Please help me, God. I am unhappy, it is the default state. I would not give you the gift of a punch. You can never undo this. It is done. La vita cupa. If you let her be OK you can keep ruining my life, I just don’t care. I’m begging you. This isn’t poetry, despite the layout.
You are free to support whom you want. I am not obliged to agree either with them or you. And I don't go around demanding that people I disagree with be silenced. As I said, the root of the problem is feminism, in so many way.
Ohh God! We hear you, abandoned and derided mother. You need to nurture your own strength too, somehow, in order to help your daughter the best way that you can. Pl keep going. Sending my love. Una
I’m feeling this too today - I found out that my daughter is having top surgery and the testosterone ages taking is making her sound and look like a man. I have hope but today is hard..here’s to better days for us parents. I pray our children will wake up from their maddening delusions -
Yes! Yes! Yes! But I also know God's promise of Romans 8:28. God works together all things for good for those that love Him and are called to His purpose. My prayer has been for God to open my son's heart and allow someone to speak truth to him. I know it is in God's timing and not mine. He will use the mess to be His message so I have to let go and let God.
The comments here are eye-opening as usual. I hesitate to politicize this because the issue transcends politics, but the hard fact is that one of our major political parties actively promotes the madness of gender ideology that has wrought so much destruction on children and families. Heck, it's become doctrine for them. If and when you cast a ballot this month, keep in mind that a vote for any candidate of this Party -- any candidate right down to the post of dog-catcher -- amounts to a statement of support for this toxic, immoral insanity. I'm sorry, but this needs to be said. There's no hiding from it at this point.
If you want to fight gender ideology then you must first fight feminism. That's where it comes from. There's no way round this. Feminism poisons young people's minds and it has to be extirpated.
The fight now is to discredit "gender". The leading gender critics are mostly, but not exclusively, feminists but they are not fighting all men, just the misogynists who hide among transsexuals, and who are sometimes also (kind of!) transsexuals. TRAs are young, violent and infused with Social Justice causes.
Forget old battles. Face the new one: to open ordinary people's eyes to the harms of "gender identity" aka the separation of sex of the body from sex in the mind. Assert the real good of "Biology Realists" who are both men and women, for example Graham Linehan, Matt Walsh, Prof Jordan Peterson... and Maya Forstater, Helen Joyce, Kara Dansky, Lierre Keith.
Have I made my point to you? I hope so. We NEED your positive energy to fight our common enemy, please.
I think I understand your point very well. I have written a great deal about this and at no time have I ever supported TRA activism. I was one of the first, in 2017, to comment on the ROGD phenomenon and said then that this was a disaster in the making. However, irrespective of that, which remains my position, the fact is that there are real transsexuals whom the TERF/GC movement are determined to destroy.
These are amongst the most vulnerable people in society. There are also AGPs who are not, in my view, strictly transsexual, rather transvestite, but who also deserve protection, on account of being human (a status feminists seem unwilling to accord any male.) I personally know AGPs who transitioned in adolescence; all are happy, some are even married, in stable relationships. HSTS are completely harmless, whether they are male or female and I will not support a feminist witch-hunt against them. I could never associate myself with the likes of Linehan, Walsh, Forstater or Joyce. The weakest in society MUST be protected and those are the young HSTS.
I will not align myself with any movement that aims to turn HSTS (where they are male) into 'gay men' (an oxymoron anyway) and a life of misery in which they will be predated on and discarded by older males, subject to substance, emotional and physical abuse and at massively increased risk of STDs. There is no justification for the claim that 'gay is better' - unless of course you are a 'gay man' or a feminist.
There is no doubt that what is happening to young females in the West is repellent and unacceptable, in many cases. But that does not give the screaming harpies, who have always detested transwomen, the right to erase them. I know what you are doing and I will have nothing to do with it.
If you want to fix this, you must start by extirpating feminism, completely, from society. Root and branch, like the cancer it is. If that causes democracy to fail, then so be it. Feminism is just Communism through the back door anyway. Then we can talk.
I completely support (and financially support!) Linehan, Forstater and Joyce. Walsh is in the US and has many supporters among US citizens.
