Moving Christ to the margins. . .

Though it is hardly a secret that the Episcopal Church has shed nearly every hint of Christian orthodoxy over the years, it never fails to amaze me at how far this communion will go to push Christ to the margins in favor of the latest and greatest social and cultural craze.  Now the wisdom of the Episcopalians has determined that transgenders at every age are to be rescued from the prison of the alien bodies by the gift of surgery, puberty blockers, and hormones.

Resolution D066, passed by the 80th General Convention, is titled “Addressing restrictions on access to gender affirming care.” The House of Bishops has concurred with the resolution.

It calls for the Episcopal Church to “advocate for access to gender affirming care in all forms (social, medical, or any other) and at all ages.” It goes on to say that advocating for sex change operations is “part of our Baptismal call to respect the dignity of every human being.”

The resolution specifically “affirms that all Episcopalians should be able to partake in gender affirming care with no restriction on movement, autonomy, or timing.” The Episcopal Church also opposes laws that prohibit people, including children, from being medically assisted in their attempts to change their sex.

What the Episcopal Church refers to as “gender affirming care” includes medical interventions such as the use of puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, as well as surgeries that permanently damage fully functioning body parts, or that seek to change one’s face shape.

The farce of it all is that this position claims to be rooted in a baptismal dignity that respects every human being.  What fools some Christians have become!  They find a position, justify it in some way with a Scripture passage or lofty sounding theological jargon, and then proceed to call this the Gospel with never a mention of Christ's death or resurrection or the true baptismal identity of neither male nor female belonging not to the will of the person but to the declaration of God, who has purchased and won the baptized with the precious blood of Jesus shed and His sufferings endured even to death.

My point is simply this.  Wake up those in the pews of such liberal churches.  Wake up and see what is being put in place of Christ and His atoning work that saves.  Wake up and see how Christ is being moved to the margins and the fanciful whims of modern sentiment and woke truth is placed upon the throne to be worshiped in place of the Lord.  Wake up and abandon the pews without regret and find yourself a church where Christ is the center, where the Gospel speaks of the Crucified and Risen Savior who has saved us by His grace, where the Word of Scripture is true and truth that saves, where the Spirit works through the means of grace, where worship is reverent and dignified, and where the Gospel endures even amid the assaults of the devil, the world, and the sinful self.  Check out a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod congregation -- but do your homework and find out something about the parish you plan to visit.  Yes, we have some crazies in our own tradition but at least our national jurisdiction holds the faith and holds the line against this becoming normalized as it has in the Episcopal Church.