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Children, not parents, are the ‘only authority’ on gender identity, DFL rep’s book says
Alpha News ^ | April 5, 2023 | Sheila Qualls

Posted on 09/22/2023 2:15:29 PM PDT by Morgana

A sitting member of the Minnesota House of Representatives published a self-help book for Christian teens who are questioning their sexuality.

Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, a first-term legislator who is transgender and identifies as a woman, released a book in 2020 entitled, “Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens.”

“Queerfully and Wonderfully Made” contains almost no references to prayer and encourages teens to “limit contact” with adults who do not affirm their choices, including parents.

“Please, if your parents are unsupportive, remember this: You are a separate human person from your parents (crazy, right?!). They don’t know you like you do; they don’t get to decide who you are,” the book says. “God decided that, you have accepted it, and if they are going to be part of your future, they’ll have to accept it too.”

Finke echoed these comments during a December 2021 rally in Hastings, Minn.

“Being trans is the best. We get to create ourselves outside of any system that wants to dictate who we are. It is freedom unlike any other and you have access to it,” Finke said. “Anyone who tells you differently than this, whether it is a teacher or a pastor or even your parents, is wrong.”

The front cover of the book, published in 2020, says it was “edited” by Finke. Finke promotes the book on his campaign website, where he calls it a “handbook I wrote for LGBTQ youth in Christian families.”

The book suggests teens should trust their feelings over their parents and says kids as young as 11-years-old can experience feelings of same-sex attraction.

“I have 11-year-old grandkids myself, and the last thing they’re thinking about is sex,” said Brian Nystrom, a mental health professional. “The sexual urges remain dormant up until the hormones begin to change naturally between ages 12 and 14. At 11, boys aren’t thinking, ‘Am I really a boy’ and girls aren’t thinking, ‘Am I really a girl?'”

Throughout the book, Finke attempts to use Bible verses to validate the queer lifestyle. The title itself is a play on Psalm 139, which states: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

“If your parents do not accept you and your queerness, then they do not know what’s best for you. They just don’t. Even if they love you, even if they’re praying for you,” the book says. “Just because they love you does not mean they know what is best for you.”

“Limit contact with any adult who tells you something is wrong with you. That’s not always possible. But when it is, do it,” the book adds. “We’ll talk specifically about parental rejection later, but for now, just know that you are the only authority on who you are.”

The book compares being “queer” to a “faith journey.” It says:

“Some Christians seem secure from the beginning to the end. Others waver, doubt, leave the faith, return, leave again. Some people are comfortable their whole lives in the church they were raised in … None of these behaviors are wrong. None are invalidating. If you know, if you don’t, it’s okay. The same is true about knowing who you are, and knowing whether or not you’re queer. It’s a journey. And that’s okay.”

A local pastor said Finke is taking verses out of context. Mark Henry, pastor of Revive Church and founder of Mark Henry Ministries, said Finke is “twisting” Matthew 19:12, the verse Finke used as the cornerstone verse in the book.

The verse reads: “For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”

Finke implies this is evidence that Jesus was “totally fine” with the queer lifestyle.

“Did you know there were queer people in Bible times? Jesus did. And he was like, It’s totally fine, everyone. Chill out,” the book says.

“Eunuchs from birth” refers to people who are born sterile and is not affirming a queer lifestyle, Henry said.

Another concept Henry contradicted is Finke’s recommendation that teens trust their feelings. “If a voice somewhere inside you is saying you’re queer, listen,” the book says.

“They believe their sexuality is defined by how they feel, and their feelings can’t be wrong,” said Henry. “So therefore, the Bible must be wrong or they rationalize that Jesus embraces how I feel because Jesus wants me to feel good.”

Henry said Finke’s view on the parent-child relationship is skewed, and his ideology is more in line with Karl Marx, who maintains children are property of the state rather than a God-given stewardship of parents.

Chapters in the book include, “Help! I’m a Horny Queer Teenager;” “Okay, But I’m serious. Help! I’m Like, Really Horny!;” “How Do Queer People Have Sex?;” and “What If My Congregation is Too Affirming? (This Happens).”

The book is not scientific or credible, Nystrom said.

“No one should read it without the author providing legitimate sources,” Nystrom said. “The author has a biased agenda skewed by his personal issues that should not be thrust on children or teens.”

Finke also claims in the book that a “tiny fraction” of people who “come out” realize later they are not truly LGBTQ. When it comes to sexual orientation or gender identity, the book says, the concept of “going through a phase” should be “thrown out entirely.”

