Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Implication of the LGBT Movement on Education: The Business of Christian Education CIV

   
   Train up a child in the way he should go;
      even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
           
            About 3,000 years ago, the Bible has taught God’s people to be mindful of the teaching of children.  The key understanding is on the word “way.”  When the word “way” is mentioned in the Scripture, it makes a reference to the spiritual and ethical way.  This is not “way” in the physical sense.  And there are two ways as mentioned in the Proverbs.  The first is the way of wisdom, Proverbs 9:1-6 says:

1 Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”

The second is the way of folly, Proverbs 9:13-18 says:

13 The woman Folly is loud;
she is seductive and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house;
she takes a seat on the highest places of the town,
15 calling to those who pass by,
who are going straight on their way,
16 Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
And to him who lacks sense she says,
17 “Stolen water is sweet,
and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
18 But he does not know that the dead are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

The two ways are always presented before all people at all times.  The question is: “Which one to follow?”  The Torah of Yahweh is given for the purpose of instructing God’s people of the way of wisdom.  The Torah is also known as the way of life or the way of righteousness.  With the Torah, God’s people may choose the way of wisdom and reject the way of folly.  Proverbs 9 points out the contrast between the two ways.  The reality of the two ways is undeniable.  Every person growing up will at some point has to choose
from these two.  Every person has to go through developmental stages of their spiritual and ethical life.  And in their development, one truth cannot be ignored, which is the younger a person is the easier the formation may take place.  God knows this truth and challenge and because of that he instructs his people to train a child in the right way.  Because the way of wisdom leads to life.  And God wants his people to live.  But the way of folly leads to death.

            As parents we always want the best for our kids.  And that is only natural.  God has provided the instruction so that parents may teach their kids on the way of wisdom.  Responsible parents will not desire the death of their kids.  Responsible parents will only desire life for their kids.  And life can only be attained through attachment with the source of life.  It would be ridiculous to desire life yet teaching detachment from the source of life.  Life here is not merely the physical life.  But life here is the eternal life.  Solomon says that God “has put eternity into man’s heart” in Ecclesiastes 3:11.  The desire deep down in man’s heart is to attain eternal life.  In every culture and religion, the longing for eternal life takes precedent.  It is something that the soul of every man is drawn toward.  Since the beginning of time even until the end, man cannot deny the desire in their own heart for life eternal.  Nobody desires eternal death.  Even those who desire physical death too deep down hope for the next life.  Denying eternal life is basically denying one’s nature as man.  So again, as parents we all desire life for our kids.  We would not want to deny our kids eternal life.  So we teach them the way of life.

            And the true way of life can only be found in God.  God is the source of all life.  He speaks and life comes into being.  Jesus himself proclaims in John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  Jesus also proclaims in John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  If any parents want eternal life for their kids, then it is wise to instruct them according to God’s words.  Children need to be taught the way of life ever since they are young, so when they are old they would not stray from it.  If they stay on the way, then for sure they would not walk toward death.  And this way is through Jesus Christ himself.  Knowing God and the Christ is the eternal life.  Knowing here is not only memorizing, but knowing a person.  Meaning that all the stipulations that come out of that knowledge will certainly follow.  Obedience is commanded by this God of life.  Our waywardness ever since the fall of man brings us ever farther from the source of life.  But God desires us to be closer to him.  His instructions will bring us closer to him.  And this can only be done through obeying his instructions.  And his instructions are laid out in the Scripture.  Following and obeying the word of God is the key meaning of staying on the way of life.

            With that understanding then we may proceed further into a very troubling trend today in the world and in the education enterprise.  The LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender) movement has infiltrated every single corner of society.  The language we commonly use is now being deconstructed and reconstructed in order to accommodate the LGBT movement.  The push is for non-discrimination law.  The LGBT community wants to be acknowledged and accepted as “differences” or “varieties” of human life rather than as unethical or sinful.  They strive for their lifestyle to be accepted as “preference” rather than perversion.  And in North America they have prevailed.  Very quickly their movement infiltrates into all corners of life.  Religious institutions and teachings are not immune to this movement.  Churches have split over this issue.  Of the issue on homosexual movement and the view from the Scripture, I have treated it elsewhere.  Formal educational institutions are also greatly affected.  The reasoning is simple, which is to educate people that LGBT is now defined differently.  Their basic argument is that the old way of life is obsolete.  The new way of life, the LGBT trend, is the new up to date way of life that should be accepted.  Or more accurately, the new way of life is summed up in what is called as being inclusive.  Being inclusive means that humanity must accept differences.  And since LGBT is now defined as different, and no longer as perversion, then LGBT must be accepted.  This is the essence of inclusivism.  Education is a very useful tool to convey their message.  So every single institution that carries the spirit of education is to be utilized for this new way of life.

