"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well, I have others."

—Groucho Marx

While funny, the joke (as so much humor does) points to a tragic reality.  A house built upon shifting sand cannot endure the storms of life, while a house built upon solid rock can (see Matt. 7:24-27).  Lives guided by moral relativism will bring ruin and have been doing so for a long time.

The modern, real-life parables of this truth are many.  The sad tale of Chloe Cole, or more precisely, that of her parents, is but one example.  Deceived by false counsel, they sent their temporarily gender-confused daughter to so-called "gender-affirming" surgery, which irreversibly mutilated her with a double-mastectomy and hormones.  Miss Cole later decided to "de-transition" and present herself as the girl she is, but much life-altering damage had already been done.

Being the father of a daughter myself, I could not help but wonder what possessed the now remorseful parents to consent to such a travesty.  And being no paragon of virtue or moral strength myself — not by a long shot — I must be careful to avoid the hypocrisy which the great author of parables Himself so despised.  What would I have done in their place?

As dispassionately as I can, and without assigning blame or guilt, I can diagnose the problem as the lack of bedrock principle.  The parents of the then-fourteen-year-old Chloe were told, by the so-called experts, that many transsexuals who are denied "gender-affirming" treatments commit suicide. The experts framed the alternatives as an ironically binary choice: "Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?"  The pressure must have been immense.  Who could resist?

The advice, as the choice, however, was based on a false ideology and false compassion.  Chloe Cole is the victim of forces beyond her understanding or control, which applies to all of us in varying degrees.  Without firm principles, we cannot make reliably good decisions.

This is not exclusively about the parents, and so it does not matter that I do not know their religion, political affiliation, or other important factors that influenced their decision.  I am sure that they did not rely on bedrock Christian principles.  Neither did I throughout much of my life, much to my regret.

This is about our crumbling society.  The Founders of our nation were of various religions and social beliefs (including pro-slavery!), but they did not lightly pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of independence on some whimsical theories that violate the teachings of what they recognized as "nature's God."

I am not wise enough to rank our social ills in order, but I am sure that the phenomenon of so-called transsexualism is either near the top of the list or the direct result of the abandonment of the bedrock principles upon which America was founded.  It is not hyperbole to say our culture will survive or fall based on how we confront transsexuality.

There are many other victims.  Their horror stories should be broadcast as widely as possible.  Luka Hein's story is similar to Chloe Cole's in its tragic results.  She is suing the doctors.

But let's be clear.  This is not like other social issues.  It will not be solved in the courts, or even the legislatures, as important as those are.  This is about the core values of our society, values that are under vigorous assault in more ways than there is room here to detail.  We who wish to protect children from the profiteers of the "sex change" industry are being called intolerant, hate-mongers, and worse.  Many of us are being "canceled," fired from our jobs, expelled from schools, and even threatened with having our own children taken from us.

Many of us living lives built on shifting sand will wind up sacrificing our children to the false gods of "Wokeism."  Pray that more of us will choose the solid rock, the bedrock of eternal principles.  If you do not like those, the alternatives will bring tragedy to your life.

Image via Pxfuel.