I am not going to look for particular categories - sub-categories - of the "deserving" mentally confused vs the "undeserving" mentally confused. Any man who pretends to be a woman is potentially a predator - we cannot tell who is and who is not "rightfully" in a woman's space, and we cannot be bothered to find out. Keep them all out. It is men's responsibility to sort out their own "feelings". It is NOT women's responsibility to accommodate their deluded beliefs.
"The fact that society believes a man who says he's a woman, instead of a woman who says he's not, is proof that society knows exactly who is the man and who is the woman." - Jen Izakson
Usted está completamente equivocado. Mujeres feministas son también las que está luchando contra esto. La ideología de género no nació del movimiento de mujeres. Organizaciones como women's liberation front, women's declaration International, for women Scotland, and so many other are fighting. Gender ideology is not a result of feminism. but there are many people who call themselves feminists and don't even know what it is (feminism) radical feminism has always been against this for more than 50 years. I suggest you to read "gender hurts" by sheila Jeffreys, "the transsexual empire" by janice Raymond. and Mary Daly's work
I am very familiar with Jeffreys' lies thank you. And I have also read the other works., also by rabid feminists who hate men. Feminists, with their denial of gender and their constant attempts to replace men with women, are the direct cause of the trans ideology crisis. If you want to end this crisis, you have to get rid of radical feminism. Simple choice, end of.
I recognize my own prayers in yours. I have prayed similar words hundreds of times over the last 6 years since I "lost" my boy to this sick cult. He is now a man, but doesn't want to be. I have prayed over and over for him to accept himself, and learn contentment in his own skin. I am selfish in my prayers often. I simply want my son back. I don't know why God would not grant this. This is the mystery we don't understand. But boy, can I relate to every word you wrote.
I lost my son during his college years to the trans cult. Sending you compassion as we grieve and cope. So utterly unfair to our sons and our families. So utterly evil. I hold onto hope that in time, truth and common sense will prevail over this destructive insanity. In the meantime, I am trying to salvage what well being I can for my daughter, my husband, and myself. And so I can be somewhat intact if my son ever wakes up.
I found it very fitting to read this today right after I returned home from my weekly hour of Adoration at my church. Sitting silently in front of the Holy Eucharist has been a lifesaver. However,I've been trying for over 5 years to just "let go and let God takeover". Then today I came across a Surrender novena and although novenas are meant to be said for 9 days, I was so inspired by each day's short reading that I did the whole novena and have decided to say this whole novena for 9 days. If anyone wants to pray it follow the link:https://healingheartofjesus.com/2019/01/03/the-surrender-novena/
It all sunk in today. I can't keep trusting in Jesus if I am still trying to call all the shots - as if I know better than Him!!. God is with us always whether we think He is or not. It is up to us to open our eyes to see Him even when He isn't answering our prayers in the manner we desire. Anyway, I hope this brings peace to anyone who prays it. We have nothing to lose but plenty to gain. Peace
CT DCF seperated my then 14 yr old daughter from me and my family without abuse charges because I would not consider my daughter a boy in 2019. We have not seen her since August,2019.
One of the things that CT DCF was highly upset with me was the fact we as a family go to a Bible believing Church. So upset that one of their edicts for me was “I must examine my (religious) beliefs and how they affect other people”. Needless to say, I did not agree with it and still attend the same Church regardless of what the state deems “offensive”.
As a Saved Christian, knowing that Jesus suffered the most humiliating abuses to Save us, gives me constant hope that if I continue to walk in Faith to what He prescribes in The Bible , His promise is He will never leave nor forsake me.
The fact is the world hated him, and the world will also hate you if you follow Him. But, His guarantee to all those who are faithful still applies today. He will never leave you.
But in return you must be willing to trust Him, regardless of what is going on around you. To accomplish this, you must be willing to lay all your burdens, past mistakes, guilt, remorse and sin at His feet. Purify yourself to Him. Only with a humble heart without any known sin will God answer you or anyone.
I have learnt this Christmas to accept II have no right to contact with my children. It is their choice to reject me. Families in previous generations lost children in wars. Our children are caught up in a war too, a spiritual war. I am thankful only one has changed gender. I still think of her as a woman, despite everybody else thinking she is male. I have the courage to believe, despite all around me being deluded.
So, so sorry Charles, and glad to hear your faith gives you strength. This cult is simply satanic and it has taken over the government in many areas. It is terrifying.
The religious persecution of Christians, which goes along with the cult, is a worrying development.
