But Does it Affect You?

     I run into a lot of articles that are posted on social media that have very controversial claims.  I often see these same articles posted and reposted many times. It's never the sweet, uplifting or newsworthy stories that get reposted, either.  It's always something to bring division and polarization.  Some examples are things like: Man gives birth to child after his wife is unable, or, Man dumps girlfriend after he discovers she was born male, or the ever-popular, Parents throw a new gender-reveal party for their transgender teen to acknowledge they got it wrong seventeen years ago. Occasionally, I'll see one that isn't related to the LGBT(etc.) community, but those are rare.  These ones might say things like, Eighteen-year-old man marries 65-year-old woman who is two years older than his grandmother, or something like that.  Again, something unusual to get a rise out of people and bring debate and discussion.  Usually with these types of stories, people argue that the young spouse wants the older spouse's money.  That is, of course, speculation.

Young man with much-older wife, from one of these stories

     First, we need to ask ourselves why so many divisive stories are shared multiple times.  They are not newsworthy.  They are not uplifting.  They don't make us a better society.  The answer is that they want us divided.  Keep that in mind.  But another reason is that they are testing us, especially when it comes to the transgender stories.  I read an article that suggested that LGBT (etc.) characters are overrepresented in television by over 70% of what you would find in real life, and an overwhelming number of these are on Netflix shows (the article claimed that Netflix had more LGBT characters than all other streaming services and cable shows combined).  If art is supposed to imitate life, why would they overrepresent?  The same reasons these articles keep getting posted.  Art isn't imitating life anymore.  It is trying to influence life, and put a pebble in our shoe, so to speak.  

     Reboots of things from my childhood, such as Punky Brewster and the Babysitters Club have added homosexuality and transgenderism where none of that exited in the original source material.  This is not simply a misguided attempt to represent a group previously not represented in shows (and I could make a case that the LGBT community doesn't deserve the status as a "group" the same way nationalities or people with certain abilities or disabilities are, but that would take me on a rabbit trail).  This is being shoved down our throats, and the throats of our children.  

    We recently stopped allowing our preschool son to watch the beloved Cocomelon videos.  Originally, we thought they were fun, educational, and even had good morals.  However, they recently had a video on the Netflix version of the show (go figure!) that showed a boy dancing in a dress, and his two dads cheering him on.  We don't need that influence over our son.  When we meet real, living, breathing homosexual people, we will shower them with the love of Jesus, and let Tommy see that, but he will also know that these people aren't living God's plans for them.  But we don't need that in his preschool entertainment.  We started having Tommy watch different kinds of videos, especially these cool guys who make Christian kids videos.  The Good News Guys!  If you have young children, check these videos out!

Good News Guys, Jordan and Vinny.  They introduce a new generation of children to traditional Sunday school songs, such as I've got the Joy, Joy Joy Joy Down in My Heart, as well as original songs they have written.  Each of them has a wife and kids, and they often make appearances on the videos as well.  A really great watch for the whole family.

          Getting back to these controversial, divisive stories, they are put there to elicit comments.  Sometimes, I feel led to speak out in righteousness.  Other times, I see that others already have, and I just let it go.  But undoubtedly, there is always someone there to comment something to the effect of, "If it makes them happy, how dare you disagree with it?  It doesn't affect you!"  Here is my problem with these kinds of comments.  First, the story was shared very publicly to elicit various opinions, so the commenter shouldn't act as if his or her opinion is the only welcome one.  That's just immature.  Secondly, and more seriously, though, these comments are wrong in saying that someone else's choice doesn't affect others.  They do.  If someone born with male organs decides to live as a girl, that is his problem.  But if everyone around him is required to call him a girl, and claim that someone born with a penis is female, that is a problem.  That is bullying everyone else to deny scientific truth we have always held and that had never even been in question until recently, just to pacify someone.  I got into a discussion this week with someone who claimed that transgenderism is scientifically verified, and said I was wrong to claim only a female could give birth.  I asked this person to please give me the science that proved anything besides the XX or XY chromosomes determined a person's sex, and this person had no answer.  She said some angry comments, but didn't have an scientific answer.  

     Gender dysphoria is not something that is diagnosed by taking blood or doing any sort of DNA test on the person.  It can't be.  It is all symptom-based (there are other symptom-based conditions as well, including ADHD and autism, among others, and they are all real conditions, but can also be misdiagnosed, since there isn't a medical way to prove it beyond all doubt).  While I do believe that gender dysphoria is a real phenomena, and these people deserve love, support, and help, I do not believe the answer is indulging their psychological belief that they are the opposite sex, but rather to help them accept who they are as their birth sex, and embrace that they can be this sex and still be themselves.  A lot of transgender philosophy I hear about is very sexist, as if you have to like pink, frilly dresses to be a girl and if you're more of a tomboy, you must really be a transgender boy.  Boys and girls come in all stripes, and some fit closer to the stereotypes than others, but they are still boys or girls, regardless of how they fit those expectations.  Until recently, gender dysphoria was called gender identity disorder, and was considered a mental illness.  The change in name and its removal from being considered a mental illness were not done because of amazing scientific discovery, but to remove the stigma surrounding it. It wasn't a medical decision, but a political one.  This info is found all over the internet--look it up for yourself.  I didn't give a link to any of it, because it's everywhere, and you can take your pick of articles to read.  Type it into any search engine.  There is no science behind this!  People who actually go all the way and do a sex change have to take hormones the rest of their lives to keep it up.  Why?  Because it isn't real!  You can't stop being your birth sex.  Indulging it isn't compassion.  It's keeping hurting people right where you want them, using them as a commodity.  Making them into a protected class only insures their votes.  It doesn't help or heal them.  

     I used to go to Christian camp every summer as a kid.  The year I was twelve, the preacher had one of the female counselors come forward, and he held out a black handkerchief.  He asked her to just say it was red.  She said, "No, it's black.  Why should I say it's red?"  He said, "I know, but just say it.  It will make me really happy.  I'll even give you money!"  He pulled out a twenty dollar bill (a fortune to kids like us in the audience back then!).

     This woman still refused, and said, "It's black.  I can't say it's red when it's black."  The preacher kept upping the ante, and adding more rewards if she would only say the black cloth was read.  All the kids in the audience kept yelling to her, "Just say it's red!  Just say it!"  But this counselor refused, and didn't get the rewards.  I remember as a junior higher thinking it was a weird illustration.  The preacher used Hebrews 12:24-26, By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.  He told us that the counselor had done the right thing to stick to the truth and give up the rewards offered.  He told us there would come a time for all of us when we had to choose between instant rewards or the truth.  He pointed out that some of us were yelling for her to just say the cloth was red at the very beginning, and he warned us that we couldn't cave in like that.  While the biblical truth was good, I couldn't imagine ever being asked to say something was true when it clearly wasn't.  Why would someone ask me to call a black cloth red?  Fast forward to today, and I can't believe how spot-on that preacher was.  We are being asked to affirm things that just aren't true, in order to make people happy.  Sometimes there is money involved, and rewards for agreeing with these lies.  But don't be bought!  Don't sell your principles!  

     If an eighteen-year-old man marries a woman old enough to be his grandma, I might wonder a little about it, but it really isn't my business and doesn't offend me.  They aren't asking me to agree or disagree with them, and I can go trough my life, with my beliefs, and not be affected.  But if a woman claims she is a man, and then makes people say a man gave birth when she has a baby, and acts as if I'm hateful for not agreeing, I'm sorry, I'm not going along with that.  This is why we must fight distortion of the truth wherever we find it!  Be like Moses!  Forsake the "treasures of Egypt" and look to the real reward!