An Open Letter to the Person County Library, and Person County Government from her Local Pastor-Shepherds.
On behalf of the members of our congregations, we wish to express our gratitude to God for your service as civic leaders here in Person County. We are thankful that under your leadership, our congregations enjoy the many privileges of liberty here in our community. In many ways, “It is better in Person” and for this we thank you.
With that being said, As Pastor-Shepherds of Person County, we write to collectively voice our concern and to address the issue of the recent use of the toddler/children's story hour at our Person County Library to publicly read, approve of, and promote topics and issues related to LGBTQ ideology.
We call upon the Person County Library to discontinue this practice immediately.
It is our understanding that the book, "The Rainbow Parade" by Emily Nielson, was read aloud by the library as part of the Toddler/Children's Story Hour on Thursday, June 22. This book is an attempt to normalize and celebrate pride in LGBTQ identity and behaviors, specifically targeted to children. Furthermore, the book is an attempt to valorize, encourage, and cultivate the support of such ideologies and behaviors among young children. The book’s main character is a young girl named Emily who is experiencing her first Pride parade and being encouraged by her mothers to embrace and participate in it.
The book contains not only immoral messaging and destructive ideologies, but inappropriate and pornographic images directed at young children. This book, and its promotion by Library staff, represent a clear and present danger to the children of our county and our society at large.
And while we greatly value and appreciate the work of our Library and its employees, we submit this open letter for the following reasons:
1 - To Stand for the Objective Moral Truth of God’s Word and the True Hope of Jesus Christ.
The biblical story can be summed up in four words: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. It is these four words that tell us the story of how God made the world good and perfect (1), but through sin, mankind rejected God (2), choosing instead to rebel and cast himself into a world of sin and darkness. But, in His mercy, God sent His Son, Jesus (3), into the world, being both truly God and truly man (4), to live a perfect life, die a sacrificial death on the cross; He was buried, and He was raised to life three days later (5). And for those who repent of their sin and trust in the resurrected Christ, they receive redemption and new life from heaven (6), and the promise of eternal life with God where all will be restored (7).
It is this biblical story that provides our understanding of the world, and of ourselves; it is this story that explains why the world is broken and plagued by suffering; it is this story that provides the objective morality that has securely upheld mankind for millennia; it is this story that explains why mankind is at war with the objective realities of the world, and now at war with his own body; and it is this true story that now helps us to understand why reading a book such as “The Rainbow Parade” to our children is not only sinful, but harmful to and destructive.
The book presents a false and misleading message of salvation, which is that the full embrace of LGTBQ ideology is both good and normal. For Emily, the book’s main character, her salvation is found in rightly embracing the celebration of LGBTQ pride going on around her.
As Pastor-Shepherds of Person County and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we wholly reject this message. It is a gross distortion of the true and living God, it is a rejection of the objective reality of His creation, it is a rejection of the goodness of the body which is created in the image of God, and most importantly, it is a rejection of the true message of salvation. And such rejection leads only to a destructive end.
2 - To Stand for True Human Flourishing.
The promotion of books such as “The Rainbow Parade,” is an attack on human flourishing. It is a gross departure from God’s creative designs—and such departures always lead to suffering, hardship, and eternal death. This book promotes a worldview that is antithetical to true human flourishing.
True human flourishing is found as men and women live according to their fixed identities and roles, as children are raised in healthy, morally upright, and stable environments, and as communities arrange themselves to aid and support these truths. Ultimately, true human flourishing can only be found in salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ and the personal transformation that He brings.
Studies (8), stories (9), and books (10) show that LGBTQ ideologies not only promote sinful behavior, they also promote destructive behavior. Issues of depression, drug use, regret, loneliness, partner abuse, child abuse, sickness, single-parent households, and loose family structures are all endemic within the LGBTQ community.
