It’s normal for governments to compel certain behaviors through legislative or regulatory actions. An early recognition of this occurred to me during the energy crises of the 1970s. That’s when Congress voted to withhold highway funding from states that did not aggressively enforce a 55-mile per hour speed limit, and similar practices have been happening long before and since the American gas crisis of 50 years ago.
But the heavy hand of government is now using the same strategy to compel certain thoughts. The Biden administration wants to withhold grant money from organizations that do not believe in transgender ideology. The deadline for public comment on the proposed rule to enact this policy ended on Monday, December 4.
Critics of this proposal often speak of it in terms of religious discrimination, and they’re not wrong. People of many different faiths believe the simple truth that we are what we are born; that boys are boys and girls are girls, and this worldview is memorialized in their scriptures. And when government treats people differently based on their faith, it’s religious discrimination, pure and simple. Discrimination used to be against the law in the United States but today, it is becoming the law.
Discriminating against people based on their religion is obscene. But there’s a larger component to this, one that undermines and alters truth itself and perceptions of reality. Such efforts are not new and the roots of this Biden administration practice can be traced to Karl Marx.
A synopsis of Marx’s theory provided by Britannica notes that, “Marx declared that philosophy must become reality. One could no longer be content with interpreting the world; one must be concerned with transforming it, which meant transforming both the world itself and human consciousness of it.” (Italics added)
This is what the Biden administration is effectively trying to do through its proposed policy on federal grants. It seeks to make transgender ideology - an individual belief in something that is demonstrably false reflecting a clinical delusion - a reality by forcing a transformation of our consciousness of it; by compelling people to think in a particular way and punishing them if they don’t.
This whole-of-government pursuit of transgender ideology is nothing short of perverse. Setting aside whether one agrees or disagrees with this ideology, it seeks to destroy our fundamental freedom of conscience. Supporters of the administration’s policy will predictably disagree with this assessment. ‘Of course people are free to believe whatever they wish,’ they’d likely say. What they don’t say is ‘But if you don’t believe what we want, there will be consequences.’ It’s a deceit that’s similar to that of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet’s Council of People’s Commissars issued a decree in February, 1918 claiming “It is forbidden on the territory of the republic to issue any local laws or ordinances which would hamper or restrict freedom of conscience.” The decree further declared, “Every citizen is free to profess any religion or profess none. All deprivations of rights connected with the profession or non-profession of any religion are hereby abolished.”
It’s a good talking point for the Left: Freedom of conscience and freedom of religion were protected by the Communists. But it was a lie. The Russian people could think whatever they want but the government then proceeded to destroy or transform 87% of churches in the Soviet Union. People were “free” to believe in their religion, there just weren’t any churches in most places in which to practice it
The Biden administration policy is an analog to that of the Soviet Union. People are free to believe that men are men and women are women; they just won’t be eligible for any federal grants if they do A similar thing is going on in regard to adoption. Earlier this year, a Massachusetts couple had their foster care application denied because they did not sufficiently support transgender ideology. The couple is “free” to believe whatever they want; they just aren’t allowed to help children in need of a family. It is an attempt to transform the world and our consciousness of it, just as Marx advocated.
This is an insidious means of eroding freedom of conscience, a coercive means of thought control, and it’s spreading across government and society. We can invoke the words of Martin Luther in his 1521 defense at the Diet of Worms saying, “acting against one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound,” and reminding people of Luther’s words is never a bad thing. But without action, our words disappear in the ether, just as our natural rights are disappearing.