WHERE DID THE GENDER AGENDA COME FROM?

Like many of my Sons of Issachar readers, I have been perplexed at the way that the transgender agenda has come into the foreground of Western society and I have been pondering how this has happened and what does it mean for those concerned about the signs of the times. It is one of a number of issues where common sense has been shelved in what has been a concerted attack on previously accepted society norms. As I was reflecting on what has happened recently, I remembered some key dialogue from The Sun Also Rises published in 1926.

Mike Campbell, a character in Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel was asked about his financial challenges when Bill asks him:

“How did you go bankrupt?”

“Two ways” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly”.

This conversation seems to be one that we are all having these days as we wonder how things became so crazy, so quickly? It appears to have been gradual and then sudden.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Governor of Arkansas, articulated what I am sure is a majority position in her response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, delivered in February this year. Governor Sanders said:

“The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left; the choice is between normal or crazy….”

As I have been thinking about the conversation between Bill and Mike in The Sun Also Rises, I also remember my father telling me a story that he heard in his youth in the 1930s depression years. A neighbour who had extensive land holdings and was known for his great and lavish parties over the years had gone bankrupt. He had been forced into selling up his final land and was liquidating the remainder of his possessions in a clearing sale. My grandfather said:

“It’s very sad, Amos, to have to sell everything up”.

Amos replied,,

“Yes Reub, it is, but thank God they can’t take away the good times we’ve had”.

Remember the Good Times?

As things have been becoming increasingly crazy, I wonder if you can remember the good times we’ve had? Not so many years ago, life seemed more straightforward and our problems appeared easier to solve. Most of us were unaware of the now, ever-intruding biosecurity, ecofascist state, even though many of the building blocks were being put into place 50 years ago. Globalist organizations like the UN and WHO have gradually gained power, assisted by “philanthropists” who threw billions of dollars into woke causes from their tax-exempt foundations, to ensure the rise of a globalized, controlling biosecurity bureaucracy. We are being shepherded into a future of ESG scores, diversity, equity and inclusion policies and population reduction to avoid a “climate emergency”. It seems impossible to beat the net zero agenda and woke policies that are being accelerated in their imposition by public and private partnerships.

The “China virus”, lockdowns and the biosecurity state have dulled all our senses, but most of us can remember a time  not so long ago, when even President Obama declared in 2008 :

“I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage.”

However, four years later, Obama declared that he had been “going through an evolution on this issue” so in May 2012, he announced:

“I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."

I wonder how this “evolution” occurred? Undoubtedly, it was after significant pressure from various activist groups, that had gained control of crucial propaganda tools including the media and the left wing of politics. And so, after thousands of years of belief that marriage was only between a man and a woman, in the last ten years, suddenly this societal standard was overturned.

From Transgender to Transhuman

As I noted in last week’s newsletter, we mostly fail to understand the spiritual forces of darkness that are at work in the world. These spiritual forces want to upend the concept of good and evil and even the idea of truth. The view is increasingly accepted that there is no absolute truth just “my truth” and “your truth”. It is worthwhile viewing Matt Walsh’s outstanding movie What Is A Woman? If you haven’t seen it, you can view the film at this link. One of the messages that is evident is the unwillingness of people interviewed to consider that there could be “truth” rather than just opinion.

It is now apparent that the “gay marriage” agenda was the thin edge of a huge wedge that is the LBGTQ+ plan now seeking to normalize men dressing provocatively as women and reading to children in libraries, in the highly organized “Drag Queen Story Hour”. This would have been considered preposterous just a few years ago, but now the transgender agenda is becoming more apparent and more assertive. This is definitely part of an increasingly evil journey and not just a destination. Ultimately, it appears to be part of a plan to end human reproduction as part of a more sinister strategy to decrease the world population dramatically. It also coincides with the promotion of “transhumanism”, as touted by the World Economic Forum “prophets”, Klaus Schwab and Yuval Noah Harari – see this link.

Last year, I read the terrifying book From Transgender to Transhuman by Martine Rothblatt published in 2011. Martine was formerly Martin, a tech entrepreneur who is very wealthy and influential. Martine’s book was previously titled The Apartheid of Sex, and in the book advocates “Adopting educational curricula and entertainment programming that encourage the concept of self-defined sex and flexible gender behaviors”. This strategy has been highly successful, and so-called “Pride Month” has been adopted by schools and even churches.

