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Our Girls – Entry 1

Okay, in my last post I made some important points about Freedom of Conscience. I defended an ordained minister in the Church of England who was perhaps not the most “sensitive” sermonizer. But I’m sure you agree, based on the facts as we know them, he should not have been reported to the Goverment Terrorist Watchdog, Prevent, or the British equivalent of Child Protective Services. And perhaps you agree he shouldn’t have been fired over this issue.

But he was.

If you followed the details link I gave you in that post and scrolled to the end you would have read the following from Rev Randall:

 “I was terrified. I did not sleep. What was I supposed to tell my family? Being reported as a potential terrorist, extremist and a danger to children are arguably the worst crimes you could be accused of.

“When I found out that they had reported me without telling me, my mind was blown trying to comprehend it. I had gone to such lengths in the sermon to stress that we must respect one another no matter what, even people we disagree with. I am not ashamed to say that I cried with relief when I was told that the report to Prevent was not going to be taken further.

“I was doing the job I was employed to do. I wasn’t saying anything that I should not have been able to say in any liberal secular institution. Everyone should be free to accept or reject an ideology. Isn’t that what liberal democracy means?

“I 100% see what has happened to me in Orwellian terms. Truth matters, but increasingly powerful groups in our society do not care about the truth.

“My career and life are in tatters. I believe that if this is the Cross that I have to carry to help prevent others from experiencing the same as me, I have no choice but to pursue justice.

***

Let me introduce you to another sympathetic voice. Actually, more than one.

“Our girls are in trouble!” — Mothers

I was alerted to a new crisis about 9 months ago when I read an eye opening book by Abigail Shrier.

Shrier is a graduate of Columbia College who went on to earn a bachelor of philosophy degree from the University of Oxford and a JD from Yale Law School.  Her book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters was named a “best book” by The Economist and The Times of London. [2020, 2021]

The reviewer in the Times of London says:

“Irreversible Damage….has caused a storm. Abigail Shrier, a Wall Street Journal writer, does something simple yet devastating: she rigorously lays out the facts.”

Shrier first became aware of this problem when she investigated a disturbing trend and wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about the spike of young girls identifying as boys. Afterwards she was contacted by many mothers, most of whom considered themselves liberal or politically “progressive.” One mother told Shrier when her teenage daughter suddenly identified as a boy she wanted to be supportive but she remained unconvinced her daughter was a “Trans-kid.” Unfortunately the daughter, affirmed by all her online “friends,” offline friends, and Internet Influencers, not to mention school counselors and therapists, began the process of transitioning from young woman to young “man,” a process that took off in earnest once she enrolled in college. But after studying the issue, the mother just couldn’t reconcile her daughter’s belief with the daughter she raised. “I know my daughter,” she said. Her daughter “dated boys” and was always a “girly girl” who didn’t show any early signs of gender dysphoria. [Up until the last few years the research literature said that virtually all gender dysphoria presented at an early age (2-4) and was almost exclusively among boys, not girls.]

Something else was going on. So this very “progressive” mother got in touch with a journalist who began snooping around for “the bigger story.”

As Shrier’s investigation grew she tried to “farm the story out” to some top notch investigative journalists, (Shrier was an opinion journalist at the time), but nobody would touch it, she said. So she did the “gumshoe work” herself. And Irreversible Damage is the result.

For her efforts she has been called a “trans-phobe” by some. It’s a untrue slur. I’ve read her book twice and have seen her give multiple lengthy interviews. She’s not a trans-phobe. In fact, she goes to great lengths to voice support for the many transgender adults she interviewed in her research for this book. She wanted to know from adult members of the Trans community what the transitioning experience was like, and whether it had been considered successful by them. In online interviews she’s reiterated that most of these transgender adults do not identify with the ideological goals of many Transgender Activists, the vast majority of whom are not Trans.

She’s a bright, compassionate observer, chronicalling a phenomenon that is literally sweeping through the Western world. Her book was briefly “de-listed” by Target after that corporation received, according to Shrier, two critical tweets about the book. [Shows you how squeamish corporations can be about this issue]. A week after pulling the book, and receiving a lot of pushback from concerned parents who thought this story should not be censored, Target made it available for sale again.

You can still get the book on Amazon. But there is one notable book that has been “de-listed” by Amazon. I’ll be posting about that book at a later time. It’s an important work as well.

***

As a journalist, Shrier had other reasons for digging into this issue. I’ll let her describe:

"You're not supposed to pick favorites among the amendments, because it's silly, but I have one, and it's the First.  My commitment to free speech led me into the world of transgender politics, through a back door.

