It's Tuesday, February 18, 2025.

I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

The New York Times editorial board has come out swinging against President Donald Trump on the transgender issue.

As you know, in his inaugural address, the president of the United States became the very first president of the United

States to state that it will be the policy of his administration that the federal government

will recognize two and only two genders. He made clear those two genders are male and female, and in the official

definition of what it means to be male and female, he pointed to biology as if any sane

person would point anywhere else, identifying males as the human beings carrying the small

reproductive cell, and females being the persons carrying

the large reproductive cell. Again, I just point to the fact that no president of the United

States previously said any such thing, and it would be hard to explain to most past presidents

why such a thing would possibly, as a statement, be necessary. But let's just go a bit

further. The editorial board of the New York Times has come out four square against President

Trump and his policies. The headline in the editorial, Trump's shameful campaign against

transgender Americans. Now, some of this is absolutely expected, but in worldview terms,

this particular piece comes with a lot of necessary attention. We need to look at this and understand

the arguments behind this, the worldview that it represents, and see the challenge that this

kind of statement presents to Christians trying to think about these issues in

the public square. Now, when we talk about an editorial, is this just like any opinion piece? No,

it's different. In this sense, an editorial coming with the authority of the editorial board is

intended as an official statement of the New York Times.

In the modern media world, newspapers have often had editorial boards that have made official statements.

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