Towards the end of the book, Martine writes:

“Will technology stop at transgenderism? If a century or so of technology has demolished millennia of absolute sexual duality, what might another few decades of exponentially growing technology do? Sex lies at the heart of biology, yet in transcending biology, technology gave us an explosion of sexual identities. So, as technology continues to transcend biology, what next can we expect beyond the apartheid of sex? An explosion of human identities? The answer, in a word, is transhumanism.” (p 104).

To explain the “evolution” to becoming transhuman, Rothblatt writes:

“..we can define “transhumans” as people who have hybridized themselves with computational technology as part of humanity’s effort to control  its evolutionary destiny.” (p105). In extending the argument from transgender to transhuman, Rothblatt notes: “The first step in extending the lessons of transgenderism to transhumanism is to recognize the continuity of life across substrates, just like the continuity of gender across body-types” (p105).

At the conclusion of the book, Rothblatt draws parallels from the abolition of slavery and apartheid:

“Transgenderism is on a successful track. But it is ascendant only because previous victories against slavery, racial apartheid and the subjugation of women established the fundamental principle that reason trumps biology……As reasoning beings, we must welcome this further transcendence of arbitrary biology, and embrace in solidarity all conscious life.” (p108).

It is important to note that the book was published in 2011 and it is now apparent that the path from transgenderism to transhumanism has been mapped out, and these ideas will be widely promoted.

How Common Is Gender Dysphoria?

Why is the idea of gender fluidity being so strongly advocated by the media, educationalists and politicians? Gender dysphoria as a clinical diagnosis, seems to be rare. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical  Manual of Mental Disorders 5^th Edition (cited here) – gender dysphoria prevalence accounts for 0.005–0.014% of the population for biological males and 0.002–0.003% for biological females. These are small numbers and yet the promotion of gender dysphoria and the assertion that biological sex isn’t fixed, has led to a dramatic increase in reports from schools and gender clinics. Recent data from the Pew Center indicates “about 5% of young adults in the U.S.  say their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth”. This indicates that the issue is 1,000 times more prevalent than the mental health handbooks indicate. Personal stories that I have heard indicate that many school teachers are promoting the idea of gender fluidity and it is apparent that young people with gender confusion are being encouraged by the medical, psychological and educational systems, to seek their “true gender”. Irreversible surgeries are being performed and are being cleverly called “gender affirmation surgeries”. For what can only be evil reasons, confused children are being pushed towards ideas that have long-lasting and damaging consequences.

The Transgender Movement

The transgender movement has a “take no prisoners” approach, and anyone seeking to affirm the simple biological fact of immutable differences between male and female is targeted for promoting “hate speech”. Of course, those who would argue against biology, also have to argue with God.  In Genesis 1:27, we are told: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”. God created immutable gender and somehow, as a society, the “influencers” are trying to deny biology. It is like trying to deny that there is day and night.

It is clear (at least to me) that this transgender movement is highly organized, influential and is centrally controlled by the spiritual powers of darkness in the heavenly realms. What we all have to realize is that we are facing a spiritual battle and most of us are unprepared. The hidden aim of the whole movement is the destruction of mankind as we know it and the destruction of belief in God.

With the transgender movement, no stone is left unturned, including targeting the military. I came across an interesting article published in 2018 by the US Center for Military Readiness , titled What’s Behind the Transgender Movement and Where Is It Going? The group notes that: “With lightning speed, an aggressive social movement promoting acceptance of transgenderism in American society has emerged and gained steam”. The article provides a number of links to opinions about the transgender movement which has targeted the military in all countries, and as the authors write: “…seeks millions in Defense Department funding to transform the culture of our military. 

No longer is it the effectiveness of the military capability that is the key consideration for military planners but pacifying the LBGTQ+ activists. Defense departments in the West, that appear have little concern for national security but rather various LGBTQ+ priorities (or climate change), seem to be inviting war by demonstrating the military unpreparedness of Western nations. It is yet another sign that there are those who seek the intentional decline of the US. You can be certain that China’s People’s Liberation Army is not focused on getting their diversity, equity and inclusion scores up!

An article in The Federalist in 2014 highlighted many of the problems that are now upon us. Stella Morabito wrote:

“Under the guise of “rights,” the transgender movement can serve as convenient cover for consolidating and centralizing power under an ever-expanding State. Once we allow the State to refuse to recognize that children result from the male-female union, we grant the State more power to separate us from our children. As power becomes more centralized in the State, the individuals and institutions of the State, inevitably flawed, end up owning our personal relationships.”