            Currently in Canada there is this hot demonstration in the province of Ontario due to the new sex-education curriculum being promoted and to be implemented in the new school year.  In the 2015 revised Health and PE Education curriculum, which includes the sex-education curriculum is spilled out the change of the instructions.  Now, the curriculum is progressive in its instruction.  The sex-education is getting more loaded as the grades progress.  There are lots of other things objectionable in this curriculum, namely the “permission” to have romantic relationship even from grade 4, or “permission” to enjoy personal sexual pleasure through masturbation in as early as grade 6, which then is carried over to grade 7 with the “permission” to explore the body more for further sexual pleasure, or the “permission” and “encouragement” to plan sexual activity in grade 8 – meaning that as young as age 13/14 kids are given the OK if desiring to be sexually active (the keeping a condom suggestion is in the curriculum, look at p. 196 of the document),  but I will focus more on the instruction that leads people the wrong way through the LGBT framework.  With that being said, now check out for example the curriculum for grade 3:

Human Development and Sexual Health
C3.3 describe how visible differences (e.g., skin, hair, and eye colour, facial features, body size and shape, physical aids or different physical abilities, clothing, possessions) and invisible differences (e.g., learning abilities, skills and talents, personal or cultural values and beliefs, gender identity, sexual orientation, family background, personal preferences, allergies and sensitivities) make each person unique, and identify ways of showing respect for differences in others [PS, IS]

Teacher prompt: “Sometimes we are different in ways you can see. Sometimes we are different in ways you cannot see – such as how we learn, what we think, and what we are able to do. Give me some examples of things that make each person unique.”

Student: “We all come from different families. Some students live with two parents. Some live with one parent. Some have two mothers or two fathers. Some live with grand­parents or with caregivers. We may come from different cultures. We also have different talents and abilities and different things that we find difficult to do.”[1]

Age 8-9 kids are going to be taught about gender identity and sexual orientation under the framework of LGBT.  In other words, they are being indoctrinated that LGBT is something normal, just something different, and more of a variety to be recognized and accepted.  This strong instruction is meant to wipe out the notion of normal that has been around for thousands of years since the beginning of time.  Kids that age would not have enough reasoning power to argue otherwise.  Therefore this curriculum is not merely an alternative explanation of what’s going on, but more of indoctrination.  The notion of inclusivism has been inserted prior:

Human Development and Sexual Health
C1.3 identify the characteristics of healthy relationships (e.g., accepting differences, being inclusive, communicating openly, listening, showing mutual respect and caring, being honest) and describe ways of overcoming challenges (e.g., bullying, exclusion, peer pressure, abuse) in a relationship [IS][2]

And blended with all the other common relationship matters.  The emphasis on the “ought to” ness of being inclusive, of accepting differences, is the gate to justify LGBT.  And this gate must be opened with a key.  The key is by redefining LGBT as something normal, as something different, as a preference.  All the spiritual and ethical values that for thousands of years have ruled over humanity worldwide is now being replaced.  The above quotations from the new curriculum combined shifts the old teaching that “homosexuality is a perversion” into “homosexuality is a difference.”  The curriculum introduces the notion that homosexuality is normal.  And thus condemns the teaching that says homosexuality is not normal.  It is ironic that in their strive for inclusivism, they have exclude those who disagree with them.

            Now, the document also defines what “gender identity” is in the last part of the document.  This definition is meant to “educate” people of the new theory that accommodates transgender tendency.  Here is the definition:

gender identity. A person’s sense of self, with respect to being male or female. Gender identity is different from sexual orientation, and may be different from birth-assigned sex. (Refer to the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Policy on Discrimination and Harassment because of Gender Identity, at www.ohrc.on.ca.)[3]

This definition is not founded upon even verified science.  It is just a theory that is not yet acknowledged as factual or valid.  Gender confusion is not something uncommon among children.  Gender Identity theory is dangerous because it argues that when someone feels to be more on the opposite side of the gender he/she is born with, his/her confusion cannot not recognized as disorder.  For this theory such confusion is the tell tale of the actual identity of the person.  Therefore this theory is actually saying that the disorder doesn’t exist and thus transgender is valid and should not be corrected.

