Without much fanfare or press coverage this summer, Representative Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, introduced H.R. 3887, an amendment to the Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education Support Reauthorization Act. The Children’s Hospital Act provides federal funds to train nearly half of all pediatric medical residents at 59 hospitals and must be reauthorized every five years. This year, Rep. Crenshaw is, thankfully, demanding a change.

Rep. Crenshaw’s amendment would withhold federal funds from being given to any hospital “furnishing gender-affirming care to minors.” As spelled out in the amendment, the medical definition of “gender-affirming care” includes a long list of barbarous acts such as castration, breast removal, and a whole host of surgical and chemical mutilations of physically healthy, young bodies.

Depressingly, opposition to H.R. 3887, led by the LGBTQI+ Equality Caucus, is well-monied and growing louder.

I do not often call for political action when I write because I believe political behavior is downstream of cultural behavior, but we should support this amendment. Call your Congressional representative and tell him or her that Congress needs to pass H.R. 3887 and pass it now.

But the behavior of politicians, while problematic, is not the root cause of this problem, that is, giving our money to train others to mutilate our children. It is a symptom of a much larger problem.

A Much Larger Problem

Politicians follow more often than they lead. In this instance, they are marching lockstep behind carefully selected and well-trained attendants to our nation’s monstrous medical industry, a portion of which is focused on maximizing profit at all costs. I am not speaking of the doctors, nurses and layers of supporting staff who work daily to heal us in our hospitals and clinics. By “medical industry,” I mean the vast army of administrators that dominates the healthcare sector. According to the latest data, which is now ten years out of date, administrators and non-care providers in the healthcare system outnumber doctors at a ratio of 10 to 1, with this discrepancy increasing yearly.

Part of this bureaucratic army is dedicated to muddling public understanding over whether a procedure is needed, does any good, and in some cases, ignoring and obscuring evidence that a practice does more harm than good. Such was the case with COVID-19 masking mandates, especially for children.

This information sleight-of-hand is perpetrated like all coercive marketing schemes are: Pour millions of dollars into frightening us, play on our fears and then convince us with market-tested language the industry’s “solutions” are our only hope from the conjured threat.

Non-Cures for Non-Medical Issues

Although medicine has a long and inglorious history of snake oil sellers, the hocking of non-cures for non-medical issues soared to new heights with the coming of the birth control pill and the legalization of abortion. Starting in the early 1960s and going forward, fertility and pregnancy were redefined as diseases (they are not) that needed access to “safe and affordable” medical care. Killing our children was redefined through a whole host of euphemisms like “procedure” or “terminating a pregnancy,” all for the sake of “compassion.”

Always searching for new money, the medical industry segued (among other places) to cosmetic procedures and surgeries. Starting in the 1970s to the present day, we have been blasted with advertisements and pornographic material through which we are told that women “needed” fake breasts, fake backsides, filed lips and even injections of muscle-paralyzing bacterial toxins into their faces (Botox) to bring about their “best” and “most attractive” selves.

Any industry, regardless of where it started or what else it does, which plays on our fear and insecurities to make money is sinister.

Now They’re Coming for Our Children

And now that same medical industry is coming for our children who may (or may not) be suffering from gender dysphoria, a psychological condition in which one believes that their biological sex does not match their feelings about themselves. Unhappily for the suffering, gender dysphoria is characterized by feelings of severe distress and depression.  

While feelings are real, feelings are not the same as being. Going through life’s arc, it is normal to feel strange about one’s body, especially as we approach major changes like puberty or menopause.

And while gender dysphoria is not normal, neither is preying on those who suffer from it, especially children, promising them “cures” by mutilating their bodies. We need to stand up to this crowd with a loud and clear “stop, no!”

To say enough is enough and mean it, we need to get our hearts and heads in the right place.

Our Hearts and Heads Must be in the Right Place

First, we must acknowledge that as fallen creatures, we are afflicted by insecurities and are susceptible to those who design to play on them. This failing does not make us ugly, especially in the sight of God, it makes us human. Knives and needles cannot fix spiritual disquiet or psychological dysfunction because the problems are not in our physical bodies. Embracing this fundamental truth takes practice and patience, but as Proverbs 19:8 goes, “He who gets wisdom loves his own soul.”

Second, we must take careful note of the vague and slippery language used by the profit-driven sector of the medical industry. Stop using their non-sensical terms such as “gender spectrum,” “assigned sex,” “non-binary” and the like. We are one sex or another from the moment of conception until death.

Third, come to a compassionate understanding that there are those who genuinely struggle with mental disorders in which they believe something about themselves that is not true. Persecuting them for their affliction is unkind and unchristian. But so too is “affirming” the delusional state of their illness. Should someone suffering from anorexia who feels overweight but is dangerously thin be given gastric bypass surgery? No, obviously not. Why? Because while their feelings of being overweight are real, their imagined condition is not. Someone with gender dysphoria may feel they are in the wrong body, but feelings do not make reality, and physical mutilation at any age will not help them.

Wonderfully and Fearfully Made

I do not believe we will ever be rid of the profit miners of the medical industry. They, too, are as fallen and broken as the rest of us. But to protect our children from them, we must take a hard look in the mirror and realize that we are wonderfully and fearfully made, all of us, both male and female. From conception to death, life is an amazing gift because of, and not despite, our struggles, confusion, wrinkles and imperfections.

Dr. Jeff Gardner holds an MA in history and a Ph.D. in Communication and Media Studies. For over a decade, he has worked in media, writing and taking photographs for various publications and organizations across North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. His work has been featured in numerous national and international publications and broadcasts. He teaches courses in media, culture and government at Regent University. You can reach him at jeffgardner.online.