In October 2017, my own state, California, enacted a law that threatened jail time for healthcare workers who refuse to use patients' requested gender pronouns.  New York had adopted a similar law, which applied to employers, landlords, and business owners.  Both laws are facially and thoroughly unconstitutional.  The First Amendment has long protected the right to say unpopular things without government interference.  It also guarantees our right to refuse to say things the government wants said."

I know this is a tough issue for some of my readers. But it needs to be fairly discussed, which I hope to do. We need reliable information about this phenomenon that will hopefully spur us into action.

Our girls deserve nothing less.

***

My next few posts will continue this book review of Irreversible Damage. But don’t just read about it from me. You should buy this book!

A “chair” of a work-group that puts together the clinical “bible” for diagnosing mental disorders (DSM-5) says so too:

“In Irreversible Damage, Abigail Shrier provides a thought-provoking examination of a new clinical phenomenon mainly affecting adolescent females—what some have termed rapid-onset gender dysphoria—that has, at lightning speed, swept across North America and parts of Western Europe and Scandinavia. In so doing, Shrier does not shy away from the politics that pervade the field of gender dysphoria. It is a book that will be of great interest to parents, the general public, and mental health clinicians.”

— Kenneth J. Zucker, Ph.D., adolescent and child psychologist and chair of the DSM-5 Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders

Zucker has gotten more than a little grief for his endorsement. But as of now, he is still employed at the University of Toronto. If you search YouTube for “Zucker McGill University” you will find his talk entitled “Children and Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria.” The follow-up Q&A is posted as well. Some in the McGill community (students and staff) wanted his talk “cancelled” and a few showed up to voice their concerns. I watched two hours full of very dry statistics and a somewhat livelier Q&A. Most of us would be left wondering about the state of higher education if a talk like this by an eminent scholar in the field could be cancelled (as some wanted) because it conflicted with the “lived experience” of others.

Increasingly that is the world we live in now. Many in both the medical and academic communities feel besieged and intimidated into capitulation or silence. (Our public school teachers too!) One Canadian scholar in particular who wanted to write truthfully about this topic but thought maybe she should wait until she got tenure to do so, was told bluntly by an older colleague, “tenure won’t protect you on this one.” She has since left the Academy and has written a very important book on the subject which I’ll blog about in the future.

***

I’ll finish this post with some definitions and vital statistics gleaned from Shrier’s work and others (l’ve done a little “gumshoe work” myself in the last 9 months.)

In 2007 there was only one pediatric gender clinic in America, located in Boston. Today there are approximately 300. It seems like a great need is being met. But why all of a sudden the explosive need for these medical services? The cynical side of me suspects money may be near the root of it all. And maybe so. But, there are other important reasons too.

In the last 10 years there has been a deluge of self-diagnosing teenage girls who are convinced they are really boys. And are doing drastic irreversible damage to their bodies. In the Western world today millions are identifying as Trans. And tens of thousands are going the distance by “aligning” their bodies to match their new identity. In Oregon today a 15 year old girl can walk into a Planned Parenthood clinic and without a note from a therapist or mom can walk out with doses of testosterone 40 times the natural female level. After just three months on “T” her body will be unalterably changed. It’s powerful and exhilarating stuff. This will likely start her down the path to a double mastectomy (“top surgery”) a few years later. Virtually no professional she encounters will counsel reconsideration. Nothing will be placed in her way.

What is going on?

Gender Dysphoria – a definition and some history:

“Gender dysphoria—formerly known as “gender identity disorder”—is characterized by a severe and persistent discomfort in one’s biological sex.1Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 2000), 579.

“It typically begins in early childhood—ages two to four—though it may grow more severe in adolescence. But in most cases—nearly 70 percent—childhood gender dysphoria resolves.2Kenneth J. Zucker, “The Myth of Persistence: Response to ‘A Critical Commentary on Follow-Up Studies and ‘Desistance’ Theories about Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Children’ by Temple Newhook et al. (2018),” International Journal of Transgenderism (May 2018); See also J. Ristori and T. D. Steensma, “Gender Dysphoria in Childhood,” International Review of Social Psychiatry 28, no. 1 (2016): 13–20. 

“Historically, it afflicted a tiny sliver of the population (roughly .01 percent) and almost exclusively boys. Before 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on girls ages eleven to twenty-one ever having developed gender dysphoria at all. In the last decade that has changed, and dramatically. 

“The Western world has seen a sudden surge of adolescents claiming to have gender dysphoria and self-identifying as “transgender.” For the first time in medical history, natal girls are not only present among those so identifying—they constitute the majority.”

Source: page xxi Introduction - Irreversible Damage

Here are some other disturbing statistics. In 2018, the UK reported a 4,400 percent rise over the previous decade in teenage girls seeking gender treatments (Testosterone & Puberty Blockers). Between 2016 and 2017 the number of gender surgeries for natal females in the U.S. quadrupled. Unlike in the past, now it was biological women suddenly accounting for 70 percent of all gender surgeries.