            The grade 7 curriculum introduces various sexual activities, and they are listed with the framework of LGBT in mind.

C1.5 identify ways of preventing STIs, including HIV, and/or unintended pregnancy, such as delaying first intercourse and other sexual activities until a person is older and using con­doms consistently if and when a person becomes sexually active
Teacher prompt: “Engaging in sexual activities like oral sex, vaginal intercourse, and anal intercourse means that you can be infected with an STI. If you do not have sex, you do not need to worry about getting an STI. (By the way, statistics show that young people who delay first intercourse are more likely to use protection when they choose to be sexually active.) If a person is thinking of having sex, what can they do to protect themselves?”

Student: “They should go to a health clinic or see a nurse or doctor who can provide important information about protection. People who think they will be having sex some­time soon should keep a condom with them so they will have it when they need it. They should also talk with their partner about using a condom before they have sex, so both partners will know a condom will be used. If a partner says they do not want to use a condom, a person should say, ‘I will not have sex without a condom.’ If you do have sex, it is important that you use a condom every time, because condoms help to protect you against STIs, including HIV, and pregnancy.”[4]

The normal sexual activity is for sure vaginal intercourse.  For thousands of years whenever people mention sexual intercourse, the understanding is always vaginal intercourse.  But the LGBT framework dictates the inclusion of anal intercourse.  Homosexual sex activity is then being treated as normal.  It is something that is okay.  This teaching leads to the implication that saying that being LGBT is a perversion must be rejected and eventually condemned.  Children who grow up through this kind of curriculum will soon become “inclusive” of the LGBT community, but at the same time become “exclusive” of those who call LGBT as perversion.

            Thus, this curriculum is actually a discriminative curriculum against those who believe that LGBT way of life is sinful.  Be mindful that this kind of curriculum will not stop in Ontario.  It will spread like a virus.  The whole world is going to be infected.  And this virus moves fast.  It has gained support even from the Christian group.  Not only support personally, but those perverted theologians and pastors even dare to manipulate the Holy Scripture to speak in favor of such unholy way of life.  For sure those teachers will be judged by God himself.  The perverted theologians and pastors, the designer(s) for such twisted curriculum, the endorser(s), the administration that signs it, and all its supporters, will all certainly be judged by God.  Jesus speaks in Luke 17:1-2 and gives warning:

1And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

They dare to cause the young minds to walk the path of folly and grow up in the way leading to sheol.  They will be judged very severely by God.  For, as James puts it in James 3:1: “1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.  Once the young minds absorb and believe the false teaching, it would be extremely difficult to correct it.

            It is therefore critical for every Christian to be mindful of this danger.  It is lurking in every corner of our life.  Especially at this time people who live in North America and the Western world, this danger is quickly being normalized in the life of the people.  For these perverted teachers, the holy teaching from the Scripture is outdated and in need to be replaced.  The basis of their teaching is the trend of the sinful generations.  The wayward demand of the depraved man is being obeyed.  The mode of “supply and demand” has dominated the world, and sadly it has taken over many Christian churches as well.  This danger is getting more dangerous because it is supported by the so called theologians and spiritual teachers.  And they twist the word of God in order to serve the trend of the age.  So they sacrifice God for the sake of their own gain.  They’d rather crucify Jesus one more time than to obey the Risen Lord.  They are no different than the Pharisees in the time of Jesus who plotted to kill Jesus for earthly reason.  John 11:45-53 records:

45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.

Their fear of the Romans was greater than their fear of God.  The saddest thing is if they actually did not fear God at all.  Through my readings of the four gospels I can’t conclude anything other than that these Pharisees, teachers of the law, and the Scribes did not have any fear of God in their hearts.  And similarly the modern theologians and spiritual teachers who support the promotion of the LGBT way of life also do not fear God.

