This weeks article in AP is the first part of a two part series. You can read the original here.
Understanding the Trans Cult
“ I don’t believe it. I don’t understand it. What are you talking about? Is this serious? It’s mad “. Trying to explain to your 85-year-old parents just what transgender, Queer theory, multiple pronouns, men giving birth and ‘sex assigned at birth’ – it can be quite difficult! Being a great fan of expository preaching – preaching through a book systematically – I rarely did ‘topical’ sermons (sermons on one topic), but on one of the few occasions I did it was to explain to my congregation what was going on in our society about transgender issues – and what the Bible had to say about it. What astonished me was how astonished they were at what was going on in our own city – and how many non-Christians came and were deeply grateful for what they heard.
There are Christians who wonder what all the fuss is about – surely this is just a very minority passing trend – that we need not be concerned about? That is perhaps what it should be, but in reality, it is much more than that. Others, like Carl Trueman in this excellent First Things article – https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/01/joe-bidens-transgender-fictions warn that “transgender ideology is going to change everything”.
We need to be clear about what we are talking about. We do not question the fact that a small minority of people suffer from an affliction known as Gender Identity Disorder (GID). The vast majority of these are younger people who, if they are not given chemical or surgical treatments, grow out of it. Some however remain transgender all their lives. That is not the primary issue we are concerned with here. Appropriate treatment, compassion and care should be shown to all such.
Teenage Dysphoria?
What we are concerned about is the 4,000% growth in teenage girls who are now saying they are Trans and undergoing radical treatment which does them enormous harm – and the promotion of this by the political, educational and media establishments in most of the Western world. For example, almost the first act the new President Biden did was to promote trans and in effect abolish women’s sport and women’s safe spaces. It is no exaggeration to say that his executive order is the biggest blow to the feminist movement throughout its existence. In Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has managed to find time in the midst of the pandemic to reassure her followers that she is a full-on supporter of the trans ideology – and in Victoria the trans ideology has so become state orthodoxy that anyone daring to question it will be found guilty of blasphemy against the unholy State. You can convert from being a girl to a boy, but dare to suggest that you think there might be other alternatives to such a conversion, and you are liable to be prosecuted for heresy (under Dan Andrews new anti-conversion law). How do we understand all this? Why is it more important than just a little craziness?
Some Resources
To help understand I would highly recommend three books. Vaughan Robert’s ‘Transgender’ is a good pastoral, theological introduction. When Harry Became Sally is an outstanding summary of the evidence. And then I have just finished reading Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing our Daughters by Abigail Shrier. It is an incredible book – The Economist named it as one of its books of the year and the trans activists have been calling for it to be banned, with some success. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that all Hell has been let loose against Shrier – because the one subject which you cannot question is the transgender ideology. Shrier’s basic argument – not writing from a Christian perspective – is that the current transgender craze is a cultlike ideology which is causing immense harm, especially amongst teenage girls. If I had my way, I would insist that every Christian leader, teacher, medic, politician, journalist and social worker read ‘Irreversible Damage’ before the damage to our society becomes irreversible. If you are in Victoria you might have to order it in a brown paper bag or have it smuggled across the border!
I have over 150 highlighted quotes from it. Here are a few to give you a flavour…
“To understand how some of the brightest, most capable young women of this era could fall victim to a transgender craze, we should begin by noting that adolescent girls today are in a lot of pain. In America, Britain, and Canada, teenagers are in the midst of what academic psychologist Jonathan Haidt has called a “mental health crisis”—evincing record levels of anxiety and depression” It is fascinating that 90% of the teenage girls ‘transitioning ‘are from white middle-class homes. It is also fascinating and disturbing the role that social media, ‘influencers’ and schools play.
“ “bullying” is used as an excuse for a thorough indoctrination in gender ideology and the insistence that transgender students must be “affirmed” or suffer a steep psychological toll.” Notice how Dan Andrews claims that Margaret Court’s biblical views on sex and sexuality ‘costs lives. Apart from the lack of self-awareness of a man whose actual failed policies on Covid cost lives, accusing others; what rankles is that there is no evidence whatsoever that Margaret Court or her views have cost anyone’s lives. In fact, it is the promotion of the transgender ideology which is ruining lives.
