Transgendered Chastity Bono and "Dancing with the Stars", God, and culture

Chaz. Chastity Bono. Sonny & Cher's daughter...who chose to reject her biologically determined gender as a woman and surgically become a man.

Chastity as a child:
Chastity as a woman:
Chaz as a man:

Cher's celebrity daughter was tapped to become a contestant on Dancing With the Stars, a long-running successful reality game show. The outcry was immediate. AFP reports, "The 42-year-old LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) activist formerly known as Chastity Bono is the first transgender contestant on the US version of the globally popular reality television series. He's the only child of entertainers Cher and the late Sonny Bono, and his debut on prime-time television comes hard on the heels of the release of his autobiography "Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man". "I'm an activist, first and foremost," said Bono when ABC television, part of the family-oriented Disney media empire, introduced its 12 couples who will tackle the tango, the foxtrot and samba when the series begins September 19. "I will look at this as just a wonderful opportunity to kind of bring my message to even more people than I've had the chance to."

The backlash against this decision to place a transgendered person front and center in prime time apparently stunned Hollywood. There were immediately over 1000 comments on the show's website. Most of the comments accused the show of pushing a homosexual agenda in prime time. Chastity's eagerness to visibly tout his transgenderism as stated above belies the show's denials of having an agenda. GLAAD also says that the inclusion of openly gay judge Carson Kressley and the lineup of dancers including Bono is a 'major step forward.' Step forard in what? In pushing the agenda. In this article, the show's producers seek to address the backlash, unsuccessfully. One commenter said,

RACAsper said, "I fully respect ABC's Freedom of Speech. They are free to choose whomever they want for whatever reasons they want. I am also free to turn off the show. I am free to state that I am tired of their never ending assault on moral values. I am tired of hastily flipping the channel when ABC and the other networks show a ferociously violent, sexually charged, or deviant clip from their latest show. They keep pushing the envelope and now they've gone too far in my book."

Why is presenting gay, lesbian, and transgendered people 'an agenda'? Because the attention paid to their agenda, or as it is defined, 'set of goals of an ideological group' is disproportionate to their population number. There are only 400,000 people in the United States who define themselves as biologically born in the "wrong" gender. The population in the US is 300 million.

More to the point, the issue isn't just numerical, it is moral. People intuitively react negatively when confronted with the sexual sins of homosexuality, lesbianism, and transgenderism, because they're gross. They defy God's plan. He foreknew each person He was going to make, and he formed us in the womb (Jer 1:5;  Psalm 139:13; Ephesians 2:10). He doesn't make creative mistakes. If He knew us before He made us then He knew whether we were going to be a woman or a man. If we emerge from the womb and then grow with the mindful decision that we are not the gender we are then it is our mistake, not God's.

This is not to take away a person's pain as they grow and feel they are trapped in a wrong body. That struggle may indeed be real to them. But just as many people have struggles, such as unwanted sexual urges toward an opposite or the same gender, toward a desire for alcohol, or for material things that eventually swamp them (Hoarders) it just means they must work harder to resist these urges and wants. The flesh wants what it wants but that does not mean that it should get what it wants. People who succumb to these fleshly desires are to be looked on with compassion, for we all sin. But when looking upon these sins, we exclaim and cry out that God is not to be mocked, and the distortion of transgenderism is an affront to many people who love God and His sovereignty.

In old, staid Maine, a transgender argument is bubbling up now. A family who has a transgendered boy-to-girl is suing the public school system for denial of bathroom access.

The child, who is a twin, was said to have started playing with 'girl things' at age three. At age nine, he called himself a boy-girl. The next year, at age ten, he said he was a girl trapped in boy's body. Eventually, the adjudicating panel ruled against the school district.

How does a child that young know what it feels like to be the wrong gender, or to know what is good for them? We don't let a ten-year old cross the street by themselves, let alone decide to cross their gender! Allowing a child to distort their God-given biology is a recipe for disaster!

