Lux Lucet

In the early morning hours of December 28, 2014, 17 year old Joshua Alcorn stepped in front of an oncoming semi on I-71, ending his life. In general, suicides do not receive extensive news coverage. But this suicide has received significant media attention, not only locally here in Cincinnati where the suicide took place, but also nationally and even internationally. This suicide is newsworthy in a way others are not due to the reason the young man gave for taking his own life. In a suicide note published on his Tumblr account, Joshua Alcorn indicated his suicide was the result of the rejection he felt from being a transgender. In his words, “I felt like a girl trapped in a boy’s body.”

In watching the news coverage of this story over the past week, it has become clear that the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) community intends to use the sad death of this confused young man to further their political agenda. And the media is obediently doing its part to help them out. From the reports this author has watched and read, the media narrative has coalesced around four main ideas,

• To identify as transgender is perfectly normal and should be regarded as such be all.
  
• As a result of its failure to unconditionally accept the transgendered lifestyle, society bears a general responsibility for Joshua Alcorn’s death.
  
• Particular responsibility for Joshua’s death attaches to his parents and to their narrow minded brand of Christianity.
  
• No responsibility whatsoever can properly be assigned to Joshua for his depression and suicide.
  

In the light of Scripture, all four propositions are false. But given the full-court press put on by the gay rights community over the past 40 years to normalize LGBT lifestyles, and given the success they have had at enacting that agenda, many who may not agree with their program have been shamed or intimidated into silence. A Biblical response is needed.

The Media

Before addressing the four propositions mentioned above, it seemed good first to discuss the media’s handling of this story. For it provides a window into the origin of these four ideas. To begin, in the week since this story first broke, the tone of the coverage has changed significantly. The initial reports indicated that a teen was stuck by a semi on I-71. Take for example this 12/2914 story from the website of a local TV station.

Joshua Alcorn of Kings Mills was struck and killed by a semi-truck early Sunday morning on I-71 in Warren County.

Ohio State Troopers said that the 17-year-old was in the roadway near the South Lebanon exit when he [note well, the masculine pronoun] was hit at about 2:20 a.m.

The Florence truck driver was headed south at the time and that man was not hurt.

Apparently, the reason for the teen’s suicide was not yet known to the reporter who at the time this story was filed. But as the week progressed and more details came out, a significant shift took place in the reporting. Not even two days after the story above was written, the same local TV station posted the following report on its website,

Transgender teen commits suicide, inspires…

The tragic suicide of a teenage transgender is raising awareness over the challenges of gender identity.

17-year-old Leelah (Leelah is the female name adopted by Joshua Alcorn) was struck and killed by a semi Sunday morning, Dec. 28, on I-71 near South Lebanon. An investigator with the Warren County coroner’s office said they had no reason to believe that the death of Leelah Alcorn was not a suicide.

The driver of the truck that struck him told investigators the teen jumped out in front of his vehicle. Plus a suicide note was found at home and online. Tuesday night, Dec. 30, leaders in the lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender community are reaching out to others like Leelah who are trying to figure things out for themselves.

Leelah Alcorn, born Joshua Alcorn, was 17-years-old. She [note well the feminine pronoun] wrote a suicide note and posted it on a blog. In it she [feminine pronoun] said, “Please don’t be sad, it’s for the better. The life I would’ve lived isn’t worth living in because I’m transgender.”

Note well the shift in tone. The neutral reporting of Monday 12/29 quickly gave way to a flood of what can only be described as transgender propaganda. On 12/29, a teen was struck and killed by a semi. By Tuesday evening, this same event was being reported as an inspiration. Especially noteworthy is the shift that occurred in the proper name and the pronouns used to identify the deceased individual. The earlier reporting used the teen’s birth name of Joshua Alcorn. The latter report used Leelah Alcorn and consistently used the feminine pronouns she and her. And this reporting is now remarkably consistent regardless of what news organization is filing the report. Consider the following excerpt from a CNN story,

The weekend suicide of a transgender teen in Ohio sparked an intensely emotional reaction across social media which     shows no sign of letting up. Born as Josh Alcorn, the teen signed an online suicide note as Leelah.

    Leelah explained that she always felt like a girl and wanted her parents to accept that. They did not, mother Carla     Alcorn told CNN, for religious reasons. Though she loved her child, the mother struggled to wrap her mind around     what transgender means.

    “The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like     humans, with valid feelings and human rights,” Leelah pleaded in her note. “My death needs to be counted.”

