On June 20 the Adventist News Network publicized Pastor Moses Maka Ndimukika’s June 8 statement regarding the anti-LGBTQ legislation passed in Uganda. The law, which was signed by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on May 29, provides exorbitant punishments for LGBTQ support and advocacy, as well as the death penalty for certain sex acts. Maka is the president of the Uganda Union Mission, and by virtue of that position is a member of Inter-Religious Conference of Uganda (IRCU), an organization that supported the passage of this legislation. Other than the assumption that the official news agency speaks for the General Conference (GC) through the publication of this statement, the Adventist Church as an institution has given no comment on what appears to be a union president’s support for the criminalization and death of members of the LGBTQ community and their supporters.
There seem to be some echo chambers within certain segments of the Seventh-day Adventist Church where there is a general misunderstanding about the nature of sexuality… Sometimes the “truth” can blind us to the human rights violations going on right before our very eyes.
I have become very familiar with Uganda in that I travel there each Winter to work in the Refugee Camps in the North. We in the West are causing this problem! We are promoting pedophiles pretending to be transexuals and other mentally disordered sexualities.
African people are not stupid. They see the social virus spreading here and are trying to quarantine their children from this western disease. The “We are coming for your children,” movement is not going to play well in Africa.
Respect for your work in refugee camps in Uganda. Certainly not an easy task. Nevertheless, as a colleague (we both are pastor and counselor) I am surprised about your response - to put it mildly.
Who is we? Are you “promoting pedophiles”? I certainly am not.
What are “mentally disordered sexualities”?
Now let’s assume for a moment you were right that LGBTQ issues are mentally disordered sexualities… Does that justify persecuting and killing LGBTQ people? If so … why the statement by Pastor Moses Maka Ndimukika which seems to deny that “it is right”?
I am really puzzled what you wish to tell us here.
After the reports of the Ugandan SDA church being in alliance with other churches of Uganda to support a bill that is severely criticized internationally on many counts (not just by the LGBTQ community) … there was a deafening silence for months and months on the side of our church. Now that the bill has passed there is a highly ambiguous statement from Pastor Moses Maka Ndimukika (not the GC) saying in effect: "it’s all one big misunderstanding. As a counselor … wouldn’t you think there are questions of credibility that remain. (no matter whose “fault” the whole mess is)?
Yes, thank you Andreas, it certainly is true that a believer in Christ would not advocate harm to anyone regardless. The law in Uganda and the change in law coming in Kenya are way too extreme; I agree with you completely.
In the DSM-5’s standard classification of mental disorders the condition is known as gender dysphoria.
PsychologyToday commented recently that “that classifying gender dysphoria as a disorder does not —indeed, should not—imply a moral judgment of transgender individuals. I think we both would totally agree.
I am trying to point out the bigger picture. Africa is watching us! When I say" us "or “we,” in this context I mean the West. Here in this country and other western nations perversion is being pushed on children. In online social media and even in the public schools the advocacy of sexual confusion and deviance is harming all of us.
And yes pedophilia! How else would one describe grown men exposing themselves to children which happened on the last Week at a Pride Event.
Yes, Africa is very much going too far stop this trend, but the West is mostly at fault!
The assertion that transexuals and other “sexualities”(?) are mentally disordered has been debunked and rejected, decades ago.
The mental health community no longer considers these disorders that need to be fixed, but instead has tasked themselves with working to help such people who have been mistreated and denigrated by people who hang on to these debunked ideas.
This is not new. The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 and removed it from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
If it is a fact that Africans in Uganda - or elsewhere - don’t accept this then they are decades behind the times and they must not paying attention to medicine or science - or they refuse to accept it for cultural reasons.
Which, while it may not be exactly stupid, it’s not smart either: Rejecting facts in order to support your religiously-driven hatred of the other, of LGBTQ+ people in this case, just isn’t something that’ll get you any respect from those who have learned not to hate and denigrate others for how they’re born - whether it be the color of their skin, the name of the God they worship, or who they love.
Hi Tim, I am sorry, you yourself do not understand “the facts.” I am not protesting from a religious perspective, but very clinical and professional.
The evidence that the spread of transgenderism is a mass psychosis is obvious for those not swept up in this “madness of crowds” syndrome. A great book by the way!
The recent surge of adolescent girls developing tics with no known biological cause that experts have attributed to watching TikTok videos of influencers who claim to have Tourette’s syndrome is an illustration of exactly how the transgenderism syndrome is spreading with the help of public school and gender clinics making millions mutilating children and others.