In this Bangor Daily News article accompanying the transgender article above, this doctor (who is the doctor for the aforementioned transgendered child), says "The attempted suicide rate for people who go untreated and unsupported is 45 percent. This population has one of the highest suicide rates of any population in the world. Once they walk in the door for treatment that kind of depression ends.” The implication is that because this small population of transgendered folks is so highly depressed, due to the denial of their expression of their switched gender, they commit suicide. Might I suggest the opposite: they are suicidal because they are living a life that is contrary to their intended gender and satan has instilled in them this dissatisfaction with God's plan?

The article goes on to interview Dr. Scott Leibowitz, a psychiatrist at the Boston Gender Management Service Clinic. He says, “Gender identity typically is formed around age 3,” he said in a phone interview in August. “It usually presents when a child makes it known that how he or she expresses gender does not match society’s expectations of how that gender should behave.”

Society DOES have expectations of how a gender should behave, and that is for a reason. God's reason. He made man to be have dominion over the animals, and to provide for the family. He made the woman to be the helper of the man in those endeavors, and to keep the home. He made children the product of their union. When someone chooses not to behave according to their God-given gender, society reacts negatively, and rightly so. As evidenced in the Chaz 'Dancing With The Stars' debacle, we are revolted.

In this Christianity Today article, "Peter Sprigg, Family Research Council (FRC) vice president for policy in Washington, D.C., says, "The pressure for acceptance is ultimately a challenge to the authority of Scripture and a violation of natural law. In the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender movement there is a tendency to continually push the envelope in trying to demand the acceptance of what most people perceive to be unusual behavior."

"God planned for me to be a man before I had ever been created," Jerry Leach, director of Reality Resources, a ministry in Lexington, Kentucky, to people dealing with gender confusion says. "There was not a woman inside my body longing to be expressed. There is no human condition outside the redemptive circle of God's love and power."

The question is often asked, 'is homosexuality a greater sin than others?" It is answered in a Q&A session by John MacArthur this way:

"Categorically, no, and I'll tell you why. Because when you have any listing of sins in the Scripture; for example, in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 6, he says in Verse 9, "Do not be deceived," 1 Corinthians 6:9, "Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." Categorically, you've got everything in the same list, ... Some would even use those words to refer to people like transvestites or what are they are called today, transgender people, but when you look at a list like that, you see that they're are all outside the kingdom, so, categorically, they're all in the same situation. They're defined by their sin. "

Then he goes on to describe five kinds of wrath related to sin, especially the sin of homosexuality, and one of them is a kind of wrath that is the wrath of abandonment to a reprobate mind:

"Well, there are five kinds of wrath. There is eternal wrath. That's hell. There is, I guess what we could call eschatological wrath or the wrath of the last days, the wrath described in Revelation 6 to 19 ... so there is eternal wrath; there is eschatological wrath."

"There is also what I could call cataclysmic wrath, the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, ... and in history, God has judged whole civilizations through cataclysms that took unbelieving people and catapulted them into eternity, such as Pompeii, which was a city literally notorious for its vice, so you have eternal wrath; you have eschatological wrath; you have cataclysmic wrath."

"Then you have what I would call natural wrath, and that is the wrath of God that comes in a sowing-and-reaping fashion. If you are a drunkard all your life, you may die of cirrhosis of the liver. If you live in sexual sin all your life, you may shorten your life and die of some venereal disease, including AIDS, so there are certain things built in. "Whatever a man sows, he reaps." That's another kind of wrath, but the wrath being spoken of here [of homosexuality] is the fifth kind. It's the wrath of abandonment."

"It is that judicial act of God, whereby He lets the sinner go. In other words, He stops convicting. He stops calling." In other words, he gives them over to their reprobate mind, defined in today's language as "to condemn strongly as unworthy, unacceptable, or evil".

It seems to me that it is a terrible kind of wrath to be abandoned by God to one's sin. There does come a time when He stops calling a person toward repentance, and there comes a time when he stops calling a nation toward repentance, too. As we see the warped agenda from a tiny minority of transgendered people has become loomingly disproportionate in secular culture, we must wonder how long the Lord will continue to bestow mercy and how soon He will give us over to our refusal to accept His ways.

