It's Saturday, November 16, 2024.

Today’s edition covers a liberal sex strike and some reactions to it, madness in the New Zealand Parliament, why a boy becomes gay, the Anabaptist’s very first confession, and more.

My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off. (Proverbs 24:13-14)

Of Christian Concern

LIBERAL WOMEN GO ON SEX STRIKE TO PROTEST TRUMP’S VICTORY

Liberal women are vowing celibacy and shaving their heads as a protest against Donald Trump’s election victory.

The trend began last week on TikTok, where women declared their refusal to fraternize with men romantically or sexually for the next four years. Inspired by the Korean 4B Movement—in which feminists in Korea vowed not to have sex with men, give birth, date men, or marry men—some have referred to the protest as the West 4B movement.

The impetus for this reaction to the election is their belief that Trump, for whom a majority of men voted, is misogynistic and that his presidency will restrict access to abortion—though, in fact, Trump has signaled that he will not champion any further anti-abortion measures and instead leave the issue to the states. Nevertheless, one woman told GLAMOUR, “If men don’t respect our bodies, they shouldn't have access to our bodies.”

GLAMOUR also reports, “For some women, the West 4B movement is less about protesting and more of a safety measure.” The article cites a 22-year-old woman who “simply doesn’t find it appealing, nor safe, to have sex with men anymore.” She told GLAMOUR that

her commitment to celibacy is deeply personal and political, shaped by a longstanding fear of “unwanted pregnancies, sexual diseases, and of being used or hurt by men” – a fear she feels every young woman shares to some degree. Describing celibacy as something that “chose her”, she sees it as an act of self-preservation in a world where sex is treated as a “meaningless commodity reducing people to another body on a list”.

Some commenters have observed that this “sex strike” seems to have inadvertently aligned these women’s behavior with traditional sexual values. One X user wrote:

Yes, please, dear LORD! May all unmarried women go on a sex boycott, and all married women give sex freely to their husbands and welcome children into their lives. Abortions would tank, and children will be valued once again!

Another user responded to the boycotting women with the quip, “If you actually possessed that level of discipline, abortion wouldn't have been your #1 issue to begin with.” 

Playing on the trope that liberal women are unattractive, The Babylon Bee satirized the strike with the headline: “To Protest Coronation Of Aragorn, Orcs Announce Sex Strike”.

Political commentator Ben Shapiro offered a recommendation:

Everyone should go on a sex strike until they get married and then enter a committed relationship and have children. We could call it ‘traditional values.’ It’d be great. And you wouldn’t be having sex with people who disagree with you about values. You wouldn’t be having sex with randos in the first place. It might be awesome. You should try it. Might help society, actually.

Also Noteworthy

→ New Zealand Parliament members interrupted parliamentary proceedings with a haka, a ceremonial dance of the Māori, to protest a bill that would reinterpret a treaty between the British and the Māori, New Zealand’s earliest settlers. Some have suggested that the dance, as seen in a viral video, is demonic. Haka was popularized in recent times by the New Zealand rugby union team, who adopted it as a pregame tradition. Popular X user Smash Baals offered as a contrast the rugby team from Fiji, whose members sing hymns before games.

→ The anti-abortion group Equal Protection South Carolina issues a statement criticizing the South Carolina House Republican leadership’s released list of priorities for the 2025 legislative session, which did not include protection of the preborn. Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers noted, “There is a battle going on for the soul of the Republican Party.”

→ Anti-Communist atheist James Lindsay, in a comment that some suggested sounds “very Christian,” extolled the importance of “undeserved forgiveness”: “We must have justice and accountability, but we also must forgive many of our countrymen who were just swept along in the evil.”

→ A trustee of the British breastfeeding charity La Leche League GB (LLLGB) resigns after the organization changes policy to allow men to attend support groups. This comes a week after one of the founders quit over the decision to admit men, stating in a letter: “This shift from following the norms of nature, which is the core of mothering through breastfeeding, to indulging the fantasies of adults, is destroying our organisation.” — Author J.K. Rowling chimed in on X: “Can we talk about the fetishists yet? Or must we turn a blind eye, lest we seem prudish, or unkind?”

→ Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters announces in a video that the Bible is returning to Oklahoma classrooms after purchasing over 500 copies of the “God Bless the USA” Bible. This Bible, which Donald Trump promoted during his presidential campaign, contains the United States’ founding documents in addition to the Scriptures.

Content Catch-Up

Recent, notable content of Christian interest.*

→ Why A Boy Becomes Gay: Christian author and speaker Becket Cook interviews clinical psychologist Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, Jr., about the common factors that lead boys to self-identify as gay. (Video)

→ Abortion Never Medically Necessary: In an interview with anti-abortion activist Lila Rose, board-certified OBGYN and fertility counselor Dr. Monique Ruberu makes the case for why abortion is never medically necessary. (Video)

→ Jack’s Corner: Christian author and attorney Jack Richardson, IV, announces his new podcast Jack’s Corner. The first episode is slated for Thursday. Here is the trailer. (Video)

*Not necessarily an endorsement

Church History Tidbit

The Anabaptists’ Very First Confession

Only two years after the launch of the Anabaptist movement, its leaders produced its first formal confession. This was a quick timetable compared to other movements, necessitated by the fact that some followers were falling into immorality, others were threatening to take up arms against unbelievers, and the leaders were being killed off due to persecution. So, a Swiss Brethren Conference gathered in Schleitheim, Switzerland, and adopted the statement on February 24, 1527.

The Schleitheim Confession, the Christian History Institute relates, “set out, not to present the whole Gospel, but rather to clarify those crucial points where they differed from either the state churches of Luther and Zwingli or their own fringe groups.”

Written mostly by the former prior Michael Sattler, the confession details the Anabaptists’ distinctives on six topics:

1. baptism

2. the breaking of bread

3. separation from the world

4. pastors

5. the sword

6. taking oaths

The Christian History Institute sums it up as “the first expression of the fundamental Anabaptist idea: that the true church is not a Christian society but a company of believers separated from society.”

Read the relatively short confession here.

Thanks for reading! Have a God-filled week. 🫡

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Why "18:15"? The name Project 18:15 is based on Proverbs 18:15: “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” The aim is for this weekly email—a Christian news briefing, a Bible study, and a Church history lesson rolled into one—to be one way you keep abreast of current events and acquire knowledge you might not acquire elsewhere.

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