This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things.

Gnosticism is alive and well in many of our churches today.  What is "Gnosticism," you ask?  It is arguably the first heresy to develop within the nascent Christian church, even being challenged and countered by Saint John in the Gospel that bears his name.  From the Oxford Dictionary:  "Gnostic doctrine taught that the world was created and ruled by a lesser divinity, the demiurge, and that Christ was an emissary of the remote supreme divine being, esoteric knowledge (gnosis) of whom enabled the redemption of the human spirit." To put it another way: We are saved through knowledge ("gnosis," or γνῶσις) and only those who truly had this heightened, enlightened state - a divine "Word" or revelation from God - were found to be saved.

Extreme liberalism is one such gnostic manifestation. Why would I say such a thing? Because I have found far too often that my liberal friends think the rest of us who are more orthodox or conservative are just too dumb to really grasp their enlightened thinking. Let me illustrate with a recent post from a social media page with clergy from an unnamed Lutheran denomination.

The poster, a male Lutheran pastor, begins by saying how he had just returned home from presiding over a wedding. Here is the pertinent part of his post: "Traveling to part of rural America considered "flyover country" this week...observing "Cultural Christianity". Primary values being: Guns, Barbecue, deer hunting, individual salvation, white superiority, "standing for the flag, kneeling for prayer" (words on t shirts of some white people), hatred of foreigners...and those not explicitly "born again" Christians. Some of the "dumbest acting" white people (in view of conversations with them) I have ever seen...my observation. I really don't know what to say about this except that it is a culture opposes to inclusivity, thinking, openness, considering "the least among us" as valuable, viewing "foreigners" as having anything worthy of contribution, valuing and learning from other cultures, etc."

I live in rural America and nearly all of what he said is flat out false. In fact, the only thing true is the part about standing for the flag and kneeling for prayer! (virtues that were celebrated for centuries before some in this current generation) And yet it shows just how insane the two left coasts are when it comes to how they view the vast majority of the country: It illustrates perfectly how deep the rift is between the two factions or ideologies at play today. Sadly the political rift and the theological rift largely follow along the same divisions. It is no more than a modern day gnostic view of the world, where this pastor supposedly thinks he is more "enlightened" than all of us simpletons in "flyover country." The very term used is reprehensible, suggesting that those in the broad middle of the country are of less value, less worth, and of course less intelligence than him. Many in this modern day gnostic heresy also hold that the best way to win a debate is by the assassination of your opponent also. Former VP Joe Biden, who was all on board with the campaign slogan "Love Trumps Hate," would rather have beaten the crap out of the current president earlier in life.

This attitude sickens me. It is worth pointing out that it does appear on both sides, but regardless of who is adopting the "more-enlightened-than-thou" attitude, it goes against every grain of decency and virtue there is. The poster was even called on by another pastor to repent and retract his heinous attitude, and instead of that happening, dozens of other clergy jumped on to the bandwagon in agreement and berating the one who called for repentance on his sickening and shameful attitude in the first place! For any individual or group to adopt such a condescending and insulting attitude towards a great deal of the country is unconscionable, and is at the heart of our nation's sin today.

Psalm 55 says "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest—  I would flee far away and stay in the desert;  I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.” Confuse the wicked, O Lord, confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.  Day and night they prowl about on its walls; malice and abuse are within it.  Destructive forces are at work in the city; threats and lies never leave its streets."  This psalm has spoken to me ever since my long distance hiking days:  Where even then I perceived a widening rift between city and country.  Any time a select group of people - especially those motivated by a specific ideology - begin to see every one else as inferior or of lesser value, they have become a modern day gnostic, and it is the worst form of atheistic and humanistic idolatry there is.

The reality is that we are not, nor have never been, truly "gnostic" people - none of us - no matter what party, religion, ideology, or affiliation. We know nothing. Rather, reality is that we are all in a state of "agnosis" - the "inability to perceive or having defective knowledge." This is the reality for humanity, and especially today's extremes both in church and in politics. The saddest part of all are those who think they are smarter than they actually are, don't realize just how defective their knowledge is, or their inability to perceive reality. I would certainly include the gnostic pastor mentioned above. Such attitudes wreck the very fabric and foundation of our society, our church, and our government.

