Trans-Gendered Church
These days, it seems gender dysphoria (as it is still labeled in the DSM of psychiatry / psychology) is everywhere.
For the last 25 years, we in the western world have been subjected to one of the most comprehensive assaults on worldview in modern history, if not in all of human history. The brainwashing and inculcation was undertaken by a vast media campaign involving TV, internet, radio, ipods, magazines, advertisements, mainline news organizations, public schools, institutions of higher education, the porn industry, Hollywood stars and the movies they produce, and local judges and mayors all across this land. It began, initially, as a push to accept and/or celebrate a homosexual lifestyle, and the end result of that particular movement was the legalization of so-called Gay Marriage.
But Gay Marriage was never the end goal of that movement. We were warned, and now we see the prophets were right. The latest iteration is called the LGBTQ agenda (and this acrostic seems to get a new letter weekly). It is not enough to destroy the fabric of all stable and moral societies - marriage between a man and woman resulting in children raised well - the LGBTQ movement wants a total eradication of any gender or sex designations. In some nations of Europe and South America (Columbia) that are farther down this "progressive" line than we are in the US, people are now marrying multiple partners legally, and some are marrying their pets. Governments are using tax money to pay for sex change surgeries and dangerous hormone treatments to try and suppress the natural hormonal development in children and adolescents. This is our future, America, short of a revival of common sense and true compassion. True compassion never coddles or condones attitudes or behaviors that are destructive.
And now, the Church of England, which ceased to be a true church years ago when it gave up its belief in the absolute authority of the inerrant Bible as God's Word, is set to consider offering a special "re-christening" for those who have changed gender or who think themselves to be women when biologically they are men. The newly proposed liturgy would celebrate the new gender identity and as one communicant put it, allow him "to reintroduce himself to God with his new name and gender identity." Read more here: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/church-of-england-official-transgenders-could-be-re-christened-after-sex-ch
This is church gone bad. This is ministry that hurts, not heals. The Church of England might as well start encouraging suicide and drug use and depression, since these thoughts and behaviors accompany those who suffer from gender dysphoria in far larger proportions than the general populace. Even a raving feminist Bernie Sanders supporter knows better than this! Camille Paglia recently rattled some cages with her remarks published in The Weekly Standard:
“The cold biological truth is that sex changes are impossible. Every single cell of the human body remains coded with one’s birth gender for life . . . It is certainly ironic how liberals who posture as defenders of science when it comes to global warming flee all reference to biology when it comes to gender."
Well, I confess I genuinely appreciate an openly gay, politically liberal, highly intelligent woman like Professor Paglia (she teaches at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia) speaking such truth! She goes on in that same interview to condemn special rights and privileges for categories of eccentricity, even while upholding the right of everyone to be treated with respect and kindness.
It is a sad day when non-Christian people know better how to minister to and serve the broken and confused than the Church of England does. The truth is, we all have a tendency to use science to our own advantage. To advance our own preferences and ideals. This is just how sinners think, speak and live. Apart from the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ, we all sit on the thrones of our own lives and serve mostly ourselves. I remember not so long ago the homosexual community trying to use science to prove they really cannot be expected to behave sexually in any other way other than they do. We don't hear much along those lines anymore. They gave it up in favor of simply using personal anecdote to tug people's heartstrings. They told stories of mistreatment and discrimination that should indeed raise our ire. And as moral and legal restraints were gradually removed, sin ran its course and consciences got seared and we all felt like we knew someone who was gay. Next thing you know, polls now reveal even the majority of those calling themselves "evangelical" embrace gay marriage.
These same tactics are now being used to foist a fog of gender confusion on us and our children. Even Sesame Street recently tweeted a gay pride message using muppets the color of the infamous "rainbow." Our pre-schoolers are being sexualized and gender-neutralized! Christian parents be warned - the public school system is not your friend in this matter! Just as they inculcated children with the view of homosexuality and bi-sexuality being something normal that must be accepted and celebrated, so they will not stop until your kids also think they have every right to think of themselves in any gender category they so desire. Science be damned! We will do what we want and answer to nobody. One reason among many this pastor continues to strongly advocate for home-schooling!
But we, dear Church, must stand firm. With love and respect and kindness for all people. With God's truth on our lips. With a biblical worldview that says "Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation" (The Baptist Faith & Message 2000). We must love our children and our neighbors' children and our community enough to remind them that God's Law forbid men to dress as women (Deut 22:5). The very desire to do so reveals an internal, heart rebellion against God's good creational design. We must teach as Jesus taught:
"He who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man [singular masculine] shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife [singular feminine] and the two [not three or more] shall become one flesh'" (Matthew 19:4-5).
We, Church, must call all sin what it is - sin. We must say what all sin merits from God - physical and spiritual death (Ezek 18:1-4; Rom 6:23). We must point all sinners, all people, to the only One who can wash their hearts clean and make them a new person from the inside out - Jesus Christ (1 Cor 6:9-11). We must never be mean-spirited or unkind to anyone (Luke 6:30-36). But we must also never call evil good nor good evil, nor offer a bitter substitute for something sweet (Isa 5:20). Sinners sin. And sinners want to sin even more than they do and in ways which they may never even actually act upon (Matt 5:27-28). This comes as no shock to Christians who know the truth of human nature (Eph 2:1-3). But to celebrate sin (Eph 5:11) and "strengthen the hands of evildoers" (Jer 23:14) must be unthinkable for Christians.
The Church of England is flirting with this very thing! To offer and endorse a bitter pill (the devastating emotional, physical, mental and spiritual effects of gender dysphoria and hyper-sexuality) in the place of the sweet salvation and freedom from sin's bondage through faith in the Risen Lord Christ Jesus.
God help us. If the darkness among those calling themselves the Church is this dark, what hope have we to "walk as children of light?"
by Keith McWhorter