Asking you to examine YOUR beliefs is ironic in the extreme - THEIR beliefs in a satanic child abusing cult are the issue here.
My Faith has given me great strength. Including giving me the strength in contacting upcoming political candidates to brief them exactly what is going on.
I will be going on Dennis Prager’s show, hopefully in mid November to tell my story and the credit goes to Dr. Miriam Grossman MD who was the first person on a national level who took a huge interest in my case. She is an amazing person.
I am not even religious but this enrages me. I firmly believe in separation of state from church but since when did separation of church from family become the law? How about we separate state from family a bit for a change? We should be free to instill our beliefs in our children!
The state now has the belief that there is absolutely nothing above them, born out by their actions against not only me but other parents who instill a Faith based mentality with their children.
Exactly what I discovered in the UK. Our children were unusual in attending church every Sunday. A social worker was suspicious about that. When my youngest ran away from home, the police had the right to keep my daughter’s location secret from me. The assumption was that I committed a hate crime by using the wrong pronoun. I was seen as the bad parent for not affirming a delusion. Meanwhile my husband, who has a weak character, did not hesitate to affirm the lie that our daughter became “his son”. I lost all respect for my husband and authorities who are overcome by this satanic insanity.
One of the many tactics of this insidious disgusting cult is to encourage kids to hate and blame their parents, and to sow self doubt in the hearts of decent parents.
Please DON'T fall for it.
This is a cult - they are to blame, NOT you
No one is perfect and all parents make some mistakes - but in a healthy society, the cost of making these mistakes would not be estrangement from our kids, and their permanent mutilation.
A normal society supports and nurtures families, and young people who are struggling. A normal society does not blame, brutalise, divide and abuse it's members.
Keep you chin up, soldier on, and keep praying as hard as you can.
Maybe we need God and human pushback - against the ideology that is taking our most vulnerable. Educators and our kids need to understand this is a cult. I just read about this "educator" working against the good guys in OH:
Ohio Education Board VP Insists Biological Sex Is Not a 'Scientific Fact'
"Martha Manchester, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and has served on the State Board since Jan 2017, made the comments at an executive committee meeting convened to debate a resolution that seeks to reject Biden’s proposed Title IX change adding gender identity as a protected characteristic alongside sex.
The resolution, titled “Resolution to support parents, schools, and districts in rejecting harmful, coercive, and burdensome gender identity policies and to protect federal funding subject to Title IX” was introduced in September by board member Brandon Shea. It argues that “sex is not arbitrarily ‘assigned at birth’ but rather identifies an unchangeable fact” and suggests that the Title IX change would “require that K-12 schools socially transition minor children to a different gender without requiring parental consent.”
Not all teachers agree with this ideology. I am a teacher and don't support this. Other teachers in my school don't either. So far, we don't have it our classrooms. However, there was a journal about equity in education pushing gender ideology in my mailbox. I threw it away.
The suffering of life doesn’t seem to pair with the goodness of God. I like to quote Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian short story writer and a Christian. He says that there should be a someone with hammer at the head of every happy man, “reminding him with a knock that there are unhappy people, that however happy he may be, life will sooner or later show its claws”. That someone is often God, especially if we have eyes to see the brokenness in people’s lives. There is nothing easy about pain and there’s nothing easy about its instruction, both before it begins and in the mix of its weight in our lives. How should we teach about suffering? C.S. Lewis is a good person to turn to, to both feel the hammer at your head and also find some instruction on how to unravel the difficulty of pain. His book The Problem of Pain (1940) and A Grief Observed (1961) are helpful guides to working through suffering theologically and emotionally. Here are several points worth considering.
There are no easy answers
In A Grief Observed, Lewis’s book about the loss of his wife published posthumously, he doesn’t start off with a satisfying answer about where God is in times of struggle. The book is so raw that it was first published under a pseudonym (N.W. Clerk) in 1961 and then accredited formally to Lewis with a reprinting in 1963. “When you are happy,” he says, “so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside.” We don’t always know why suffering occurs, and, as shepherds of the sheep, it is our responsibility to show compassion and patience in all times, especially the difficult ones. There are no easy answers and sometimes questioning God’s whereabouts is a very human response. It shows how desperately we are in need of his mercy and grace.