“You might identify one way today, another tomorrow. Some know right away, others take years or decades to find the right label,” the book claims. “None of this makes your queerness a phase.”

Finke’s book also asserts that “gender is not biology” and viewing porn is a “safe way to explore your sexuality.” It does, however, concede that there “are a lot more costs than benefits when it comes to pornography.”

“For starters, porn can be a safe way to explore your sexuality. You can learn about your body and pleasure and how to make the most of both. You can also take that information, when applicable, and put it to use on your partner’s body,” the book says. “There is also the education (it’s misguided education, but still) that can come from watching queer porn.”

The book recommends watching porn “with your partner, which can open up new conversations about sex and pleasure, stimulate our natural arousal systems, or it can just be a silly fun thing to experience together.”

“The lies are so good and so oiled and so refined in the world today. If you let your kids be exposed to them rather than a true theology, they have no chance of surviving,” Henry commented.

Finke recently made headlines for his sponsorship of a bill to make Minnesota a “refuge” for children seeking transgender surgeries.

Finke also published a guide for adults on working with LGBTQ Christian teens. He did not respond to a request for comment but discussed the books in a Twitter post Wednesday.

“A few anti-trans media outlets recently ‘discovered’ my involvement in books for queer teens in Christian families. But they’re not secret. I’m SO proud of these books,” Finke said. “There is a vast world of affirming, queer-inclusive Christianity! Teens should know that there are millions of faithful LGBTQ2S+ folks. They should know that they do not have to give up their faith to be who they are. And they should know they don’t have to be Christian, either.”


TOPICS: Current Events; Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: book; childabuse; children; deathtogroomers; groomer; leighfinke; parentalrights; touchmykidyoudie
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The book’s publisher is Beaming Books, whose parent company is 1517 Media, the publishing ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

I got this information from Protestia

1 posted on 09/22/2023 2:15:29 PM PDT by Morgana
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To: Morgana

DFL = Dumb F*^&(*^ing Liberals


2 posted on 09/22/2023 2:18:45 PM PDT by slapshot ( - Get woke go broke-)
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To: Morgana
A sitting member of the Minnesota House of Representatives published a self-help book for Christian teens who are questioning their sexuality.

Yuck! What was it sitting on? Don't go near it. . .

3 posted on 09/22/2023 2:19:08 PM PDT by SamuraiScot
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To: Morgana

Millstone

Neck

Sea

Some assembly required


4 posted on 09/22/2023 2:25:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: Morgana
So a baby boy born with a penis and testicle, or a baby girl born with a vagina, don't know what their gender is?

The GOP could use this against the abortion issue, but they won't..

5 posted on 09/22/2023 2:27:40 PM PDT by DallasBiff (Apology not accepted.la is not the sharpest knife in the drawer)
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To: Morgana

Pedophile. See post #4.


6 posted on 09/22/2023 2:29:42 PM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: Morgana

its called destroying the family

its on the commie wishlist

if the parents are no longer in charge

the commies are


7 posted on 09/22/2023 2:29:54 PM PDT by joshua c (to disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives, cut the cable tv)
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To: Morgana

I don’t think they thought that through very well.


8 posted on 09/22/2023 2:30:10 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Morgana

These people are so mentally damaged and deranged they are no longer capable of rational thought. They ought to be expunged from a normal, functioning society.


9 posted on 09/22/2023 2:31:52 PM PDT by Obadiah
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To: lightman; All

Again Who distributes Beaming books?

1517 Media

Parent company Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Beaming Books contact info: Phone number: (877) 373-0706 Website: www.beamingbooks.com

U.S. ; Phone 877-373-0706 ;
Mailing Address PO BOX 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440 ;
Visiting Address 411 Washington Ave N, 3rd Floor, Minneapolis, MN 55401 ...

Lightman if you have any other contact info please by all means post it. Why is this company publishing this crap?


10 posted on 09/22/2023 2:35:20 PM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor. )
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To: BenLurkin

My thoughts exactly.


11 posted on 09/22/2023 2:35:58 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: Obadiah

I agree.


12 posted on 09/22/2023 2:36:32 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: Morgana

THIS is the book parents should be reading:

Dr. Miriam Grossman “Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness”

Book summary:

Throughout our country, atrocities are taking place in doctor’s offices and hospital operating rooms. Physically healthy children and adolescents are being permanently disfigured and sometimes sterilized. Those youth say they’re transgender, and we—their parents, teachers, therapists, and doctors—are supposed to agree with their self-diagnosis and take a back seat as they make the most consequential decision of their lives: to alter their bodies in order to, we are told, “align” them with their minds.

