Repeat after me: “There is no slippery slope”
From The Marriage Alliance comes this warning.
THE DOMINO EFFECT: FIRST MARRIAGE, THEN GENDER AND SEX WILL ALL FALL
In an extraordinary admission, the UK’s “Government Equalities Office” confirmed that the changing of gender legally at whim, with the mere filing of a form, builds on the “progress” made with the redefinition of marriage.
In a joint media release, the Equalities Office and the Minister for Equalities declared that:
Since Parliament voted for the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967, there has been significant progress on LGBT equality. In 2013 the law was changed to allow same-sex couples to marry. Earlier this year, Turing’s Law was passed, posthumously pardoning men who had sex with men for these now abolished offences. And the recent election saw the highest number of openly lesbian, gay and bisexual MPs voted into Parliament. Today’s announcement looks to build on this progress.
In a near-Orwellian development, enabling individuals to change their gender on their birth certificate at a snap of their fingers is being considered as “progress”:
Proposals to streamline and de-medicalise the process for changing gender will be part of a broad consultation of the legal system that underpins gender transition, the Gender Recognition Act.
…
The consultation on the Gender Recognition Act, to be published in the Autumn, will look to improve the recognition process and reduce the stigma faced by the trans community. Proposals will include:
- Removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria before being able to apply for gender recognition. The current need to be assessed and diagnosed by clinicians is seen as an intrusive requirement by the trans community; and
- Proposing options for reducing the length and intrusiveness of the gender recognition system.
It really is incredible: the UK is digging itself a politically-correct hole so deep, that they have reached a point where “facts” and “medical precautions” are now considered “offensive” – even though Britain was one of the spearheads in the whole transgender movement:
Britain became one of the first countries to legally recognise people who wanted to change gender without surgery in 2004 with the Gender Recognition Act. However in the years that have followed a series of barriers to changing gender have frustrated those who want to make the switch. One is the need to prove they have been in transition for at least two years before they can legally apply to become the other sex.
The other is the medical checks needed. Currently people need to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria before being allowed to make legally change sex. Campaigners said the tests – which involve seeing a panel of doctors – is embarrassing and intrusive, noting it should be a decision for the individuals.
As stated above, changing one’s registered gender has been possible in the UK for several years. Apparently though, it is not enough to be possible – it has to be super easy, otherwise, LGBTI individuals won’t have ‘sufficient rights’:
Up to now, it was already possible to change your sex in government records, but it was a laborious process. A doctor had to diagnose gender dysphoria and the person had to be living in the chosen gender for two years. Under the new legislation all that will be needed, it seems, will be a rubber stamp. No hormones; no surgery; just an uncomfortable feeling inside that things are not quite right.
Instead of requiring individuals to seek medical expertise to determine if they truly have gender dysphoria, all they need to do is sign a form.
This government is committed to building an inclusive society that works for everyone, no matter what their gender or sexuality and today we’re taking the next step forward.
We will build on the significant progress we have made over the past 50 years, tackling some of the historic prejudices that still persist in our laws and giving LGBT people a real say on the issues affecting them.
“What we want to try to do is streamline the process, make it easier, demedicalise it and make it less intrusive,” says Ms Greening. A study with her proposals will be published later in the years. She recently told the media that society needed “to “stop treating people changing their gender as if it’s some medical problem that needs fixing. Actually this is a choice that people are making and we need to try and make that choice more straightforward than it already is.”
For years – nay, decades – the transgender lobby has been telling us that ‘gender dysphoria’ is an innate condition, not a choice. Now they are backtracking from, not progressing their own statements.
Redefining gender is part and parcel of redefining marriage. Neither further the progress of anyone’s rights – it creates utter chaos. Think about it: enabling people to change their gender renders biological sex meaningless. Without gender, there is no need for “same-sex” in same-sex marriage – because apparently, a person can switch between either genders without undergoing any type of alterations.
Going further, changing “sex” to something based entirely on preferences (e.g. what gender do I want to list on my birth certificate?) abolishes any “special” status or traits of the LGBTI community. Without preconceived, concrete definitions of biological gender, there is no basis for distinguishing amongst lesbian, gay men, heterosexuals, or heck, even transgender!
Critics warned that allowing people to effectively “self-identify” as a member of the opposite sex, while maintaining the anatomy of their birth gender, would unleash a firestorm of legal cases over access to women-only hospital wards, prisons, lavatories, changing rooms and competitive sports.
Gender and sex both depend on the definition of marriage. Wherever marriage is redefined without its one man, one woman definition, we clearly see societies abandoning their definition of gender, making sex entirely based on preferences. It is not freedom – it is utter chaos.
The outright insanity plaguing the UK may seem thousands of miles away, but this is an illusion: any country considering redefining marriage placing themselves in jeopardy of falling to the same chaotic level.
There is no beating about the bush: redefining marriage brings a torrent of consequences. The traditional definition of marriage is essential to societal perception – and treatment – of gender and sex. If a country is truly considering messing with this foundational institution, then it must be a decision made by ALL citizens.
Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14.13-21
Scripture
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and then the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Observation
Having heard of John the Baptist’s death at the hands of Herod, Jesus goes away to be alone. The crowds follow Him, and moved with compassion, He starts to heal them.
As the day goes on, the disciples tell Jesus that He should send the people away to get food. Jesus tells them they can feed them. All they have is five loaves and two fish, nowhere near enough. Jesus blesses the food, breaks it and gives it to the disciples to distribute.
When the people are fed there is more left over than when they started.
Application
God’s economic system is different to ours. He is not limited by lack, but He turns lack into abundance.
The disciples start off with a boy’s lunch and feed ten thousand people with it and end up with much more then they had to start with.
When we are following Jesus, inadequate resources are not a limitation but an opportunity for a miracle. The problem is that we often focus on what we don’t have instead of on what God can provide.
Here are the ingredients necessary for a miracle to take place:
A need. People need food. God will not step in where there is no need.
Availability. The disciples had a little and were willing to bring that to Jesus to use.
Worship. Jesus took the bread, blessed it and broke it. This is a reference to Communion. When our hearts are focused on worshipping Jesus, any thing is possible.
Obedience. The miracle took place in the disciples’ hands as they stepped out in faith.
I have seen these miracles take place as the Lord has provided for my family and my church in very special ways. He is always faithful and just needs us to trust Him to provide all that we need, regardless of how much we have in our hands.
Prayer
Thank you Lord for your amazing provision and your awesome miracles. Thank you for providing more than enough. Please help me to trust you in every moment of my life. Amen.
There are many people who believe, without a scrap of evidence, that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12: 4-11) ended with the first apostles or the completion of the New Testament. This is called cessationism which might be defined as the belief that miracles petered out when Peter petered out.
There is a huge historical and literary swag of evidence that God has healed through the ages and indeed that all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been experienced.
This article from “World Revival Network” describes the healing ministry of the Kings of England and France in the Middle Ages.
In the post-Reformation world, the French and English kings utilised the Christian ministry of healing to buttress their legitimacy. These large scale recuperative ceremonies were deemed vital for preserving order and asserting divine ordination.
It was said that King Henry IV (1553–1610) of France laid hands on as many as 1,500 people in a single ceremony. Later, Charles II of England (1630–1685) touched more than 90,000 afflicted people.
“Touching for the king’s evil” was formally included as part of the service order in the 1662 edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.[1]It was also observed in Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1605).
A most miraculous work in this good King,
Which often since my here remains in England
I’ve seen him do. How he solicits heaven
Himself knows best; but strangely-visited people,
All swollen and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks
Put on with holy prayers; and ’tis spoken,
To the succeeding Royalty, he leaves
The healing benediction.[2]
On July 6, 1660, King Charles II’s Royal Touch ceremony was witnessed by John Evelyn, an English nobleman. Evelyn shared the following observations:
“His Majesty sitting under his state [canopy] in the Banqueting-House, the chirurgeons [surgeons] caused the sick to be brought or led, up to the throne, where they kneeling, the King strokes their faces or cheeks with both his hands at once, at which instant a chaplain in his formalities says, ‘He put his hands upon them, and he healed them.’”[3]
One contemporary pointed out that“That divers persons desperately labouring under it [a debilitating skin disease] have been cured by the mere touch of the royal hand, assisted with the prayers of the priests of our Church attending, is unquestionable.”[4]
Lee Huizenga argues,
Some of Europe’s most famous medieval medical men recommended the Royal Touch. John of Gaddesden (1280–1361), mentioned by Chaucer in his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, spoke of it as a measure not to be overlooked in the treatment of scrofula and other skin diseases . . . There can be no doubt that some of the persons who received the Royal Touch were cured of their ailments.[5]
The rite was practised by all the Tudor and Stuart kings with the single exception of William III. It reached its apex when some 100,000 people were touched by Charles II and James II. The practice ceased in England in 1712 but continued in some form in France until 1825.
In spite of the Reformation’s cessationist impulse, the ministry of healing was still embraced. It became an expression of authority and validation.
Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+32.22-31
Scripture
Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and prevailed.”
Observation
Jacob sends his wives, children and possessions across the river. He spends the night alone. A man comes in the night and wrestles with him. It happens that the man is God.
Jacob demands that the man bless him. The man says that having struggled with God and men, his name will no longer be Jacob but Israel. Jacob’s hip is put out of joint and he walks with a limp from that day forward.
Application
There are two ways to wrestle with God. You can wrestle in rebellion or you can wrestle in faith.
When we wrestle with God in rebellion, our motivation is to get our own way, to defeat God and to show Him that we are in control of our life.
When we wrestle with God in faith, our motivation is to come to obedience, to defeat our own sinful nature and to show ourselves that God is in control.
The attitude of rebellion is “I shall not.” The attitude of faith is, “I shall, but only by your grace.”
When we wrestle with God, we are changed one way or the other. Jacob received a new name. He was changed from “Trickster” to “Prevails with God.” His walk was changed because God marked his hip.
No longer would Jacob struggle to overcome others by cunning. From now on he was to prevail with God,
Prayer
Father I ask you for the grace to prevail with you. May I always walk in humble dependence on you. Amen.
New Life Narrabri 