Issue 12 - Links
I’ve been out of town the past couple of weekends (generally the only time I have for writing) and still have some longer-form stuff in the works. So this will be another short, link-based newsletter. Hope everyone has a great week.
Last week, California passed a bill that prohibits schools from mandating that parents be notified if their child requests a change in their official gender identification (my understanding is that schools still can disclose that information but can’t be required to, as several local California school districts had legislated). As this Gospel Coalition editorial notes, what happens in California rarely stays there, so this is likely to have national repercussions (although notably North Carolina law currently mandates parental notification if students request that school personnel call them by a different name or pronoun). It’s safe to assume that the bar for withholding information is not “we have credible reason to believe this student will be beaten or cast out of their house” but “the student told us their parents wouldn’t agree with their new identity.” In the past the school was understood to be a junior partner in raising kids, with parents entitled to any relevant information about their children. This law explicitly takes an adversarial position against parents with the wrong beliefs: and not even one that is adjudicated by an official, professional process as would be the case with a CPS investigation. Untrained teachers and school administrators, working on the say-so of students, determine whether parents are within the circle of trust. I think this is a concerning development, and I’m definitely not the only one.
On another topic: Research suggests that most people who dechurch already lost their faith at home as young teens - adults rarely abandon their childhood faith. One of my takeaways is, don’t wait until your kids are in high school to start teaching them basic apologetics. But the main takeaway from other research presented in the article is even more straightforward: incorporate your faith into daily, parent-led activities, and protect your children from harmful online influences (especially porn) and research suggests you will be likely to transmit your faith to the next generation. By the way, if you are a current recipient of this newsletter, I pray for salvation for your children by name several times per week - please do the same for me!
One of the themes I keep revisiting in this newsletter is the fact that many Americans no longer recognize themselves as being part of anything larger than themselves. This Wall Street Journal poll from last year shows that the proportion of Americans who think religion, patriotism, or having kids is “very important” has collapsed in the last 25 years. Only “money” has increased of the five values surveyed.
Since many of the links were downers this week, I’ll end this newsletter with something positive. Alex Melton is an artist who reimagines songs as impersonations of other bands, or entirely different genres. I first stumbled upon him two years ago when he covered Wonderwall as if it had been written by Blink-182. He also produced one of my favorite songs of 2023 - Taylor Swift reimagined in the style of early 2000s pop punk.