Paul: “That’s what they said you would say”
Letter to the editor
Johnny comes home from school, does his homework, and goes on social media. As his parent, you are his friend on social media – after all, that was your requirement for Johnny to have his own account in the first place. After dinner, you go on your feed and find that Johnny has made a post today that is getting a lot of traction. Here’s the post:
“I always knew I was transgender. Thank you everyone for your love and support.” #LGBT #ComingOutDay #PrideMonth #DontSayGay #GainesvillePride
As a parent, you are confused and horrified. In these tumultuous times, your child doing something like this is dangerous. Wait… Johnny doesn’t seem like any transgender person you could think of. Who do I know dealing with trans? The ones I know are unrecognizable or don’t look normal. But my kid isn’t like…
Wait… Why would your child go to social media first and tell the world something like this? Why wouldn’t he come to you? What is going to happen next? Your friends? His friends? Your church? Youth group? School? Why didn’t he just come to you first? Maybe this could’ve been resolved before anyone else was involved.
Wait… who did this? Who has he been talking to? Are any of his friends dealing with this? Has he done something online I was unaware of? Who else knows about this and didn’t tell me?
My child will not be sterilized like the others. Those kids have affirming parents…
You decide to do the loving thing and talk with your child right away.
“Johnny, I don’t understand why you would post something like that without coming to me.”
OR
“Johnny, I saw your post on social media… who told you that you were trans?”
OR
“Johnny, I saw your post, but you’re not trans, Johnny. I probably felt very similar to you at your age, and I was normal. Plus you seem masculine and you don’t express like someone who is trans. I know you better than anyone else.”
Regardless of what you say, Johnny replies generally this way: “They told me you would say that… you are one of those… I never thought you would be one of those people. Why can’t you just accept me as I am?!”
All of a sudden, you are now one of those “bigots,” except you aren’t. Your child has been indoctrinated.
What you are dealing with here is not just a difference of opinion or a difference of worldview. Your child is trapped in a cult.
Cults are unique in how they respond to people they view as outsiders. This cult is extreme. It prepares followers not only to shun outsiders but to reinforce the shunning with hostility if need be.
This cult recruits vulnerable people. The young, the disenfranchised, the disabled. They look for those who have underdeveloped judgment and are looking for security in community. The strongest of the recruits get trained to train others. They proselytize not only their worldview, but also their methods, to keep people from thinking for themselves.
The problem with the LGBT Cult is that anyone can be in it, regardless of how they express themselves, how they identify, or their sexual preferences. The LGBT Cult is a worldview you cannot cross or question. The problem doesn’t just lie in the “process” of becoming a member, or the relative ease of joining, or the access to its leaders, but in the shunning and hostility toward outsiders.
You have experienced this cult’s far reach:
- DEI trainings that equate racial minorities with LGBT;
- Organizational policies that prioritize the direct members of LGBT;
- Social media ads, groups, and algorithms that prioritize LGBT;
- Hospitals that stymie dissenting clinicians;
- Political movements like neurodivergence within the medical community;
- Schools that stifle transparency and accountability;
- Nonprofit programs that funnel money to LGBT lobbyists;
- Politics that promote abhorrent sexual practices;
- Businesses that sponsor LGBT lobbies;
- Child protests that “out” kids to their parents and promote groupthink;
- Pride Months ordained by presidents, corporations, and social media;
- Coming-out days to shock families before the holidays;
- Government-reinforced regulations to promote sexual promiscuity.
For LGBT-identified people, parents, family, and friends: The fastest way for any victim of the LGBT cult to recover is to separate from it for an extended period, educate yourself, and grieve your losses. Then, with eyes wide open, seek sound counsel and build community that will allow you autonomy to think for yourself, speak for yourself, and accept responsibility for your actions. This process is complex, and you will have many questions. To help you on your journey, I have provided some resources below.
Where do I begin to educate myself?
BOOKS:
Desist, Detrans, & Detox: Getting Your Child Out of The Gender Cult by Maria Keffler
Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs by Steven Hassan
Responding to the Transgender Issue: Parent Resource Guide at: genderresourceguide.com
FILMS:
Tranzformed: Finding Peace with Your God-Given Gender
WEBSITES:
Detransitioning:
Ex-LGBT/Christian Sexuality Networks:
Advocacy:
Medical:
Local Resources:
Become an ambassador to your church by filling out our orientation form here:
Identifyministries.org/connect/appointments
Derek Paul, Gainesville
Derek Paul is the Executive Pastor of Identify Ministries, Executive Director of the Transformation Ministries Alliance, and a board member of Voice of the Voiceless. His personal testimony and effective ministry have produced amazing results for individuals and families.