Not being a professional journalist, it is my assumption that this editorial consistency is no accident, but rather the result of style book standards. And from where do news organizations take their style book standards. In the case of transgender issues, apparently an important source is an organization called GLAAD. Originally an acronym for Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GLAAD is now the primary name for a media monitoring organization. In its own words, GLAAD,

[W]orks with print, broadcast and online news sources to bring people powerful stories from the LGBT community that build support for equality. And when news outlets get it wrong, GLAAD is there to respond and advocate for fairness and accuracy…

GLAAD rewrites the script for LGBT equality. As a dynamic media force, GLAAD tackles tough issues to shape the narrative and provoke dialogue that leads to cultural change. GLAAD protects all that has been accomplished and creates a world where everyone can live the life they love.

To put it another way, GLADD is a propaganda organization dedicated to the support of what was once known as sodomy. In their own words, the group seeks to “shape the narrative” surrounding LGBT issues. In her 1/2/15 Cincinnati Enquirer article “Transgender vocabulary matters,” Laura Wooley takes issue with the language used by the Enquirer in its coverage of the Joshua Alcorn story and offers suggestions on how to improve it. Wooley, who identifies herself as a “cisgender gay woman,” provides several illustrations of how to and how not to talk about transgender issues. She writes,

The Enquirer said, “transgenders who experienced rejection by family and friends, discrimination, victimization or violence have a higher risk of attempting suicide.” Again, GLAAD’s media reference guide (http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender) explains that using transgender as a noun can be damaging. It reduces an individual – transgender person – to a single aspect of her identity.

Following the link she provided to the GLAAD webpage, we see that it gives direction on how to properly use names and pronouns with respect to transgender persons. To wit,

Always use a transgender person’s chosen name.

Many transgender people are able to obtain a legal name change from a court. However, some transgender people cannot afford a legal name change or are not yet old enough to change their name legally. They should be afforded the same respect for their chosen name as anyone else who lies by a name other than their birth name (e.g. celebrities).

If not possible to ask a transgender person which pronoun is preferred, use the pronoun that is consistent with the person’s appearance and gender expression.

For example, if a person wears a dress and uses the name Susan, feminine pronouns are usually appropriate.

After a review of the GLAAD website and Laura Wooley’s article, it seems reasonable to conclude that the media’s insistence on using the name Leelah – a name Joshua’s mother said she never heard him use – in place of Joshua and feminine pronouns when referring to him is the result of a deliberate effort at narrative shaping on the part of those who promote sodomy in its various forms, the various media outlets serving as willing dupes.

The media narrative in light of Scripture

What, then, is the Biblical response to this media narrative? Regarding the first proposition – to identify as transgender is perfectly normal and should be accepted as such by all – it goes wrong right from the beginning. On the authority of the Word of God, in the same way as there is no such thing as a true atheist, there is no such thing as a true transgender. No doubt there are many people who think they are transgender, just as there are many people who claim to be atheists. But just as the Scriptures teach that the atheist is simply one who has chosen to suppress the truth he already knows in unrighteousness, so too is it with the transgender who claims to be a woman trapped in a man’s body. The transgender is profoundly confused. As the Bible tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; Who can know it (Jer.17:9)? Sinful man cannot, in the words of Socrates, know himself. And this applies to transgenders more than most.

But the so-called allies of the LGBT community, organizations such as GLAAD, far from leading these lost and confused transgender people to the only One who could heal them, instead pour poison in their ears, telling them that they are fine just the way they are and encouraging them to take pride in their destructive lifestyles. These are exactly the kind of “friends” the apostle Paul discussed when writing to the church at Rome he stated,

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting: being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things [various types of sodomy] are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them (Romans 1:28-32, emphasis added).

Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that GLAAD and others who promote various forms of sodomy know that such behavior deserves the righteous judgment of God. They know it is deserving of death. But for all that, they go out and encourage people in these same behaviors they know are destructive. If a company knowingly sells a product that can cause harm, it is liable for damages should someone be hurt as a result. How much more are gay rights advocates responsible for the incalculable harm done to people who heed their counsel?

As with the first, the second proposition – that general responsibility for Joshua’s death can be laid at the feet of society – is easily dismissed by the Scriptures. The problem is this, the proposition assigns blame to a collective even though when blame can properly be assigned only to individuals. Take, for example, the editorial page of the Cincinnati Enquirer. In a 12/31/14 editorial “We must help LGBT kids,” the editors, writing about the death of Joshua Alcorn, make the point that,

Her (referring to Joshua Alcorn) story resonated throughout Greater Cincinnati and well beyond as it has spoken to an aspect of the GLBT rights movement that hasn’t received much mainstream attention. Leelah’s (again referring to Joshua) suicide must make us think more about our collective responsibility to love and help all the children in our world.

Contrary to the editors of the Enquirer, guilt and righteousness attach to individuals only, not society collectively. We know this, because on the Day of Judgment, it is individuals who stand before the judgment seat of Christ, not societies. As Paul writes, “For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one [individually] may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done [as an individual], whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10). There is no mention of societies appearing at the final judgment.

