I am with you generally, but there is a problem with "Don’t forget, the entire community is rife with suicide attempts and raging depression statistics, showing a deeply unhealthy, unhappy way of life." The problem is that word "entire". You don't know that, and furthermore "rife with suicide attempts and raging depression statistics" applies to a much larger portion of the population than just the "trans community". How might it apply to "the modern church", a much larger segment if possibly not as severely affected?
I write as an unwilling member of the "trans community" (it's not really a community as the dictionary might define it), placed there from birth (Mt. 19:12a) most likely through the action of an endocrine disrupting pharmaceutical given to my mother, although I can't be certain about that. That my endocrine system was disrupted by the time I was born, by something, is certain, and there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of others in similar situations due to in utero pharmaceutical exposure.
We have no idea how many more in the "community" might have been affected by environmental factors, although it is rather clear that many participants in the current madness were exposed to life-destroying social media influences. Those people are themselves under attack by the aforementioned, deceiving, media, cultural influencers, and highest officials in the land. I don't, however, in any way endorse the evil activities about which you write.
I became aware of my own situation at a very early age, and I quickly learned that I could not talk about it with anyone. I eventually came to understand that "my kind" was hated by the church, not to mention society, though I was raised in the church. Doctors and pharma, on the other hand, were worshiped as gods. They still are, although maybe not quite as much anymore.
After I turned 21 I left the church for 19 years, returned for 8, left again for 3 1/2, tried to return again with help from friends but came face-to-face with open LGBT hatred coming from the pulpit and left again for another 12 years, before finally returning to stay. God dragged me back twice through direct interventions. But God is like that. The "church", not so much. I had to learn, finally, that "the church" is not God.
During that 12 years, horror of horrors, I transitioned, with surgery, male-to-female, at 56-57 years old and with full informed consent, and my life became more livable. I did not somehow "become a woman"; rather I am whatever it is that I am. It's different, but very much "not male" -- I never knew those adult behaviors, and never cared for them. My puberty faltered and fizzled for want of adequate hormones, specifically all of the "sex steroids", leaving me asexual and sterile. I had a built-in form of "puberty blocker", though not as damaging and dangerous as those being administered to children today as a form of child sacrifice.
I transitioned for the usual reasons, but also because I had learned that my endocrine disorder put me at high risk for cancer (through my own research, not from anything my doctors told me) and I was hoping to avoid that. I took too long to transition, however, and had to deal with cancer treatment during transition. It would appear that God had planted the cancer concern in my mind, as something I would listen to if not to Him directly. Think what you will, but I am alive and reasonably well at 72 because of it, and free of pharmaceuticals.
Seven years after transition I returned to church, but to a "modern/affirming" one. I am "out" ("visibly trans"), not "stealth", but having no desire to attract attention. I poured myself into supporting that church. Eventually, however, I came to realize that the gospel was nowhere to be found there, though there was plenty of depression, not to mention left-wing political idolatry, and I was led away to a nearby evangelical church after three years. I am on my third one of those now in this stretch (I belonged to another one pre-transition), so far, but I have only the One God, and I am not leaving Him again, a determination that was thoroughly tested by the behavior of the larger evangelical church in 2020 and beyond.
My original health problems (there were several, a type of autism being not the least) continue to take their predictable toll, and I can't do as much in-person volunteer work now, but I am finding more that I can do online. I actively participate in church life to the extent that I can, somewhat on the periphery. I have been a choir member on and off for over 30 years and I still am, livestream and all! The most unhealthy things I ever did were to hide, and to flee. Yet even in all the time away, some 35 years, God remained with me.
In reviewing the news feeds the primary factor in todays times is the loss of truth. Murder is not murder, facts are not facts and one may recast history and prior events into whatever suits current popular opinion or agenda. This is thrust on a group of humans who are docile and gullible regarding scripture. Consistency and even-handed justice are long gone from upper levels of culture. What is still required is the strict adherence to the accurate english translation of the Bible, understanding what is figurative and what is literal in the Bible and what is a non binding opinion. A return to the scriptures calls for a naming of errors and a mental dismantling of each is fundamental friendship with those outside of Christ and a brave show of love. If we love and exhibit friendship we will show a different life choice that is essential and fundamental to salvation. It is not being "church conformance" it is progressing into a transition of life. That life is now at total opposition to culture.
