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Vatican won’t stop pro-LGBT sex ed after parents appeal to Leo XIV

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The Dicastery for Culture and Education reaffirmed a 2019 Vatican document against modern gender theory in education but took no action against the controversial pro-LGBT program. Catholic parents who begged Pope Leo XIV to halt the implementation of pro-LGBT sex education in Hamburg’s Catholic schools received a brief Vatican reply reaffirming Church teaching on gender, but no direct intervention to stop the program. The pro-LGBT diocesan sex-education guidelines remain set to take effect on August 20. According to a report published by Italian outlet La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana , the Dicastery for Culture and Education responded to the parents’ complaint by pointing to a 2019 Vatican document which rejects modern gender ideology in education, but it did not announce any measure to stop the pro-LGBT Hamburg guidelines from being enforced in Catholic schools. The Vatican response was sent to Varinia Arauco, a Peruvian-born mother who wrote to Pope Leo XIV and other Vatican officials to...
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Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen blocked from entering UK for quoting Bible on marriage

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Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen was once again blocked from entering the United Kingdom due to her “hate speech” conviction for defending Scripture, according to Alliance Defending Freedom CEO Kristen Waggoner. Räsänen is a member of Finnish Parliament’s “Friends of the United Kingdom” group. She didn't support homosexual marriage on BIBLICLAL  grounds, and was persecuted for war crimes. “My friend Päivi Räsänen — a doctor, grandmother, member of Finnish parliament, and devout Christian — was invited to speak at a religious liberty conference this week in Northern Ireland,” Waggoner wrote.  “The UK will not let her enter the country. This is due to her recent ‘hate speech’ conviction for writing a church pamphlet, in 2004, on Biblical marriage.” “This outrageous ruling by Finland’s Supreme Court provoked widespread criticism from human rights experts, free speech advocates, and the U.S. State Department,” Waggoner continued. “Päivi was invited to this week’s conference ...
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Churches and Gay people

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In modern cultures like America, every Christian is faced with the problem of homosexuality. Churches are pulled into the tension, too, because “there is no demilitarised zone in the homosexual debate.” Shrugging isn’t an option. The implications are all around us, in schools, in politics, in denominational tensions, and — maybe most importantly — in determining how the Church lives out her faithful witness to a culture in desperate need of Christ. With the marriage amendment on the Minnesota ballot and a growing list of personal questions in my Moleskine notebook, I contacted Dr Robert Gagnon, a professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a man who has, for many years, bravely addressed homosexuality from a biblical and theological perspective. He published the 500-page book The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics . A decade later, his work remains the most thoroughly exegetical and hermeneutical book on homosexuality and the Bible ( John Pipe...
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Dershowitz’s fails to rewrite Leviticus on homosexuality

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  From the op-ed pages of the New York Times comes “ The Secret History of Leviticus ,” an improbable essay by Idan Dershowitz. A scholar of the Hebrew Bible and a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, Dershowitz has written for the Times a popular version of the academic argument he published recently in the journal Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel . The Book of Leviticus contains two prohibitions against homosexual acts, the first of which (18:22) states: “You shall not lie with a male as though lying with a woman; it is an abomination.” According to Dershowitz, “before Leviticus was composed, outright prohibitions against homosexual sex … were practically unheard-of in the ancient world.” But he proposes that “an earlier version of the laws in Leviticus 18 permitted sex between men,” albeit tacitly. Supposedly, the laws were revised by a later editor to include the prohibition, and to “obscure any implication that same-sex relations had once been permissible.” Dersh...
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Should a Christian self-identify as transgender?

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Bruce always had to tell a lie. He was always living that lie. Every day he always had a secret. From morning till night. Caitlyn doesn’t have any secrets.… I’m free. Bruce Jenner/Caitlyn Jenner Defining the Issue The American Psychological Association defines transgender as “an umbrella term for persons whose gender identity, gender expression, or behaviour does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.”1  A transgender person’s sense of being male or female differs from their birth sex. This means a transgender person may be born with the genitalia of a boy, but considers himself to be a girl. Conversely, a transgender person may be born with the genitalia of a girl, but considers herself to be a boy.  When a person who is born male desires to be a female, the person is called a “trans-female” or “trans-woman.” When a person who is born a female desires to be a male, the person is called a “trans-male” or a “trans-man.” The ...
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What does it mean to say someone is intersex?

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  The [International Association of Athletics Federations] will not drug me or stop me from being who I am . Caster Semenya, South African intersex athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist Defining the Issue A Disorder of Sexual Development (DSD), a term first developed in 2006, is a condition in which someone may be born with the DNA of one sex, but their body looks like the other sex. 1   DSDs are a diverse group of conditions associated with atypical development of internal and external genitalia. DSDs can be difficult to understand because they involve genes, hormones, and reproductive organs (both internally and externally).  Having a DSD means the person doesn’t develop the same way other people do. Because their genitals don’t match their genetics, their anatomy doesn’t always neatly fit into the category of male or female. Some of the more widely discussed DSDs include Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, and 5-alpha reductase deficie...
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I’ve been invited to a same-sex wedding. Should I attend? Branch, J. A. (2021). 50 Ethical Questions: Biblical Wisdom for Confusing Times (p. 213). Lexham Press.

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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ . Ephesians 4:15 Defining the Issue The legalisation of same-sex marriage presents Christians with new dilemmas. It is not uncommon for friends, family members, or coworkers to invite Christians to a same-sex wedding or a wedding shower. Should Christians who disagree with the morality of same-sex marriage attend such events? Biblical Ethical Principles Scripture clearly teaches that homosexual relationships are sinful (see chapter 40). Nevertheless, Christians are called to love our homosexual neighbours (Matthew 22:37–40), but such love does not entail approval of everything they choose to do.  We are always called to share the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), including the truth about sexual ethics. Regardless of how kind and gracious we attempt to be in expressing a difference of opinion with nonbelievers, Christian ethics may be disparaged, misrepresented, and misunderstood ...
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