It's Tuesday, August 8, 2023. I'm Albert Mueller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis

of news and events from a Christian worldview. We often speak of the deep confusion of our

age, but at times we really need to step back and understand the confusions even deeper

than we might have been able to understand just a short time previously. On the issue

of gender, on the non-binary transgender issue, and particularly where this intersects

with children and teenagers, we really are looking at a division in this country that

isn't just a division over a policy issue, it's not just a division over medical ethics

and medical treatment, it's basically a division over biology, over ontology, which is to

say reality. We're talking also about something that eventually does take the form of policy,

and in the case of medical policy, the most important policies are those that are established

by the medical profession itself, and even by the subdivisions, the specializations of

the medical profession. When it comes to pediatrics, the care of young people and teenagers, primarily,

the official organization that has dominant voice is the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The organization's been around for a very long time. It is also a very big organization

that has vast influence. That influence, of course, has to do with the practice of medicine,

and in this case, the specialization of pediatrics. Best practices, ethical guidelines,

treatment procedures, those are all put into place, and they have to be. You consider

the fact that we as a society are, to use a sociological term, a very regulated and

also a very rationalized society, you know what does that mean? It means by rationalize

people have to think through policies, and by regulated, those policies are put into

something with a regular force. Indeed, we often refer to them as regulations. So, let's

put it this way, especially when it comes to the professions, which are understood, to

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