Jeff, I don't want to shoot anybody. I'm 49 years old. I have never been a firearms guy. In fact, until yesterday, I wasn't exactly sure how to load and unload a semi-automatic pistol safely. Well, that's not entirely accurate --- I knew if I never put any ammo in the actual chamber, I could remove the clip right then and not have to worry about whether the gun was loaded. I've kept a trigger lock on the one pistol, which isn't exactly helpful if your goal is to shoot someone.
I hate violence. I deal with it every single day. In fact, a former client of mine was arrested only 36 hours ago for shooting his parents to death in their home.
I want to be clear to you and everyone that my language about protecting my family from strangers in public gender-neutral restrooms is not from a place of not being able to cope with the world.
Can I take a brief aside? It was 1992. I was in a college class on parliamentary procedure. (No kidding, and it was fun.) Class was essentially a daily meeting trying to get proposed "legislation" through using Roberts' Rules of Order. We formed alliances, etc. Well, one day there was an article in USA Today about a teacher-student sexual liaison and arrest. Big news then. So, a couple weeks later, I introduced a measure to outlaw it and to call for teacher licensure loss, punishment, etc. There was a "bloc" of education majors in the class. Boy, they just were totally insulted at the very idea. One of them, a particularly snarky little guy, stood up and yelled at me in the class, "It's not like teachers are going around having sex with their students." I had the USA Today with me. "Yes, that's exactly what it is and it made national news." I can't remember if we passed the thing or not. Here's why I bring it up, though -- fast forward to now. Alabama currently leads the nation in arrests of teachers for sexual contact with students. There is at least one arrest per week. Let that sink in. Less than a month ago, a teacher at my old high school was arrested not 15 minutes from where I sit.
My foray over into that trip down memory lane and current events on teachers is analogous to the new reality on safety of children in gender-neutral bathrooms. Jeff, I can't depend on laws to protect my family, and I can't depend on the decency of people in general to make a safe place for my wife or daughter to go into a public restroom. The new public morality is that men can be all the woman they want to be, including prancing into a girls' restroom to expose himself because he feels prissy. Well, with all respect, I ain't pretending that this is not a threat. The Lord gave me eyes, ears and a brain, and He gave me a new spirit and heart and filled me with Himself, and by that I clearly understand where we are. If my daughter goes into a public restroom, even though she's plenty old enough to go alone, I will wait outside the door, and that's because I know the heart of depraved men. When the rules of society change to green light the entry of depraved men into a room where my daughter is physically most vulnerable, I'm simply readjusting the rules of my behavior to protect where society won't.
Now, let me slide back over and address another concern you expressed. And, I take your statement before as true, due concern, and nothing other than that. I appreciate it. It actually kind of melts my heart a little that you'd go to the trouble. You said correctly that our responses must be dictated by the Word of God, Spirit of God, etc., and not American Patriotic Rebellion.
I'll take the last one first. I'm no patriot. If anything, I'm closer to what you might call a Vernard Ellar style of "Christian anarchist" -- simply meaning I have no love for or attachment to our government or political system, but that I do have a love for people as God's creatures. He loves them, so I love them, no matter how devoted or opposed they are to Americanism of whatever description. Romans 14 weighs heavily on me about that --- love is the calling for us.
Now, is my response dictated by the Word and Spirit of God. Is there a way to have a Holy Ghost inspired, biblically consistent shooting? I mean, that's where we are in the discussion, right?
I can only take what the Bible gives me. Without going into more lengthy preaching that will bore everyone even more: Jesus whipped, flipped and quipped. He was protecting the honor of His Father's house and He did it with a whip, flipping tables, and quoting the prophets. I'm protecting the integrity of my family's physical safety. Paul said that a man who won't provide for his family is worse than an infidel. Provision more than food, clothing and shelter. Provision includes protection inasmuch as I am able to do so. And, I must do so in love not only for my family -- which Paul says is my duty or that I have denied the faith! -- but my duty is also to love my enemy. I don't want to shoot anybody. I have no transgender axe to grind.
I have posted here in the past my deep, personal conversation with someone whom I consider a friend who is an openly transgender male (man living as a woman). He is as much a woman as Bruce Jenner. I would no more want that man to be harmed than anything. I truly love the guy. And, I have no reason to suspect that HE would harm my family; in fact, I think he'd protect my family from someone doing harm to them as quickly as I would myself. But, there are people who will take advantage of this new moral reality in the public restroom. And, it will only get worse. I can't just sit by and blindly pretend it'll all work out.
And, Awakened/Mark, I don't want this to go to the races of us slapping one another about this. I think Jeff meant his remarks exactly in loving concern for my soul and mind and heart. I take it that way.
