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A culture of willed depravity
Transgenderism is being driven by the sinister and facilitated by moral cretins
Melanie Phillips
Jan 24
Supporters of the Scottish parliament’s transgender bill displaying their civilised attitudes
As controversy swirls around the Scottish parliament’s bill to allow transgender certification without a medical diagnosis to anyone from age 16, evidence continues to pile up of more and more establishment institutions joining this grotesque and astonishingly harmful bandwagon.
The BBC director-general has reportedly been told by staff to “shut down” the corporation’s Pride network, after complaints that this group “policed” BBC output and stifled debate in order to promoter transgender activism. Fancy!
More than 15,000 people have signed a petition to the Church of England calling on it to scrap its guidance to its 4,700 primary schools that their pupils should be “supported to accept their own gender identity or sexual orientation and that of others”. The guidance goes on: “In order to do this it will be essential to provide curriculum opportunities where difference is explored, same-sex relationships, same-sex parenting and transgender issues may be mentioned as a fact in some people’s lives.”
This is directed at schools catering for children aged up to 11 years old.
Those who maintain their grip on reality by asserting that biological sex is immutable continue to be harassed, vilified and threatened as TERFS (trans-exclusionary radical feminists). JK Rowling has long been subjected to horrific intimidation. Labour MP Rosie Duffield has had similar experiences, most recently in the House of Commons where she was jeered by her fellow Labour MPs for speaking against the Scottish bill, following which she likened being in the Labour Party to an abusive relationship. In Scotland itself, Scottish National Party politicians posed with protesters holding signs saying “Decapitate TERFs”. Isn’t liberalism wonderful?!
In the Telegraph, Nick Timothy is but the latest to have written a horrified protest against the harm being done to children by this normalisation and mainstreaming of “gender fluidity” and the extreme physical dangers this poses to women. One point Timothy makes, however, is particularly striking. Entering the necessary caveat that the tiny number of people who are genuinely diagnosed as gender dysphoric should be treated with respect, he writes:
Nobody stops to ask how many such men are moved to act in these ways through their own sexual desire. Autogynephilia, the feeling of sexual arousal some men feel as they pretend to be women, is according to some researchers behind many or even most cases of gender dysphoria among those born as men.
This observation reveals an even more disturbing aspect to the phenomenon of men claiming to become women. It suggests that it is not just a case of a man believing himself to be in the wrong kind of body. It identifies this condition as itself a type of sexual fetish.
Timothy’s observation feeds in turn into a question that has puzzled me about this whole transgender phenomenon. Why is it that the majority of transgender cases among children involve girls wanting to become boys, whereas the majority of transgender cases among adults involve men wanting to become women?
The likely answer to this puzzle is even more disturbing.
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The AP Interview: Pope says homosexuality not a crime
By NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.
“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said during an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.
Tell that to the people of Sodom, or the millions burning in Hell for practicing what is clearly an abomination to God. Someone send the Pope a Bible. He either hasn't read it, or he doesn't believe it.
Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some parts of the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality or discriminate against LGBTQ people, and he himself referred to the issue in terms of “sin.” But he attributed such attitudes to cultural backgrounds, and said bishops in particular need to undergo a process of change to recognize the dignity of everyone.
Is he justifying the phenomenon of thousands of gay priests? Is he insinuating that predator priests might have a place in Heaven? Is he throwing the millions of victims of pervert priests under the bus?
One thing is for sure - this attitude did not come from the Holy Spirit. What spirit then did it come from?
“These bishops have to have a process of conversion,” he said, adding that they should apply “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.”
Francis’ comments, which were hailed by gay rights advocates as a milestone, are the first uttered by a pope about such laws. But they are also consistent with his overall approach to LGBTQ people and belief that the Catholic Church should welcome everyone and not discriminate.
Of course, they should welcome everyone, and then teach them about Sodom and Gomorrah. Teach them what is an abomination to God and that He does not handle abominations with tenderness.
Some 67 countries or jurisdictions worldwide criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, 11 of which can or do impose the death penalty, according to The Human Dignity Trust, which works to end such laws. Experts say even where the laws are not enforced, they contribute to harassment, stigmatization and violence against LGBTQ people.
In the U.S., more than a dozen states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books, despite a 2003 Supreme Court ruling declaring them unconstitutional. Gay rights advocates say the antiquated laws are used to justify harassment, and point to new legislation, such as the “Don’t say gay” law in Florida, which forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as evidence of continued efforts to marginalize LGBTQ people.
In reality, it is an effort to keep the madness of LGBTQ and gender fluidity away from elementary school children where it has no business at all.
The United Nations has repeatedly called for an end to laws criminalizing homosexuality outright, saying they violate rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination and are a breach of countries’ obligations under international law to protect the human rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Declaring such laws “unjust,” Francis said the Catholic Church can and should work to put an end to them. “It must do this. It must do this,” he said.
Francis quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church in saying gay people must be welcomed and respected, and should not be marginalized or discriminated against.
