“Lament” became a thing when Black Lives Matter took center stage. White guys everywhere lamented their whiteness and their innate racism. We were confused by prominent white leaders (many of them evangelical pastors) confessing their unrepentant racism. That was a new thing. One well-known evangelical pastor said with a straight face, “I’m a racist. I’ll always be a racist.”

And here, I’ve always thought racism was a sin. This guy talked like racism was a skin condition. It didn’t make sense until I learned that, according to Critical Race Theory, “whiteness” means racist. Racism isn’t a sin; it is privilege – that invisible knapsack the system gave us. We aren’t supposed to repent of the racism but use our privilege to end the system. We must lament (i.e., signal that we know our privilege and wish not to have it anymore).

“Lament” has become a posture for some in Utah. I’m old enough to remember when our current Governor, preparing for his bid for the governorship, wept and cried over his previous anti-homosexual stance. We in Utah push back against the LGBTQ agenda. We recapture the ground they claimed – like the women’s locker room, women’s bathroom, and women’s sports – and then lament our victory. We feel this craven need to extend an olive branch. The dragon roars, and we deliver a fair maiden. Lament is the gutless way people express their inner conflict when they prevail.

But we aren’t playing football, Beulah. This isn’t a game. We are in a war for the heart and soul of our culture. Transgenderism is a bald-faced attempt to overthrow God’s image in man. It undermines everything good and wholesome and natural about our society. It denies one of humanity’s most glorious features – the distinctions between men and women. When we lock men out of the women’s bathroom, we’re saying, “This isn’t for you; you can’t have it.” Any decent society would protect their women this way.

The Utah Legislature passed a transgender sports bill in the 2023 session. They passed a transgender bathroom bill this session. They kicked DEI out of the universities. This is commendable and right. But of course, Equality Utah is at the losing end of the blowout as the Utah Legislature runs up the score.

Once upon a time, I was coaching a high school basketball game. We were at the business end of an absolute blowout, up by twenty at the half. I put our starters in for the first two minutes of the second half. Within thirty seconds of the second-half tip, I turned to find the opposing coach in my face, yelling about my unsportsmanlike conduct.

Perhaps this explains the Natalie Cline issue of the past couple of weeks. My blog isn’t generally Utah-focused. So, writing about a Utah-focused issue might be a bit risky. But the Natalie Cline case made national news. She sparked a firestorm, and our dispute is relevant on a national level.

Natalie shouldn’t have done what she did, and I do not defend it. A concerned parent sent Natalie an advertisement for an upcoming girls’ basketball game that featured a couple of the players. The parent was concerned that one of the players might be a boy. Despite Utah’s law banning boys from girls’ sports, a judge issued an injunction (shocking!), which triggered a commission that examines the boy to ensure his frame and body size won’t create a problem for girls. I wish I was kidding, but I’m not. So, there is an actual possibility that a boy could wind up on a girls’ team.

Parents have described the rage they encounter if they ask a simple question in the stands, like, “Is that a boy?” I mean, how dare anyone question a person’s gender or (worse) misgender them?

So, Natalie posted a picture of the ad on her Facebook page with this comment: “Girls’ basketball…” As happens with social media, commenters took the ball and ran. Several comments were demeaning towards the player in question, and around noon the next day, Natalie deleted the post and wrote an apology. You can read her apology here.

Now, Natalie Cline is a polarizing figure in Utah and a burr under the saddle for many on both sides of the aisle. The Utah establishment has tried to have her deleted numerous times and has failed so far. So, of course, they were watching when Natalie did this, and they sprang into action. Our Governor rebuked her publicly. Our Lt. Governor announced she was donating to Natalie’s opponent in the upcoming election. The State School board unanimously voted to censure her and demand her resignation (due this past Monday). The Utah Legislature censured her with a near unanimous vote. The  State Chair of the GOP promised to withhold support if she wins her primary. Numerous school boards around the state voted to censure her and demand her resignation. More than a few city councils piled on. I’ve been waiting to hear if any local animal control or water districts would add their censure – maybe parks and recreation or code enforcement will weigh in as well. Nearly every chapter of Citizens Against Virtually Everything has joined the dogpile.

The Governor and Lt. Governor used their platform to shape the narrative, putting the Legislature in a bad spot. Utah’s Governor is notoriously woke, though recently, he has thrown the base a few bones. That might explain this makeup call for Equality Utah. Cox didn’t pass on the chance to eliminate Natalie Cline from the equation.

Our Governor has a uniquely Utah slogan that has brought him national attention: “Disagree better.” I’m not fundamentally opposed to the concept. But Governor Cox is one of the most passive-aggressive men you will ever meet. The “disagree better” slogan is applied to his “colleagues” on the other side of the aisle, the ones who approve of mutilating the genitals of small children and slaughtering pre-born babies. But within the factions of his own party, Governor Cox doesn’t disagree better.

But his slogan does capture Utah’s political atmosphere. I call it the Cult of Nice. White Knight syndrome.