Having taken steps down the transgender road, in the name of compassion, legislators find themselves trapped in a dead-end street. Governments, school boards and educators are being targeted to assert the rights of transgender students. Legal advice prevents common sense being applied. This week The Times published a leading article titled: Tougher guidance for schools is unlawful, Sunak told.

The UK Education Minister wanted to toughen guidance to prevent children simply changing their gender on a whim. The article noted:

“A Whitehall source said that No 10 and Badenoch (the Education minister) had put forward a series of proposals to strengthen the guidance. The strongest — and a reflection of the government’s concerns — was a blanket ban on social transitioning.

Social transitioning describes the process by which transgender children or adults adopt a name, pronouns, and gender expression, such as clothing and haircuts, that match their new gender identity.

Prentis (the attorney-general) said that a blanket ban would be unlawful because the Equalities Act states that gender reassignment is a “protected characteristic”, regardless of age. She gave the same advice when ministers asked whether there could be a ban on social transitioning for primary school children.”

We seem to be caught in a legal minefield and crazy ideas are trumping common-sense. In the UK, this last week there was a story about a girl at school who identified as a cat!  Ewan Somerville writes that:

“A school teacher told a pupil she was “despicable” after she refused to accept that her classmate identifies as a cat.

The 13-year-old girl and her friend were reprimanded by their teacher at Rye College, in East Sussex, on Friday at the end of a Year 8 class on “life education” in which they were told they can “be who you want to be and how you identify is up to you”.

The row, which has infuriated parents, was allegedly sparked by one of them asking a fellow pupil: “How can you identify as a cat when you’re a girl?”

Their teacher told them they were being reported to a senior leader and were no longer welcome at the school, if they continued to express the view that only boys and girls exist.”

Clearly, we are heading for disaster as a society if we continue to reject our Christian heritage and law, that have stood for centuries. Undoubtedly, these are not issues that have suddenly arisen but rather agendas that have been promoted by those who seek our destruction. In whatever way we can, we have to take action to prevent these crazy ideas being imposed upon us, even though the growing “woke brigade” seems to hold all the cards. Prayer is required to break the spiritual strongholds and great discernment to know how to act.

STORIES THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION THIS WEEK

I have read dozens of important articles this week and listened to many podcasts. I had planned to provide links to these stories with some summaries but eventually I decided to write a summary of my understanding of what is happening in the US, where the countdown to the 2024 presidential election is proceeding, and the UK, which increasingly looks like a train wreck.

The Increasing Indictments of President Trump

Each week seems to herald a new story about various prosecutors seeking to indict Donald Trump. This week, Trump himself announced that special prosecutor, Jack Smith, would likely indict him in relation to the January 6^th Capitol riot in 2021. Trump sent this message out to his followers on Truth Social – see this link:

“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter … stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and an Indictment”.

You have to admit that whether you like him or not, Trump is a great entertainer and communicator. Who else would start their message with the word “deranged”?

However, Trump is being projected by the media as a dangerous madman, which then justifies any action taken against him, whether lawful or not. There is even a well-funded group trying to ensure that Trump has no defense lawyers by targeting for disbarment any lawyers who seek to defend Trump. This is called the 65 Project. Some of the media commentators are using extraordinary language and Breitbart News reported this week that:

“CNN political commentator Van Jones said Wednesday on “CNN This Morning” that if former president Donald Trump is indicted in the January 6 investigation, it could show him to be “probably the most dangerous president ever.”” “Most dangerous president ever”– quite a claim!

I have read many reports and listened to political insiders on numerous podcasts. There is no clear view of what the Democrats are trying to achieve. With each indictment, Trump’s approval ratings increase and he is ahead of the rest of the Republican field now by 20 to 30 points. Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign seems to have stalled. This last week he was called up to New York State to meet with wealthy donors who are unhappy with his campaign.

Many commentators believe that the Democratic Party is trying to shoehorn Trump into the Republican nomination because they think that they can beat him, even with Joe Biden as his opponent. It seems increasingly unlikely that Biden will be the Democratic Party nominee. Last year I watched the interesting film Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Plan for Power (see this link) which provides a convincing view about Michelle Obama being nominated for 2024. Have a look at the link and the associated trailer.

The polarization of politics in the US and the use of the Justice Department for partisan purposes, targeting Republicans and exonerating Democrats, is a recipe for ongoing political conflict. Tough times are ahead for the US and it is possible to conceive of a situation in the next 18 months where once again violence and disorder occur on the streets of the US. When people see that justice isn’t impartial, they no longer trust the system. It is now clear that the Biden family has been given preferential treatment and protected from prosecution, given recent evidence provided by IRS whistleblowers and a Ukrainian oligarch.