I have come to understand asceticism much more of late, and I find it more appealing each passing day: withdrawing from society entirely, because the extreme factions, fighting, and murder-as-solution-to-disputes that come from the attitude mentioned above. The other reality, though, is that we cannot nor must not withdraw, but always act as a witness to the truth, and that truth cannot and must not be set by us, for truth is absolutely relative for humanity. The source of truth must come from outside: God.

I recall the discussions on a controversial topic in our church back in 2007, and I recall one pastor on the more orthodox side of things quipping that he questioned whether his orthodoxy was the correct position every day, wondering whether God truly was calling us into a radical paradigm change here in the 21st century. He also remarked that the "other side" had no such dilemma in their thought: they simply knew they were right. And while this is not always true of the orthodox position, it is more often the case than not.

It is time for us to stop thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought (no matter the position), and rather once again, turn to Christ solely for our guidance, direction, and lessons on how we live with and love one another. More importantly, let his words stand on their own, without our agendae always interfering. It's the first way to make the church great again, and who knows? Maybe it will make America great again too?

Hashtag Politics

"A lie is still a lie no matter how many believe it.  The truth is still the truth even if no one believes it."

It sure seems as though truth = lies today, and lies have become truth.  Everything is haywire as a result.  If we truly take our charters of freedom seriously, then we should still recognize that all rights and all freedoms come ultimately from God, and not man.  Rather, what we have today is that everyone has become an expert on God, and can effectively (better than God himself) tell us what God would do, or would think, rather than actually appeal to anything we DO know about God.  Everyone is creating their own personal god, and these gods are based largely on lies, personal feelings, and often pithy soundbites and memes that themselves are based largely on lies, or at the very least, a gross distortion of truth.

It's easy to spew those out.  Then, when it actually comes to doing something constructive or helpful, we end up with this:

It is now a very effective way to create "trends" on the internet, but sadly it requires little to no actual effort on the part of the user.  It's a Hashtag:  A quick way to promote a cause, and get people to buy into it.  It's a means of getting people to agree to something without having to do much else.  Case in point: the aforementioned kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian Christian girls by Boko Haram, presumably to be converted for the purpose of wives or to be sold into sex slavery.  What did you hear of them after, other than the hashtag campaign?  Nothing was done here, other than the hashtag campaign, which lasted a few weeks at most.  Yet Nigeria still maintains a website with information, and from their own website: 57 ESCAPED, 4 FOUND, 106 RELEASED, 4 INFANTS WITH OUR GIRLS, 19 PARENTS DEAD, 113 STILL MISSING!

These hashtags are the internet sound bites: quick, pithy little statements that are preceded by a “#” which allows them to be tracked on the internet.  So trending topics, such as the #bringbackourgirls” campaign, can be easily identified.  It was very popular for a few days.  But I wouldn’t even call the brief awareness that it created anything substantive as far as a resolution or result.

Sadly, among theologians and the internet, it seems that today what most are getting is “hashtag theology.”    Quick, pithy soundbite styled memes that are posted on social media to make a point, with no supporting documentation or facts to back them.  In other words - its stuff based purely on a lie, most often.  A recent example: A facebook meme floating around is one which purportedly pushes, as Christian duty, to get residents of Great Britain to welcome Syrian and other refugees into their country, but does so by attempting to create guilt in claiming that Great Britain is at fault for creating the refugees in the first place.  It begins with this line: “Over the last 200 years, Britain has systematically invaded, ravaged and destabilized just about every country in the world.”  (I can no longer find a link to this meme)

Now when pushing the poster about this claim, and asking for examples of some of the countries that were invaded by Great Britain in the last 200 years, this is what I got: “I do believe the first settlers to America came from Britain? (settlements do not equate to invasion/ravagement/destabilization).  I do believe the civil war was between the U.S. And Britain? (Seriously?)  I do believe Australia was colonized by Britain sending its prisoners there? (So far we're up to 2, even though some are lies and mistruths)  Modern day terrorists are funded by....you guessed it, the USA & Britain!”  (of course, because it keeps the war industry going, or some similar nonsense like that...)  Like the Michael Brown and Ferguson Missouri situation with “hands up, don’t shoot.” - what might be a great humanitarian thing is based on and being justified by lies  (I especially like the Civil War one...). 

Seek the truth, because what is good and true in all God’s creation doesn’t change just because it is rejected by the masses.  Be faithful to the truth.  Live by it.  In so doing, preserve it for a future generation that will need to know and learn it once again.  America will never be great again until we re-learn to put God first.  