Remember what God is doing
The adage of having skin in the game is true. God is shaping us to fit into the narrow doors of eternity. This life–its punches and knockouts–are made beautiful in his time. Lewis talks through the death of his mother in Surprised by Joy. He says, “All settled happiness, all that was tranquil and reliable, disappeared in my life. There was to be much fun, many pleasures, many stabs of Joy; but no more of the old security.” The losses we experience today are by design. God is creating in us a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within us (Ps 51:10). Pain is very much a tangle of justice and mercy. No matter how we understand suffering, we know the preparations for Hell. There are none. We just go on acting in rebellion. If we are to fall on mercy, we need to fall down. Sometimes that is painful and costly.
We need to trust God
Lewis calls pain, “God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (The Problem of Pain). We must have ears to hear and the want to trust. If we don’t, we won’t work through pain and see his plan through it. God knows our suffering and he promises we will experience it, especially as we get closer to Jesus. At the end of A Grief Observed, Lewis concludes, much like Job, that, “God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down”.
It won’t go away
Pain is part of our lives as Christians. It won’t go away. In fact, Lewis calls it a gift that leads us to reconciliation. God is the dentist removing the decay and the surgeon fixing the heart. What is our response? That’s really the question: if pain won’t leave, will we see it as God’s tool to call us afresh to discipleship? If we are to die daily, we should realize that pain most certainly is involved. Even more than pain not going away, is the promise we have that God will neither leave us or forsake us.
The cross is reality
Paul tells us not to grieve as people without hope (I Thessalonians 4:13). Jesus has overcome everything–sin, death, the devil… everything. And he is coming back to claim us. Lewis puts it this way, “The crucifixion itself is the best, as well as the worst, of all historical events” (The Problem of Pain). It kills and heals us. I think the old hymns expressed this better than the music today. For example, William Cowper writes in 1772, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” And Robert Lowry, in 1876, pens, “Oh! precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Christ’s suffering became our reward and he calls us to the same battle, not as a propitiation for our sin but rather an act of worship.
We will know why
Often the eternal reasons for suffering are masked. We want to know. If we’re honest, we think knowing why will help our pastoral response. We don’t need to dodge from questions or attempt to connect all the dots in a persons life. Our call is to faith, hope, and love. We theologically know that the Holy Spirit is our comforter, but we sometimes have trouble believing this is practice. The dark days may or may not go away, but our hope is placed beyond time and our faith is placed outside ourselves and our love is because he first loved us.
Paul says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christ’s death is truth that our pain is not dismissed by a God who cannot feel. Psalm 23 begins at arms length as God leads, restores and guides. But as the shadow of death encroaches, the psalm shifts. It says, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
God is in the midst of our battles. He is guiding us. God may not fix the pain when the rope breaks and we fall into valleys as thick as thieves, but he will commune with us in our suffering and hope that it helps to fit and form us into dependent, holy people, knowing who we are and to whom we belong.
Thank you. You have articulated what I and many other followers of Jesus have not been able to begin to explain. As tightly as we cling to the truth as Christians, we have our moments of fear and doubt. We are human, so we struggle. But as C.S. Lewis realizes, and verbalizes so beautifully, we have Christ, so we have hope. We know that in the end, God wins. In a world that is illogical, and so broken, the purity of God's plan and the purity of Jesus Christ stands. When I think of those who choose to have no faith in God, I wonder, how do they bear it?
Romans 8:35-39 “Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble or problems or persecution separate us from his love? If we have no food or clothes or face danger or even death, will that separate us from his love? As the Scriptures say, “For you we are in danger of death all the time. People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed.” But in all these troubles we have complete victory through God, who has shown his love for us. Yes, I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not death, life, angels, or ruling spirits. I am sure that nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us or nothing below us—nothing in the whole created world—will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
"I suggest to you that is because God loves us that gives us the gift of suffering. Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much are what make us perfect." -CS Lewis
You are free to support whom you want. I am not obliged to agree either with them or you. And I don't go around demanding that people I disagree with be silenced. As I said, the root of the problem is feminism, in so many way.
And the cult of cancelling comes to Substack. Fascinating.
Ohh God! We hear you, abandoned and derided mother. You need to nurture your own strength too, somehow, in order to help your daughter the best way that you can. Pl keep going. Sending my love. Una
Sending love and light to you and your daughter .