We do not raise this issue as empty criticism, but only to highlight that the world-views present in “The Rainbow Parade” leads away from flourishing and toward destruction and suffering. And while adults may willfully choose such behaviors, it is immoral and wrong for Government and its Services to promote and encourage such a destructive and antithetical worldview to children. And because we desire for all people, and especially those living in our community, to experience the true flourishing that is in Christ alone, we are compelled to object to anything that threatens to lead them instead toward the opposite experience of brokenness and harm.
3 - To Stand for, and In Protection of Our Children.
“The Rainbow Parade,” and other books like it, represent an immoral assault on the innocence and vulnerability of our children. To encourage such things through public library readings is a violation of our role as adults to protect children from harm and danger. The book contains destructive and immoral teaching, along with pornographic images geared toward children.
On a social media platform, the Director of Youth Services for the Library, Rebecca Williams, specifically notes (11), “The book selection was not sexual at all…” But, this is simply not true. The book depicts a number of morally inappropriate images such as: A completely nude woman walking toward young Emily (the point being to normalize and celebrate public nudity and to desensitize children to such practices), (12) two men dressed in drag-like apparel with one on a leash, a drag-queen called a “fairy,”, and a cross-dressing male. The point of this book, with its messaging and images, is not only the encouragement of pride in LGBTQ identities and ideologies, it represents an attempt to normalize this type of immoral behavior to our children as morally appropriate.
As Dr. Ryan T. Anderson notes, “Gender identity policies [and practices] are not just about allowing citizens who identify as transgender to live as they choose, but about coercing the rest of us to go along with a radical ideology.” (13) And even though Mrs. Williams insists (14) that the reading of such material is harmless and for the common good (along the lines of Mother’s and Father’s Day, and the 4th of July), (15) it represents the furthering of a harmful, destructive, and coercive ideology.
Recently, at the Drag Queen Parade in New York City, marchers can be loudly heard chanting, “We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re coming for your children.” (16) The public readings of such explicit content to young children only serves to reinforce that stated objective. The public reading of books such as “The Rainbow Parade” can rightly be classified as grooming, an activity of which our community should never be a part. We must recognize this for what it is, and actively protect against it.
The promotion of such harmful ideas to the malleable brains of children and adolescents, according to Anderson, has decidedly negative results. (17) He asks the question of whether or not a child is helped or harmed by “gender-inclusive” policies and practices, such as are seen in the reading of “The Rainbow Parade.” By presenting this type of destructive behavior as morally upright and normative to our children, we may well serve the purpose of indoctrinating them into harmful ideas that misconstrue reality and harm them for the rest of their lives. (18)
So, while it has become popular to argue for a normalization of LGBTQ sexuality and sexual expression, and the social good of that ideology, we reject this idea on the authority of God’s revealed Word and the collective testimony of human history. (19) As Pastor-Shepherds, we understand that God has entrusted to government officials the duty of promoting and protecting the common good, chief among them the care and well being of children in this community. We feel that the public reading of "The Rainbow Parade" and the curating of these types of resources is a gross failure on the part of the library and by extension an unfortunate oversight by our local government.
4 - To Stand for the True Public Good.
We recognize that promoting such ideas and ideologies—as represented in “The Rainbow Parade”— actively undermines and works against the public good of society and our community.
As we consider the authoritative teaching of the God’s Word, along with studies and modern research (20), it is clear that heterosexual monogamous marriage is not only the most foundational building block of human society, (21) it is the only proper context for human sexual expression and child-rearing.
“[Heterosexual] marriage is ordered to family life because the act by which spouses make love also makes new life; one and the same act seals a marriage and brings forth children. That is why [heterosexual] marriage alone is the loving union of mind and body fulfilled by procreation—and rearing— of whole new human beings.” (22)
To advocate and promote activities that are outside of these God-given bounds, and further, to promote activities and ideologies that are destructive to this good pattern is to actively work against the public good. “The Rainbow Parade” not only promotes an ideology contrary to that which God reveals in His Word, it actively promotes an ideal that proves destructive and harmful to human society.