Trust

You cannot trust anyone or anything these days.  It pains me to even have to say this.  And yet every mainstream outlet we have has proven that in this day and age, it is completely normal and good to spread lies, mistruths, and falsehoods, as long as it accomplishes your agendae.  This means that we cannot trust any such outlets to contain truth.  Trust has been broken by all of the lies that have come to light of late.

Why am I on my  bully pulpit about this?  Simply due to getting sucked (briefly) into a social media debate on climate change.  There are reputable scientists on both sides of the spectrum who claim it is either true or false.  Fact is, there is enough uncertainty over global warming that it can really only be classified a theory and nothing more.  And yet the same people time and again, upon citing evidence one way or another, are dismissed outright by the "other side."  The dismissive arguments are worded smoothly to be sure, but few, if any, are actually taking the data at hand and attempting to develop a real working hypothesis out of both historical and current data and modeling.  And so we cannot trust social media.  Nor can we trust science.  (I could go into great detail on the scientific theory of "evolution of species" - also treated today as fact in spite of the overwhelming volume of evidence that FAILS to support the theory).

The fake Russian dossier, along with the rigging of the Democratic primaries a year ago, the "Russian collusion" which is looking more and more like internal collusion to steal an election, the hordes of sleazy harrassment charges across the boards (can't trust Hollywood either), the extreme bias by agents of justice that are supposed to remain neutral in matters, and the like tell us that we can no longer trust our own government.  Frivolous lawsuits (remember the infamous McDonald's cup of coffee?) also mean we cannot trust our own legal system.

The media spins every story, and I mean every story.  News outlets fail to report good news, and focus only on negativity, even when said negativity is misplaced.  This too is across the boards and not limited to a particular political leaning.  It's extremely fashionable today to post intentionally false stories on the internet, which are then picked up as truth and spread like wildfire.  There is no truth in reporting at all, nor can anything on the internet be taken as truth without exhaustive fact checking.  We cannot trust our media outlets at all any longer.

Trust is only one letter away from rust, and it appears that truth today is becoming very rusty.  I recall years ago finding it incredulous that an older man got his news only from short wave radio, and yet I now understand that much better.  In fact, I would even question whether his sources would be reliable and unbiased, actually reporting truth and not a slanted, partisan spin designed to achieve a specific outcome.  It leaves me tired and weary, because everything must now be checked, and even the so-called "fact checkers" are themselves unchecked and able to perpetuate the lies and mistruths.

Seems like the perfect time to renew our trust in Christ.  Since no one can or is able to believe another these days, take the words of Jesus to heart:  "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."  (John 14:1).   Even if you fail to find any credibility in Jesus as the Son of God, whose blood is given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sin, the message of Christian love and truth would overwhelm the dishonest lies coming at us from all corners of society today.  And they are everywhere:  from books where the author admits "embellishing" things to sell the book, to the rush to publish a story before finding out if it is true, to the general make-it-up-as-you-go-along internet, where if it's posted there, it's likely false.

And how do we know we can trust the Bible?  Simply because if it, too, was a lie, it is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on humanity.  It  has withstood the test of time for well over 2000 years for some parts of it, and it has led to the greatest good humanity can offer.

Give it a shot.  You can't trust anything else, so what do you have to lose?  Who knows?  It might just make the world a better place once again after all.

'Doomsday' (aka the "Great American Eclipse 2017")

"Dad, do you know what happens during a solar eclipse?"  "No Sun."
How does the man on the moon get a haircut?  Eclipse it.
What do you need to do to have an eclipse party?  Planet.

Now that I'm through with the bad puns, let's talk about what really happened on August 21.  There was a facebook meme circulating prior to the "Great American Eclipse" that said "If people prepared for the second coming of Christ as much as they prepared for the solar eclipse, the world would be a far better place."  It's a good sentiment that is true and worthy of consideration.  I for one began planning to view the eclipse last October.  The last time I saw one was in 1978 and it was only a partial (I think around 50-60% from my location in Aurora Illinois), and I saw it illegally as a friend of mine and I played hooky from school so we could view it.  As the stuff that comprises legends and lore throughout history, a solar eclipse is indeed one of the most amazing celestial events we could ever witness, and it certainly did not disappoint.  And while I did indeed spend a great deal of time preparing for the day, I would also say that I am more than prepared for Christ's return, which is looking more and more imminent the way the world is collapsing around us.  More on that in a bit.