Comments

  1. A while back when I was waiting for my car to be serviced, I had the unfortunate experience of being in the waiting room with people watching a program on TV all about this woman who pretends to be a man. It is really a sad situation when people abuse themselves in this nature. In Ohio there is another couple who are raising their now 10-year-old boy as a girl. I reported on this yesterday in an article about the drive to normalize pedophilia and how it is related to the homosexual agenda, which also pushes every other form of sexual deviances.

    in 1 Cor. 6 Paul points out the gross harm of sexual immorality over and above all other sins: "All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body." And then he explains the significance that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that we are to honor God with our bodies. Of course the unbeliever does not have this relationship with the Spirit, but the point is that sinning against the body is more harmful than other sins.

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  2. I missed that post Glenn. I'll read it now. I think people react so strongly against pedophilia, homosexuality, bigamy and transgenderism (not to mention transvestism) is the very scripture you point out. The ultimate consequence of it is being abandoned by God to live for eternity in your depraved state, and to be lost to hell forever. It's an awful path these people go down.

    I also think it is sad that adultery used to be on that list of sexual sins that make people most upset but it has been normalized so much that it hardly is grounds for divorce (in the secular world) any more. As you mentioned, we see the same attempts at normalization of the other sexual sins, and it is to their personal and our national detriment.

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  3. I've always been intrigued at how homosexuality is one of those things that people rationalize and feel they cannot separate themselves from at all. I guess because some have strong urges (and apparently none for the opposite sex), some have them since they can remember so it's who they are. Many used to be confused looking for an explanation and I guess what sounded the best was you are fine the way you are.

    I've also been intrigued by the church's reaction to it. Your sentence right here "People intuitively react negatively when confronted with the sexual sins of homosexuality, lesbianism, and transgenderism, because they're gross." is almost the church's main reaction to it. (Not saying it's yours) It's like someone who admits they lie, have premarital sex and people in the church recoiling in horror uncomfortably. I'm so glad Pastor McArthur talked about elevating homosexuality over other sins. Some christians do this knowingly but I 100% believe that people in the world jump to the assumption that God believe homosexuality is a greater sin than others because it suits them. Personally I think expressing disgust does not help but that's just me. I know the effect it has on people who are lost and confused about their urges but anyone's decision to reject Christ and indulge in a sinful lifestyle is all their own. I just pray that God will open their eyes and soften their hearts.

    I have a question about people thinking they ARE LGBT because some have identified the urges since they were conscious of themselves. You said that these urges defy God's plan for us and I wholehearteadly agree but what about this scripture? “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5)? I've heard many christians say that being born with homosexual urges is not possible but aren't we born sinful? I know God has absolutely no part in sin being but under the law of sin because of adam doesn't that make it that we are born sinful? I just need to be clear about this and when I ask people they seem to react by just seeming grossed out and they don't show me much from scripture.

    It's MUCH harder today for many to swallow that they can find freedom in christ because of the intensely heavy LGBT agenda in terms of freedom of the lifestyle. People think becoming a christian is repressing your urges when it's about surrendering all to Christ. The desire for their sin and their urges (which even though the urge is seen as being the most intense in their being is i believe as intense as any other sinful urge) has blinded many from accepting Christ. I wonder where I would be if I was a confused teenager or child with any of these feelings and the world was screaming IT'S OK! BE FREE! I'm not excusing people that indulge but we have to admit the devil is waging a serious, serious war in this area today.

    I just always pray that God will have mercy on those that have given over to their LGBT lifestyle and that their eyes will be opened to the truth and that their hearts will not be hardened to God. I don't know if that's even a correct prayer but I pray the same for atheists, agnostics, God scoffers, etc.

    I don't know, I just had so many friends who were in the LGBT lifestyle and it breaks my freaking heart that most feel they HAVE to reject God in their lives because of their LGBT urges in particular. I just pray for them because the devil's plan is working SO WELL in our society and I pray that their eyes will be open.

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  4. http://lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com/2011/07/homeland-security-surveillance-detected.html

    Homeland Security surveillance detected on Christian website
    Blogger noted for opposing homosexual lifestyle choice

    You may be interested in reading this article. There are several interesting articles on this site, but this particular one is apropos to your post. Every Christian and especially every Christian blogger who takes a stand for the Truth of the Scripture should be aware of this, what is happening right in America.

