Editor’s Note: Tennessee Rep. Susan Lynn of Mount Juliet announced April 18 that she is delaying action on the “bathroom bill” this year in an effort to further study the issue. She told The Tennessean, “I am still absolutely 100 percent in support of maintaining the privacy of all students. But I’m going to roll the bill over until net year so we can work on those issues.”
By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
The Bible (and especially Jesus) has a lot to say about children.
In Matthew 18:1-5 (NIV) Jesus said that “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
Mark 10:13-16 (NIV) recounts how the disciples tried to stop people from bringing their children to Jesus so He could place His hands upon them. Jesus made it very clear to His disciples that they were to allow the children to come to Him. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
These are just two accounts. There are many more.
Children were important to Jesus then and I daresay that they are today as well.
Jesus’ love for children is why Christians must stand against politicians and businesses who are doing everything possible to derail the so-called “bathroom bill” in the Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives.
Simply put, the bathroom bill would prohibit public schools from having policies that would allow students to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice based on what sex the student chooses to be, instead of how they were born. In other words, those who came out of the womb as boys would have to go to the boys restroom and vice versa.
Here are some cold, hard statistics. According to various reports, the most frequently cited statistic is that there are about 700,000 transgendered people in the United States. The population of the United States as of April 11 was 323,336,847 and it grows every eight seconds. I’m not a math major, but those 700,000 estimated transgendered people represent less than one-half of 1 percent (estimated 0.3) of the total population. The number of children who are in that number is minute. And, therein lies the problem. We don’t even know the number because it is so small, but we are more than willing to risk the safety and welfare of 99.9 percent of the remaining population.
Opponents of the bathroom bill are screaming “discrimination.” It is not discrimination. It’s a safety issue for our children and it’s just plain ole common sense. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where common sense is fast becoming a dinosaur.
I understand there are some children who are born with physical abnormalities but those can be addressed by making a unisex restroom available. This can be done with relatively little cost because most schools already have them on site.
The issue for the proponents is not concern for the relatively minute number of transgendered students the proposed bathroom bills will affect. Proponents are more concerned about forcing everyone to accept the LGBT lifestyle. That’s it in a nutshell. And, politicians and others are falling for this lie hook, line, and sinker, to borrow from an old fishing adage.
A similar bill to the proposed bathroom bill recently passed and was signed into law in North Carolina. The state and its governor are being crucified in the media. Businesses are threatening to pull out of the state. Other states are calling for “boycotts” on travel to North Carolina. It has gotten ugly.
And, people are already pre-
dicting the worst for Tennessee should this bill eventually become law. Nashville Mayor Megan Barry says the city will lose $58 million in business if the law passes. Similar concerns are being echoed across the state. In addition, the state attorney general is predicting the state will lose Title IX funding from the government although at this point there have been no court decisions to back up this argument. No one can say for sure if businesses will leave or not. My feeling is that if some do, God has others ready to move to a state where values still matter.
Pray for our decision makers in Tennessee that common sense and the safety of our children will prevail over threats of losing money — threats that may or may not happen. The important thing is that we choose our children over money.