You are doing your level best to protect your daughter and doing a grand job .
Keep going .🌟🌟
I’m feeling this too today - I found out that my daughter is having top surgery and the testosterone ages taking is making her sound and look like a man. I have hope but today is hard..here’s to better days for us parents. I pray our children will wake up from their maddening delusions -
Yes! Yes! Yes! But I also know God's promise of Romans 8:28. God works together all things for good for those that love Him and are called to His purpose. My prayer has been for God to open my son's heart and allow someone to speak truth to him. I know it is in God's timing and not mine. He will use the mess to be His message so I have to let go and let God.
The comments here are eye-opening as usual. I hesitate to politicize this because the issue transcends politics, but the hard fact is that one of our major political parties actively promotes the madness of gender ideology that has wrought so much destruction on children and families. Heck, it's become doctrine for them. If and when you cast a ballot this month, keep in mind that a vote for any candidate of this Party -- any candidate right down to the post of dog-catcher -- amounts to a statement of support for this toxic, immoral insanity. I'm sorry, but this needs to be said. There's no hiding from it at this point.
Amen.
If you want to fight gender ideology then you must first fight feminism. That's where it comes from. There's no way round this. Feminism poisons young people's minds and it has to be extirpated.
The fight now is to discredit "gender". The leading gender critics are mostly, but not exclusively, feminists but they are not fighting all men, just the misogynists who hide among transsexuals, and who are sometimes also (kind of!) transsexuals. TRAs are young, violent and infused with Social Justice causes.
Forget old battles. Face the new one: to open ordinary people's eyes to the harms of "gender identity" aka the separation of sex of the body from sex in the mind. Assert the real good of "Biology Realists" who are both men and women, for example Graham Linehan, Matt Walsh, Prof Jordan Peterson... and Maya Forstater, Helen Joyce, Kara Dansky, Lierre Keith.
Have I made my point to you? I hope so. We NEED your positive energy to fight our common enemy, please.
I think I understand your point very well. I have written a great deal about this and at no time have I ever supported TRA activism. I was one of the first, in 2017, to comment on the ROGD phenomenon and said then that this was a disaster in the making. However, irrespective of that, which remains my position, the fact is that there are real transsexuals whom the TERF/GC movement are determined to destroy.
These are amongst the most vulnerable people in society. There are also AGPs who are not, in my view, strictly transsexual, rather transvestite, but who also deserve protection, on account of being human (a status feminists seem unwilling to accord any male.) I personally know AGPs who transitioned in adolescence; all are happy, some are even married, in stable relationships. HSTS are completely harmless, whether they are male or female and I will not support a feminist witch-hunt against them. I could never associate myself with the likes of Linehan, Walsh, Forstater or Joyce. The weakest in society MUST be protected and those are the young HSTS.
I will not align myself with any movement that aims to turn HSTS (where they are male) into 'gay men' (an oxymoron anyway) and a life of misery in which they will be predated on and discarded by older males, subject to substance, emotional and physical abuse and at massively increased risk of STDs. There is no justification for the claim that 'gay is better' - unless of course you are a 'gay man' or a feminist.
There is no doubt that what is happening to young females in the West is repellent and unacceptable, in many cases. But that does not give the screaming harpies, who have always detested transwomen, the right to erase them. I know what you are doing and I will have nothing to do with it.
If you want to fix this, you must start by extirpating feminism, completely, from society. Root and branch, like the cancer it is. If that causes democracy to fail, then so be it. Feminism is just Communism through the back door anyway. Then we can talk.
I completely support (and financially support!) Linehan, Forstater and Joyce. Walsh is in the US and has many supporters among US citizens.
I am not going to look for particular categories - sub-categories - of the "deserving" mentally confused vs the "undeserving" mentally confused. Any man who pretends to be a woman is potentially a predator - we cannot tell who is and who is not "rightfully" in a woman's space, and we cannot be bothered to find out. Keep them all out. It is men's responsibility to sort out their own "feelings". It is NOT women's responsibility to accommodate their deluded beliefs.
"The fact that society believes a man who says he's a woman, instead of a woman who says he's not, is proof that society knows exactly who is the man and who is the woman." - Jen Izakson
Fight some aspects of 2nd wave feminism and 3rd wave feminism.
