A number of senior church leaders have joined in the debate over the inclusion, or exclusion, of transgender people in the proposed ban on conversion therapy. In a letter to the Prime Minister, written by Steve Chalke and signed by senior church leaders, they urged for the inclusion of transgender people in the legislation to ban conversion therapy.
This saddens me because I know a number of those who have signed this letter, and I know them to be sincere in their concerns for some of the most vulnerable people in society. I too have known such people in my pastoral ministry, and I understand the desire to protect them and to heal their wounds, which have been unjustly inflicted by an uncaring society.
It particularly grieves me to have to disagree with some of those whom I count as friends. Steve Chalke was one of my students whom I taught when he was an undergraduate at Spurgeon’s College in South London. I was personal adviser to Rowan Williams throughout his years at Lambeth Palace and our friendship continues today.
Failure to recognise the true battle
Nevertheless, I believe that their pastoral concerns for the welfare of individuals is overriding the momentous issues for both church and state that are involved. Yes, there needs to be legislation protecting vulnerable people from exploitation and unfair pressure on their lives. But there is much more behind this issue than stopping uncaring people from trying to change either the sexual orientation of those who have chosen a particular lifestyle or the wishes of those who want to change their gender.
The LGBT movement – led by Stonewall with its massive publicity machine and influence like an octopus stretching out into every government department in Whitehall – has shown little concern for transgender people. They represent a mere minor skirmish on the outskirts of the real war which aims to destroy the Judaeo-Christian heritage of the nation. It is the biblical values that have been the foundation stones of the nation over many centuries which are hated by LGBT proponents.
It is still their objective to destroy the traditional family.
I remember the publication of their original manifesto in 1972 which stated that their objective was to ‘Destroy the Family’ which they said was the source of their oppression. It is still their objective to destroy the traditional family.
The five foundational institutions of society
Only those who have some knowledge of sociology, and the structure and function of society, can fully recognise the serious consequences of this objective. The family is the linchpin in the structure of society. If it is weakened or destroyed every part of the life of the nation is affected.
The family is the linchpin in the structure of society. If it is weakened or destroyed every part of the life of the nation is affected.
There are five major social institutions in all modern societies: they are the Family, the Economy, Education, Law/government, and Religion. Of course, there are many more institutions such as the NHS, the media, sport, and the arts, but it is the big five that are the basic institutions holding society together, and if any one of these experiences a radical change, all the others are affected. A simple illustration is the Industrial Revolution in which the means of production changed from home-based to factories. This immediately affected the family, changed it from rural to urban, and all the other institutions followed.
The importance of family for society
The family is fundamental for bringing up children, as the Israelis discovered with their disastrous experiment in kibbutz. They had to abandon kibbutz and move to the moshav model, where parents cared for their own children.
The family is fundamental for passing on the culture and social norms from one generation to the next. If a child is not adequately bonded to the parents in the first three years of life, they are likely to be unstable adults. If they experience family breakdown at any point in their childhood it will affect their emotional stability, which is the foremost reason why millions of children today have mental health problems and why there is an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, drugs, and juvenile crime.
An agenda of anarchy
The LGBT leaders know all this, and this is the reason why they are targeting the family: their basic objectives are to create anarchy and social instability, which will enable them to achieve their objectives of seizing power in the nation. Even more significantly, they have moved beyond the family agenda onto an attack upon gender, which is basic for childhood stability. If the seeds of uncertainty in gender identity are sown in children, it has immediate psychological and social effects which create behavioural problems in the classroom and put additional pressures upon teachers.
Sadly, church leaders have very little understanding of social structure and function. I have been calling for many years for basic sociology to be taught in theological colleges as an essential part of the training of students preparing to enter the pastoral ministry. But it is this basic ignorance of what is happening in society that is causing church leaders to fail to understand the nature of the battle that is taking place.
The battle to destroy the family and to undermine gender identity is basically targeted to undermine confidence in the Bible and belief in the God of Creation. The whole LGBT movement is driven by a hatred of God.
The battle to destroy the family and to undermine gender identity is basically targeted to undermine confidence in the Bible and belief in the God of Creation. The whole LGBT movement is driven by a hatred of God. Until church leaders recognise this, they will never understand the spiritual basis of the social forces that are at work in society. It is as serious as that.
A precursor of Jesus’ return
We are moving into the days of which Jesus warned – of events and developments leading up to his own second coming. Those things would be primarily characterised by deception, lies and fake news, together with violence, war, and natural disasters. Jesus said “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, and earthquakes in various places” (Matthew 24:7).
It seems incredible that church leaders could be so blind to what is happening in front of their eyes, and they are failing to give leadership to their followers. There is the same spiritual blindness today as Jesus faced in his ministry when he quoted from the prophecy of Isaiah “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving” (Matthew 13:14).
When will church leaders wake up and recognise that they are fighting the wrong battle? We will all have to give account of our lives before the throne of God at some time. It is still true that even repentant sinners go into the kingdom ahead of the great and erudite leaders (Matt 21:31) – leaders who are supposed to be teaching the people to discern truth among the lies and deceit, and who should be faithfully declaring the word of the Lord to politicians and secular leaders of the nations.
May God have mercy on his Church!