“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” Francis said, speaking to the AP in the Vatican hotel where he lives.
There is no dignity in doing what is an abomination to God!
Francis’ remarks come ahead of a trip to Africa, where such laws are common, as they are in the Middle East. Many date from British colonial times or are inspired by Islamic law. Some Catholic bishops have strongly upheld them as consistent with Vatican teaching, while others have called for them to be overturned as a violation of basic human dignity.
The difference between the two camps here is that one is listening to God and the other isn't!
In 2019, Francis had been expected to issue a statement opposing criminalization of homosexuality during a meeting with human rights groups that conducted research into the effects of such laws and so-called “conversion therapies.”
In the end, after word of the audience leaked, the pope didn’t meet with the groups. Instead, the Vatican No. 2 did and reaffirmed “the dignity of every human person and against every form of violence.”
There was no indication that Francis spoke out about such laws now because his more conservative predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, recently died. The issue had never been raised in an interview, but Francis willingly responded, citing even the statistics about the number of countries where homosexuality is criminalized.
On Tuesday, Francis said there needed to be a distinction between a crime and a sin with regard to homosexuality. Church teaching holds that homosexual acts are sinful, or “intrinsically disordered,” but that gay people must be treated with dignity and respect.
Bantering with himself, Francis articulated the position: “It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.”
“It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another,” he added.
It's also a sin to misrepresent God, and to teach error!
Francis has not changed the church’s teaching, which has long riled gay Catholics. But he has made reaching out to LGBTQ people a hallmark of his papacy.
The pope’s comments didn’t specifically address transgender or nonbinary people, just homosexuality, but advocates of greater LGBTQ inclusion in the Catholic Church hailed the pope’s comments as a momentous advance.
“His historic statement should send a message to world leaders and millions of Catholics around the world: LGBTQ people deserve to live in a world without violence and condemnation, and more kindness and understanding,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the U.S.-based advocacy group GLAAD.
You can explain that to Jesus Christ when you stand before him. I'm sure He will listen with tenderness!
New Ways Ministry, a Catholic LGBTQ advocacy group, said the church hierarchy’s silence on such laws until now had had devastating effects, perpetuating such policies and fueling violent rhetoric against LGBTQ people.
“The pope is reminding the church that the way people treat one another in the social world is of much greater moral importance than what people may possibly do in the privacy of a bedroom,” the group’s executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said in a statement.
One of the cardinals recently appointed by the pope – Robert McElroy, the bishop of San Diego -- is among those Catholics who would like the church to go further, and fully welcome LGBTQ people into the church even if they are sexually active.
Love them all the way to Hell! Is that love?
“It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities,” McElroy wrote Tuesday in the Jesuit magazine America. “The church’s primary witness in the face of this bigotry must be one of embrace rather than distance or condemnation.”
Be careful, Bishop McElroy, about what you call demonic. I think you have this completely backward.
Starting with his famous 2013 declaration, “Who am I to judge?” — when he was asked about a purportedly gay priest — Francis has gone on to minister repeatedly and publicly to the gay and transgender communities. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he favored granting legal protections to same-sex couples as an alternative to endorsing gay marriage, which Catholic doctrine forbids.
Despite such outreach, Francis was criticized by the Catholic gay community for a 2021 decree from the Vatican’s doctrine office that said the church cannot bless same-sex unions.
In 2008, the Vatican declined to sign onto a U.N. declaration that called for the decriminalization of homosexuality, complaining the text went beyond the original scope. In a statement at the time, the Vatican urged countries to avoid “unjust discrimination” against gay people and end penalties against them.
Don't get me wrong here. I'm not in favour, necessarily, of criminalizing gay behaviour. But the church needs to stand against the madness being pushed by LGBTQ lobbies as being ungodly behaviour with terrifying consequences in Eternity. There is no love in encouraging people to commit abominations against God.
Benjamin Lamb: Politicians can no longer ignore Canada’s porn problem
Canadians averaged 10 minutes of daily porn consumption on PornHub alone
The Pornhub website is shown on a computer screen in Toronto on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020.
The Canadian Press.
By Benjamin Lamb|
Posted on January 25, 2023
The past several years have witnessed growing policy and political attention on the economic, social, and moral costs of pervasive pornography in our societies. The 2015 British Conservative Party platform, for instance, committed to new age verification requirements for people to access websites with pornographic material. Last year, the European Union passed an omnibus Digital Services Act to regulate social media platforms’ content including removing child pornography.
These developments have, in general terms, not yet found expression in Canadian political and policy debates. Canada ranks seventh in the world for daily porn consumption on PornHub, one of the largest and most significant pornographic websites in the world—and one which is actually owned and operated in Canada. We’re not just consumers, in other words. We’re effectively exporting pornography to the rest of the world.
As I have mentioned before, Canada has done nothing to fight child sexual abuse in any way shape, or form since Trudeau became PM. Why? Is it because PornHub is based in Montreal, in, or near, Trudeau's riding.
