This post originally appeared at https://www.vcy.org/top-news/2025/09/15/from-the-director-23/
By Jim Schneider, Executive Director
VCY America
In my column last month, I drew attention to the ravages of violence taking place in our society. The problem has only intensified! Milwaukee has now surpassed 100 homicides this year and infamously is part of the top 15 most violent cities in America. Chicago was a nightmare over Labor Day weekend with some 58 people shot, 8 of whom did not survive. Joining Milwaukee in the most violent cities included such places as Memphis, Nashville, St. Louis, Baltimore, Detroit and multiple other hot spots.
Consider what happened recently in Minneapolis as a gender-confused male shot multiple students at a religious private school and church claiming the lives of an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. In the aftermath of this tragedy, news commentators bent over backwards to issue their apologies for “misgendering” the alleged shooter using male pronouns until they realized this biological male identified as a “she.”
As many turned to prayer, almost immediately politicians sent out news releases or posts making comments saying “enough about thoughts and prayers.” Rep. Justin Jones of Tennessee referred to these prayers as “theological malpractice.” They insist this problem mandates gun control. But where are the calls for examining the transgender ideology? A journal recovered from the alleged shooter indicated there was great regret over his decision to “transition.” In this journal he wrote, “I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself.”
Jen Psaki, the former White House Press Secretary from the Biden Administration, sent out a post on X in part writing. “Prayers does not end school shootings. Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers.”
The problem is that we have gone to great lengths to eradicate God and prayer from our society. We have turned our back on God and have pushed Him out of the public arena. Then, when a tragedy occurs, people will accusingly ask, “Where was God?”
Think about the efforts going on to further the devastating misguidance of the transgender lifestyle. Over the summer, one-third of the WI State Assembly and nearly one-half of the WI State Senate co-sponsored legislation to ban what they call “conversion therapy” in the state. What they call “conversion therapy” is actually giving counsel guiding people away from the delusion that it’s possible to change one’s sex. It does not use “shock probes” that some allege; rather it is giving counsel or “talk therapy.” It’s interesting to note that those who yell “follow the science” on so many matters completely abandon science on this one.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy is beginning a probe of the drugs prescribed to individuals who are gender confused and their side effects and considering the impact these are having on violent actions.
As more and more hospitals are pulling back the reins on issuing puberty blocking drugs, cross sex hormones and body mutilating surgery, Michigan Representative Carrie Rheingans has taken it upon herself to encourage gender-confused children to reach out to her office and she would connect them to services which she referred to as being “safe and effective.” We must wake up to the fact that these harmful practices are neither “safe” nor “effective.”
As the LGBTQ+ agenda continues to be promoted in the classrooms, Lifesitenews.com reports “according to a new study by the Williams Institute at UCLA’s School of Law, approximately 2.8 million Americans who are 13 or older now identify as ‘transgender.” The greatest surge appears to be in peer groups. Indeed, this grooming and social experimentation are reaping disastrous results!
As a society we are fast approaching the days of Noah. It was a time when God unleashed His judgment on the earth. It was a time when “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5) Day after day we see how we are following in those footsteps.
Our wayward society doesn’t stop at this issue alone, but continues down an errant path. We now understand with the surge of artificial intelligence (AI) that the pornography crisis is being fueled. The creating of such material including child porn is exploding. The consequences will be unfathomable. Indeed “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
On yet another matter evil continues to rear its diabolical head. Many states are going to great lengths to continue their mission of killing pre-born children. Tragically we treat human life like trash that can be discarded. LifeNews.com recently reported of a “21-year-old University of Kentucky student and self-styled beauty queen” who is facing charges after she “admitted to officers that she gave birth and attempted to conceal the evidence.” She allegedly had given birth and then “wrapped [her baby] in a towel inside of a trash bag”. This bag was hidden in a closet.
In yet another situation liveaction.org reported that in Illinois a man was arrested and charged with “intentional homicide of an unborn child for allegedly giving the abortion pill mifepristone to his girlfriend, causing her baby’s death.” This is further indication our society is mirroring the time of the judges of which it is said, “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)
It is truly time for individuals, churches, and our nation as a whole to turn to God and repent of this evil we have so warmly embraced. We have been warned in the Scriptures that this world would one day again follow after the days of Noah with awaiting judgment. We are fast approaching such times. Don’t ignore the urgency of the hour. You have been warned!