For me, I truly wondered if, despite that August is traditionally the hottest and driest (and thus clearest) month of the year, if we'd even see it as that would be the day of total cloud cover.  While there were parts of Nebraska that were indeed covered, the clouds we had were on the horizon around us only, as if a large window had opened directly over our viewing location in rural northeast Lincoln County, up on a ridge not far from the center of the path of totality.  The headline image says it all:  I photographed closeups of the sun throughout the entire eclipse sequence, and the most remarkable thing is that when the moon finally exited from in front of the sun, the clouds rolled in and obscured the sky!

The other amazing part of the eclipse, besides the totality phase itself, was that our daughter turned just before totality, as the ground got darker and darker, and shouted "look!"  We all turned to see a mass of blackness to the northwest, and could tell it was coming right at us.  It was the moon's shadow we saw, racing toward us at 1100 miles per hour.  Almost as soon as we saw it, it was upon us, and darkness covered the land for nearly two and a half minutes.  As a result, I didn't catch the "diamond ring" as it entered totality, but would not trade the experience of seeing the moon's shadow coming at us for that at all!

Now sadly, rather than merely take it all in and enjoy this most spectacular display of God's handiwork, the nut jobs all came out of the woodwork (and I don't think I'm being too harsh in calling them that).  Sadly, this would include many pastors and church leaders, who somehow think that they know when the world will end based on such celestial events, despite that Jesus himself says that no one knows the day or the hour, outside of God the Father.  Now there are indeed many passages in the Bible that tells us what signs will accompany the second coming of Christ, or the end of time.  Jesus also says after this:  “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory…” (Matthew 24:29–30)   There is even the prophet Joel, who is also quoted by the Apostle Peter in his first sermon on the day of Pentecost:  “ ‘In the last days,’ God says,  ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. …I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ ” (Acts 2:17–21) 

Now based on Jesus' own words, I do not believe someone could get such a prediction right, even by accident.  But for a moment, we shall assume the end is upon us.  What then?  “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come," Jesus says.  (Matthew 24:42)  There are many other signs to accompany "the end," and this by itself is a rather common sign, compared to some other accompanying signs. Between now and the next North American eclipse in 2024, there are something like 7 other solar eclipses around the world.   Could it be a sign?  Of course.  If it is, what matters alone is that we are ready for it, meaning that our hearts are right with God and we trust and believe in the salvation that comes to us through the grace and mercy of Christ Jesus.

In reality, what St. Peter was driving at for us is that we’ve been in the “last days” since the time of Christ!  It has been 2000 years and counting in the making!  So don't worry about doomsday.  Don't worry about the signs, if they indeed point to the end.
Allow your hearts to be changed by Christ.
Call on the name of God daily.
Know your unworthiness before God, and cherish your worthiness given you through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope you who are reading this enjoyed that unique celestial phenomenon, and may it, like everything else, always point us back to Christ Jesus, who alone saves us from sin, from death, and from the Devil.

(adapted from the sermon for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, August 20, 2017)

Photo compilations and a few eclipse photos can be purchased here, for those who have requested.

Room 235 (The Underground Bunker) Presented by Kevin McGinty and Still Safe At Home...: Tale of Two Completely Different Americas...

Room 235 (The Underground Bunker) Presented by Kevin McGinty and Still Safe At Home...: Tale of Two Completely Different Americas...: Turn on the news, read your local newspaper, listen to a college professor, just about any democrat and an ever increasing number of republi...

Exile! (Bible's Story parts 9 and 10)

To catch up on previous installments, you can read parts 7 and 8, along with  Part 1, Parts 2 and 3, Part 4, and Parts 5 and 6.

In 587 BC, the Babylonian armies once again marched across the now-destroyed “Northern Kingdom” of Israel, and what was left of the “Southern Kingdom” of Judah, completely looting and leveling everything in their path, including Solomon’s great Temple in Jerusalem.  A vast majority of the Hebrews they encountered where either put to the sword or carried off as slaves into exile in Babylon.  In other words, the Israelites were now enslaved and in exile in what is present-day Iraq.

Why?  Why did God let this happen?  It could be said that history does indeed repeat itself, especially for those who fail to learn from it.  Recall the great enslavement of the people in Egypt and the great event of the Old Testament: The Exodus from Egypt, where God leads his people out of the chains of slavery into a new land, with the understanding that they were to honor and glorify God and God alone.  Sadly, honoring God rarely happened.