This ought to cause some reflection on the part of Canadian policymakers and the broader public. There’s a large body of evidence that pervasive pornography comes with various detrimental effects —ranging from its normative consequences for our conception of human dignity to its neurological imprint on its consumers. This point cannot be overstated: research tells us that porn consumption is associated with a raft of negative individual and collective consequences that warrant greater attention in Canada.
Start with the neurological research. Human minds are influenced by what they consume online and pornography is no exception. According to a 2014 study by German-based scholars, Jürgen Gallinat and Simone Kühn, continued consumption of pornography effectively rewires the brain to perceive pornography as a reward. As the brain’s neural pathways get “bored” with certain content over time, there’s a need for ”novel” pornographic experiences to better activate its cranial reward system (otherwise known as the “Coolidge Effect”).
This confirms what I have been writing for many years now - 'Sin is progressive! Pornography progresses in many users to younger and younger female participants, and to more and more violence. Thus, what starts out as 'normal' porn will often end up with child sexual abuse material, and even infant rape and even murder (snuff videos).
It prompts the question: if porn consumption, has such a profound impact on the brain, what does that impact imply on human behaviour and relationships?
The list is quite long. Just consider the following:
Porn consumption is consistently associated with social challenges with loneliness and poorer mental health.
It’s also found that those interested in graphic and abusive pornography are more likely to reenact it with their partner during sex.
Research by Alberta-based scholar Kyler Rasmussen finds a relationship between porn consumption and dissatisfaction with romantic or marital relationships.
A separate study correlates increased porn consumption and sexual violence, and the National Human Trafficking Hotline in the United States reports that pornography is the third most common form of sex trafficking.
These examples are hardly exhaustive. They’re merely a sample of a growing body of scholarship that documents the harms associated with porn consumption.
Canadians are not immune to these risks. According to PornHub’s 2022 Annual Report, for instance, Canadians averaged 10 minutes of daily porn consumption on the site, which is more than an hour per week on that platform alone. Three-quarters of this porn traffic consumption was done on smartphones. The risk of course is that the ever-present combination of online pornography and smartphone technology grants Canadian teenagers an unprecedented ability to access pornography including depictions of rape and other forms of sexual violence.
This ought to be a concern for Canadian policymakers in light of the research that proves the effects of porn consumption are not just internalized by individuals but can spill out into the broader society. Canadians are not exempt from the mental and social ills that stem from pornography.
What options are available to policymakers?
It starts with investigating the effects that increased porn usage in Canada will have on the mental and sexual health of Canadians. This isn’t about moral judgement or shaming. It’s about trying to understand how to mitigate the negative effects of pornography in our society. Critics will say it is an unsolvable problem. They are wrong. We have what it takes to maturely talk about increased pornography use in Canada. We also have what it takes to deploy solutions. Drawing attention to the size, scope, and nature of the problem, though, is a necessary start.
As for broader solutions, there is a range of other steps that federal and provincial policymakers could consider. At the level of education, for instance, provinces could update curricula for students, especially in elementary school, so as to educate their awareness about the consequences of consuming pornography.
Outside of the classroom, society should exact greater transparency out of Canada’s domestic porn industry cabal, as they meticulously endeavour to ensnare more users, regardless of the moral and health consequences. This industry should not get away with attaching more and more people to porn addiction. Their business models should be subject to the highest scrutiny and toughest regulations including going so far as to try and make their for-profit scheme untenable.
There are practical ways to gradually reduce the porn industry’s operations in Canada. Legislators should make porn producers criminally responsible if they fail to verify the age of consent when they produce content for profit. Part of this offence should entail a complete and permanent shutdown order of operations if they do not verify the age of consent. The porn industry is not just another private business; they are producing content capable of wreaking serious damage to our children’s mental health.
On the public health side, officials could recognize pornography consumption as an official mental health addiction. This gesture would draw much-needed attention to increased pornography consumption. Community leaders should prioritize and promote recovery programs that normalize healing from pornography addiction, such as Fortify, Conversation BluePrint, and Bark.
The good news is that all of these policy responses, aside perhaps from regulating internet content, can be implemented relatively quickly. Addressing pornography in our society may be an uncomfortable subject. But we cannot afford to neglect it any longer.
There will no doubt be arguments against these types of policies including appeals to freedom and individual choice, but these considerations needed to be weighed against the economic, social and moral costs—particularly for young people—of today’s culture of pervasive pornography. The case for action seems increasingly self-evident.
Yet notwithstanding the odd murmur or acknowledgement in parliamentary debates, Canada’s political class has been largely silent on pornography. That silence should end now. For the sake of Canadians’ dignity and well-being, implementing porn-reduction strategies is not something we should scroll away from.
By Benjamin Lamb
Benjamin Lamb is a youth leader in the Canada Strong and Free Network’s Conservative Values Tomorrow program.
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