start ’em young, right?

this is what some of you used to be

In a local newscast a reporter noted, “Most people seemed to walk away, having a good time.” Her male colleague replied with, “Start ’em young, right?” I’m not sure which precise event they were referring to, but this video offers a buffet of drag-themed performances directed at little kids.

It just so happened I was reading 2 Thessalonians 2 this morning. I don’t want to present myself as the arbiter of all that is holy and just, but here is a text that stood out to me:

9 The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, 10 and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, 12 so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned.

In verse 3, the “lawless one” is referred to as “the son of destruction.” Earl J. Richard, professor emeritus at Loyola University, describes this figure as “one who opposes all semblance of law, order, and goodness.” God is presented as conveying “a powerful delusion” to those who “refused to love the truth.” There is a real sense of being self-deceived, of choosing error.

I honestly don’t see how teaching children (even as young as kindergartners) to twerk qualifies as loving the truth.

The adults present cheer and laugh as the performers demonstrate their own version of “truth.” I fear the truth demonstrated is the desire to rob the young ones of their innocence. The kids are being sexualized. A latent (some might argue overt) hatred of children is on display.

In 1 Corinthians 6, St. Paul gives a laundry list of sins, beginning with the “sexually immoral” (v. 9). He follows this up by saying, “And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (v. 11).

The poor depraved souls bringing their business in the faces of those precious ones — and the parents offering their offspring to that rot — are desperately loved by the Lord. “This is what some of you used to be.”

I’m sure we all could fit in one list or another.

This is what some of you used to be.