Conditions throughout the kingdoms were horrific.   Morality had crumbled and society was in chaos.  The people by-and-large were morally and spiritually bankrupt as they engaged in open prostitution even within the temple, and filled the temple with shrines to all manner of false gods.  Its leaders were fiscally irresponsible, enslaving their own people and letting greed run as the center of their existence.  Taxation was through the roof.   Leaders only looked out for themselves (this includes the majority of the kings), and were as morally and spiritually bankrupt as the people.  As the end of Judges testifies, people were doing as they saw fit, not as God had commanded them.  God’s Word meant very little in those times.  The laws that Israel had to honor God by honoring their neighbor had long disappeared.  Prosperity had completely ruined them, and as a result, they had forsaken God who had given them this prosperity in the first place.  As a political note: if you change a few names, dates, and place locations, are we describing our own country?

Therefore, because Israel had forsaken God, who had granted them the prosperity they once enjoyed, God now threatened through a small remnant of faithful followers (the prophets) that disaster would fall on them if they did not return to their Lord and God and forsake the many sinful, selfish ways that God deemed destructive to them and the common good.  Warnings were issued for dozens, even hundreds of years, that went unheeded.

The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles essentially retell the story of the kings, but this time for a remnant of God’s people now in exile that would be restored.  If God had something to say before the exile, did God also have something to say even now to those who were in exile?  Was God still interested in them?  The answer is a resounding “yes.”  Israel needed to recall what had gotten them into this new slavery and this new mess in the first place: they themselves did.

Continuity with the past was perhaps the best way they could prevent the same thing from happening once more.  And of course, during this whole period of time, the prophets - those elusive, sometimes reclusive, often reluctant but faithful messengers of God, were not only warning them of disaster, but also reminding them that God’s covenant with Abraham was not fulfilled yet.  While their “predictions” of disaster did indeed come to be fulfilled, would their words of comfort and encouragement regarding the restoration of Israel and a coming Savior from God also be fulfilled?

There are numerous books of prophesy in the Old Testament.  They are divided into “major” and “minor” prophets.  These correspond largely to the size of the books.  Therefore, the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel are considered “major,” while the majority of the prophets (Hosea through Malachi) are considered “minor.”  Other prophets also existed that do not have their words recorded in the Bible, such as Elijah, who was a prophet of God in the early years of the kings.  Nearly half (17 of 39) books of the Old Testament are books attributed to these elusive messengers of God.

What is a prophet?  It is someone, called by God, to deliver a message to God’s people.  A prophet’s primary mission for God is not to predict the future, but to deliver the message.  God’s prophets had a universal message that recurred over and over.  It is not unlike the message we saw throughout the history books telling us of the kings: the people had rebelled against and turned away from God, and needed to renew their commitment to the LORD.  Spiritually, the people were terminally sick.  Morally, the people were bankrupt.  Socially, however, things never appeared better, despite the lies, deception, corruption, and greed on a national level.

As God’s messenger, first and foremost, what is often associated with the prophet’s words is a statement such as “thus says the Lord...” (Jeremiah 2:2 and elsewhere).  Though the prophets spoke for God, their message was often ignored.  So how then, one might ask, does a person know if the prophet’s message is for real?  It can be measured on whether or not it conforms to the past history, and on whether or not its message comes true.

In the case of the Biblical prophets, they really weren’t telling the people anything new that they had not heard before.  If we recall the covenant God made on Mount Sinai (the 10 Commandments), there were certain stipulations that went along with it.  The prophets were simply reminding the people and the leaders of those stipulations, and warning them that the disasters foretold for them disobeying the covenant would take place soon if they did not change their ways (Deut. 27:15-26).

However, the prophets, in addition to warning the people of impending disaster according to the conditions of the Sinai Covenant, also foretold of a “restoration” after disaster hit, that would also be brought about by God.  The “restoration” prophesies all center on a future “Messiah” or “Savior” that was yet to come.  Some of these prophetic words are even affirmed when we read the four Gospels, especially in the Gospel of St. Matthew.  For example, Isaiah 7:14, which says “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son...” is confirmed to be fulfilled in Jesus when we read Matthew 1:23.  So even though the disaster scenario of the Israelites disobeying their part of the covenant was going to happen, God wasn’t done yet, and had additional plans for not only Israel but also the whole world, Isaiah 11:10, 12 and elsewhere.

