First off, let's define what we mean by Biblical Innocence?
Mathew 10:16
“Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
The Greek word “akeraios”, rendered here as “harmless”, may also be rendered as innocent. This verse does not infer ignorance of evil, but rather a rigorous study of Scripture applied to the real world and to one's walk with the Lord. Too many people conflate innocence with naivete.
Daniel 6:22
“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.”
Daniel was not “innocent” in the eyes of the law, but in the eyes of God and in common sense. This was also an innocence with knowledge.
2 Corinthians 7:11
“For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”
The word used for clear in the Greek, “hagnos”, means pure, chaste, innocent, or cleared of wrongdoing in a legal sense.
Naivete, however, is never looked upon kindly in the Bible. Just read Genesis 3 or Proverbs and we can see what the Bible has to say about the fool, also potentially rendered “the naive”.
Some people, with good intentions, believe that we shouldn't talk about issues concerning marital intimacy, let alone the deviations from Godly marital intimacy. We can clearly see however, that the world has created its own narrative about sex and gender, and we can also see the harm it has caused.
I am not claiming that these people do not have agency and that the Church is directly responsible for the Pride movement growing in America. However, we've been given the task of being salt and light, restraining influences against decay. Most of us have lived clueless existences in regards to what has been happening in schools and campuses. We are only now seeing the depths of the evil when it shows up in our cities on stages or libraries, flouncing about with immunity from our politicians and police. Nancy Pelosi was recently on Rue Paul's Drag Race, Christina Aguelara pranced about on a pride stage with a 12 inch strapped on appendage flopping about whilst aggressively imitating sexual acts in front of children. These same acts performed on stage, would be prosecuted if done over text, and rightfully so. When we have not filled our children and culture with good ideas about sexuality, the vacuum will be filled by alternatives. We need to start grounding our children in reality so when they are inevitably exposed to the insanity of the world, they can remain innocent. If our children are only naive, and not innocent, but wise, many more will fall to this destructive ideology.
So, let us look at some of the facts surrounding the transgender movement, the current tip of the enemy's spear. Studies that claim a relationship between not transitioning and suicide are skewed. One such study published in JAMA Surgery, the people polled claimed up to a 50% reduction in suicidal thoughts in comparison to the last month or year. This claim might make some believe that the results are in and that “transitioning” ultimately helps a significant amount of people. The inverse actually appears to be true if you follow up a decade later.
In Sweden, where the trans movement is roughly a quarter century ahead of us, studies have been undertaken to better understand the long term consequences of “transitioning”.
“The study identified increased mortality and psychiatric hospitalization compared to the matched controls. The mortality was primarily due to completed suicides (19.1-fold greater than in control Swedes), but death due to neoplasm and cardiovascular disease was increased 2 to 2.5 times as well. We note, mortality from this patient population did not become apparent until after 10 years. The risk for psychiatric hospitalization was 2.8 times greater than in controls even after adjustment for prior psychiatric disease (18 percent). The risk for attempted suicide was greater in male-to-female patients regardless of the gender of the control. Further, we cannot exclude therapeutic interventions as a cause of the observed excess morbidity and mortality. The study, however, was not constructed to assess the impact of gender reassignment surgery per se.” -(Trentacosti 2007, PRO 2009) (Appendices C and D).
In the states it has been difficult to do research on this topic because academics who do are often fired or brought into public ruin as in the cases of Dr. Alan Josephson or Dr. Lisa Littman. Stories below. However, the Heritage foundation has attempted to put some of the pieces together with comparing locals that allowed easy access to Transgender Hormones and care to minors:
“In the past several years, the suicide rate among those ages 12 to 23 has become significantly higher in states that have a provision that allows minors to receive routine health care without parental consent than in states without such a provision. Before 2010, these two groups of states did not differ in their youth suicide rates. Starting in 2010, when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones became widely available, elevated suicide rates in states where minors can more easily access those medical interventions became observable.
Rather than being protective against suicide, this pattern indicates that easier access by minors to cross-sex medical interventions without parental consent is associated with higher risk of suicide. The Heritage model plotted the difference in a three-year rolling average of suicide rates between states with minor access provisions and states with no such provision. Chart 2 plots the trend in this difference for those ages 12 to 23 who could have been affected by the policy when cross-sex medical interventions became available. For comparison, Chart 2 also shows the trend in this difference for a group ages 28 to 39, who could not have been affected by these policies, since the people in this group would have been at least 18 when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones became available.”
It is important to note, that while this recent trend is new to America, nothing is new under the sun. Rome and Greece fell to this. Israel, for that matter, fell to this. It is critical that we not only repent, but begin shoring up a new foundation of innocence, not naivete, for the next generation of children. This involves talking about sex, gender, and godlessness in a Biblical sense, with grace and thoughtfulness. We need to be aware of what is out there and we need to be a restraining purifying presence in our culture.
Innocence is not a naive blindness, but a committed walk with God, ministering truth and grace to a dying culture. Churches need to wake up from their naivete and realize how serious a fight we have ahead of us. We need to have answers, rooted in Scripture, prepared for those who are hurt and suffering as well as those looking for belonging in the LGBT movement. Who knows, perhaps they will come to know the Lord. What we do know, is that the world is sentencing many of these people to a life of misery and suicide without Christ if we do not present the Godly alternative.
Story on study claiming reduction on suicidal ideation within the last month or year.
Lisa Littman's Work Removed: https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/brown-university-criticized-over-removal-transgender-study-n906741
Dr. Allan Josephson fired:
Heritage Study:
https://www.heritage.org/gender/report/puberty-blockers-cross-sex-hormones-and-youth-suicide