And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit… And Jesus commanded him, “Tell me your name!” (Mark 5: 2, 9)

There are few things I enjoy more than God’s wisdom, love and sovereign grace shining into darkness…and then watching as unclean spirits fall all over themselves trying to run from the light. This phenomenon can manifest itself in any number of ways. Listening to NPR last night, I heard a textbook example of one of my favorites: When supposedly bright, educated people start sawing away on some rotten branch they’re upset about—not realizing that they’re sitting on the same branch. And that it’s a real long way to the ground.

Or as Fred, the foreman of a pipe-fitting crew I once worked on, would more colorfully put it: When people complain about finding a hair in a @#*! sandwich.

Here’s the hair: According to the NPR story, When States Can’t Control Violent Youth, Is Prison The Answer?, advocates for juvenile justice reform and LGBT youth in Connecticut are upset by a recent court decision to place a “16-year-old transgender girl” in an adult woman’s prison.

It’s not completely clear from the story if this teen was born a boy and is now self-identifying as a girl. One would assume so in that referring to the former him as a her is the politically-correct way to describe this type of thing now. (FYI for all you Neanderthals out there.) This would make his/her placement in a women’s prison (one would assume that he/she hasn’t had gender reassignment surgery yet, so his/her “package” would still be present and presumably operational) every bit as troubling as the opposite: that she/he is being placed among a bunch of older woman who could be in the mood for some jailbait. Unless they’re lesbians or she/he self-identifies as a lesbian man or a bisexual woman in a man’s body who really wants to be with another bisexual – man or woman – as long as they … wait, I think I may have lost the thread here. But you get my point.

Anyway, the court has placed “Jane Doe” in the adult prison because of “her” penchant for violent behavior.

Joette Katz, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, has defended the decision: “She engaged in some of her typical — I hate to say typical — but some behaviors. Assaulting youth, grabbing hair, punching.” The final straw came last January when “she” assaulted a staff member at a Massachusetts facility for girls.

The progressives are up in arms because beyond whatever gender and sex issues may be involved, “her” incarceration is seen as an excessive and inhumane response that will only exacerbate Jane Doe’s problems, making “her” even more prone to violent behavior.

John Tuell, executive director of the RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, explained: “This step that was taken by Connecticut puts this youth at higher risk for continued failure. It would not be hard to argue that this was simply another factor that contributed to that downward spiral.”

Here’s the sandwich: What do the advocates for juvenile justice reform and LGBT youth see as the root cause of Jane Doe’s violent behavior? I quote:

“The girl has a long history of being sexually and physically abused. She has been in multiple residential programs since she was 9, and some of the abuse allegedly happened while she was in DCF care. Experts say this kind of trauma can make children violent.” (Emphasis mine)

So there we have it. It’s OK, even necessary, that we point out the connection between the type of abuse Doe experienced and “her” violent behavior. And furthermore, that we muster the full power of the state and the therapeutic industry—as well as taxpayers’ money—in an effort to treat and end it.

But we better be damn well sure we never, ever consider or mention that this same sexual abuse may be the cause of this poor child’s gender confusion.

Yeah, right. Professing to be wise…

Last year my hometown of Nashville experienced another flavor of this same type of insanity when a local, gay-identified teen killed himself. In death the poor kid found his fifteen minutes of Warholian fame as homophile spinmeisters promptly made him another causality of gay-bullying. I mean, come on–he was gay and he killed himself. What else could it be?

The problem was that there was little or no evidence he had been bullied. In fact, as is the case more and more in the era of Glee and Modern Family, his gayness gave him a certain cachet, particularly with girls, that more than made up for whatever trash talk he may have received from some idiot-punk. But there was plenty of evidence that he came from an extremely dysfunctional family: no father; an often absent, substance-abusing mother; being raised primarily by his grandmother, etc. To blame “homophobia” and not these negative family issues for his suicide—to say nothing of his sexual confusion—demonstrates just how irrational and agenda-driven this whole crazy LGBTQ thing has become.

The cultural landscape is strewn with examples of this type of cognitive dissonance. And I fear we have only seen the beginning as our nation more and more lifts up its collective fist to heaven’s throne and declares, “We will not have You rule over us!” (Psalm 2:1-3) A scoffing laughter (vs. 4,5) and a fearful expectation of judgment (Heb. 10:27) are the normal blowback.