Usted está completamente equivocado. Mujeres feministas son también las que está luchando contra esto. La ideología de género no nació del movimiento de mujeres. Organizaciones como women's liberation front, women's declaration International, for women Scotland, and so many other are fighting. Gender ideology is not a result of feminism. but there are many people who call themselves feminists and don't even know what it is (feminism) radical feminism has always been against this for more than 50 years. I suggest you to read "gender hurts" by sheila Jeffreys, "the transsexual empire" by janice Raymond. and Mary Daly's work
I am very familiar with Jeffreys' lies thank you. And I have also read the other works., also by rabid feminists who hate men. Feminists, with their denial of gender and their constant attempts to replace men with women, are the direct cause of the trans ideology crisis. If you want to end this crisis, you have to get rid of radical feminism. Simple choice, end of.
I recognize my own prayers in yours. I have prayed similar words hundreds of times over the last 6 years since I "lost" my boy to this sick cult. He is now a man, but doesn't want to be. I have prayed over and over for him to accept himself, and learn contentment in his own skin. I am selfish in my prayers often. I simply want my son back. I don't know why God would not grant this. This is the mystery we don't understand. But boy, can I relate to every word you wrote.
I lost my son during his college years to the trans cult. Sending you compassion as we grieve and cope. So utterly unfair to our sons and our families. So utterly evil. I hold onto hope that in time, truth and common sense will prevail over this destructive insanity. In the meantime, I am trying to salvage what well being I can for my daughter, my husband, and myself. And so I can be somewhat intact if my son ever wakes up.
I found it very fitting to read this today right after I returned home from my weekly hour of Adoration at my church. Sitting silently in front of the Holy Eucharist has been a lifesaver. However,I've been trying for over 5 years to just "let go and let God takeover". Then today I came across a Surrender novena and although novenas are meant to be said for 9 days, I was so inspired by each day's short reading that I did the whole novena and have decided to say this whole novena for 9 days. If anyone wants to pray it follow the link:https://healingheartofjesus.com/2019/01/03/the-surrender-novena/
It all sunk in today. I can't keep trusting in Jesus if I am still trying to call all the shots - as if I know better than Him!!. God is with us always whether we think He is or not. It is up to us to open our eyes to see Him even when He isn't answering our prayers in the manner we desire. Anyway, I hope this brings peace to anyone who prays it. We have nothing to lose but plenty to gain. Peace
Answer to a prayer: Some good news from Florida.
https://cnsnews.com/article/national/lauren-shank/florida-takes-another-step-towards-banning-gender-affirming-medical
CT DCF seperated my then 14 yr old daughter from me and my family without abuse charges because I would not consider my daughter a boy in 2019. We have not seen her since August,2019.
One of the things that CT DCF was highly upset with me was the fact we as a family go to a Bible believing Church. So upset that one of their edicts for me was “I must examine my (religious) beliefs and how they affect other people”. Needless to say, I did not agree with it and still attend the same Church regardless of what the state deems “offensive”.
As a Saved Christian, knowing that Jesus suffered the most humiliating abuses to Save us, gives me constant hope that if I continue to walk in Faith to what He prescribes in The Bible , His promise is He will never leave nor forsake me.
The fact is the world hated him, and the world will also hate you if you follow Him. But, His guarantee to all those who are faithful still applies today. He will never leave you.
But in return you must be willing to trust Him, regardless of what is going on around you. To accomplish this, you must be willing to lay all your burdens, past mistakes, guilt, remorse and sin at His feet. Purify yourself to Him. Only with a humble heart without any known sin will God answer you or anyone.
I have learnt this Christmas to accept II have no right to contact with my children. It is their choice to reject me. Families in previous generations lost children in wars. Our children are caught up in a war too, a spiritual war. I am thankful only one has changed gender. I still think of her as a woman, despite everybody else thinking she is male. I have the courage to believe, despite all around me being deluded.
So, so sorry Charles, and glad to hear your faith gives you strength. This cult is simply satanic and it has taken over the government in many areas. It is terrifying.
The religious persecution of Christians, which goes along with the cult, is a worrying development.
Asking you to examine YOUR beliefs is ironic in the extreme - THEIR beliefs in a satanic child abusing cult are the issue here.
Exactly ! Great point!