Evidence based studies show that only very few “trans- kids,” who meet the criteria for the expanded definition of Gender Dysphoria, very few of these still want to transition by the time they are adults. Instead, they generally turn out to be regular gay or lesbian folks. The exact number varies by study, but roughly 60–90% of trans- kids turn out no longer to be trans by adulthood. Of course now these children are given powerful drugs to block puberty and sexually mutilated before their frontal lobes are developed enough to realize what the “adults” have done to them.
In the now famous Singh study 2012, of 139 subjects (see link to PDF below here), 88 children fulfilled the complete diagnostic criterion of Gender Identity Disorder, which includes strong cross-sex identification.
Of those, 12 persisted. That’s 13.6% persistence rate and 86.3% desistance rate. And that’s among those who completely fulfill the criteria / have strong cross-sex identification.
From the 51 children who partially met the GID criterion (some of whom nevertheless had significant cross-sex identification as mentioned in the study), 5 persisted. That’s 9.8% persistence rate, 90.2% desistence rate.
Objective: To establish the psychosexual outcome of gender-dysphoric children at 16 years or older and to examine childhood characteristics related to psychosexual outcome.
Method: We studied 77 children who had been referred in childhood to our clinic because of gender dysphoria (59 boys, 18 girls; mean age 8.4 years, age range 5-12 years). In childhood, we measured the children’s cross-gender identification and discomfort with their own sex and gender roles. At follow-up 10.4 +/- 3.4 years later, 54 children (mean age 18.9 years, age range 16-28 years) agreed to participate. In this group, we assessed gender dysphoria and sexual orientation.
Results: At follow-up, 30% of the 77 participants (19 boys and 4 girls) did not respond to our recruiting letter or were not traceable; 27% (12 boys and 9 girls) were still gender dysphoric (persistence group), and 43% (desistance group: 28 boys and 5 girls) were no longer gender dysphoric. Both boys and girls in the persistence group were more extremely cross-gendered in behavior and feelings and were more likely to fulfill gender identity disorder (GID) criteria in childhood than the children in the other two groups. At follow-up, nearly all male and female participants in the persistence group reported having a homosexual or bisexual sexual orientation. In the desistance group, all of the girls and half of the boys reported having a heterosexual orientation. The other half of the boys in the desistance group had a homosexual or bisexual sexual orientation.
Conclusions:Most children with gender dysphoria will not remain gender dysphoric after puberty. Children with persistent GID are characterized by more extreme gender dysphoria in childhood than children with desisting gender dysphoria. With regard to sexual orientation, the most likely outcome of childhood GID is homosexuality or bisexuality.
I don’t think the study says what you think it says. In fact, it overwhelmingly confirms that gender dysphoria, bisexuality, and homosexuality are all recognisable and valid sexual orientations.
What the study you quoted tells us is, that of the original 59 boys and 18 girls, only 14 boys and 5 girls identified as heterosexual. This study supports the obvious truth that there are many gender identities and all of these should be recognised and treated with equal respect.
Jesus told the pharisees that in heaven there will be no gender identity, so heterosexuality is no more or less valid than any other sexual identity.
Hi there, yes I agree with you. There are many genders identities. The point I am making from these studies and many others is that most of children who are caught up in the gender identities associated with the transgender movement do not as adults continue to identify as such. Let me repeat this: most of children who are caught up in the gender identities associated with the transgender movement do not as adults continue to identify as such. You saw this documented when you read the research correct?
My point is that giving children powerful drugs to block their hormonal development, and doing permanent damage to these children, is unethical.
Mutilating the sexual organs of children based on their stated impression they are transsexual is malpractice, is stupid and possibly evil. Most of them will figure out who they are sexually after they mature, but not if adults screw them up first.
No! Grooming children in sexual confusion, instilling sexual confusion in them, should not be recognized with respect. This movement is after children. We have heard it often from the advocates themselves: “We are coming for your children.”
Grown men exposing themselves to children. Trans individuals with children sitting on their laps reading stories about sexuality.
People struggling with true sexual identify disorders should be treated with respect and love–absolutely. This is not that!
It appears like certain members of the church hierarchy are attempting to downplay the gravity of religiously motivated hatred by employing tactics that distract or brush it off. Blocking individuals on Twitter who raise concerns about human rights violations and our treatment of others is simply a cowardly move by the church hierarchy.
