By FRC's Joshua Arnold
While Joe Biden attempts to answer as few questions as possible before the election (he said voters "don't deserve" to know his position on court packing, he has ignored mounting evidence (which social media has censored) pointing to corrupt behavior during his time as vice president, and he announced a four-day hiatus from campaigning while urging supporters to "campaign like we're trailing"), the questions he does answer may be the most concerning.
During an ABC townhall on Thursday, Joe Biden was asked how he would handle policies that protect women and acknowledge the scientific reality of sexual identity.
Joe Biden's knee-jerk response was, "I will flat-out just change the law." After remembering the Constitution's separation of powers, he corrected himself, "I will eliminate those executive orders." Joe Biden was likely implying either that he would reinstate President Obama's executive orders related to gender identity or support the passage of the Equality Act, which would allow men who claimed to be women into shelters, bathrooms, and sports reserved for women, as well as require the U.S. military to pay for transgender surgeries.
In his answer, Joe Biden implied support for the notion that eight-year-old children can determine their own gender. It's difficult to tell exactly what he is saying because there are no complete sentences, but I encourage you to watch the video for yourself. It's clear from the clip that Joe Biden is trying to communicate, in Trumpian fashion, a positive attitude towards the subject in question.
Biden's answer is particularly likely to hurt him among evangelicals, who still believe "God made them male and female" (Mark 10:6). The Biden campaign has invested in reaching out to evangelical voters, in an effort to weaken Donald Trump's support among a group that overwhelming voted for him in 2016.
Andrew Walker, a Professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wondered whether "Evangelicals for Biden" would speak out condemning his comments.
Denny Burk, Pastor at Kenwood Baptist Church in Louisville and Professor at Boyce College, responded on twitter: "No, no, no. If you have a child with gender conflicted feelings, you aren't helping them by encouraging them to embrace body-denying propaganda. Their body isn't lying to them about maleness/femaleness. Don't lie and tell them that it is."
On this issue, the biblical position aligns with science. In a new publication, "Do Not Sterilize Children: Why Physiological Gender Transition Procedures for Minors Should Be Prohibited," FRC's Senior Fellow for Policy Studies Peter Sprigg shows how gender transition procedures actually harm children suffering from "gender incongruity" or "gender dysphoria." He writes, "Studies have shown that, when left to themselves, most children with such conditions outgrow them and do not identify as 'transgender' adults."
Sprigg writes that drugs to block normal puberty, cross-sex hormones, and gender reassignment surgery each have the potential to cause serious harm, "up to and including permanent sterilization. Despite claims to the contrary, these procedures are often not reversible, and they are not evidence-based, because research has not shown that these procedures are effective in accomplishing their purpose, which is to improve the patient's mental health."
Endorsing gender transition procedures for minors could lead to the mutilation of countless healthy bodies for a theory not supported by scientific evidence, which flies in the face of Christian teaching and God's design for men and women. Of all the issues Joe Biden has refused to clarify, this one may be the most essential for Christians seeking to cast an ethical ballot.