scripture disagrees with the views of modern America, we don’t simply have to take God’s Word on faith. And that should give us the confidence necessary to hold fast to his Word, regardless of what those around us may think.

That said, the line between confidence and conceit can become awfully fine when we get defensive in the face of attacks from those who disagree. And staying on the right side of that line is crucial to maintaining our witness in the world around us.

After all, as important as these issues are—and I do believe they are very important—they are not essential to salvation, and we err when elevating them to a higher level of significance than God does.

Scripture clearly states that the only beliefs necessary for salvation are that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). And keeping that list of essentials as short as Scripture does is important for two primary reasons.

Unessential does not mean unimportant

First, only God gets to decide what’s essential to the gospel. His word is quite clear that any attempts—regardless of how well-intentioned they may be—to add to it places us in opposition to the Lord. For proof, we need look no further than the Judaizers, who genuinely believed that they were helping Gentile believers by elevating some of the most historic and widely agreed upon elements of the Law to the gospel that Paul taught (Galatians 2).

When we add a particular belief about transgenderism, abortion, social justice, or any of the other hot-button issues of our day to the core teachings of the gospel, we make a similar mistake. And, ironically, we often diminish their importance in the process.

Second, only what God’s Word deems essential should be central to our beliefs. You see, we need to keep the list of essentials as small as Scripture does because if we elevate beliefs beyond where the Bible places them, it reduces the significance of any topic that does not make our list.

Unessential does not mean unimportant, yet that is how it often seems when every issue that is important to us is deemed a key determinant of who is saved and who is not. The truth is that every false belief we have about God lowers the ceiling on how close we can be in our walk with him. As such, there is no unimportant belief when it comes to who he is or how he calls us to see the world around us.

Even though Christians can disagree on these issues without having to question the other’s salvation, getting them right is still crucial to a thriving relationship with God. That’s why it’s part of our calling to not only hold to a biblical view on these subjects but also to help others do the same (Matthew 28:20).

We just need to be careful not to confuse those subjects with the gospel in the process.

NOTE: In just a few days, your opportunity to receive the Respectfully, I Disagree and How Does God See America? political resource bundle will be gone. And while the election will soon be over, the noise and chaos won’t stop — no matter who wins the White House. Receive these impactful resources as our gift to thank you for your donation of $25 or more. Don’t miss out — get your political bundle today.

Friday news to know:

• North Korean soldiers have joined the fight against Ukraine
• Former President Trump to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast
• Billy Joel is selling his $49.9 million mansion on Long Island
• Russell Moore on the dangers of “cheap hope”
• On this day in 1400: Geoffrey Chaucer—author of The Canterbury Tales—dies in England

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Christians have to discern between the bad traditions we must change and the inconvenient truths that must change us. Scripture is our guide, not the world and our individual ‘truths.’” — Justin Giboney

Denison Forum

The downside of legislating morality and God’s path to joyful transformation

A new analysis shows that abortions have increased in nearly every state that banned abortion, as women responded to these bans by traveling to clinics in states where abortions were legal or ordering abortion pills online.

Legislating morality is essential to a functioning society, or we cannot have speed limits and prohibitions against murder. But it doesn’t necessarily make us more moral. For example, despite laws against sex trafficking, prostitution, and abusing the elderly and those with disabilities:

• Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO has been arrested on sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
• Popular culture is continuing to normalize prostitution, euphemistically calling it “sex work.”
• Elderly dementia patients are unknowingly fueling political campaigns.
• American Airlines has been fined $50 million for mistreating passengers with disabilities.

If laws are not enough, how do we change a broken culture?

Why we don’t know what we don’t know

One approach is called the “October Theory.” The Wall Street Journal explains that “people are using the beginning of fall as the best time to reset their goals and values.”

Another approach is to treat politics like religion. New York Times columnist David Brooks observes: “In an increasingly secular age, political parties are better seen as religious organizations that exist to provide believers with meaning, membership, and moral sanctification.” Many invest in political parties and candidates in the belief that they will make the world that is into the world they wish to see.

Yet another approach is to define ourselves by what we do and then work hard at it. Psychologists call this “enmeshment.” In this view, our value lies in what we achieve, so the more we achieve, the more valuable we become. And the more we engage with the world, the better the world becomes.

Each of these approaches centers on the belief that humans can improve humanity if we only try hard enough for long enough. One source of this belief goes back to Plato, who saw the human soul as comprised of a white horse, a black horse, and a man as the “charioteer” driving himself through life. As a rational “lover of wisdom,” he controls the darker self (motivated by desires such as greed, vanity, and short-term gain) and the lighter self (representing honor and nobility).

The problem comes when the charioteer cannot control both horses. In our “post-truth” culture, we have an even greater problem when we cannot distinguish one from the other.

The Dunning-Kruger effect states that people who lack expertise in something will necessarily lack the knowledge needed to recognize their own limits. In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know. Now research is demonstrating a corollary fact: People have a strong tendency to believe that they already have enough data to make an informed decision, whether they actually have that information or not.

In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know, but we think we do.

“The hungry soul he fills with good things”

David offered a better charioteer reference than Plato’s famous analogy: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lᴏʀᴅ our God” (Psalm 20:7). Why should we join him?

The Bible proclaims that “the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” (Revelation 19:6 NKJV) and that his “kingdom is an everlasting kingdom” (Psalm 145:13). Because he can “do all things” (Job 42:2), “what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).

This is good news because “the Lᴏʀᴅ is good to all” (Psalm 145:9) since his “steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1). We are therefore assured that “he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (v. 9).

Even when “some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction” (v. 17), “they cried to the Lᴏʀᴅ in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction” (vv. 19–20). Accordingly, you and I can “be strong and courageous” since we know that “with us is the Lᴏʀᴅ our God, to help us and to fight our battles” (2 Chronicles 32:7, 8).

“No other explanation for our joy”

We have focused this week on the transformation only the living Lord Jesus can make in our lives. When we yield every day to God’s Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), asking Jesus to continue his earthly ministry through us, he changes us and he changes the world through us (cf. Colossians 1:27).

One telltale result is the joy that the Spirit produces in us (Galatians 5:22), whatever our circumstances might be. In First15, our ministry’s daily devotional resource, we read:

We are not designed to have joy in ourselves. Rather, such joy comes by the dwelling of the Holy Spirit within us. As the disciples began to be filled with the Holy Spirit, their lives changed dramatically. They went from fearful, fair-weathered followers of Jesus to joy-filled, sacrificial, and empowered world changers. They had joy in the midst of intense persecution because they had the Holy Spirit filling them with the fruit of his indwelling.

We have the same Holy Spirit the disciples had, and he longs to do the same kind of works in you and me today as he did in them thousands of years ago. He longs to fill us with joy in the midst of any trial or pain. He longs to heal and transform our hearts into greater reflections of God’s goodness. He longs to make us a people so joyful that there is no other explanation for our joy other than God is with us.

When Jesus is living his joyful life in us, we are able to testify to the world,

“The joy of the Lᴏʀᴅ is your strength.”

What—or Who—is your “strength” today?

NOTE: For more on transforming power to worship and trust God in even the worst of days, please see my new website article, “The deep-sea service that keeps your internet running.”

Thursday news to know:

• McDonald’s Quarter Pounder linked to severe E. coli outbreak in US
• Terrorist attack hits major defense facility in Turkey
• LeBron, Bronny James play together in Lakers season opener; first father-son duo to share court in NBA history
• Shohei Ohtani’s 50^th home run ball sells for record-setting $4.392 million in auction
• On this day in 1945: the United Nations is born

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, I risk my whole eternity on the resurrection.” —Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Denison Forum