The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is backtracking its mandate, published in May, that required all schools who receive federal funding to comply with a broadened definition of discrimination, which encompassed sexuality and “gender identity.”
The original mandate from May, previously asserted that “all schools receiving federal funds through its Food and Nutrition Service would have to adhere to transgender-inclusive policies in order to participate in the National School Lunch Program,” according to Decision Magazine. “The National School Lunch Program provides low-cost and free lunches to children at nearly 100,000 public, nonprofit private schools, and childcare centers.”
The USDA released a “clarification” on August 12th, stipulating that the “law includes some exceptions, including one permitting an institution to be exempt on religious grounds if there is a conflict between Title IX and a school’s governing religious tenets.”
The backtracking by the USDA, allowing religious exemptions to the mandate, came only days after a lawsuit was filed by Grant Park Christian Academy, a school based in Tampa, Flordia, which insisted that compliance with the new school lunch mandate would “suffer harms to its educational mission, free speech, and religious exercise.”
Biblically speaking, God’s Word is abundantly clear about gender and sexuality. The very first chapter of the Bible describes that God created humans to be “male and female” (Genesis 1:27); this directly contradicts the progressive ideology which insists that gender is a “spectrum” and “fluid” regardless of biology.
Additionally, the following chapter shows that it is God who created the institution of marriage and designed it to be between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24).
Jesus confirmed both of these Biblical truths about marriage and gender in Matthew 19:4-6. Furthermore, other areas of Scripture reiterate that the forsaking of God’s design, as well as the participation and celebration of homosexuality, is a sin to be repented of (Romans 1:18-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Timothy 1:8-11, Jude 1:7, etc.). It is also worth noting that Leviticus 18:22-24, states that these are sins by which “nations are defiled.”
“It shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to get the government to respect religious freedom,” Erica Steinmiller-Perdomo, an Alliance Defending Freedom attorney, who served as legal counsel for the school, said in a statement.
Carrying similar sentiment, Pastor Alfred Johnson, President of the school’s parent organization, Faith Action Ministry Alliance, agreed that “it’s unfortunate we even needed to file this lawsuit in the first place,” adding that they are still “pleased to see it resolved quickly with the assistance of Alliance Defending Freedom.”
“With all of the other fires the Biden administration is trying to put out, tying up a federal agency in court for the foreseeable future probably wasn’t an appealing option,” Suzanne Bowdey, reporting for Washington Stand, quipped. “That might explain why on Friday, while the media was consumed with news from Mar-a-Lago, the Department of Agriculture quietly cried uncle on an outrageous policy that would have held needy kids hostage to the president’s radical LGBT agenda. At least when it comes to religious schools, children don’t have to worry about the Biden bullies taking away their lunch.”
“While faith-based schools can celebrate the freedom to believe without consequences, children in the public schools are still prisoners of the Biden administration’s ideological blackmail,” Bowdey reminded readers.
Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, in a sermon, detailed how our society has become marked by increasing lies and deception intended to move adults and children away from the truth of God’s Word.
“What’s happening in our age? America has cut loose from the Bible and from the foundation of God,” Hibbs explained. “In this world, you are either drawing closer to truth or further away from it. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:13 that ‘evil men and seducers will or shall wax worse and worse.’ That means to increase obviously, in scale, to become more and more prominent. They’ll ‘wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived.'”
“If you would take the time to see what [teachers] are trained on, what to take back to your kid’s class, you would realize that down the hallway is a deceiving lie that has been put in your kid’s head,” Hibbs cautioned.
Candice Owens, in her article “Schools Are Targeting Our Children. It’s Time To Fight Back,” urged that “it’s time for parents to remind themselves that they are the parents.”
“I travel the country a lot, and it seems the number one question I am now getting from parents is: what can we do? They’re realizing that something is wrong,” she said. “[They are learning that schools] cannot be trusted with our children. I hear people say they can’t afford homeschooling because they have to work, and I understand the predicament. But if you’re sending your children to school because you think it’s free, you must understand something: it’s not free.”
“It is costing you your child’s mind. It is propaganda. It is lies. It is making them dumber. And it is sexualizing them,” Owens stressed.
Cissie Graham Lynch in a recent article explained that educating our children “is a spiritual battlefield.”
“Over the past two years many of us parents had to take on the role of balancing our work, our home life and taking on our children’s education… I believe that we are in a battle—a spiritual war—for our children’s hearts, their minds and their souls in this country,” she asserted. “As parents we need to remember that our children are our mission field. The greatest spiritual impact we have is on our children at a young age.”
“We have to share Biblical truth with our children early on,” she urged. ”Get on your knees and surrender the situation to the Lord—that He would give you the guidance and wisdom, the creativity to raise your children, to educate your children and trust Him with these days that we are facing.”
