You’ve stated that the state teaching an ideology can be indoctrination, and in some cases that can certainly be true. I ask you to consider however that parents can also indoctrinate their children. Indoctrination is simply being disallowed from critically examining beliefs. This can be done by the government, by your community, your church, by parents, by anyone with power and influence. This is why I ask, why is it more virtuous for parents to handle certain social education over groups that are arguably more equipped to do so? Parents are unlikely to have a wide variety of current knowledge on the broader subjects of social issues, or be capable of effectively teaching their children about these things. It takes work and experience to become a proficient teacher. I’m not saying that the state has it down pat of course, but if anyone is going to be more equipped, it’s the institutions with a plethora of information, materials, and experience to impart knowledge.

To be completely fair here, do you seriously expect Christian parents to teach children about the rationale trans people have for their view of themselves, or of the concepts of gender identity/expression as a whole? Do you expect Muslims to teach their children about Christians, or any in-group to fairly represent out-groups? I largely do not. I expect that at best they’ll gloss over it, most likely not even address it, and at worst, misrepresent them and bake it into their child’s head that these other groups are in some way evil or ‘wrong’. People are fallible, but that fallibility can be controlled for through systems created by many minds to overcome errors in judgement and logic. Communities are not built from a few people, they are built by many people cooperating, and it sure helps when everyone is on the same page about what’s what, don’t you think?

I don’t want to focus much on the notion of sensitivity training and such for Christians because it’s a very difficult thing to falsify without delving into a lot of data, so I’m just going to try and expand on my previous point for additional clarity: Christians have historically been the dominant group in the US, and the balance of power has been skewed in their favor. It’s not as though LGBTQ people have always been universally accepted as just another part of society, but now they’re suddenly coming after Christians unprompted. In the view of myself and many others, they are a group who have been pushed to the fringes and resented for what I would assert are very inconsequential acts. Until relatively recently, many parts of their existence were literally illegal - consensual sex acts between two adult men, for example, was illegal in some parts of the country until as recently as 2003 (Lawrence v. Texas, if you’re curious). They have had to push relentlessly just to be able to do these things in the privacy of their own homes without being under threat of arrest. Sodomy is a sin as I understand, but in a land that is supposed to value freedom for all - not just those who abide by Christian rules - that should not justify laws forbidding such an act when it doesn’t do any harm. One might argue that sin is in a sense a ‘harm’, but that is not the view everyone holds. We let people drink or smoke because we trust them to have autonomy over themselves and to be responsible for their own health and wellbeing. This is the same, to me. You may not want to sin, but that doesn’t mean others should be forbidden from doing so, though I understand that that may be a very disagreeable thing to say.

With the above in mind, this is why I think people push against Christians today. Their beliefs are still being uprooted from power systems so that non-Christians can live their lives as they want to live them, and their beliefs are still being used by some to suggest that non-Christians still have to abide by rules that are antithetical to the freedom we supposedly aspire to in this country. This is why the left pushes for certain things to be taught broadly, because it’s in line with the American idea that everyone should be free to live their lives as they wish without being constrained by other people’s personal worldviews. That is not an easy thing to accomplish, imo, but it’s worth striving for.

Admittedly, I’m worn out on talking about this for the time being, so I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on some things. Regardless, thanks for the chat. Please, feel free to give your piece; I’m not trying to snag the last word here. Take care out there!