My Faith has given me great strength. Including giving me the strength in contacting upcoming political candidates to brief them exactly what is going on.
I will be going on Dennis Prager’s show, hopefully in mid November to tell my story and the credit goes to Dr. Miriam Grossman MD who was the first person on a national level who took a huge interest in my case. She is an amazing person.
I am not even religious but this enrages me. I firmly believe in separation of state from church but since when did separation of church from family become the law? How about we separate state from family a bit for a change? We should be free to instill our beliefs in our children!
The state now has the belief that there is absolutely nothing above them, born out by their actions against not only me but other parents who instill a Faith based mentality with their children.
Exactly what I discovered in the UK. Our children were unusual in attending church every Sunday. A social worker was suspicious about that. When my youngest ran away from home, the police had the right to keep my daughter’s location secret from me. The assumption was that I committed a hate crime by using the wrong pronoun. I was seen as the bad parent for not affirming a delusion. Meanwhile my husband, who has a weak character, did not hesitate to affirm the lie that our daughter became “his son”. I lost all respect for my husband and authorities who are overcome by this satanic insanity.
Thanks for this hearfelt piece.
Please repeat after me; I DID NOT FUCK UP
One of the many tactics of this insidious disgusting cult is to encourage kids to hate and blame their parents, and to sow self doubt in the hearts of decent parents.
Please DON'T fall for it.
This is a cult - they are to blame, NOT you
No one is perfect and all parents make some mistakes - but in a healthy society, the cost of making these mistakes would not be estrangement from our kids, and their permanent mutilation.
A normal society supports and nurtures families, and young people who are struggling. A normal society does not blame, brutalise, divide and abuse it's members.
Keep you chin up, soldier on, and keep praying as hard as you can.
I am so very sorry. It is not your fault.
Maybe we need God and human pushback - against the ideology that is taking our most vulnerable. Educators and our kids need to understand this is a cult. I just read about this "educator" working against the good guys in OH:
Ohio Education Board VP Insists Biological Sex Is Not a 'Scientific Fact'
https://humanevents.com/2022/11/03/ohio-education-board-vp-insists-biological-sex-is-not-a-scientific-fact?utm_campaign=64487
"Martha Manchester, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education and has served on the State Board since Jan 2017, made the comments at an executive committee meeting convened to debate a resolution that seeks to reject Biden’s proposed Title IX change adding gender identity as a protected characteristic alongside sex.
The resolution, titled “Resolution to support parents, schools, and districts in rejecting harmful, coercive, and burdensome gender identity policies and to protect federal funding subject to Title IX” was introduced in September by board member Brandon Shea. It argues that “sex is not arbitrarily ‘assigned at birth’ but rather identifies an unchangeable fact” and suggests that the Title IX change would “require that K-12 schools socially transition minor children to a different gender without requiring parental consent.”
Not all teachers agree with this ideology. I am a teacher and don't support this. Other teachers in my school don't either. So far, we don't have it our classrooms. However, there was a journal about equity in education pushing gender ideology in my mailbox. I threw it away.
Good for you. I am concerned about overall policies...
The suffering of life doesn’t seem to pair with the goodness of God. I like to quote Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian short story writer and a Christian. He says that there should be a someone with hammer at the head of every happy man, “reminding him with a knock that there are unhappy people, that however happy he may be, life will sooner or later show its claws”. That someone is often God, especially if we have eyes to see the brokenness in people’s lives. There is nothing easy about pain and there’s nothing easy about its instruction, both before it begins and in the mix of its weight in our lives. How should we teach about suffering? C.S. Lewis is a good person to turn to, to both feel the hammer at your head and also find some instruction on how to unravel the difficulty of pain. His book The Problem of Pain (1940) and A Grief Observed (1961) are helpful guides to working through suffering theologically and emotionally. Here are several points worth considering.
There are no easy answers
In A Grief Observed, Lewis’s book about the loss of his wife published posthumously, he doesn’t start off with a satisfying answer about where God is in times of struggle. The book is so raw that it was first published under a pseudonym (N.W. Clerk) in 1961 and then accredited formally to Lewis with a reprinting in 1963. “When you are happy,” he says, “so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside.” We don’t always know why suffering occurs, and, as shepherds of the sheep, it is our responsibility to show compassion and patience in all times, especially the difficult ones. There are no easy answers and sometimes questioning God’s whereabouts is a very human response. It shows how desperately we are in need of his mercy and grace.
