Welcome to G3 Weekly—a summary of this week’s top news stories on Christianity and the public square.
This week, President Joe Biden drew criticism for an address in which he claimed that “the very foundations of our republic” are threatened by his political opponents. A group of pastors across the world endorsed a declaration denouncing statism as a threat to image-bearers of God. Meanwhile, conservatives exposed Boston Children’s Hospital for performing transgender surgeries on minors as young as fifteen years old.
Biden Says Political Opponents Are Enemies of the Republic
“When the wicked rule, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2).
President Biden delivered a speech differentiating between “mainstream Republicans” and “MAGA Republicans,” calling the latter group a “threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.”
Flanked by soldiers and standing in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia—which was colored in eerie red floodlights—the commander-in-chief said that former President Donald Trump and his supporters desire an America with “no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.”
“MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies,” Biden declared. “Together, we can choose a different path. We can choose a better path. Forward to the future. A future of possibility. A future to build and dream and hope.”
The national address comes weeks after the FBI conducted a raid of Trump’s home at the Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida—a move that continued to erode trust in federal law enforcement agencies. A recent poll from the Trafalgar Group found that nearly 80% of Americans believe that the nation has a “two-tiered” justice system, under which political insiders enjoy one set of rules and average citizens experience another.
Pastors Sign the ‘Frankfurt Declaration of Christian and Civil Liberties’
“We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Pastors from multiple continents signed the Frankfurt Declaration of Christian and Civil Liberties—a document intended as a prophetic witness against the rise of global authoritarianism manifested over the past two years.
Government lockdowns caused millions of people around the world to lose honorable work as they were forced to remain home, while weddings, funerals, the deaths of loved ones, and other milestones in human life were severely interrupted or canceled altogether. Governments likewise barred Christians from gathering to worship.
“In the course of human events, it sometimes becomes necessary for people of good faith to speak out against the abuse of power,” the Frankfurt Declaration reads. “Such protest should be expressed in the hope that civil authorities who are found to be eroding rights and liberties may yet fulfill their responsibility as their rightful guardians.”
Among other matters, the document affirms the Triune God as Creator and Lawgiver while rejecting the materialistic assumptions of the modern age; calls for civil magistrates to uphold personal dignity and medical self-determination; and declares that Christ is sovereign over worship in the local church.
Original signatories include Grace Community Church Senior Pastor John MacArthur, African Christian University Dean Voddie Baucham, and G3 Ministries President Josh Buice.
Conservatives Expose Boston Children’s Hospital Transgender Surgeries on Minors
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
Boston Children’s Hospital garnered criticism for performing transgender surgeries—such as double mastectomies—on children as young as fifteen years old.
As detailed by the hospital system’s website, services also include vaginoplasty, phalloplasty, chest reconstruction, breast augmentation, and facial harmonization. According to a report from The Daily Wire, children as young as fifteen years old can go under the knife for breast augmentations or double mastectomies, while young men can receive vaginoplasties at the age of seventeen.
“We believe in a gender-affirmative model of care, which supports transgender and gender diverse youth in the gender in which they identify,” explained Boston Children’s Hospital. “This is a standard of care grounded in scientific evidence, demonstrating its benefits to the health and well-being of transgender and gender diverse youth.”
After the hospital’s activities were brought to public attention by Libs of TikTok, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, and other conservatives, the commentators were blamed by progressives for purportedly triggering a bomb threat that was later ruled a false alarm.