The main thrust "we have enemies" is certainly true. In the scriptures there are many references to this for any age. Love of enemies is limited - it is certainly not being a participant in their activities and certainly is being a proclaimer of Gods word. The full counsel of God is to be proclaimed and it is intended to challenge and stir the world. There is no way around that -
I am with you generally, but there is a problem with "Don’t forget, the entire community is rife with suicide attempts and raging depression statistics, showing a deeply unhealthy, unhappy way of life." The problem is that word "entire". You don't know that, and furthermore "rife with suicide attempts and raging depression statistics" applies to a much larger portion of the population than just the "trans community". How might it apply to "the modern church", a much larger segment if possibly not as severely affected?
I write as an unwilling member of the "trans community" (it's not really a community as the dictionary might define it), placed there from birth (Mt. 19:12a) most likely through the action of an endocrine disrupting pharmaceutical given to my mother, although I can't be certain about that. That my endocrine system was disrupted by the time I was born, by something, is certain, and there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of others in similar situations due to in utero pharmaceutical exposure.
We have no idea how many more in the "community" might have been affected by environmental factors, although it is rather clear that many participants in the current madness were exposed to life-destroying social media influences. Those people are themselves under attack by the aforementioned, deceiving, media, cultural influencers, and highest officials in the land. I don't, however, in any way endorse the evil activities about which you write.
I became aware of my own situation at a very early age, and I quickly learned that I could not talk about it with anyone. I eventually came to understand that "my kind" was hated by the church, not to mention society, though I was raised in the church. Doctors and pharma, on the other hand, were worshiped as gods. They still are, although maybe not quite as much anymore.
After I turned 21 I left the church for 19 years, returned for 8, left again for 3 1/2, tried to return again with help from friends but came face-to-face with open LGBT hatred coming from the pulpit and left again for another 12 years, before finally returning to stay. God dragged me back twice through direct interventions. But God is like that. The "church", not so much. I had to learn, finally, that "the church" is not God.
During that 12 years, horror of horrors, I transitioned, with surgery, male-to-female, at 56-57 years old and with full informed consent, and my life became more livable. I did not somehow "become a woman"; rather I am whatever it is that I am. It's different, but very much "not male" -- I never knew those adult behaviors, and never cared for them. My puberty faltered and fizzled for want of adequate hormones, specifically all of the "sex steroids", leaving me asexual and sterile. I had a built-in form of "puberty blocker", though not as damaging and dangerous as those being administered to children today as a form of child sacrifice.
I transitioned for the usual reasons, but also because I had learned that my endocrine disorder put me at high risk for cancer (through my own research, not from anything my doctors told me) and I was hoping to avoid that. I took too long to transition, however, and had to deal with cancer treatment during transition. It would appear that God had planted the cancer concern in my mind, as something I would listen to if not to Him directly. Think what you will, but I am alive and reasonably well at 72 because of it, and free of pharmaceuticals.
Seven years after transition I returned to church, but to a "modern/affirming" one. I am "out" ("visibly trans"), not "stealth", but having no desire to attract attention. I poured myself into supporting that church. Eventually, however, I came to realize that the gospel was nowhere to be found there, though there was plenty of depression, not to mention left-wing political idolatry, and I was led away to a nearby evangelical church after three years. I am on my third one of those now in this stretch (I belonged to another one pre-transition), so far, but I have only the One God, and I am not leaving Him again, a determination that was thoroughly tested by the behavior of the larger evangelical church in 2020 and beyond.
My original health problems (there were several, a type of autism being not the least) continue to take their predictable toll, and I can't do as much in-person volunteer work now, but I am finding more that I can do online. I actively participate in church life to the extent that I can, somewhat on the periphery. I have been a choir member on and off for over 30 years and I still am, livestream and all! The most unhealthy things I ever did were to hide, and to flee. Yet even in all the time away, some 35 years, God remained with me.
In reviewing the news feeds the primary factor in todays times is the loss of truth. Murder is not murder, facts are not facts and one may recast history and prior events into whatever suits current popular opinion or agenda. This is thrust on a group of humans who are docile and gullible regarding scripture. Consistency and even-handed justice are long gone from upper levels of culture. What is still required is the strict adherence to the accurate english translation of the Bible, understanding what is figurative and what is literal in the Bible and what is a non binding opinion. A return to the scriptures calls for a naming of errors and a mental dismantling of each is fundamental friendship with those outside of Christ and a brave show of love. If we love and exhibit friendship we will show a different life choice that is essential and fundamental to salvation. It is not being "church conformance" it is progressing into a transition of life. That life is now at total opposition to culture.
The main thrust "we have enemies" is certainly true. In the scriptures there are many references to this for any age. Love of enemies is limited - it is certainly not being a participant in their activities and certainly is being a proclaimer of Gods word. The full counsel of God is to be proclaimed and it is intended to challenge and stir the world. There is no way around that -