The opinions expressed by letter or opinion writers are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AlachuaChronicle.com. Letters may be submitted to info@alachuachronicle.com and are published at the discretion of the editor.
Cult? Funny the author should say this.
It’s absolutely a cult. Young people don’t just start becoming gay or whatever at an exponential rate for no reason. The only other plausible explanation is that it’s something in the food/water/pharma…I’d wager to say it’s a little of both but most dominantly due to the cult mentality. Either way it’s completely unnatural.
Ugh.
Letters submitted are published at the discretion of the editor – enough said – cult??
Derek Paul is courageous for addressing this social contagion. The sheer rate at which the identification with these groups has grown should serve as evidence that it’s not organic in nature.
The trans movement in particular is so dedicated to driving a wedge between child and parents, urging a swift transition with hormones, surgery…even removing the child from parents for some supposed abuse when parents oppose irreversible medical interventions.
I pray that the truth will set the captives free.
@ Concerned Mom. Excellent post and truthful without being vengeful or mean. Well done you.
Wait, you believe you can just get hormones and surgery by just asking for it?? SERIOUSLY?????? Never mind the thousands of dollars needed for a “swift transition”, which even if insurance covered, would still be astronomical, a medical diagnosis is also needed. I doubt your doctor would prescribe you estrogen blockers and testosterone hormones with a phone call or office visit. In other words, there is nothing “swift” about hormone therapy and/or surgery decisions.
Great article! Schools need to go back to teaching the three r’s and not indoctrinating our kids! Remember it is the parents responsibility to educate children.
“it is the parents responsibility to educate children”, you ady? then why do we send kids to school for the ” three r’s”??
McDonalds came out with Happy Meals to indoctrinate kids with their food. Many religious and military orgs cultivate starting young as well. But it’s more dangerous when adults and kids team up over sexuality. That’s why the public accepted only adult civil rights for LGB, not the added letters and not for kids. Voter referendums accepted adults being adults, private and public.
The added childhood gender issues should be kept private, between parents and kids — and not split up by outer funded interests. When they turn 18, they can be adults.
The cult is using the state to take kids away from parents… in Blue states https://revolver.news/2024/02/watch-catholic-indiana-couple-appeals-to-supreme-court-after-their-child-was-taken-away-because-they-wouldnt-use-trans-pronouns/
Wait, wait. So the entire Indiana DCS just intervened because parents wouldn’t call the kid by preferred pronouns? That seems legit to you??? The same state that ultra religious Mike Pence governed and appointed justices to the courts, right? Perhaps the Indiana Supreme Court didn’t bother to pick up this case because its more than just the use of pronouns.
All parents have the right to be concerned about what their children do, and how they grow up. Most of us parents, including me, have made mistakes and done things that our parents disapproved of, and most of us turned out OK. Criticizing and labeling the kid won’t help, and turning to certain drastic measures to change the kid could make things worse. Becoming one of the haters, who are a real cult, is dangerous and counter productive. The post’s definition of a cult and its members seems to describe haters, and the list allegedly describes the reach of the LGBT “cult”; who or what will be added to the list next? Haters, what else are you so afraid of?
“Core Values
The Holy Bible is the inerrant, unchangeable, and the absolute Word of God.
Faith, Hope, Love and the greatest of these is Love. (1 Cor. 13)
Life in the Spirit (the exchanged life) is essential to reflect Christ’s character. (Gal. 5)
All expressions of sexual intimacy outside the bonds of heterosexual marriage are both unbiblical and immoral.
Same-sex attraction is primarily developmental and outside of God’s will.”
.
Well, OK, Derek is definitely an expert at recognizing “cults” as he belongs to one.
.
Derek expresses such fanatical hatred for gays that I suspect he is “in the closet” and ashamed of his true nature. He is the kind of preacher that shows up in the mugshot page after being caught in a Motel 6 with a rent boy and a bag of meth.
.
I am right:
.
“The History of Identify
Identify Ministries, based out of Gainesville, Florida, began in January 2014 after Derek was led through personal revelation to minister in sexual and relational issues. Having a testimony from homosexual attraction himself, Derek knew first-hand the struggle to live in congruity with his faith and the God he served.”
.
Jesus loves you even if you are flaming gay Derek. Really.
His Daddy may burn you in He!! for eternity, but Jesus loves you.
And for no reason at all, Germany elected. . .
This article is disgusting. I have read a lot of questionable articles and comments on this website, but this is the first time I am truly shocked. Shame, Chronicle. Shame.
