Released: Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Words Matter

As we fight for religious liberty and other policies that honor God’s Word, we face a culture swamped with untruths. Some are simple misconceptions rooted in a lack of understanding. Others reflect bad actors intentionally, repeatedly distorting the truth to get people to accept a lie.

As Christians, we’ve been warned about this kind of distortion. The first sin recorded in the Bible was the serpent questioning God’s command to Adam not to eat “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

This ad reflects a spirit of premeditated wickedness. The baby cooing in the video was miraculously created in God’s image. Calling her a “choice” is an obscene act of rebellion against the Creator of the Universe. Yet how many times do we hear or read the term “pro-choice” used to reflect the pro-abortion position? Google returns 1.2 billion results for “pro choice” in less than a second. The term “pro abortion” yields fewer than ten percent of those results.

Since before Roe v. Wade, Christians have fought against killing the most vulnerable among us in the name of “choice.” Our most fundamental liberty is the right to life. Death renders all other freedoms moot. Thank you for your prayerful support as VAIB fights for life at the state and federal level. 

The Transgender "Hoax"

VAIB will continue to oppose those who brand, label, and demean a living child as “a choice” in their twisted attempt to violate the absolutes of God’s truth. Similarly, we reject policies that embrace the make-believe thinking that men can become women (even if some mutilate their bodies through surgery and chemicals). “Male and female created he them; and blessed them” (Genesis 5:2).

While it is heartbreaking to see disturbed adults pretend to be the opposite sex, the costs are unacceptable when children who are diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” are then “treated” with irreversible surgery and hormones that will cause them to become sterile. Until 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) more accurately called the condition of confusion about one’s sex (and related issues) “gender identity disorder.”

Opponents of biblical truth in Virginia recently tried to deny children who wrestle with same-sex attractions or gender identity disorder access to healthy and appropriate counseling therapy. This attack on the First Amendment rights of counselors would deny children the help they desperately need to deal rightly with their struggles. Other states have passed outright bans on helpful, healthy counseling in the name of “protecting” children suffering from gender confusion. We are drawing the line here in the commonwealth to actually protect our children.

We also strongly object to governments violating the privacy, modesty, and religious rights of children through “bathroom bills” that require students to relieve, disrobe, and/or perform bodily functions in the presence of opposite-sex students.

This May, in the Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., ACLU case, Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia, Newport News, “found” a non-existent right for a “gender dysphoric” student to violate the rights of other students.

After several lower court decisions, the case was scheduled to be heard by the United States Supreme Court. However, the Department of Education (DOE) and Department of Justice (DOJ) changed federal guidelines regarding bathroom use. Shortly after G.G. graduated high school, the Fourth Circuit sent the matter to the U.S. District Court.

It was at that point, on May 22, 2018, that Judge Wright Allen distorted the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause and effectively stripped away the rights of students who did not want their bodily privacy rights violated. She subsequently ordered a settlement conference between the Gloucester County School Board and G.G.

This multi-sided assault on the absolutes of God’s Word requires our vigilance on every front. We rely on the Lord for His sustaining strength in the battle. Thank you for your prayers and support as you stand with us to uphold biblical truth.