Dr Lisa Nolland reports on an up-coming conference tackling sexuality and gender from a biblical perspective.
Many Christians and other social conservatives are becoming concerned by the LGBT rights takeover in the public (including religious) realms in the West. For increasing numbers of children, this social engineering is becoming embedded in the classroom.
Even Christian teachers are needing to 'explain' how two men or two women can now marry, leading children as young as seven or eight to start to believe that they are 'gay' because they too 'love' their same-sex best friend. Of course they do, but that doesn't mean they are gay!
The Church seems to be wanting to sit this one out, hoping against hope that things will return to normal. Sadly, of course, not only is that not going to happen, but indeed, the activists have only just begun! 'Stage Two' is that of totalitarian enforcement: just look at Canada to see how (in)'tolerant' it is now in places.1
Silent Church
The average person does not begin to know how to navigate these minefields. Christian leaders of mainstream evangelical organisations in this country say very little, concentrating on politically correct or 'feel good' projects, or (like Archbishop Welby) wax lyrical about the needs of the LGBT communities. The very rare conservative 'extremist' willing to stand up for the truth is fined, fired or (at best) humiliated for making politically incorrect comments.
Mostly, however, the average Christian just wants to get on with life and the normal routines of family, work, etc. Even this, though, is increasingly difficult. Stonewall is in several hundred schools and it is only one of various LGBT programmes being pushed at the moment. With LGBT matters being pushed to the fore comes a turning up of the volume of all things sexual for children and teenagers.
Robbing Children
How do children know if they are gay or not? How can they find out if they are? As the excellent video Robbing children of their innocence notes, kids are tacitly encouraged to explore their sexuality in such programmes. That may or may not be the intention, but it is one of the outcomes. See for instance the subtexts of the 'sexual advice' on the highly-acclaimed, NHS-endorsed 'Respect Yourself' site for teenagers in Warwickshire.
Even more troubling is that such high risk and potentially life-altering sex acts as 'felching', 'fisting' and 'rimming' are whitewashed and tacitly promoted to under-age children.2 This is complete madness - and yet few, if any, blow the whistle.
Being Prepared to Respond
Closer to home, though, how can one respond when your daughter tells you she is gay or your son insists he is a girl? What to do about the increasingly vociferous demands of Stonewall to 'make your school "safe"'? How about when your child comes home from a school RE session and asserts that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality so loving gay relationships must be OK?
Messy Church, Alpha and Christianity Explored simply cannot do the necessaries here. What can help, though, is The 'New Normal', a Christian Concern conference in November which will engage at the cutting edge of these issues. We will have leading people in their fields coming to update and inform, educate and inspire us as to how parents, pastors and youth workers, in particular can respond.
Beyond Our Borders
We also are doing our bit for those in the developing world who are at the mercy of the activists. The Diocese of Machakos, Anglican Church of Kenya, has created a unique and holistic programme on sex and gender issues which we are thrilled to support in The 'New Normal'. A collection of used clothing, shoes, toiletries, bags and suitcases as well as money will be taken at the London conference.
Proceeds will help at-risk-kids, families, the church and wider community in Machakos, near Nairobi, Kenya. Currently, we are not aware of any other kind of response by any church anywhere. So we want to give Bishop Joseph every possible support. Funds from 'progressives' will be denied to him, so it is vital we do our bit!
The 'New Normal' conference will be held on 12 November 2016 at the Emmanuel Centre, London (10am-5pm). For the full programme and to book tickets, click here.
Lisa Nolland (MA, MCS, PhD) is Convenor of Anglican Mainstream's Marriage, Sex and Culture Group. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to email Lisa.
References
1 E.g. Van Maren, J. Transgender madness is sweeping our schools. Parents, protect your children. LifeSite News, 26 August 2016.
2 See the Respect Yourself website.
