The Transgender Child Trojan Horse

With sadness I read the story of the supposed transgender child in the news this week. If you are not familiar with the story, here it is. 

The first thing I would say is it's not this child who has come up with this distinction. The parents claim he has known he was a girl since infancy. That is a fiction. For whatever reason, either misguided or sick, it is the parents who have created and fed this. 

If I had my way, I would remove the child from this home and place him in a safe place far away from such messed up adults. 

But here is the main reason I am concerned about this whole situation. Imagine with me for a moment that this child decides that he wants to express his sexuality with other children or adults. The parents claim that he has always expressed the desire to have sexual relations and understands what it is all about. There are groups of pedophiles who are pushing for this "right" for children. They claim children should be able to "love" whoever they want. If you think about it, if we accept the notion that a child has the right to change gender then the other is not far behind legally or morally.

I wonder if the parents plan to start administering hormones to this child so he develops into a she? Will surgery soon follow to get rid of the male genitals?

There is much more to this story than many understand.

Philip

My son Nathaniel

On March 1, 1994 my son Nathaniel, who was due to be born two weeks later, died in the womb. His death was confirmed by an ultrasound. After returning from the doctor, we gathered our other five children and told them what we had just found out. The grief hit each of us in different ways.
Immediately we started to make plans for both the birth and the funeral. We contacted our pastor who was helpful and a friend of ours who is a funeral director.

The next several days were some of the best and worst of my life. The best was the gathering around us by family and friends.

We met with the funeral director who has a beautiful cemetery in the mountains. They told us that they give a free plot to stillborn children. We walked through the cemetery and picked one out. We were given literature on markers which we could choose later. Then we looked at caskets. They all seemed too funeral like.

I decided that I would build one myself. The boys and I went to the lumber yard and bought the wood that we needed. My wife and the girls went to the fabric store and bought material for the lining, pillow and outside. Many tears were shed as we put it all together.

We decided the service with our pastor. It was fairly simple. He did several readings from Scripture and then preached a sermon that deeply moved us both then and at times that we have listened to it since.

I wrote a memorial folder that was handed out at the service and mailed to some friends as an announcement. It had Nathaniel's name and footprints on the cover. Inside were two notes. One I had written to Nathaniel on the day that he was born (March 5, 1994). The second was to the reader. It spoke of our familiy’s trust in God and acceptance of His will for our son and our life. Also included on the inside were the dates of his death, birth, celebration service, weight, length, eye and hair color. On the back was a list of pro-life ministries that gifts could be sent to in lieu of flowers, etc.

After the service my friend helped me carry the casket to our van. My family and I then led the procession to the cemetery which was about 30 minutes into the mountains. My sons and I then carried the casket from the van to the plot. After everyone gathered, our pastor shared some final words from scripture. My friend and I then set the casket into the ground. I picked up a shovel and filled in the dirt until the casket was covered. My two oldest sons also put in several shovels of dirt. We then received many hugs and words of encouragement from family and friends.

Spontaneously, several friends picked up the shovel and finished filling in the grave. I cannot express in words how moving this was.

One thing that we found out was that being involved in the intimacies of planning and carrying out the service and burial helped us work through our grief. That is one thing that I would emphasize. Modern funerals take away from the reality of death. In times past, the families were the ones who handled the body and prepared it for burial. Of course, that is not always possible but we cannot shut off ourselves from what has happened.

The job of a Christian Funeral Service is twofold. One is to confront us with the reality of death and the other is to confront us with the blessed reality of eternal life.

Many in our family are not Christians. Some of them were touched through the service and burial in a way that they could not be in any other way.

Looking back, I have no regrets of how we handled our son's funeral. The pictures of it remain a vivid and pleasant memory in my mind.

Happy Birthday son.

Philip

Suicide

My Monday morning was different than usual; I went to a funeral. The adult son of a close friend committed suicide last week.

I didn't know the son but it became clear from the memorial service that he had a lot going for him and was loved by many people.

Last week someone angrily said that people who commit suicide are completely selfish. Someone else said that it's not selfishness but a loss of hope. I agree with the view that it is a loss of hope. If I wanted to be selfish I could break your kneecaps or stay around and make your life miserable.

Suicide is something hard to talk about. If I was having those feelings who could I tell? Some people would tell you that you are stupid and need to get a grip. Others might think you need to be put away because you are probably a danger to yourself and others. Others would be preoccupied with their own life and either not care or think you couldn't be serious.

It would be hard to admit that you have lost hope. It may seem irrational. How could you lose hope when you have so much going for you? Maybe it is a loss of perspective; in isolation you are blinded.

I was thinking of the movie, It's a Wonderful Life.  Jimmy Stuart's character, George Bailey,  is on the edge of suicide. An angel gives him a view of all of the lives who have been positively touched by him and how his town would have been completely different if he hadn't been born.

But what if you believe that it isn't a wonderful life. What if you are told what a bad person you are, how you keep screwing up and will probably never change. What about the young kids who are bullied by a classmate and driven to a place of darkness and isolation. Are they selfish when they pull the plug? Sometimes it's easier to believe that maybe the world would have been a better place if you had never been born.

So it is a complex and very sad situation. What can we do? I guess we should be careful of what words we send towards people. How can we send hope even when someone is messing up? What about when we are the one sliding towards despair? That is when we need to remember how God views us. In His perfection He has a right to judge and in knowing everything about us He could sure keep a nice list that He could smack us in the face with every once in a while. But He doesn't. He keeps speaking loving, hope filled words, telling us that we can be forgiven and showing us what we can be.

I guess we need to know that someone believes in us and thinks we are valuable even when they know all of our crap. The truth is, that is very hard to find. If you are a man, let me recommend a place I have discovered, it's called the Samson Society. We meet every week. Check us out, it may be just what you are looking for.

Denver Samson Society

I would really like to know your thoughts on this subject.

Philip

Are You Salt or a Moron?

We read Matthew 5:13 in church this morning:  You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. I wondered about the word tasteless and what it meant? Thanks to modern technology I soon had my answer. It comes from the root word μωρóσ. Transliterated it is moros from which we get our word moron. Aside from tasteless, the other shades of meaning are foolish, dull or stupid.

So we can be a positive influence in the world around us by making things more savory and acting as a preservative or we can be foolish, dull and stupid and end up being worthless and trampled under the feet of the world.

I think the difference is made by knowing and living what the Bible says.

What do you think? Any examples of "Christian" moron behavior?

Philip