Kerby Anderson
In his new book, Decades of Decadence, Senator Marco Rubio exposes the attacks on four key elements of American strength: good local jobs, stable families, geographical communities, and a sovereign nation that serves as a beacon of freedom and prosperity.
He begins his book by talking about an article published in National Interest when he was getting ready for college. Francis Fukuyama wrote about “The End of History” and predicted a future global order where there were no viable alternatives to democracy. The US defeated fascism during World War II, and the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse.
This utopian vision of the future didn’t take place. In my radio interview with Senator Rubio, I mentioned sitting on a panel with Harvard professor Samuel Huntington, who wrote about The Clash of Civilizations. He predicted world history would be marked by conflicts between three principal groups: western universalism, Muslim militancy, and Chinese assertion.
Senator Rubio explained that the assumption was that nation states would be more focused on economic interests and therefore would not go to war with each other. Politicians started making decisions that benefited this system and stopped making decisions about what was good for America. This empowered China, and now we are heavily dependent upon them for all sorts of essential goods.
We assumed that nationhood was over, and people and countries would be doing what was good for the global economy and international order. Senator Rubio explained that “China didn’t get that memo, and Russia didn’t get that memo, and Iran didn’t get that memo, and North Korea didn’t get that memo.” Many countries have been operating in their national interest.
He believes it is not too late to reject those errors and rebuild this nation. His book provides a critique of the past and a roadmap for the future.

Penna Dexter
It’s hard to know the rate at which people who obtain gender transition surgeries ultimately seek to detransition. The detransition rate has hovered at around two percent. But two trans academics, Daniela Valdes and Kinnon MacKinnon, point out that “older studies may not adequately predict outcomes for today’s far larger, more diverse trans and gender-questioning population.”
In their article in The Atlantic entitled, “Take Detransitioners Seriously,” the two researchers argue that detransitioning is not “a negligible issue.”
We have been hearing from quite a few detransitioners lately.
Here’s one of their stories as told to FOX News and reported in Family Research Council’s news publication, The Washington Stand. For privacy, the detransitioner calls himself ‘Kobe.”  Kobe says he was a “feminine boy” and that he was experiencing “mental health” issues. Had it not been for the pervasive gender ideology online, he says he would not have  pursued a gender transition.
Kobe began taking puberty blockers at age 13 and estrogen at age 16. To get them, he heeded online advice to “play the suicide card.” He received “castration surgery” at age 19. “But then,” he says, “everything started to crack, and I couldn’t ignore the complications. I couldn’t ignore that I mutilated myself pretty much with the permission of a psychiatrist.” Because Kobe took puberty blockers and started estrogen so young, he mostly skipped male puberty. He has breasts, female hips, no gonads, a smaller body, and more of a feminine skull. As to the hoped-for improvement in his mental health, he says, “it didn’t do anything.” He has many complications including urination issues caused by his castration surgery and severe back pain which he fears is osteoporosis. “I just wasted so much time,” he says, “and all I really did was become a medical patient for life.”
Gender detransitioners like Kobe who were in no position to consent to such mutilation, are now to be commended for their courage in standing up against it. 

Kerby Anderson
Tim Busch begins his commentary with this quote: “We don’t want to convert the young people to Christ or to the Catholic Church or anything like that.” He then asks, who said this? Not an atheist. Not a defender of the separation of church and state. Not even a member of another religion.
It was spoken by a leader in the Catholic church. No matter what your denominational background (Catholic, Protestant, etc.), you can probably see the issue. We have a loss of courage and conviction. He observes that “many religious believers are losing the courage to defend their beliefs. Yet modern society desperately needs vibrant faith communities that stand strong for timeless principles and deeper truths.”
We are facing threats to the sanctity of human life and threats to the institutions of marriage and family. We are facing threats to our ability to practice our religious beliefs, though we have recently enjoyed many victories for religious liberty in the courts. And he concluded that one of the biggest threats facing modern society is the rise of transgenderism.
His question is appropriate: “Will religious believers take the heat without melting? Many are, but others are not.” He points to religious hospitals facing pressure to accept transgenderism and concludes that we “make clear that changing genders is impossible and wrong.”
His observations and conclusions are what we have been discussing on radio for the last few years. It has become even more important for Christians to develop biblical discernment when so many issues and principles are up for debate. And it is equally important for Christians to develop biblical courage to act on those biblical convictions.
I agree with his assessment that religious believers need to address these social issues that will determine the direction America takes. It is time for Christians to show courage.