Headaches & heartaches

The juxtaposition of a Tylenol ad with a mother’s testimonial is a somber reminder that the church’s witness must be prophetic and priestly.

Rod Dreher has a post over at The American Conservative that you really need to read for yourself. It consists of two separate examples of the blatant propaganda being served up in the effort to redefine the nature of transgenderism.

First up is a Tylenol add that ironically (or is it paradoxically?) turns out to be a headache-inducing homage to today’s undefined family. Were it not for the inclusion of some intolerant newspeak in the script (note especially the socio-linguistic pronouncement by one of our leading lights at the 30 sec mark), you’d find The Beatles were singing this message fifty years ago.

But the second example provided by Dreher (via a reader) is heartbreaking. It’s a testimonial from the parent of an autistic girl who identified as a lesbian who then identified as a male who is now transitioning to a “boy.” The contrast between Tylenol’s agitprop and the mom’s story is jarring. One can’t help but feel sympathy for a mom who feels she missed her opportunity to protect her daughter from harm; for an autistic teen who couldn’t appreciate the decision she was making and now will suffer consequences she can’t understand; and for a host of other vulnerable young people who will be treated as guinea pigs for the cause of “human dignity.”

The juxtaposition of a Tylenol ad with a mother’s testimonial is a somber reminder that our society needs a church who will be prophetic and priestly. It’s not enough to be a lonely voice crying out in an expanding wilderness. We also need to be ministers who sympathetically serve the ones left to languish in the wilderness.

Author: Jonathan P. Merritt

Happily married father of six. Lead pastor at Edgewood Baptist Church (Columbus, GA). Good-natured contrarian, theological Luddite, and long-suffering Atlanta Falcons fan. A student of one book.

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