Shocked by what? Nobody is being hateful or aggressive to gays…gay people aren’t the problem. The problem is the exponential increase of confused children that is observably tied to the propaganda and associated social stigma that permeates society today. It’s obviously intentional. Most gay people I personally know are disgusted by the actions of the alphabet cult, especially towards children.
Leave children alone. Allow them to grow naturally.
So why aren’t you gay? Being so exposed to so much of the “propaganda and associated social stigma that permeates society today”, you should be super gay by now, right? Then why would you ever think children would do the same? I can’t get my kids to turn off their bedroom light! Yet you believe seeing a gay couple or reading about gay culture on a website will transform a child gay? Only someone with a weak mind themselves think that way.
I was raised by loving parents with the assistance of loving grandparents. Additionally, I was born in the mid 1980’s…social media propaganda wasn’t a thing yet. Why would I be ‘super gay by now’?
I’m sorry your kids don’t know how to turn the lights off..I hardly doubt they created that problem themselves. My three & a half year old has no problem turning her lights off. Maybe you should install motion activated lights in your home… or you could spend more time with them and actually teach them. Whatever’s easier, right?…
Hate the sin, not the sinner.
Quite revealing how you surmise “Christianity” with the word “hate.”
I’d like to comment on the opening vignette which by all indications is purely hypothetical. If I were in this parents circumstances I’d probably have a similar emotional response, confused and horrified. However, is it really such a mystery why Johnny doesn’t come to mom and dad first. Look at how he is questioned. “Why would you do this behind my back?” (You betrayed me) “Who told you…?” (I’m not interested in you, or what you’re going through. I want to know who’s to blame) “You’re not trans…” (I’m really not listening. You’re wrong) Why would Johnny go to them? How about a different approach. “Johnny I read your post. I’d like to know what’s going on. What are you thinking and feeling? Drop the accusations, shaming, and the need for a conspiracy. This story says more about you than we’ll ever know about Johnny.
Well, if you were almost abducted by a chicken hawk when you were a kid while riding your bike, you would think differently. I almost ended up on a milk carton. I understand that some people are wired differently. But, the public schools should stop pushing this sexual deviancy gay trans agenda on the children. It’s not normal. It’s a perversion. It should not be allowed in public schools. Teachers & ACSB need to stay out of the children’s pants.
They need to stop trying to normalize deviant behavior. It’s taboo and an abomination against god & nature. It’s sick. It’s Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve! Your sexual thing is private and should stay in the bedroom.
“Deviant behavior” is preying on alter boys after Sunday School. “Deviant behavior” is a married man having an affair with a stripper and then paying her off to keep quiet. Being openly gay is no more deviant than being openly straight. If you need more examples of “deviant behavior,” check out the Catholics, Southern Baptists, Mormons and other denominations of Christianity, that have plenty for you to be “outraged” about.
I agree with you about the perversions that are rampant in many organized religions. I can’t speak for other religious teachings…but what you stated above has nothing to do with real Christianity – the actual teaching of Jesus in the New Testament. The religious institutions that do allow, and dare I say accept and promote, any deviant behavior are fronts for Christianity and in no way actually represent what the teaching are truly about. Most organized religion and large churches were infiltrated long ago.
The “LGBT Cult”??!? Pretty revealing transference in your choice of the word, cult. Last I checked, I’ve not had one gay person knock on my door wanting to talk to be about the word of “gay”! Wait, were you ambushed by gays, who tied you up to the fence and attempted to beat the “straight” out of you? No? Well, there are plenty case of straights doing that to gays. Homosexuals do not “indoctrinate” members. Only nimble-minded bigots think of it as a “choice” or that learning more about gay history and culture is somehow “indoctrination.” Seems like you spent a lot of time searching out LGBTQ+ resources for your post. So deep into your story that you must’ve been “indoctrinated” yourself, right? No? Then other people doing the same are not going to be either.
Common Sense said “Last I checked, I’ve not had one gay person knock on my door wanting to talk to be about the word of “gay”!”
Thank you for this thoughtful insight. I have had Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Democrats and Republicans running for office knock on my door. All qualify as serious cults and are trying to recruit me into their cult. Not once has someone asked “What is your gender orientation, whatever it is, I’d like to change it.”
You are all over the place. Not once have you formed and written a coherent rebuttal or point of view. You seem overly emotional at this point.
Also, please stop merging gay men and women with the LGTB+++ cult…they are not the same! Most here agree with what you said above: “Homosexuals do not “indoctrinate” members.”. The problem is that the LGBT+++ cult does activity try to indoctrinate. Figure out the different between gay people and the LGBT+++ cult before replying.