Though Israel was God’s chosen, eventually all peoples are chosen by God to live in covenant with Him through the examples both good and bad given us by the Hebrew people.   The foretold Messiah is to be the fulfillment of this future hope.  Today, we know this Messiah as Jesus.

A Sad State of Affairs

I recently joined (and have since left) a facebook page for pastors about Christian ministry.  The reasons for leaving are pretty simple, really.  It was not about Christian ministry, but about appealing to some bland, faceless, nameless worship of some generic god.  It demonstrated clearly that such things as the sovereignty of God, absolute truth, salvation through Christ, and the like, are simply lost on too many, including those shepherds who ought to know better and should be about certain convictions and certainties when it comes to the Christian faith.  It was a sobering indictment of the state of clergy today.  Sadly, the following exchange is becoming all to common in today's "Christian" world.

This is the thread that precipitated my quick departure from the page.  The original post was a question:  "On Thursday I must conduct a funeral for a 21 yr. old transgender girl who committed suicide yesterday. I am transgender myself so I understand the issues surrounding this situation. I am asking for words/ prayers to use for the service."

Now many responses simply offered prayers and thoughts, in a spirit of compassion.  But from there, it descended into paganism, as one response went thus (red comments are mine, in case it is not obvious):  "In Genesis 1, we read that God created male and female in God's image. This means God is male and female  (NO, it Doesn't). Our transgender siblings may very well resemble God more than I (cis), as their "image of God" bodies are complex and less definable... like our God."

Another response went like this:  "I have often times wondered this. If the pronoun Ze (Uh, "ZE" is NOT a pronoun...)  that is preferred by some transgender are more theologically accurate for God as well."  And from there it continued to descend:  "And a gentle reminder to all not to use the phrase "committed" suicide. Preference is for "died by suicide." It is not a criminal act, but a sad and tragic one."  There was more than one posting grasping at such trivial and pointless semantics.

Explicit references to Christ were absent, with the exception of some very pagan prayers offered, such as this one:

Jesus, as a mother (But he was a man?)  you gather your people to you:

You are gentle with us as a mother with her children;

There were two glaring exceptions to this appeal to a bland, generic god, and both of which came from Lutheran pastors within the "North American Lutheran Church."  They both commented that what was needed was to preach Christ alone, and also asked why the need to bring transgender into it at all?  Here is the dialog on one such comment:

Q:  Why the need to bring "transgender" into it? It is a death of a child of God. Preach to that, in the name of Christ Jesus.
R: Because being Transgender was an important part of who she was and the family has requested I do so.
Q: My point is that being transgender did not save her. Neither does my not being so save me. It is Christ who saves and Christ alone, in the midst of things the world cannot ever understand. That's what ultimately matters.
R2:  Why the need to put transgender in quotes in your original post? That makes it seem like you don't believe transgender is a real thing.
Q:  Oh good grief. really? Grammatically, that is the way the sentence should have been written is all. Did you happen to notice that in my followup where it is not enclosed by quotations? I'm guessing not.
R3: Being a woman or being 21 didn't save her, either, so does that mean those shouldn't be mentioned, either? Where is the line?

This whole, surreal denial of salvation through Christ culminated with the original poster and this comment:  Thank you for all your wonderful support and comments. I used many sentiments in writing the service. I am also Transgender and spoke of my own experiences. The family is Druid and I led a Druid Death Ritual which comforted the family greatly. Your support through this unbelievable tragedy was really appreciated.

Seriously?  A pagan ritual offers more comfort than salvation through Christ?  For those that think so, it is clear that they do not know Christ Jesus at all.  If in the midst of tragedy, some clergy turn to all manner of pagan rituals which deny the death and resurrection of Christ, then the state of pastors in America is in dire trouble (and the church is on a parallel track to it's own collective demise as a result).  I'm reminded of a quote by evangelist John Stott recently, who said "The modern world detests authority but worships relevance. Our Christian conviction is that the Bible has both authority and relevance, and that the secret of both is Jesus Christ."  Yes.  Simply yes.  That conviction is the supremacy of Christ Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords.

This is just the tip of the iceburg in observing the sad state of the Christian church today.  Paganism, apostasy, lawlessness, and cheap grace abound.  They abound because a majority no longer have the capacity to comprehend that God stands above us all.  When we are  no longer mastered by God, we become masters of our own carnal lusts and desires.  I weep for the Christian church as it descends into 21st century paganism.  And I, like the psalmist, pray "How long, O Lord?"