Again, what is going on?

Let me finish this post with an explanation “tease” from ID’s Introduction. Unlike gender dysphoria in the past…

“...the phenomenon sweeping teenage girls is different. It originates not in traditional gender dysphoria but in videos found on the internet. It represents mimicry inspired by internet gurus, a pledge taken with girlfriends—hands and breath held, eyes squeezed shut. For these girls, trans identification offers freedom from anxiety’s relentless pursuit; it satisfies the deepest need for acceptance, the thrill of transgression, the seductive lilt of belonging.”

As you see, Shrier’s a fine writer too. You probably want to get this book.

To be continued….

***

If you haven’t already added your email to my list, do so and I’ll let you know when the blog is updated. 

Email: blog@blueridgemountain.life

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A “Terror” Sermon?

Rev. Dr. Bernard Randall, 48, an ordained minister in the Church of England, former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, is out of a job and is suing his former employer, Trent College, for discrimination, harassment, victimization and unfair dismissal.  After a sermon he preached in the school chapel, Trent College reported Rev. Randall to the UK government’s terrorist watchdog, Prevent, as a potentially violent religious extremist and then dismissed him.  The sermon was entitled ‘Competing Ideologies’ and it encouraged respect and debate on ‘identity ideologies.’  He had been approached by students at Trent to discuss the LGBT issue.  One student indelicately asked: “How come we are told we have to accept all of this LGBT stuff in a Christian school?”  So he wrote and delivered a sermon to help his young pupils sort things out.

You may read the sermon in full here and judge for yourself whether the School’s actions were appropriate.  

After delivering that sermon he was summoned to a meeting with the Deputy Head (vice-principal) and the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).  The meeting did not go well.  He was told his talk had hurt some people’s feelings and undermined the School’s LGBT agenda.  After the meeting, and without his knowledge, he was reported to Prevent, the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog! In addition to that, the DSL reported him to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) as a danger to children!  

Additional details here. And video of the chaplain describing his ordeal is here.

If you read the sermon that brought about his dismissal, and I hope you did, ask yourself the following:  Is this how we want to order our lives together?  Our Christian lives (for those who are Christian)?

Randall’s main point in the sermon, was that people who hold to profoundly different ideologies must treat each other with respect:

“Now when ideologies compete, we should not descend into abuse, we should respect the beliefs of others, even where we disagree.  Above all, we need to treat each other with respect, not personal attacks — that’s what loving your neighbor as yourself means.  By all means discuss, have a reasoned debate about beliefs, but while it’s OK to try and persuade each other, no one should be told they must accept an ideology.  Love the person, even where you profoundly dislike the ideas.  Don’t denigrate a person simply for having opinions and beliefs which you don’t share.”

This is a point I’ll make repeatedly going forward.  Some readers will not share my basic assumptions about life, assumptions which flow from my understanding of God and the world created by that God, conscience forming beliefs that cannot be easily undone.  We will differ.  Which brings me to my next point: No one should be compelled to go against their most deeply held beliefs.  That’s why Religious Freedom is a high priority for me.  Moving forward I’ll be devoting some of the content of this blog to defending that basic Constitutional principle. 

Religious Freedom was placed in the FIRST Amendment of our Constitution for good reason.  Unfortunately, Rev Randall lives in the U.K. and must rely on the British courts and British Common Law for legal relief, if any.  But first he must encounter the British Administrative State.  An employment tribunal hearing is expected to be heard on June 14, 2021.  If you sympathize with his plight, you might want to include him in your prayers.

***

Sometimes our beliefs are wrong.  Therefore humility calls out to humility as deep calls out to deep.  We dialogue, we discuss, we mutually respect, in hopes of bridging the gap between us.  But not necessarily.  That is one characteristic about deeply held convictions, the chasm width may ultimately prove uncrossable.  The distance is too great, like trying to build a bridge to the moon.  (Needless to say, coercion on either side is wildly inappropriate and dehumanizing.)  A New Testament scholar I know once spoke about how at Harvard Divinity School the staff and students were so anxious not to offend that everyone gravitated to a “lowest common denominator.”  They would say, “oh well we can’t agree on that one so let’s lay that denominational distinctive aside.”  But after going down the distinctives list, so as to throw any offending thing out, they ended up with defacto Unitarianism, “well maybe we can agree that there is a God,” although none of them were actually Unitarian.  Sometimes setting aside crucial beliefs for the sake of agreement leaves you with very little to discuss.