    I find it interesting that my Sunday School lesson tomorrow is on the children's Westminster Catechism question #14: Q. Where do you learn how to love and obey God? A. In the Bible alone.

    The whole world has forsaken the Bible as God's Word and many parts of the "Church" have as well. What do we expect to happen? Complete breakdown of society is coming, and coming very quickly.

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  5. Hi Anonymous,

    Thank you for the link. I fully expect that some government agency will track me at some point, since the rise of the secular view of 'Christian terrorism' and oppressive thought police have risen too.

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  6. Here is my link to the article I spoke of - it isn't on my apologetics site:http://sanityinanupsidedownworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-sanctioning-homosexuality-has.html

    Today's entry has an article written about the conference:
    http://sanityinanupsidedownworld.blogspot.com/2011/09/sexual-anarchy_03.html

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  7. What's in a name? Wikipedia says:
    Chastity refers to the sexual behavior of a man or woman acceptable to the moral standards and guidelines of a culture, civilization, or religion.
    Rather Ironic or very disconnected from the original meaning of this name.

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  8. This is the most HATEFULL site I have ever seen! You people are going straight to hell. I guess God has allready started...floods , hurricanes, tornado's and all in the most Christian places in the USA.

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  9. I am sorry you don't like what you read here, but thank you anyway for the visit. The only people going to hell are the ones who fail to reconcile their sin with Jesus before death. Confessing your sins to the Sinless One and asking Him to forgive them, is the way to heaven and the way to stay out of hell.

    In my opinion it is not hateful to maintain that God does not make gender mistakes.

    The judgment that is coming will be on the whole world, not just the "Christian places." (Psalm 9:8; Rev 20:11-15).

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    1. A sin is a sin and WE all sin; even preachers and pastors. BUT, When we come to full repentence and SINCERELY ask God for forgiveness He will. From that point on what Jesus would tell the leper or blind man after healing their afflictions. "Your sins have been forgiven. Go out and sin NO more" Amen

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  10. Sin is sin is sin. We are all born sinful, and naturally inclined to even more sin. And nowadays, we find that "sin is in."

    It has been for a long time, but it's becoming so widely accepted, and so systematically fed to us through the media and school systems, that people are being desensitized. It's a shame. I fell for its enticements for a long time.

    One thing I always note in coversations on this topic: some serial killers are BORN with more aggressive genes, or an insatiable desire to kill, yet they are still accountable for any murders (sins) they commit.

    In the same manner, I've always thought that if someone is born with an inclination towards homosexuality, it is just another sin to overcome, and as Christians, we are overcomers in Christ Jesus. To those who love their sin more than Christ, they are woefully lost... :(

    (that sad face does not seem somber enough for the topic)

    I am so glad that God did not let me go, did not abandon me to my sins and lusts. I'm so glad I responded. I'm so glad my heart had not hardened. Praise be to Jesus, the only One who can clean us from all unrighteousness!

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  11. thanks Emily...that was very well said.

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  12. you people are bonkers. really. just nuts.

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  13. Rejoice, you are being opposed! (referring to Anonymous; talking to Elizabeth)

    :)

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  14. I appreciate and understand all that has been written here. I am a Christian. I am also gay. And I believe that my Lord made me that way. I didn't and wouldn't have chosen this by any means. I have left many churches, not because they disagree with homosexuality, but how they SCREAM at the congregation about it. I was born and raised in the church and as a pre-adolescent young man, I was convinced that I was going to Hell because God didn't love me. He loved everybody else. But not me. I begged God for years and years and years to release this from me. He has not.
    My point really is: Christians aren't perfect. My particular church has a 75% divorce rate. A multitude of 'sin' abounds. But the only two they get REALLY angry about is homosexuality and abortion. They 'preach' love...but they act differently. I have been to multiple churches and unfortunately, that is what I see and feel.
    My largest concern is: No one is reaching out to the gay community. No one. They will not go to heaven because all they are told is they are sinners and deserve to go to hell. All they know is the nonacceptance and pain and rejection they will receive when they enter a church. Perhaps the blood will be on the 'church's hands.