“If “women” can no longer be defined according to physical characteristics or biology, how are we to define them? Prominent transgender author Andrea Long Chu has an answer: “Female is a ‘universal existential condition’ defined by submitting to someone else’s desires.” If you are a feminist, then this must be one of the most degrading definitions of being a woman yet. We have moved to a world where many of our elites cannot actually define what a woman is – because they do not accept it has anything to do with biological sex. As JK Rowling put it: “If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.”
Shrier lets one detranisitioner tell her story:
“The gender ideology world she inhabited was a “cult,” she insists, because “when you’re inside, you believe non-reality and you disbelieve reality. It literally got to a point where if I was in a queer space,” she said, “I would look at someone, and I couldn’t tell if they were male or female until they told me because I had trained myself to think that way. I would look at somebody and be like, ‘I don’t even know what their sex or gender is because I haven’t asked them their pronouns yet.’ I was so brainwashed.”
Towards the end Shrier makes this damming comment.
“All the institutions we’ve built to keep young people from making irreparable mistakes have failed them. The universities, the schools, the doctors, the therapists, and even the churches have been won over by a dogged ideology that claims to speak for a more important class of victim.”
It is essential that Christians understand what is going on and that the Church takes its stand in defence of humanity against what has now become a dangerous cult, infecting almost every area of society. We do so because we care for our fellow human beings. In addition, we are concerned for the glory of God – he created us male and female and saw that humanity was ‘very good’. The devil has always been seeking to deconstruct the apex of God’s creation. We must also protect our own children. As regards this latter, Shrier suggests seven things.
- Don’t Get Your Kid a Smartphone
- Don’t Relinquish Your Authority as the Parent
- Don’t Support Gender Ideology in Your Child’s Education
- Reintroduce Privacy into the Home
- Consider Big Steps to Separate Your Daughter from Harm
- Stop Pathologizing Girlhood
- Don’t Be Afraid to Admit: It’s Wonderful to Be a Girl
To which I as a Christian can only say a hearty ‘Amen’ to all. I would also add 8. ‘bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”!
To finish let me add that some of those previously involved in transgender treatment are now beginning to warn about the way this cultlike trend is going. For example, Dr David Bell from the Tavistock institute in this BBC report:
At a personal and ministry level I have been involved in this issue over the past 30 years – long before it became a fashionable fad. This is not about theory, ideology or politics. It is about human beings made in the image of God. It is our story. Next week, God willing, I will share some of those stories.
Last weeks AP article – Newspapers, Bias and Truth – AP
Thanks for your stand in these matters, David. I’ve ordered the book.
Peter, also see her interviewed on Triggernometry on Youtube
” I rarely did ‘topical’ sermons (sermons on one topic), but on one of the few occasions I did it was to explain to my congregation what was going on in our society about transgender issues – and what the Bible had to say about it. ”
Do you have a link to a recording of this sermon please, Pastor?
I will have a look!
Thank you!
This should be a useful link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VjlxHMwhsA
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear possible to get hold of the book: When Harry Became Sally, on Amazon. It is now touting another anti-book in its place: Let Harry Become Sally: Responding to the Anti-Transgender Moment
The decision to grant leave to appeal was pretty inevitable given that this can be seen as “a matter of public interest”. But given the damning report recently by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which I have read and which fully confirms Dr. Bell’s views, the only basis for the appeal to succeed is on a point of law, not clinical considerations. The fact that Mermaids and Stonewall were excluded from giving evidence to the original hearing may be a factor. But I am not a lawyer (merely father to one).
If anyone would like to get a feel for how bad the Tavistock was then download the CQC report. The issue with it is how come they gave it a glowing report in 2018? Nothing has changed since then.
Thank you,
Thanks for your servant hood to ♥️Jesus ♥️David.Long may it continue .
We need as Christian s to ,STAND,with you … Gillian.✍️
It’s difficult to know where all this will lead to. MLJ predicted many years ago that if the west went down it would be for internal rot. And Schaeffer wrote that the nations that once held the bible up as their guide and had now turned against God were now running on Christian inertia only. Once that Christian inertia stops it will be downhill. I have sometimes thought that we have entered Revelation 20:7-8 but more likely we have entered a Romans 1:21 period. The question is: How do we prepare ourselves and especially our children for the ‘spiritually dark period’ ahead?
Cult is probably the perfect descriptor.
