I’ve struggled with the silence I feel from family, friends and coworkers since coming out in June 2022. Sometimes that silence seems overwhelming. Occasionally it may be intentional, but, more often than not, I’m guessing people just don’t know what to say or how to engage.
The acceptance of same sex love and lovers is fully supported by better Bible study. Ive tried to share my understanding of gender equality and homosexual love as Gods will in my book. Adventist Tomorrow. Chapter against all abuse for all love. P 221 in first edition.(2nd edition 2023) Also good are the expose of weaponizing Scripture to cause pain by Colby Martin UnClobbered. (2016). And John Russel Cannon. The Bible Christianity and Homosexuality (2005). By understanding what the Bible is saying and what it is NOT saying is a great way to open our hearts once our minds see the truth. We can then approach Jay as a badly treated friend we want to get to know better. Jack.
Jay,
Thank you for sharing about how your friend showed up meaningfully for you. That is the kind of ally I want to be. But I frequently don’t know how and so your five suggestions are helpful and need reiterating because we forget and freeze up in our awkwardness.
This year’s pride month has been especially difficult. Those of us who love an LGBTQ person live in fear for their life. The hate metastasizes. The worst of it comes from inside the church. So few push back. Feels like hate is winning.
My best to you, my wish for safety and understanding and a peaceful, loving life for you and your husband.
Cindy Magi
Healthy affirmation or an alliance is two way. I have only one practical suggestion for the LGBTQ community towards heterosexuals. Please stop calling us “straight.” It is pejorative and demeaning. I’ll call LGBTQ “gay” respectfully, if they call me “joy” affirmatively.
Grace & peace, Norm Young.
Sounds like you are being fececious.
The five practical ways seems more impractical. "Your associates may not be expected to be free from imperfections or sin. But in choosing your friends, you should place your standard as high as possible. The tone of your morals is estimated by the associates you choose. You should avoid contracting an intimate friendship with those whose example you would not choose to imitate. . . . {OHC 256.3}
So, no, “Better Bible Study” will not change that…
That does not mean that we cannot be sympathetic and caring for gay individuals. Jesus treated that adulterous woman with exquisite kindness and understanding, scattering her accusers and covering her with his robe of righteousness. But he advised her to leave her life of sin. We can do the same by staying close to him and seeking his spirit when confronted with difficult situations.
I might add two other observations.
I am amazed at the intolerance ot LGBTQ folk, or at least their advocates. If you do not support them in their behavior, you are a bigot of the rankest order, some even saying you do not deserve to live. 20 years ago it was live and let live. Now it is death to the bigots! The response to this post will be interesting… …
I do not know of another group that encourages the mutilation of children. Could any have foreseen this development 30 years ago when homosexuality was normalized?
Astounding.
Let’s say that’s true. What does it prove to you?
It’s not true today. Many Jews accept same-sex relationships. What does that prove to you?
I am aware of the situation today.
I note the first century because some have argued that since Jesus said nothing aobut homosexual behavior that he ad no opinion… At that time, all were opposed, it was an agreed upon idea, so he did not discuss it.
According to the Bible, LGBTQ is all sinful and you cannot excuse it in any way. If practicing same-sex, homosexuality, trans-dressing is accepted in heaven, then all unforgiven sinners are accepted in heaven. Therefore Christ died for nothing.
The reason most thinking people cannot logically be an ally to the whole queer alphabet league is right here with the idea that stopping puberty is a good idea for children. There are actually gay organizations that oppose those aspects of the transgender activist’s agenda and of course lots of adult transgendered people who oppose it (the idea that it is medically approved is an equally tragic indictment of certain groups). The idea that one can be an ally to all of this is absurd. But if Spectrum can’t actually come out against the child abuse of puberty blockers or under-18-age surgeries. I would have to say that Spectrum supports transgender abuse and mutilation of children. I will have this article to support that view!
