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Welcome to G3 Weekly—a summary of this week’s top news stories on Christianity and the public square.
This week, federal officials and institutions welcomed the beginning of “Pride Month.” As Wall Street buys into a new progressive investment trend, conservative state treasurers are rallying to guard their states’ economies from getting shut out of the marketplace. Meanwhile, actor Kirk Cameron is encouraging fellow believers to ditch conventional government education and homeschool their children.
The Federal Government Welcomes Pride Month
The Biden administration and numerous federal agencies lauded the beginning of “Pride Month.”
In an official proclamation, President Joe Biden urged the nation to “reflect on the progress we have made as a Nation in the fight for justice, inclusion, and equality while reaffirming our commitment to do more to support LGBTQI+ rights at home and abroad.” He made a special vow to “younger transgender Americans” that he would “always have your back as your President so that you can be yourself and reach your God-given potential.”
Branches of the military made similar statements. The U. S. Marines, for example, posted a picture of a helmet with rainbow-colored bullets to its Twitter account “recognizing and honoring the contributions of our LGBTQ service members.” Likewise, the U. S. Air Force reaffirmed its goal of “leveraging the diverse backgrounds” of its members.
The U. S . Embassy to the Holy See drew special criticism for hanging a rainbow flag in the Vatican City—a move that many saw as an intentional affront to historic Christian teaching on sexual ethics.
Other Western governments, however, have exceeded the Biden administration in condemning the biblical response to homosexuality and transgenderism. Earlier this year, the Canadian parliament unanimously passed a ban on “conversion therapy”—threatening Christians with up to five years of jail time if they attempt to preach the gospel to those living in sexual sin.
State Treasurers Spar with Wall Street over Corporate Wokeness
Multiple Republican state treasurers are worried about an attempt from Wall Street to handicap conservative states in the financial sector.
In March, S&P Global Ratings started using an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) rating system to evaluate states’ finances in a way that is divorced from their true budgetary conditions, according to a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks. Typical ESG goals involve green energy pushes, quotas for appointing females and minorities to corporate boards, or other initiatives that mingle companies’ pursuit of profits with social activism.
If S&P and other ratings agencies start lowering states’ financial evaluations over their political leanings, citizens may end up paying more as their state governments enjoy less favorable bond conditions in the capital markets.
“They’re trying to punish us based on our culture, our economy, and our industries, making it more expensive for us to do things like build schools, build roads, build hospitals—all those types of projects that get bonds floated out there for them,” West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore explained to The Daily Wire.
Oaks, Moore, and other state treasurers told the outlet that most of their constituents are unaware of the “woke” investment trend—even though it poses danger to their retirement accounts and taxpayer dollars.
Kirk Cameron Wants a Homeschool Exodus
Kirk Cameron—a father of six and actor made famous for his role on ABC sitcom Growing Pains—created a documentary called The Homeschool Awakening, in which he urges fellow believers to protect their children from government education.
“The problem is that public school systems have become so bad. It’s sad to say they’re doing more for grooming, for sexual chaos and the progressive left than any real educating about the things that most of us want to teach our kids,” Cameron said during an interview with Fox News. “And that’s just a fundamental difference in the way that we look at who has been entrusted with the sacred responsibility of raising our children. . . . Is it the parents or is it the government?”
In response to COVID-19 lockdowns and the exposure of leftist curricula, over 2.5 million American students switched from government school to homeschooling, according to Axios. There are now 5 million homeschoolers in the United States—constituting 11% of American households.
“If we send our children to Rome to be educated . . . we shouldn’t be surprised if they come back Romans,” Cameron told Fox in reference to a quote from Pastor Voddie Baucham. Cameron’s project induced substantial progressive ire. University of Pennsylvania religious studies professor Anthea Butler, for instance, argued in an opinion column for MSNBC that Christian homeschooling has its roots in an “insidious” effort to oppose racial integration and increases “potential for child abuse.”
