Charisma News Briefs: Is Pope Francis Misleading Young Christian Adults?
In his most recent effort to reach out to the LGBTQ community, Pope Francis and the Vatican released comments this week to a young transgender person that continues to toe the line of a very sensitive topic in the Catholic Church.
In a podcast released Tuesday by the Vatican—the second episode of Vatican Media’s “Popecast,” the Pontiff told a young person in their 20s named Giona that “The Lord always walks with us. … Even if we are sinners, He draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are; this is God’s crazy love.”
Giona told Pope Francis during the podcast that they were “torn by the dichotomy between their Catholic faith and transgender identity.”
Pope Francis has previously said, “who am I to judge” in an answer to a question specifically about homosexuals. He has also condemned laws criminalizing members of the LGBT community as a sin and an injustice.
The 86-year-old Pope continually reaffirms that marriage can only be a life-long union between a man and a woman, but supports civil laws giving same-sex couples rights in bureaucratic matters such as pensions and health care, Reuters reported.
Father Concerned About Religious School’s Sex Education Lessons
The Church of England has become well known lately for its growing relationship with the LGBTQ community, and one parent has become very concerned about what he says is inappropriate and explicit sex education lessons in his child’s school.
The father launched an anonymous appeal to Rev. Nigel Genders about the materials he says an “unnamed” Church of England school in Norfolk is using to teach children as young as seven that they can be born into the wrong body. London-based Christian Legal Centre, who is aiding the man’s legal battle, made the complaint public.
Christian Legal Centre also says that the materials are “reportedly encouraging young students to participate in simulated same-sex weddings.”
The parent asked the Church of England to step in an explain why such a curriculum was being promoted at a Church of England school. MSN.com reported that Genders responded to the complaint by saying that schools are allowed to make their own decisions about sex education lessons, referring the parent back to the school to handle his grievance.
Frustrated with what he believes is an apathetic response, the father has reportedly pulled his two children and placed them in a different school. He says the material is “wholly age inappropriate, sexually-explicit, ideologically influenced and unsupported by scientific basis.” He also said the Church of England is “passing the buck” by sending it back to the school for a ruling.
“Teaching 7- to 8-year-old children that they can choose their gender (boy, girl or not sure), and that they are only born ‘like’ a boy or ‘like’ a girl but that it is how they feel inside that counts, is a highly contested and dangerous concept that is not grounded in established science,” he said. {eoa}
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