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  15. Hi BigDave,

    I'm sorry you're struggling with sinful desires. We all know that we are born sinful, drenched 100% in a sin-nature. Some people struggle with certain sins, other people have a hard time overcoming other sins. Homosexuality seems to be a difficult one to resist for many people and is pervasive in the extreme.

    Dave, the Lord condemned homosexuality in every age...therefore I can't believe that He made people with a specific sin that He condemns.

    I'm also sorry that you have had a hard time with churches. I agree that the pendulum seems to swing toward either condemnation without love, or tolerance without condemnation. I agree that the blood of many things and many people will be on the church's hands, and for many reasons, nit just their reaction to homosexuality. The church as a body is failing its people many aspects right now.

    If you care to read this from John MacArthur, he just wrote it this week:
    "God's Plan for the Gay Agenda"
    http://www.gty.org/resources/Articles/A170/Gods-Plan-for-the-Gay-Agenda

    It isn't long and it speaks to exactly the things you raise in your comment. He asks

    "How should you respond to the success of the gay agenda? Should you accept the recent trend toward tolerance? Or should you side with those who exclude homosexuals with hostility and disdain?

    "In reality, the Bible calls for a balance between what some people think are two opposing reactions--condemnation and compassion. Really, the two together are essential elements of biblical love, and that's something the homosexual sinner desperately needs."

    and then he goes on to answer from the bible. Best regards to you,
    Elizabeth

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  16. How sad that people allow their lives to be ruled by fairy tales from over 2000 years ago...

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  17. Thanks for this website. I stumbled upon it via John McTernans website. Sent me to look at some unusual cloud formations, and I found this. I have placed a shortcut to keep up with you. Do appreciate all your input...We are living in the very last of the last days for sure. With Homosexuals such a small percent of society, they are waging a LOT more influence than they should....but we all know this is of satan, and HIS agenda to distort the truth of God, that this lifestyle as well as the Bisexual and transgender are all plain and truth, sinful in God's sight.
    Man can say all sorts of things trying to prove Christians are intolerant bigots, but we are just following what God says....and though God LOVES all sinners, the LGBT lifestyle is sinful, and God hates sin....

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  18. You're welcome Anonymous :) I agree, the homosexual lifestyle is sin and it is soundly condemned in both the old Testament and in the NT. NO sinner, no matter what the sin, will enter heaven. Repentance and salvation through Jesus is the only way. He purifies from all sin, including homosexuality,perversity, lesbianism, transgender

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  19. This is a load of bollox. And you are a bunch of scarey freaks spreding your fear, hatred and predjudice.

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    1. Having an opinion on the morality of changing one's God-given sex is "spreading fear"? What made you afraid in this piece?

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  20. I think it is fine that you Christians have your book and continue to condemn anyone who does not believe like you, there are many fine folks in other religions that do not seem to be so mean spirited as most folks who call themselves Christians, I am not gay, transgender or any of the things you folks seem to hate. I believe in God,but my God is love, Let folks pay for there sins, and go about your own business. If we continue to work and improve ourselves we have no time to judge others.

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    1. Hi Anonymous,

      I agree with you in some respects. When a person is outside the faith, without the indwelling Holy Spirit of God to reveal the truths of the bible to them, it seems like all religions are the same, just pick a flavor. And in that case, I agree, it does seem mean-spirited to say that the choice to engage in gay behavior is an offense to God. People just want to engage in any old sin without hearing about any consequences, don't they?!

      But when you come to faith in Jesus, who died for that sin as well as all others, it is a loving act to let a person know what God's standards are. We don't hate gays, or at least we should not! but God hates the sin. He hates all sin, and He will judge a person engaged in them and they will go to hell if they do not repent before death.

      I agree that we should not judge, you and I have differing definitions of judging. The world thinks that judging is simply remarking about the immorality of a behavior. It isn't. In addition, God has many opinions about those behaviors, and it is ultimately His call on what is acceptable or not. We are just trying to bring His message, which is in 'the book.'

      God is love, but on judgment day, you will also discover He is holy, and He hates sin. Love does not preclude Him doing something about it. That something is hell.

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