Therefore, we speak out against these destructive beliefs and ideologies, and condemn the practice of teaching them to our children and to our community.
5 - To Stand for the Right and Proper Use of Governmental Authority.
Finally, we note that the Government of Person County has the God-given right and responsibility (23) to stand against such destructive teachings and acts, and we call upon all those in authority to act in accordance with historical precedent, government’s societal responsibility, and the Bible’s teaching to bring about an end to the promoting of such books and materials. (24)
In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul notes that God has entrusted authority to the Government for the encouragement of good behavior and the disciplining of bad behavior. He writes, “There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God…For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good.”
To publicly read this book to children and to promote these ideologies as good and right is to do the very opposite of seeking true good, and the leadership of Person County must not only decry this activity, but take appropriate steps to ensure it does not happen again.
In conclusion, we trust that you will give this matter your sincere attention you may be assured of our commitment to pray for you as you serve the citizens of Person County.
Respectfully,
Pastor-Shepherds of Person County
** This letter was submitted to the Person County Library, County Manager, and County Commissioners on Thursday, July5th, 2023.
**The letter was signed by 28 Pastors representing 20 local Congregations.
(1) Gen. 1:31
(2) Gen. 3:6-7
(3) John 3:16
(4) John 1:1-14; see also Phil. 2:5-11
(5) 1 Cor. 15:3-4
(6) Jn 3:3; Rm 10:9-13
(7) Rev. 21:1-6
(8) See “Substance Abuse and SUDs in LGBTQ Populations,” https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/substance-use-suds-in-lgbtq-populations; see also, “Diversity & Health Equity Education: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning,” https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/lgbtq-patients; see also, “How Mental Health is the New Domain of Ministry for the Next Generation,” https://www.barna.com/research/mental-health-next-gen/
(9) Matt Walsh, Daily Wire Documentary, “What is a Woman?”
(10) See “What is Marriage?” by Sherif Gigis, Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert George; see also “Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is and Why it Matters.” by Patrick Lee and Robert P. George.
(12) As evidenced here, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lgbtq-activists-defend-coming-children-chant
(13) Ryan T Anderson, When Harry Became Sally, Responding toThe Transgender Moment (NY, NY: Encounter books, 2018), 78.
(15) Ibid.
(16) “LBTQ Activists Defend ‘We’re Coming for Your Children’ Chant” https://www.foxnews.com/politics/lgbtq-activists-defend-coming-children-chant
(17) “The danger may be greatest to the children with gender-dysphoria themselves, since affirming young children in a transgender identity may prolong and solidify their dysphoria when they might otherwise have come to accept their bodies naturally a they matured…In a brief submitted to the Supreme Court, Drs. Paul McHugh, Paul Hruz, and Lawrence Mayer…describe the well-recognized phenomenon of neuroplasticity, where repetition affects brain structure and function. Thus, a child who is encouraged to impersonate the opposite sex may be less likely to reverse course later in life, because the child’s brain is likely to develop in such a way that eventual alignment with his biological sex is less likely to occur. This means that transgender-affirmative policies may prevent…children from coming to accept their true sex….Policies [and practices] that mandate social affirmation run the risk of interfering with the natural process of gender resolution.” Anderson, 180-81.
(18) See testimonies in Walsh Documentary, “What is a Woman?”; See also, “The Trans Tide is Turning,” https://wng.org/opinions/the-trans-tide-is-turning-1687950898
(19) See the works of Ryan T Anderson, Robert P. George, R. Albert Mohler, and others.
(20) “Marriage is Crucial for a Healthy Society,” https://wifamilyaction.org/marriage-is-crucial-for-a-healthy-society/
(21) What Dr. R. Albert Mohler rightly calls a “pre-political institution”; https://albertmohler.com/2022/12/09/briefing-12-9-22
(22) Girgis, Anderson, And George, 30.
(23) Romans 13:1-5
(24) With this, we speak specifically of the promotion of LGTBQ ideologies to our children.