(The Lion) — The greatest threats facing children today are the spread of radical ideologies through social media and the cultural apathy that enables their influence.

That is according to a panel of trailblazing experts assembled at the International Christian Media Convention, dubbed NRB 2025, to discuss “Protecting Foundations of the Family.”

Moderated by Chris Stigall, host of the Lion Week in Review, the panelists emphasized the particularly heinous nature of radical gender ideology.

“The biggest threat going on right now is this evil ideology called gender ideology, which is a teaching that our children were born in the wrong bodies,” said Chris Elston, founder of the We Speak Truth Foundation, which defends parental rights, advances freedom of speech and opposes child gender transitions.

Elston has become well known online as “Billboard Chris” for his practice of wearing a sign and standing in busy places to advocate against transgender ideology.

“For more than four years now, I have been doing something a little crazy,” he explained. “I quit my previous profession as a financial advisor, and I started going outside to have conversations with people.

“I wear a sign that says children cannot consent to puberty blockers. I have a sign on my back as well. It’s my definition of a dad, which is a human male who protects his kids from gender ideology.”

Elston has a simple message: “There’s no such thing as a transgender child.”

“That’s right,” he continued, after pausing for audience applause. “They’re called girls and boys, and the positive message we should be sending is that they’re beautiful, just as they are, no drugs or scalpels needed.”

Journalist Mary Margaret Olohan of The Daily Wire agrees about the threat of gender ideology but pinpoints the specific channel of its influence, social media.

Olohan has interviewed several detransitioners – individuals who regret their gender transitions and “detransition” – and she quickly discovered a common theme in their heartbreaking stories, recounted in her book Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult.

“They told me that most of their experiences started on social media,” she told the audience. “So in answer to your question, I would say that social media is one of the biggest threats to the family, to the innocence of children in the modern day. …

“Their lives were dramatically altered just from consuming the social media content – and not just the gender content, which of course is so incredibly harmful – but also just preconceptions of masculinity and femininity, who they’re supposed to be, what that’s supposed to look like, how the world perceives that.”

Katy Faust, founder and president of the pro-family organization Them Before Us, agrees technology is a threat – she mentions reproductive technologies that are not pro-life – but it is one prong of a threefold threat: “cultural, legal and technological forces working together to render children as functional accessories.”

For Faust, the key is how these forces violate a child’s right to a father and mother in deference to the supposed rights of adults.

“My main message is, all of these conversations must center on the rights of the child. … The victims of gay marriage is not the florist or the baker. The victims are children.”

But nothing will change if conservatives don’t see the current state of the family as a dire emergency, added Delano Squires, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

“The greatest threat to the family today is cultural apathy,” he told the audience. “I think where we are today is the result of a series of policy decisions, cultural shifts, societal norms that have changed over the course of years.

“We have become a society that has defied God in terms of the definition of male and female; we have deformed marriage through our laws and policies; we’ve displaced men through big government, the notion that Uncle Sam can be an … adequate father and husband to millions of low-income women and their children; we’ve deceived women through second wave feminism, telling them that the height of femininity is to act, speak and behave like a man; we’ve destroyed children through the scourge of abortion, and then we constantly elect leaders that deny the problem.”

Apathy from Christians and conservatives has allowed this decline, and it could prevent a return to the biblical foundation of family, Squires believes.

“This has been 60+ years of change that we have just accepted and assumed that everyone is going to be okay,” he said. “So I think the greatest threat is the notion that we don’t see this as a five-alarm fire, and I think we really should.”

The solution: Speaking up and stepping out 

“It comes down to us; we’re the soldiers,” said Elston, emphasizing that politicians are unreliable. “It’s our job as citizens to create awareness. It is not our job to rely on a political leader to take care of all of our problems.”

Faust specifically called on pastors and church leaders to stand up and speak out.

“We have to make the cultural case, and I will tell you, Christian leaders, you are the first ones to do this,” she said. “You must do this.

“Marriage and family is a gospel issue, and if you refuse to disciple your people on issues of LGBTQIA, marriage, family, sex, cohabitation, reproductive technologies, I will tell you the leftist activists are happy to do it for you. So you have got to step up and speak up, because if we don’t have our own house in order related to these things, how do we expect the culture to get it right?”

Olohan also acknowledged the need for bold leadership on the issues.

“A lot of faith leaders have avoided this conversation because they are aware of how divisive it can be,” she said, adding that some might fear being perceived as unloving. “We all know at this point … that this is loving to protect our children from these types of things. It’s loving to shine light on the truth, to help people understand the reality [of the] situation.”

Squires adds that the cultural issues are symptomatic of Americans’ waning Christian convictions.

“Culture is downstream from religion, so a culture is always going to reflect what it believes about right and wrong, what it believes about human nature, what it believes about the relationships between men and women,” he said. “And I think even Christians have been catechized in a culture that has rejected all of God’s truths for decades, which is one of the reasons why a lot of churches don’t want to touch this issue.”

Yet there is hope, according to these panelists, which can even be seen in recent trends observed among young people.

“We have an opportunity with Gen Z. They are taking a hard swing to the right, both conservatively, but also in terms of religious attendance,” Faust said, as the panel concluded. “They are returning to church. They are buying more Bibles. They are rejecting hookups, anonymous sex and pornography in incredible levels. This is what we have prayed for for decades.

“Do not sacrifice your credibility by going soft on matters of morality. They are looking for people that are speaking clearly and non-hypocritically. This is the chance for the church to give them the answers that they desperately need, not just to speak the truth, but to live the truth. And so that is the chance that we have now, is to raise up the next generation that is going to reject so much of what has torn down the fabric of society.”