You could bring up race as an example of how deeply held beliefs were used to justify the enslavement of blacks in America, but the analogy doesn’t work because the reality of immutable characteristics, like race, sex and ethnicity, are precisely what most Transgender Activists deny. This is not your parents or grandparents civil rights movement.

***

In 2018 Rev Randall attended a staff seminar at Trent College, entitled “Educate and Celebrate.”  He raised an objection when the leader, Elly Barnes, instructed the staff to chant ‘smash heteronormativity.’  For his anti-celebratory concerns he became a marked man at the college.

The obvious most humane response anyone could offer to Ms Barnes, or anyone like her, is to say, without heteronormativity, without the “gender binary,” humans and many other creatures would not exist.  In the normal course of life, if heterosexual males and females don’t “get together” human life on this planet would end.  Transgender activist Nicholas Teich says, “There is no getting around the fact that the gender binary of men and women—as we always knew it—is not the reality.”  Again, it must be emphasized, in the real world, it was gender binary fruitfulness that gave Mr. Teich his life. 

This could lead us into discussing the Trans-humanism movement or the push for widespread surrogate mothering via in-vitro fertilization, or the rapidly arriving Brave New World of human cloning, to name but two technological developments, but following that rabbit trail will have to wait…

***

Our bodies are a gift from our Creator, says Randall.  So do I.  So did Jesus, 

“Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’” [Matt. 19:4].

If we find someone’s thoughts morally or mentally (not to mention ontologically) indefensible we must not be compelled to say or act otherwise.  It would be dehumanizing to ask that of anyone, or compel anyone to affirm what they believe is deep psychological disturbance in the case of gender dysphoria.

But today people are being asked, compelled even, to do just that.  Or they will lose their job. And have their reputation besmirched.  A former chaplain at Cambridge University is.  No backwoods Bible-thumper he. Rev. Randall was being investigated as a potential terrorist, and released from his job at an ostensibly Christian Academy for denying the view that people can be born in the wrong bodies. 

If you read the details I linked above, you will see that the Reverend’s defense rests squarely on the official teachings of the Church of England, not exactly a non-progressive bunch. The Right Reverend rightly asks, “is the COE an extremist organization?” 

“Yet I ended up being told that I had to support everybody else’s beliefs, no matter what, while my Christian beliefs, the Church of England’s beliefs, were blatantly censored. 
“During the disciplinary hearing, I was never asked what I thought, they just assumed that I had extreme religious views. I don’t think the Church of England is an extremist organisation.”

And I ask you, is this the world we want to live in?  We need to come up with some answers quick.  Things are moving swiftly.

***

Coming up will be a series of posts about how this issue is affecting “Our Girls.” And some posts about the growing riff between the LGB and the TQ+ parts of the movement. My Gay and Lesbian readers/friends will perhaps be very interested in this development if they are not already aware of the “trouble in the camp.”

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Starting Again

I was born in the sixties.  But I am not a child of the 60’s.  My family was lower-middle class, and by the standards of the time, traditional in most every way.  Dad was a minister.  If he or mom had lived into their 90’s they would not have imagined the social changes we have witnessed in the last 20 years.  It would be too easy to say the sexual revolution of the 60’s caused all this change, as some conservatives maintain.  But the roots of this change go back much further than the swinging 60’s.  

So I’m embarking with some misgivings on a survey of cultural history.  There are deep intellectual and cultural traditions that have shaped our everyday lives.  We’ve come to a point in the Western world where the statement “I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body” is comprehensible to many public leaders, at least in public.  That phrase would be completely incomprehensible to my parent’s generation, in public or private, not to mention every preceding generation.  It is still incomprehensible to many, if not most people today. But if you express your bewilderment in public, say at many workplaces in the Western world, increasingly the odds are you will be regarded as stupid, immoral or worse.  You may be reprimanded for your irrational “phobia.”  You might even have your career derailed.  If you broadcast your view on a public forum, say Twitter, expect the Twitterati to pounce with the ferocity of a caged unfed Tiger.  In certain parts of the world you may even be charged with a hate-crime for your expressed incredulity at the latest massive cultural shift.  (See the following posts, here & here.)

As a 60’s poet might say, “The times they are a changin.”

The tectonic cultural shift in the last 20 years is quite breathtaking.  Regardless of what you think about gay marriage, we have gone from year 2000 where the majority of Americans were opposed to gay marriage to today where normalization of Transgenderism is fast approaching.

A long and winding road brought us to this point.  I want to offer a thoughtful and hopefully generous exposition, from a Classic Christian point of view, of how we got here.  As I go, I’ll be documenting some disturbing current events. (Read my next post). I hope that even those who disagree with Classic Christianity will find here a fair and readable assessment of our state of affairs. (post continues page 2)

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