I thank the gods that my kids missed this craze – and I most definitely consider it a craze – as if it were otherwise then surely we would be seeing all the former kids,
now adults of my children’s age, suddenly ”coming out”, breathing a sigh of relief, that they are now free to transition ?
It’s the type of thing that really does my head in.
I’m going to order the book. Thank you for this article – just on a related topic – has anyone had the stomach to watch It’s a Sin. Apparently it’s getting record viewing figures. I just about managed the first episode.
The Trans Cult is driven by an unholy alliance of ( chiefly ) Women and Homosexuals and supported now by Biden’s State Department in Russia , Belarus , Mexico , Brazil , Argentina, Poland and Thailand.
Even Muslim Turkey is a target with a major mosque being defaced by emblems of America’s disgusting (and main) non – military, foreign policy objective :
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/turkey-s-president-says-there-s-no-such-thing-as-lgbt-and-calls-student-protesters-terrorists
The trans cult is anti-women – and it is mainly women who are opposing it…also a large number of homosexuals oppose it because it does away with them as well!
Yes, it is anti – women but please take a look at the gender composition of LBGT protest marches and you will see how many ( unthinking ) women support this arrant Marxist nonsense.
The cause of this surely lays with simple fact that, once the truth is exchanged for a lie, and people worship the creation not the creator, then this is what people will do. (Romans 1)
Like many of the social issues of our day, they are symptomatic.
In abandoning the truth that we are created, and therefore have a design, purpose and function, then it’s possible to embrace such crazy ideologies, because what has previously provided grounding (design, function, purpose) is gone.
Denial of a creator of anything, be it God or man, allows people to use and abuse anything, because the rules that set out the design purpose and function no longer guide and inform.
Instead the futility of the individual mind……
A parable
Ever since I was young, I wanted to be a bike. I didn’t feel comfortable in my body. I told my parents if they didn’t refer to me as BMX and acknowledge I was a bike, I would kill myself. They took me to the doctors who were instructed to affirm whatever a young person says, because “they really know who they are”. I was prescribed oil to make me feel more like a bike. A real bike however, has wheels, so the doctor and my therapist told my parents, “unless we cut off his legs and attach wheels to his body, he will probably commit suicide.” My parents listened to the experts, they didn’t want be to be harmed after all. After a painful surgical procedure (boy did it hurt), my legs were amputated and wheels were attached. “I couldn’t believe it,” I said, “now I am a real bike!” It turned out however, although I am now a bike, I don’t have any legs to cycle with and I can’t do anything a bike would naturally do. Does anyone else want to take me for a ride?
Jon, this is an idiotic and unhelpful post. It shows that you do not understand the issue and have little intention of showing compassion to people with gender dysphoria. Regardless of the judgement you pass, we are talking about people who have legitimate struggles and confusion. They do not need condemnation and mockery – they have experienced enough of that. David, questioning your identity is not ‘trendy’, that is incredibly insensitive. How many people have turned to self-harm, drugs, and worse for what you claim is ‘fashionable’? They need acceptance, love, and an invitation to Christ’s Church. The Church that is slow to judge and fast to embrace.
Shrier makes some very important points – young and confused girls making life altering decisions is obviously a sad situation, which is why we need to offer easier access to support services – top of the list should be the Church. This is why we need to stop condemning people and start listening! Anyone who is going through a stage of uncertainty and searching, doesn’t need another closed door or be reminded that God hates them. They need acceptance and someone who will support them. It is important to say that Shrier is also an LGBTQI ally, she has many trans friends and acknowledges that it is a real issue. Her frustration is with the growing popularisation of transgender identification.
Finally, a 4,000% increase in girls identifying as trans is concerningly high, as Shrier points out. But it is a false number. As a developing area – medically and socially, the service will obviously be growing hugely as we develop the language to talk about this. This is not to say that it is not too high. There are many accounts of girls who have been through the process only to regret it or realise that their issue was not with their gender.
All of this should not push us to flatly condemn an issue or young people caught up in it. It should show us that the Church needs to do a better job of listening and showing compassion. If, as Shrier suggests, the issue is that girls have social problems – the answer is clear. We need to be better at reaching out to young girls.
