Drop Religion and You Get Extremism

Sage Blair’s story shows the cost of abandoning the Judeo-Christian foundations of the West.

The argument: Detransitioner Sage Blair’s case is not just about transgenderist insanity; it also illustrates the comprehensive cultural rot that results when we reject our Judeo-Christian heritage.

WHY IT MATTERS

During his February State of the Union address, President Trump introduced Sage Blair, a young woman who “socially transitioned” from girl to boy (behavior her school encouraged and hid from her parents). Until Sage courageously broke free, she suffered years of abuse and family estrangement, exacerbated by transgenderists’ obsession with social and governmental authorities. Her story illustrates the urgency with which we as a nation must address this issue—before it sinks us further into moral and societal oblivion.

But Sage’s is not an isolated case. Per the Wall Street Journal, states all over the Union are “ripping families apart to serve transgender ideology.” And this dismantling goes beyond transgenderism: many among our governing authorities are prepared to encroach on our most intimate spaces, families, faith, and very lives to enforce a new, radical and utterly destructive view of morality. It is now commonplace in Western democracies to require complete subservience to what social elites deem to be right and good, regardless of reality. “Do as we say, lest ye be deemed on the wrong side of history,” their mantra seemingly goes.

This new moral orthodoxy manifests itself primarily in the arena of sexual morality. Take any questioning of hookup culture, the latest obsession of self-care as the highest level of love or even the most minor condemnation of “slut-shaming” as a negative for a supposedly enlightened, empowered society. But crucially, and at a more basic level, this orthodoxy paints the very idea of objective truth as oppressive. It asserts each person’s right to decide for oneself what is true for himself regardless of any larger reality. And in jettisoning objective truth, it threatens not only parental rights and children’s health, but our very right to life and fundamental freedoms.

Many in government are prepared to encroach on our most intimate spaces, families, faith, and very lives to enforce a new, radical and utterly destructive view of morality.

As one can see in progressives’ undying attachment to abortion and euthanasia, this “right to choose” extends to whether vulnerable human beings will (and should) live or die. Abortion is rampant throughout the West. In the U.S. alone, it’s claimed more than 63 million victims over the past 50 years. The new moral orthodoxy sells euthanasia, meanwhile, as “dignity in dying.” In practice, it has become a mortal danger to the chronically ill, aged, disabled and depressed. In Canada, “medical assistance in dying,” or MAiD, is quickly developing into a death expectation rather than a choice. Originally limited to adults with “grievous and irremediable” medical conditions, it now offers death to physically healthy people who suffer from mental illness.

Inevitably, the new moral orthodoxy opposes religious freedom. In Europe, Christians risk hate speech charges. On both sides of the Atlantic, they could lose jobs or suffer social ostracization. In England, one might even be sanctioned for unspoken religious thoughts, getting arrested for praying silently near abortion clinics. In America, meanwhile, our Supreme Court just ruled that California cannot keep schoolchildren’s transgenderism secret from parents—but Democrat-appointed justices dissented. Throughout the West, in other words, the old moderate left that shared the West’s Judeo-Christian worldview is fading; countering this turn, therefore, is a matter of rescuing healthy center-left/center-right debate that sustains Western self-government.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Sage Blair’s story, among other modern milieus, reminds us that the Declaration of Independence’s self-evident truths are meaningless outside the Judeo-Christian worldview. As responsible citizens, we who cherish the West must be bold and resolute in upholding our Judeo-Christian heritage. In learning to articulate its truths persuasively, humbly and lovingly, we must persist in refuting the postmodern lies surrounding us.

Todd Huizinga is Senior Editor of Nation and Citizenship at Restoring the West by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Follow him on X @Todd_Huizinga.