The US Constitution has provided almost 250 years of peaceful transition of power but faith in the integrity of the electoral system has declined dramatically. In addition to a loss of trust in the justice system, there is widespread suspicion of the impartiality of agencies like the CIA, FBI and IRS.

My advice – if you are living in a coastal city, get out and move to rural Tennessee or Wyoming.

The Meltdown of the United Kingdom

Every day I read The Times and The Telegraph, two of the most prominent UK newspapers. It is a very depressing experience but for my Sons of Issachar readers, I will give you a summary of current events.

A government that is run by a party that calls itself “conservative” seems to be implementing some of the most left-wing ideas in UK history. They even have a Minister for Levelling-Up, so that everyone ends up equal!

The much vaunted health service, the NHS, is in freefall and no one can get to see their GP, let alone any specialist. Waiting times for various procedures have blown out to 7 years and now junior doctors and consultants are going on strike. Waiting times in emergency rooms can be as long as 24 hours and malpractice claims have gone through the roof. Welcome to socialized medicine. Somehow, the NHS has become a sacred cow and no one is prepared to kill it. Instead, more billions of pounds will be thrown at the service and it is evident that neither the government or opposition in the UK have any idea how to fix the problem. A sinister idea has emerged that the solution is “technology”. Everyone will have to communicate via the NHS app and face-to-face appointments will be a thing of the past. A UK version of Chinese “bare foot doctors” has been proposed and apprentice doctors will be trained on the job, most of whom will have a rudimentary knowledge of medicine.

Illegal migrants are pouring into the UK on small boats across the Channel and are being housed in expensive hotels. Despite millions of pounds spent on the idea of sending the illegal immigrants to Rwanda, legal manoeuvres and obstinacy in the House of Lords has prevented one person being sent. Immigration has long been one of UK citizen’s major concerns but the numbers keep rising each year and last year approached 1 million. There is no appetite by either the Conservatives or Labour to fix the problem.

The UK police force can’t be relied upon for safety or law enforcement. A recent report commissioned by the UK Metropolitan Police has concluded that the police force is “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic”. There are also almost daily reports in the UK papers about sexual assaults by police. Additionally, virtually no burglaries have been solved by police in the recent past.

Both Labour and the Conservatives have enshrined “net zero” into legislation. Now the chickens are coming home to roost and there are going to be significant energy shortages in the coming winter but no problems for the bison that are being “re-wilded”. The main solution is to put windmills all over the UK and in the North Sea but this won’t meet the energy needs. Cars are being restricted in most cities and traffic is being brought to a standstill. The only winners are the cyclists with new bicycle lanes seemingly opened on a daily basis. Of course, in the future cars will not be needed as plans proceed for “15 minute cities” - where people will be restricted but will have everything they need within a 15-minute walk. Currently, surveillance cameras are everywhere and undoubtedly are sending all the information gained back to President Xi in Beijing.

I suppose, you have to admire the Brits. They are not going down without a good show. This last week we had the spectacle of the Wimbledon tennis, with the last remaining grass courts for a major tennis championship. Then last month, there was the “trooping of the colour” - an amazing pageant to celebrate King Charles’ first birthday as monarch.  This involved lots of horses, bands, guards in bearskin hats and an aircraft flyover. Britain may have sent all its ammunition to Ukraine but the country still has great uniforms and can really put on a parade!

Unfortunately, things can only get worse. Even the banks have gone woke, shutting down accounts of people they don’t like and the Church of England is even woker! Bishops are more concerned about climate change than salvation and now are questioning the Lord’s Prayer, which the Archbishop of York as described as “problematic” and “patriachal”. Where do you go for help? It’s not the current UK Opposition.

Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is a socialist with close links to the World Economic Forum and Trilateral Commission. He and his Labour cronies are certain to win in a landslide in the 2024 UK elections because the Conservative Party has completely lost people’s trust. Labour will do what all socialist governments do and keep spending until they have run out of money. Sir Keir wants to eliminate private schools, spend even more money on the NHS and nationalize everything he can. Unfortunately, the Conservatives are so incompetent that this looks like good news!

My summary of what is happening in the UK could be unduly pessimistic but I don’t think so.

With the end of the US and UK in sight, it’s every man for himself! They do tell me that Moscow is very attractive in the summer.