Please don’t call other peoples posts idiotic and judgemental – especially when your own is so judgemental. You take such an extreme view – pushing people to either end of the spectrum. To say that the Trans issue is ‘trendy’ (which it is)is not ‘incredibly insensitive’. Yes there are lots of people who have turned to self harm, abuse etc because of this delusion – so why encourage them in it?
Spouting cliches like ‘they need acceptance, love and an invitation to Christ’s church’ does not help. We all agree with that. But acceptance does not mean acceptance of what is wrong or ideology or lifestyle. The 4,000% increase is not a false number. It is a real number – and we have had the language to talk about it for decades.
Yes – we need to be reaching out to young girls – but not with the confused message that you suggest here. We need to reach them with the Gospel of Christ – not the fashions of the latest Internet gurus.
Ant, some of Jesus’ parables used shocking ideas in order to make a point – many of which were misunderstood by the hearers! The BMX parallel is ridiculous, that’s the point! I do understand the topic, and it’s because I love these young people (my own daughter included) and have compassion for them, that I want the world to wake up and see the damage it is doing by peddling the lie that men can become women and vice versa. It’s not the young people who are confused that the parable was aimed at but the people who are harming them by affirming their confusion. Your condemnation and judgment is not very accepting of me or sensitive.
Now the issue of transgenders in women’s sport is arising here.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/trans-inclusion-elephant-in-the-room-during-aflws-pride-round/13130474
Thanks for nothing for exporting your poisonous identity politics, America. 🙁
“ I don’t believe it. I don’t understand it. What are you talking about? Is this serious? It’s mad “.
Trying to explain this article to anyone who identifies as LBTQI, or has an LGBTQI friend be quite difficult!
Thats strange because I have responses from LGBTQI (plus plus…why did you leave out the A and S and other sexualities – are you a bigot?)….who have understood it clearly. And I have no difficulty explaining it to LGBTQI friends. What is your problem?
This is from Breitbart so take it with caution but allegedly a Nickelodeon Channel show that, from what I can gather, aims to teach pre-schoolers the alphabet is now starting to spruik gay propaganda:
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/02/12/nickelodeons-blues-clues-brings-lgbtq-message-to-alphabet-p-is-for-pride/
If true, this is just sick. How did western culture decline to this point so quickly? 🙁
“If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Matt 18:6
What on earth is God going to do to our society for pushing all of this depravity onto kids? Whatever happened to letting kids be kids?They should’t know anything about sex, hetero or homo, at that age. Let them play with their toys and watch wholesome cartoons. Don’t push this propaganda for depraved filthy activities onto them! 🙁 🙁 🙁
Pastor, the Cancel Culture extremists are going to have to go and purge poor old Lucille Ball next… I was watching this old episode of The Lucy Show today:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/papermoonloveslucy.tumblr.com/post/162936409633/lucys-mystery-guest/amp
As per the synopsis, she accidentally tears up the letter saying a guest is coming before she reads it and then can’t piece it all back together. When her boss asks her who is coming (not realising she doesn’t know), he asks if it is a female and then if it is a male. When she cannot answer in the affirmative to either, he says, “Well there are only two genders to choose ftom!” Cue the canned laughter.
Instantly I thought about how politically incorrect it is now. That is how our minds are being poisoned by the continuous bombardment of SJW propaganda – what was obvious commonsense in the 1960s automatically sets off alarms in our minds now about, “How we must not say such things or we will get in trouble”. 🙁
There would be howls of outrage and Lucy would be ostracised from her Hollywood colleagues if she was still alive and included a perfectly innocuous joke like that in her show now. 🙁 🙁 🙁
God nless you and keep up the goid fight against the rot that is destroying our civilisation.
I just saw this reader comment on another website:
“Here’s what’s being hidden. If a boy growing up to be a male is a social construct by playing with cars and playing ball,and a girl growing up to be a girl is a social construct because they play with dolls and wear dresses then being transgender is a social construct. So what is done to a child to make them grow up to be transgender? No one ever talks about it.”
It is amazing how the LGBTQ lobby’s own logical inconsistencies undermine their entire position.
Today’s Brisbane Courier-Mail. Children are now afraid to admit they are hetero or use the words “boy” and “girl” because they are taboo:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/panic-attacks-as-kids-taught-not-to-use-words-boy-or-girl/news-story/3bbb0a43c9eb25dd57e4684722c4f8f8%3famp