A “white knight” is a kind of “nice guy” – one who derives his value specifically from defending damsels in distress from dragons… As secular psychologist Robert Glover puts it in No More Mr. Nice Guy, “Just about everything a Nice Guy does is consciously or unconsciously calculated to avoid disapproval.” (Dominic Bnonn Tennant and Michael Foster, It’s Good to be a Man: A Handbook for Godly Masculinity, p. 88 kindle edition)

If Utah has a fault, it is this Nice Guy, White Knight syndrome. Our enemies seek to exploit it at every turn, and we must be more vigilant. Natalie Cline broke a rule – she cast a student in a negative light. She could have made her point without using an ad featuring student-athletes. She could have obscured the pictures or concealed the facial features. She was wrong.

But the response has been over the top. It is, frankly, unreasonable. I’ll not even ask if the Legislature intends to start policing social media posts. In the future, will elected officials be held responsible for the comments that show up on their posts? We want to know. Can we recruit nasty commenters for our political adversaries?

When Natalie’s mistake became public, those in power determined she would be canceled. They pursued this course of action rigorously; no apology or explanation would deter them. I have heard Natalie’s repeated apologies. She has owned her mistake. Yet, legislators insist that her apology is insincere and inadequate. Apparently, detecting the sincerity of an apology is their new superpower.

Just received an email from supporters of Natalie Cline sent to the Gov, LG, USBE and #utleg.

It states that “she has already apologized and demonstrated a sincere regret” and calls for a “reversal to all hasty actions taken against her”.

What *remorse*? Give me break.
🤨😠 pic.twitter.com/TeneLQYNyb

— Rep. Jeff Stenquist 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@JeffStenquist) February 20, 2024

But why? Why has the Legislature determined to cancel Natalie? Because Natalie Cline embarrasses Utah. She has put the spotlight on woke ideology, the LGBTQ agenda, and transgenderism constantly being pushed in our public schools. Natalie has been highly effective in her efforts to turn back the tide. Utah has made significant strides in ejecting this from the public arena, and she has played an essential role in this push.

But ultimately, I’m afraid that conservative Utah politicians worry too much about their reputations. This explains our Utah obsession with message bills – bills with canine teeth, purring like tiny kittens. Our bathroom bill is easily worked around; our sports bill doesn’t eliminate boys in girls’ sports. These bills don’t do what the public has been told. But we pass them because we want to be seen as conservative. We feel like we have to do something, but we are reluctant to win.

This problem isn’t unique to Utah. Republicans across the country don’t know how to win. We are afraid to dominate. When Democrats are in power, they grind our faces in the dirt. Look at California. Look at New York. They don’t even pretend to like us. They don’t throw us so much as a table scrap. They take every opportunity to ensure that we will never win another election.

The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted. (Psalm 12:8)

But when Republicans are in power, we make sure the Democrats don’t feel left out or marginalized. We talk about “sharing power.” And we let them dictate the terms and extent of our outrage.

Our public schools have become indoctrination centers for LGBTQ propaganda. Students are being taught to measure themselves by superficial identities. There is an all-out gender war. Not surprisingly, many of our girls’ sports teams have a member or two who present as boys, take testosterone, and attempt a chemical transition. This will only get worse.

A new orthodoxy is taking root in our state. Natalie’s political enemies (and a few friends) have used her misstep – whether intentionally or unintentionally – to advance a pro-LGBTQ agenda.

For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. (Isaiah 32:6-7)

But there is an incredible duplicity in this regard. One of our State Senators posted a picture of a young boy in drag twerking and wrote a salacious comment about it. Yet, the Utah Legislature didn’t respond at all. How could the sexual objectification of a young boy be acceptable to our Legislature, but questioning the gender of a player deserves this tar-and-feathering?

Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. (Micah 2:1)

But this is the problem. We’ve been conditioned to respond this way. The new orthodoxy established by the LGBTQ agenda demands this kind of outrage if a student is misgendered or if their gender is questioned. And, that same agenda gives a mere wave of the hand dismissal at actual harm done to a child. This is how our Legislature knew exactly what their response should be – almost on cue. They’ve watched the news enough to know. If you don’t condemn it harshly, you get tarred-and-feathered too.

If a member of the USBE posted the very same picture Natalie did and, instead of saying “girls basketball…” said “so brave…” there would be no outrage. Not even if they were wrong about the girl’s gender. This is where the new orthodoxy shows up – anyone is allowed to comment on a transitioning or transgender student, so long as they say affirming things. The message is simple – affirm or shut up.

This is where the weakness of our Republican party comes into play. Nobody wants to be seen giving comfort to Natalie Cline. But this is political posturing simpliciter. The Republicans essentially said, “We’ve been tough on transgenderism, and we feel bad. We don’t want you to think we dislike you.” It is the cheapest surrender ever purchased.

This has become orthodox among Republicans – I call them “Rollover Republicans.” The Left calls us mean and nasty, so we purr like kittens. We lament. Then, we bring everyone back in line. We think this gives us more credibility for the next phase of the culture war. Wormtongue whispers in Theoden’s ear, and we sell our souls for a little temporary affirmation from the likes of Equality Utah.

Having given Natalie the thrashing she deserves, we feel a bit more virtuous than before. “At least we got that right.”

But we didn’t. We rolled over. We gave Equality Utah and the Leftists what they wanted. And believe me, they will want more.