Remember what God is doing
The adage of having skin in the game is true. God is shaping us to fit into the narrow doors of eternity. This life–its punches and knockouts–are made beautiful in his time. Lewis talks through the death of his mother in Surprised by Joy. He says, “All settled happiness, all that was tranquil and reliable, disappeared in my life. There was to be much fun, many pleasures, many stabs of Joy; but no more of the old security.” The losses we experience today are by design. God is creating in us a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within us (Ps 51:10). Pain is very much a tangle of justice and mercy. No matter how we understand suffering, we know the preparations for Hell. There are none. We just go on acting in rebellion. If we are to fall on mercy, we need to fall down. Sometimes that is painful and costly.
We need to trust God
Lewis calls pain, “God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (The Problem of Pain). We must have ears to hear and the want to trust. If we don’t, we won’t work through pain and see his plan through it. God knows our suffering and he promises we will experience it, especially as we get closer to Jesus. At the end of A Grief Observed, Lewis concludes, much like Job, that, “God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn’t. In this trial He makes us occupy the dock, the witness box, and the bench all at once. He always knew that my temple was a house of cards. His only way of making me realize the fact was to knock it down”.
It won’t go away
Pain is part of our lives as Christians. It won’t go away. In fact, Lewis calls it a gift that leads us to reconciliation. God is the dentist removing the decay and the surgeon fixing the heart. What is our response? That’s really the question: if pain won’t leave, will we see it as God’s tool to call us afresh to discipleship? If we are to die daily, we should realize that pain most certainly is involved. Even more than pain not going away, is the promise we have that God will neither leave us or forsake us.
The cross is reality
Paul tells us not to grieve as people without hope (I Thessalonians 4:13). Jesus has overcome everything–sin, death, the devil… everything. And he is coming back to claim us. Lewis puts it this way, “The crucifixion itself is the best, as well as the worst, of all historical events” (The Problem of Pain). It kills and heals us. I think the old hymns expressed this better than the music today. For example, William Cowper writes in 1772, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” And Robert Lowry, in 1876, pens, “Oh! precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Christ’s suffering became our reward and he calls us to the same battle, not as a propitiation for our sin but rather an act of worship.
We will know why
Often the eternal reasons for suffering are masked. We want to know. If we’re honest, we think knowing why will help our pastoral response. We don’t need to dodge from questions or attempt to connect all the dots in a persons life. Our call is to faith, hope, and love. We theologically know that the Holy Spirit is our comforter, but we sometimes have trouble believing this is practice. The dark days may or may not go away, but our hope is placed beyond time and our faith is placed outside ourselves and our love is because he first loved us.
Paul says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christ’s death is truth that our pain is not dismissed by a God who cannot feel. Psalm 23 begins at arms length as God leads, restores and guides. But as the shadow of death encroaches, the psalm shifts. It says, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
God is in the midst of our battles. He is guiding us. God may not fix the pain when the rope breaks and we fall into valleys as thick as thieves, but he will commune with us in our suffering and hope that it helps to fit and form us into dependent, holy people, knowing who we are and to whom we belong.
Thank you. You have articulated what I and many other followers of Jesus have not been able to begin to explain. As tightly as we cling to the truth as Christians, we have our moments of fear and doubt. We are human, so we struggle. But as C.S. Lewis realizes, and verbalizes so beautifully, we have Christ, so we have hope. We know that in the end, God wins. In a world that is illogical, and so broken, the purity of God's plan and the purity of Jesus Christ stands. When I think of those who choose to have no faith in God, I wonder, how do they bear it?
This is so beautiful, your words offer deep solace. Thank you.
Romans 8:35-39 “Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? Can trouble or problems or persecution separate us from his love? If we have no food or clothes or face danger or even death, will that separate us from his love? As the Scriptures say, “For you we are in danger of death all the time. People think we are worth no more than sheep to be killed.” But in all these troubles we have complete victory through God, who has shown his love for us. Yes, I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not death, life, angels, or ruling spirits. I am sure that nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us or nothing below us—nothing in the whole created world—will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
"I suggest to you that is because God loves us that gives us the gift of suffering. Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much are what make us perfect." -CS Lewis