Puberty blockers are not child abuse. They are a tool to relieve gender dysphoria which becomes unbearable to some young people when puberty starts. They are fully reversible. The vast majority of LGBTQIA2S people support gender affirming care because it helps to alleviate SUFFERING.
while it’s obviously good to consider the suffering aspects behind some of the decisions some trans persons make, we also have to factor in the big picture, which includes the fact that some trans persons experience regrets later in life, after surgery and hormonal therapy have run their course…
to me, it’s clear that life-altering therapy should be delayed until an individual is old enough to be self-actualized, and fully aware of who and what they want to be in life…it’s difficult to see any real wisdom in providing and especially urging this kind of therapy to minors…i think the 19 states that have some form of ban on providing trans therapy to minors isn’t a necessarily unreasonable development…
Well so much wrong there, but not surprising as people tend to believe propaganda. Affirming care is really just a lie. No way says I will treat anoerxia with affirming the illusion that the patient is actually fat. To say one is affirming gender dysphoria by granting the unreality of the confusion is again not affirming, it is the opposite of affirming. That puberty blockers are reversible is completely misinformation. Sadly too many American institutions repeat the falsehood, There is a reason most of the progressive European countries have outlawed the practice. For an indepth look here are some good articles. On The Myth That Puberty Blockers Are "Reversible"
One final one more on the financial side of this. How amazingly profitable it is to big pharma to start people on hormones they have to take the rest of their life! Which I think has a lot to do with why so much wrong information is spread by some medical institutions. https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/06/transgender-activism-pharmaceutical-studies-children/
Ron, I read the last two of your links,
The guy with the X-ray is holding it upside down. It is a shot of the neck vertebra, and he has the skull downward.
The last article was not that good on the matter. There was just not enough information, except that most children who think they are trans, will grow out of it without any therapy or encouragement, while the ones starting therapy tend to continue. Hard to ferret out the truth.
Here is a quote from an article about the European thinking on this matter.
“A growing number of nations in Europe are not practicing “gender-affirming care” for minors in quite the same way as America is. In fact, for several years, Europe has been moving in a different direction from the U.S., as Europeans exercise greater restraint when treating children with gender dysphoria. In essence, progressively the message emanating from European gender experts is that until there is reliable long-term evidence that the benefits of youth gender transition outweigh the risks, it is prudent to limit most medical interventions to rigorous clinical research settings.”
The full article is:
Increasing Number of European Nations Adopt a More Cautious Approach to Gender-Affirming Care Among Minors, Forbes, Joshua Cohen, Jan 6, 2023
In other words, long term suffering is tempered by wait full watching.
Well photographs are the editor’s department, they don’t say much about the article. Delayed Puberty article you mention I think this quote is pretty significant.
"Why is the rate of desistence among those who start on puberty blockers so much smaller than those who never started — 2 percent versus 77 percent? Perhaps it has to do with the selective effect of “eligibility criteria,” as the Leiden report suggested. Perhaps it has to do with the transgender-supportive counseling received by children undergoing puberty suppression for gender dysphoria.
Or perhaps it has to do with the social effects of delaying normal development. Imagine being a 16-year-old boy with the voice and genitals of an 11-year-old. Or being a 16-year-old girl with no breasts or pubic hair. Would you prefer to hang out with a transgender-friendly peer-support group? Or would you choose to rejoin your non-transgendering contemporaries? "
You may not think it answers the questions and it does not, because there are not enough studies on the subject. To think that is is OK to stop or delay the greatest homonal and physical changes in a human being without having some really good studies shows that there are tons of claims without support. Then again to claim that a man can become a women and vice versa is not really a scientific debate, as reality and science don’t accept that kind of thing.
My point was not to disagree with the studies, but to improve them, for I agree with all that is said. Holding the X-ray wrong is just embarrassing, but leads to dismissal.
The other was OK, but seemed weak to me. They had a large number that kept going with the therapy, seeming to indicate that it was the prope path. While those that did not start on therapy almost all deferred. There needs to be more control groups and better differentiation of groups.
The truth will come out eventually. Note my post on the European experience. Which you noted.
Web Ed, What is the problem with my post to this statement? You have blocked it. Why?
Every one of these links are from science denying groups that are driven by a specific agenda two have an agenda to deny gender identity. They are far from a good source for serious information on the subject.