The third proposition, the notion that Joshua’s death is the particular fault of his parents or their Christian faith, is also false. For the most part, Joshua’s parents have stayed away from the media. But his mother, Carla Alcorn, did go on CNN last week to tell her side of the story. The video of this story is apparently unavailable on the CNN website, but excerpts of the interview were captured in transcript form. Based on her comments, it would seem that she possesses a far better understanding of her son’s situation and anything this author has seen in the mainstream press. According to the transcript, she said,

We don’t support that [the notion that her son was a girl trapped in a boy’s body], religiously. But we told him that we loved him unconditionally. We loved him no matter what.

These are not the words of someone guilty of killing her son. They’re the anguished words of a parent deeply grieved at his death. They are not evidence of hate, but of love. Worth noting is Mrs. Alcorn’s use of Joshua’s legal name and masculine pronouns in her comments. This has angered some in the LGBT community who consider it disrespectful. It isn’t. It is called speaking honestly. But according to one report,

After the death, a Facebook post apparently from Carla Alcorn said her child, “went home to heaven this morning. He was out for an early morning walk and was hit by a truck. Thank you for the messages and kindness and concern you have sent our way. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts.”

Some on social media have seized on that post and reposted her message, crossing out the male pronouns and the name Josh and replacing them with female pronouns and the name Leelah.

Those who engage in this sort of disrespectful behavior toward Joshua’s mother are, ironically, very likely the same people who scream the loudest about the lack of respect they receive as transgenders. It takes a remarkable amount of gall for any who, up until a few days ago, likely never had heard of Joshua Alcorn to take his mother, who knew him his whole life, to task over her use of names and pronouns. Such people are without pity.

Fourth and finally, the proposition that Joshua Alcorn bears no responsibility for his death is also wide of the mark. We, all of us, are responsible, that is to say we are answerable, to God for our thoughts, our words and our actions. In reading Joshua Alcorn’s suicide note, it is very evident that he is responsible, not just for the sin of his suicide (suicide is self-murder and is prohibited by the sixth commandment), but for several other sins as well.

• Third Commandment, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: His use of vulgar curse words and explicit rejection of his parent’s Christian teaching fall under this heading.
  
• Fifth Commandment, honor your father and your mother: Not only did Joshua use vulgar curse words in the suicide note, he directed some of them against his parents, some to the only people in this world who loved him. If this were not bad enough, he went so far as to explicitly will his possessions to be sold and the money given to “trans civil rights movements,” knowing that this would grieve his parents further.
  
• The seventh commandment, you shall not commit adultery: This commandment is not limited to simple adultery. It also covers all sexual sins, of which the transgender lifestyle is one.
  

Let the reader understand, listing out these sins is not an attempt to pile on an already terrible situation. The purpose of mentioning these sins is to show that the very suicide note praised by so many as inspirational, in truth is anything but. Supposing he had justified himself, Joshua actually condemned himself. For as Christ said, “[B]y your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:37).

Closing Thoughts

This has not been an easy or pleasant essay to write. Most people would rather not speak on the topics of suicide and transgender lifestyles. I am no different, but circumstances demand just such a discussion. When thinking about the general state of affairs with the gay rights movement going from victory to victory and the particular instance of this young man’s sad death, the following words of Martin Luther make a compelling case to write as I have,

If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point.

At this moment, the world and the devil clearly have arrayed themselves against the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality. To those who support the various LGBT causes, all manner tolerance is granted. For example, noted gay activist Dan Savage writing on Twitter commented, “Leelah Alcorn’s parents threw her in front of that truck. They should be ashamed – but 1st they should be shamed. Charges should be brought.” So in Savage’s mind, parents who just lost their son in a very public, very devastating fashion should be prosecuted, because their desire to instill Christian teaching in him, supposedly, brought about his death. This is patently false. If the blame for Joshua’s death is to shared by anyone, it belongs properly to Dan Savage an others who encourage others to lead lifestyles they know in their hearts are destructive. Dan Savage couldn’t care less about the life of Joshua Alcorn. His concern is with furthering his political agenda. Nothing more. By his comments about Joshua’s parents, he shows himself to be the very sort of man Paul described in Rom.1: unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. And yet no one calls him on it. On the other hand, should anyone dare to defend the Bible’s unambiguous teaching on the evils of homosexuality, no quarter is shown them. Such is the world we live in today.

In closing, should anyone who reads this post happen to be struggling with various homosexual sins, I beg of you, please see Joshua Alcorn’s death, not as an inspiration, but for what it truly is, a sober warning from God about what happens to those who reject him. For Joshua, it is too late. But for you, there yet remains hope. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” If you come to Christ confessing your sins, he will accept you and he will heal you. Why perish listening to those who lie to you to further their own agenda? Your misery in this life and your eternal destruction in the next mean nothing to them. Come to Christ and live.