            The pressure of the world and combined with the support from the wayward churches makes this threat extremely deadly for the simple minded people of God.  God’s people need proper nurture.  They need the eternal truth.  But instead of getting the eternal truth, they are being fed lies.  The woman folly is very loud and is proclaiming her cause nonstop.  She is calling the simple.  She is calling those who are walking the straight path, so that she can lead them astray toward the place of death.  This woman folly is the personification of these teachers today.  They are determined to educate the masses of their newly found belief that is not based on the eternal word of God.  The basis of their belief is the thought of man and the wayward desire of the sinful nature.  They hide behind freedom and human rights.  Their main argument is non-discrimination treatment, while at the same time they have contradicted themselves by discriminating the people who disagree with them.  But they do so in the name of inclusivism.  They do so for the sake of compassion.  Yet they have no compassion for those who say no to their campaign.  And they cannot accept those who differ from them.  But their gun is big.  They use public schooling system to spread their virus.  And since public schooling system has been established throughout the nation, many people will be (or have been) quickly infected.  And, as programmed by Ontario, they target very young minds.  Their indoctrination strategy will be very effective.  And fairly soon the world will have raised a generation that would totally see LGBT way of life as approved by God, or simply as normal.

            Education will soon become the weapon of mass destruction.  WMD is no longer nuclear or biological or chemical weapon.  But education is.  It is designed silently and moves quietly, seeping into the mind of the people, changing the way they think, deconstructing the true belief, demolishing the proper ethics, uprooting appropriate conducts, and in the end planting their seed of destruction within their core being.  As they mature, they will embrace the way of folly.  And they will eventually be judged by God and be thrown into the everlasting fire.  The children, being taught since they are very young (starting from grade 3 in the Ontario sex-education curriculum), in the same developmental habits, will walk in the way they were taught.  Two choices: a) teach them in the way they should go – the way of life as written in the Scripture or b) teach them in the way they should not go – the way of the world as currently promoted by false teachers; and the question is: “Which choice will be chosen?”

            Christian educators, all of you who truly believe in the truth of the word of God, this is your chance to do the right thing.  Do not give in to the pressure of the world.  Do not listen to the false teachers – your perverted theologians and pastors.  Do not operate based on the “supply and demand” strategy.  You are all called to teach the next generation of the truth.  God has given us the truth which is in his Holy Scripture.  Every other knowledge must be interpreted through the lens of the Bible.  God commanded Moses in Deuteronomy 6:1-9 saying:

1Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Teach them all the commandments of God.  The Scripture opposes the LGBT way of life.  Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, and Romans 1:24-27 speak clearly against Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual life.  And Deuteronomy 22:5 speaks against Transgender life.  I will quote them all here in the following:

22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.  (Leviticus 18:22)

13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.  (Leviticus 20:13)

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.  (Romans 1:24-27)

“A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.  (Deuteronomy 22:5)

God has given his commands.  It is our duty to follow and obey.  We are his creation.  If one prefers to disobey, then he/she must fight his/her own nature.  And often, what happens is, since it is very difficult to fight their own nature as God’s creation, they’d rather eliminate God the creator.  But it is impossible to eliminate God, so they choose the path of deception.  They deceive themselves that God doesn’t exist.  They tried to exterminate God when Jesus came to earth 2,000 years ago.  But they could not actually kill God.  Jesus rose again from the dead.  So in their desperation they sink deeper into deception.  Every day they wake up they kill a little bit of their conscience.  Every morning they wake up they lie to themselves that there is no God.  So they lie to their own being.  So they betray their own self.  And such is the path of disobedience.  It leads to death.  But our path is obedience.  Wisdom has called out in order to bring the simple to the way of life.  And wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord.

            This is the time God’s faithful make a stand.  This is the time to not compromise.  This is the time to be obedient.  This is the time to teach our children in the way they should go, so when they are old they will not depart from the way of life.  Be it formal education, non-formal education, or informal education, wherever we are, whatever the circumstances, this is the time to teach them the truth.  This is the time to be rooted in the eternal word of God.  As Christ’s followers we do not tap into other resources.  But we abide in his words.  Just like what Peter said to Jesus in John 6:68-69 so also we say even today:

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Amen.


[1] The Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8/Health and Physical Education, p. 124. Revised 2015.  (emphases – red letters – are mine)
[2] Ibid.  pp. 121-122.
[3] Ibid.  pp. 231.
[4] Ibid.  pp. 196.

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