Cheering Them On

I came across a posting today that resonated with me because it's something that many of us have seen happening in recent years. The post is rather lengthy, but the author makes several poignant observations. It's entitled "On Men, Shame, and Brotherhood." I'd encourage you to read it here when you have several minutes. Then go cheer your men on.

He's talking about how men are, basically, beat up these days for simply being men. One of the reasons that I've observed is that feminists and those they influence have berated them, shamed them, faulted them, held them responsible for societal ills, and have tried to turn them into their feminist vision of manhood. Feminists are diluting a man's God-given gender characteristics. No wonder more and more men don't know if they're male or female. No wonder many men are angry.

Where is the respect for just being a man?

These women demand it for themselves, cry foul when they've been offended or slighted, revel in sarcasm and brashness, fight for power to rule the universe, to receive accolades and preference, to be deferred to, dismiss a man's value, use their sensuality to bring him to his knees, and then deride and shame him for his response.

Sadly, though, it isn't just the extreme feminists who pour on the shame. The article expounds  upon much more than what I have referred to, but it has long been the feminists who want to reinvent manhood.

Societal ills oozing from the quagmire of self-deception.

Some men are seeing through the feminist duplicity. I cheer them on.

Image ~ The Courtship, Luigi Pastega 1858-1927

public domain via Wikigallery

Truth Matters ~ Gender Dysphoria

Only truth can set them free.

Sharing an article with you today that brings some scientific light to a damaging cultural meme.


Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and former psychiatrist–in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, who has studied transgendered people for 40 years, said it is a scientific fact that “transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men.“ All... become feminized men or masculinized women, counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they ‘identify.’ In that lies their problematic future. 

"In fact, gender dysphoria—the official psychiatric term for feeling oneself to be of the opposite sex—belongs in the family of similarly disordered assumptions about the body, such as anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder. Its treatment should not be directed at the body as with surgery and hormones any more than one treats obesity-fearing anorexic patients with liposuction. The treatment should strive to correct the false, problematic nature of the assumption and to resolve the psychosocial conflicts provoking it."

~ Dr. Paul R. McHugh, Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme

To Read Dr. McHugh's full report, Transgenderism: A Pathogenic Meme

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/06/15145/

The link to read the cnsnews article

Photo ~ Doves, Mikelmania via pixabay CC0 Creative Commons

Gender Matters, Target

Target, gender does matter. Your move to gender neutrality is not helpful.

It matters, first and foremost, because God created male and female. It's a beautiful distinction. It's a good plan. God's plans are always best when we embrace them and allow them to govern our lives.

It also matters because of the confusion, anxiety, substance abuse, depression and suicide attempts that go along with an absence of personal gender identity that's being cultivated in our culture. "Who am I? What am I?" I read an article today that advocates sexuality as a continuum from one gender to the other. Total, total confusion.

Helping people understand themselves does not lie in telling them that no one knows who or what they are, or that who or what they are today may not be who or what they are tomorrow, that they just have to figure out what feels good to them. No foundation. No building blocks. No sense of personal value being established. All of this only furthers the confusion. Advances the anxiety and stress. Deepens the depression. And devalues life itself.

But we don't have to allow the culture to push us or our children there. No matter what Target, or the media, or schools, or movies, or anyone else tries to program into our hearts and minds, we remind ourselves and teach our children that we are created in the image of God--male and female. Distinctive from one another. And God wants it that way. He said it's very good. Genders complement each other, reflecting characteristics of God. Gender neutrality does not. 

The basic issue is this: the marriage of man and woman reflects the relationship of Christ and His Bride, the Church. It's the picture of redeeming love. Without male or female, there is no man, there is no woman. Destroy that, and you destroy the image. This is Satan's unending, unrelenting, ages old attack. Recognize it for what it is. 

Remember, Target marketed "Holiday Trees" instead of "Christmas Trees" a few years back, and there was no "Merry Christmas" greetings allowed by their employees. This is a broader agenda for Target than gender neutrality. I tried to send a message to Target today on their website, but the 'submit' button had been deactivated. 

Are you really neutral, Target?

Genesis and Gender

A friend had mentioned on our walk this morning about Mary Kassian's talk on "Genesis and Gender" on Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. So I listened online during lunch today.  Today's broadcast is the third in the series, but I went back to begin with the first one. I'd like to share a bit of that with you, and if you'd like to hear more, just click on the image. I'm sure you'd be encouraged by it. Mary is talking about how gender tells the story of the gospel.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, 

have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, 

in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 

Romans 1:20

From the time of creation until now, gender and sex, manhood and womanhood constantly display truths about God. God wrote His story on our flesh. In who He created me to be as a woman and in who He created you to be as a woman tells a story about God. Paul says that people are without excuse because God's story is displayed everywhere, and it is even displayed on gender and His creation.

Ephesians chapter 5 connects all the dots and indicates that manhood and womanhood, marriage and sex, all point to the story of the Bridegroom, the Son of God, who loved and gave His life to redeem His Bride, the Church. Gender exists to tell the love story of the gospel, and that is why God created male and female.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 

Ephesians 5:32

God had the story of Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, the Church, His Bride, in mind before the foundation of the earth, and it’s that story that He had in mind—the love story of God that He was thinking about when He set His hand to create male and female, when He said, “Let us make man in our image” and created man, male and female.

So with this larger cosmic context in mind, we’re going to go back to Genesis, and we’re going to observe twelve points of God's pattern for manhood and womanhood. Six points about manhood; six points about womanhood. The truth that God wanted to display between male and female was really important. So it stands to reason that He was very intentional when He created us.

~ Mary Kassian on reviveourhearts.com