Medical, educational, and government authorities advise us to support the “gender journeys” of still developing kids, including medical interventions with poor evidence of long-term improvement.

This would not be acceptable in any other field of medicine. Indeed, the treatments our medical authorities and Washington call “crucial” and “life-saving” have been banned in progressive Sweden, Finland, and Britain.

Dr. Miriam Grossman is a child and adolescent psychiatrist whose practice consists of trans-identified youth and their families. In Lost in Trans Nation, she implores parents to reject the advice of gender experts and politicians and trust their guts—their parental instincts—in the face of an onslaught of ideologically driven misinformation that steers them and their children toward risky decisions they may end up mourning for the rest of their lives.

The beliefs that male and female are human inventions; that the sex of a newborn is arbitrarily “assigned”; and that as a result the child requires “affirmation” through medical interventions—these ideas are divorced from reality and therefore hazardous, especially to children. The core belief—that biology can and should be denied—is a repudiation of reality and a mockery of what hard science teaches about being male and female.

Dr. Grossman believes that parents know their child best; they especially know if they have a son or daughter. But currently in our country when it comes to gender identity, everyone knows better than mom and dad. Schools enable students to live double lives—Patrick at home, Patti at school. Activists tell kids their loving homes are “unsafe” when parents voice doubts about the child’s new identity. For refusing to see their son as their daughter, parents might be reported to protective services, a development that can lead to a family’s destruction.

Lost in Trans Nation arms parents with the ammunition to avoid, or, if necessary, fight what many families describe as the most difficult challenge of their lives. Parents will learn what to say and how—at home, at school, and if necessary, to police when they appear at the door.

“Don’t be blindsided like so many parents I know,” warns Grossman, “be proactive and get educated. Feel prepared and confident to discuss trans, nonbinary, or whatever your child brings to the dinner table.” Whether it’s the “trans is as common as red hair” claim, or the “I’m not your son, I’m your daughter” proclamation, or the “do you prefer a live son or a dead daughter’ threat, says Grossman, no family is immune, and every parent must be prepared.

No child is born in the wrong body, Dr. Grossman reassures us, their bodies are just fine; it’s their emotional lives that need healing. Whether you’re facing a gender identity battle in your home right now, or want to prevent one, you need this book to guide you and your loved ones out of the madness.


13 posted on 09/22/2023 2:49:22 PM PDT by Qiviut (To the living, we owe respect. To the dead, we owe the truth (Voltaire) $hot $hills: Sod Off)
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To: Morgana

There will come a day when these freaks are going to regret what they’re doing.

And it can’t come soon enough to suit me.

L


14 posted on 09/22/2023 2:52:24 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is. )
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To: Morgana

War crimes trials needed. And hangings.


15 posted on 09/22/2023 2:55:34 PM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: BenLurkin

Do they want RWDS? Because this is how you get RWDS.


16 posted on 09/22/2023 2:56:29 PM PDT by mrmeyer (You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. Roberor thert Heinlein)
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To: All

The ONLY authority on “gender identity’ Is XX or XY chromosomes. For people who have something other than that, then some discussion of definition may be fairly discussed.


17 posted on 09/22/2023 2:56:45 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: Lurker
There will come a day when these freaks are going to regret what they’re doing.

I’m confident that they will have regrets and much worse.

I recently watched a commentary on a Bill Maher-Jordon Peterson interview. It was a good reminder of wisdom contained in the Holy Bible. Peterson zeroed in on the good and bad sacrifices by Issac and Ishmael, and related the idea of sacrifice in daily modern life. It was mostly centered around the idea of immediate gratification vs making sacrifices for the long term in our daily lives, but the idea holds true for a broad range of things. There are consequences both good and bad for good and bad sacrifices. It is absolutely repugnant for the ELCA to publish a book that encourages gender denial. They will be paying the price too.

18 posted on 09/22/2023 3:16:34 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA (Vacate the chair. Shutter the government until it can be correctly defunded.)
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To: Morgana
“Did you know there were queer people in Bible times?

Why of course--that's why Noah had a gay couple on the Ark. /sarc

19 posted on 09/22/2023 3:31:09 PM PDT by DaBroasta ("An armed society is a polite society" Heinlein)
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To: Morgana

Satanic evil.


20 posted on 09/22/2023 5:54:57 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (America Owes Anita Bryant An Enormous Apology)
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