Who’s influencing our children?
By Paul Bawden
Ken Ham in his blog on July 11, 2024 wrote about a study which was done with children ages 5–6 and 9–10. His blog was so relevant that I am including what he said below.
“The kids were divided into three groups: a control group that viewed no video, a group that watched a story about a transgender-identifying individual named Jazz, and a group that watched a video about a crayon that was red on the outside but blue on the inside.
“They wanted to see if watching these stories changed children’s views on “gender essentialism,” which is defined by the Oxford Reference dictionary as “the belief that males and females are born with distinctively different natures, determined biologically rather than culturally.” And what did they find?
“The study found that children who had viewed the “Jazz video” consequently had “(a) greater understanding of transgender identities and (b) no overall differences in gender essentialism, but (c) lower gender essentialism on three specific measures (gender immutability, innate toy behaviors and innate preferences).”
“In other words, what’s happening here is that the personal story made a difference in the children’s views (interestingly, the more abstract story about the crayon had no such effect). That’s why LGBTQ activists push for LGBTQ content and characters everywhere—they want to influence as many children as possible because, on their own, children understand there are two genders: male and female. But children can be easily confused and guided in a dangerous direction.
“Why do secularists push so hard for LGBTQ-themed books in school libraries, drag queen story hours, and LGBTQ characters in children’s content? Because they know that stories influence children, and they want to capture the minds of the next generation. And a new study confirms that, yes, these stories do what they’re intended to do.
“Now, I don’t often agree with vehement atheist Bill Maher, but I do agree with his recent statement about LGBTQ indoctrination:
“[Children will] believe anything and just want to please grown-ups, and they don’t have any frame of reference, so they normalize what is happening. That’s why endlessly talking about gender to six-year-olds isn’t just inappropriate, it’s what the law would call entrapment, which means enticing people into doing something they wouldn’t ordinarily do.
“Yes, this is entrapment—and it’s hurting children of all ages, planting seeds of confusion about who they are and what their identity is. The result is sky-rocketing rates of gender confusion and scores of children becoming patients for life on the highway of gender hormones, surgeries, and interventions. It’s a war on children, which is part of the war on the family. Satan knows the family is the first and most fundamental of all human institutions God ordained. It is the backbone of the culture. It is the education unit God uses to pass on a spiritual legacy and impact the world for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So, what should Christian parents do? Ken Ham continued, “They need to help their children learn to interpret those stories through the lens of the God’s Word (starting in Genesis—the foundation for marriage, sexuality, and gender).
“Children need to be taught that they can’t trust their feelings—our hearts are sick and wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). We can’t trust the feelings that pour forth from them; rather, we’re commanded to guard our hearts (see Proverbs 4:23). So instead of living life by how we feel or by how a particular story makes us feel, we live our lives by the truth of God’s Word, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).”
I pray that our parents will have God’s wisdom in teaching their children so they will accept who they are, either male or female, thrive in their identity, and that through faith in Christ they can live for Him and glorify Him, for our children are the future of our families, communities, states, nation, and the world.
Paul Bawden is married and served in the pastoral ministry for 45 years, retiring in 2011. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Speech and attended Dallas Theological Seminary, receiving a Master of Theology. He has taken counseling courses at Trinity Evangelical Seminary in Deerfield, Illinois. Paul is a lifetime member of the Evangelical Free Church of America, as well as being a member of Interim Pastor Ministries (IPM), which serves churches during their time of transition in searching for a new pastor. He writes for Union Gospel Press, as well as being a volunteer writer for GotQuestions.org. Paul likes to write, read, bike, and work in the yard. The Bawdens have had the privilege to travel to Mexico and Romania on mission trips and visited various countries in Europe.