CCOB Conference
Helping Families Face a Changing Culture—Part 1
Story by Margot Bass
Photo illustration by Christine Kidd
This is Part 1 of a two-part story. Look for Part 2 soon.
Parents have become increasingly concerned about the forced indoctrination of the LGBT+ agenda on their families, especially their children. On March 31, 2021, Calvary Chapel Old Bridge (CCOB), NJ, sponsored a Call to Action Presentation, addressing several issues surrounding this controversy.
Shawn Hyland, Director of Advocacy for the Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey, warned the audience about New Jersey laws affecting the state’s public-school curriculum. He also shared practical ways that parents can speak up and share their concerns. One speaker was Patti Height, the founder of Out of Egypt Ministries, a nonprofit that helps churches reach out to those who identify as part of the LGBT+ community or those with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion. She shared her perspective as one who previously lived that way. CCOB Senior Pastor Lloyd Pulley moderated and addressed the issues as the shepherd of his church. To watch the entire event, go to Calvary Chapel Old Bridge — SHAWN HYLAND RECAP (ccob.org).
Beware Indoctrination
Advances in the LGBT+ movement are “definitely” turning into indoctrination, according to Patti Height, who lived as a lesbian and suffered from gender confusion for many years. “I use that word—indoctrination—as someone who came from the LGBT community, as someone who, back in the day, just wanted to live my life quietly and not be harassed by Christians. Most LGBT+ people just wanted to openly live their lives without getting harassed, beaten up, or even killed. Then it moved to wanting to be recognized and accepted in society,” she said.
But it became clear that there was a growing movement and agenda, Patti reflected. “It was an agenda to move to nationwide approval of all things LGBT, including marriage; and if you didn’t approve, you were labeled as homophobic and a hater. Now we’ve moved far beyond that. We need to know how to understand what’s happening so that we can minister truth to our children who are in the throes of indoctrination.”
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God … For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, 7
That indoctrination often comes from some public schools, warned Shawn Hyland, who provided many examples from existing and upcoming New Jersey curricula. He contended, “You can’t mandate someone to verbally affirm and adopt a belief system that contradicts their religious beliefs—except when it comes to sexuality. There’s no room for diversity or tolerance. Only one belief system is allowed in [some] classrooms: a postmodern sexual belief system of a gender-fluid, genderless society where the only moral standard for sex is consent. That’s what’s so troubling—they’re imposing a belief system upon students.”
Traditional media, social media, and the Internet amplify the message, added Lloyd Pulley. “There’s a constant barrage of a worldview that is basically void of what God has to say. I know that young people get a hold of pornography at a young age; those visuals impact them. It doesn’t help that schools are getting behind this movement and making it seem that much more normal. It’s a challenge for parents.” It’s important to educate parents in the church pews. Lloyd continued, “Most parents don’t have a clue how deep this rabbit hole goes. They think, Ah, you’re being too radical. That will never happen. Kids will be kids.”
Gender & Sexual Confusion
Patti declared, “Kids are lost in the false narrative of being able to choose their own sexuality and their own gender. These are children who are hurting and confused and swept up in the indoctrination that’s sweeping our land.” She knows from experience.
When Patti was 4 or 5 years old, she realized that something was terribly wrong with her. “That’s the age I [understood] that I was being referred to as a ‘girl’ when everything inside me was telling me that I was a boy. It was very confusing and troublesome for me; it hurt me and made me angry. My parents didn’t know what to do with that,” she admitted. She began to self-injure at 5 years old. In addition, she was sexually violated. In her teen years, Patti experienced suicidal thoughts: “I didn’t know how to handle the pain.” The confusion continued, and in her 20s, she “came out” as a gay, gender-nonconformed person. She stayed in that lifestyle until after she was saved at CCOB many years later. (Patti’s testimony is available at her ministry website, outofegyptministries.org.)
“Lies—not the truth—brought me to suicidal thoughts,” Patti related. “All the voices I heard for years were lies: I could never be a woman because I was too boyish; if I was a woman, I would be sexually hurt again; if I wore women’s clothing instead of men’s, men would lust after me. Satan is the father of lies, and if we confirm someone in their own false identity, we are hurting them, not helping them.”
[Love] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:6
No one shared the Gospel with Patti or told her the truth—that being a girl was actually a good thing because that was how God had created her. She confessed that it would have been “really, really hard for me to hear.” Yet, she added, “If someone would have told me about God and the way that He had created me, and that He loved me and had a plan and purpose for my life, it just might have helped. I didn’t realize there was another identity for me to proclaim. But I’m so thankful now that my identity is in Christ and Him alone.”
Many studies have shown that 98% of children who struggle with their gender—if they aren’t encouraged to change it—come to accept their biological gender as they make their way out of puberty or by adulthood, Patti and Shawn testified.
Patti is now a “truth-carrier” to the gender- and sexually confused. “These are not kids we make fun of or look down upon, that we are to run from. We pray for them and hope to somehow have an opportunity to share the truth with them—to let them know that God is real, that He loves them, and He will minister to them right where they are. We need to speak truth and love because Jesus is the Truth, and His love saves us,” she emphasized.
Shawn described the problems that come when the lie is perpetuated, when the confusion is affirmed, and children or teens are put on cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers. “Once you’re on the puberty blockers, you may become sterilized for life. Even if you turn back to your biological gender, your body is scarred.” Further, gender transitions and surgeries where we physically alter their bodies … are a “sort of social experiment with very little data to support it, very troubling,” he stressed.
For more information, Shawn recommended genderresourceguide.com, a parent resource guide about transgenderism. Another resource is a full-length documentary from the American Family Association entitled In His Image: Delighting in God’s Plan for Gender and Sexuality (AFA.net - Watch 'In His Image' Documentary Now for Free).
The serious concerns raised in this story are at stake in the pending Equality Act (HR 5) in the U.S. Senate. Christian leaders, warning that the Act is one of the most far-reaching, discriminatory bills ever written against religious freedom in U.S. history, are urging believers to contact their senators immediately to vote against it.
What You Can Do:
Email your U.S. Senators (senate.gov)
Call the U.S. Capitol at 202-224-3121
Find out more about how your rights will be impacted by the Equality Act at lc.org/hr5 or adflegal.org/equality-act and consider supporting these nonprofits.
All verses above are quoted from the New King James Version, unless otherwise noted.
© 2020 Calvary Chapel Magazine. All rights reserved. Articles or photographs may not be reproduced without the written permission of CCM. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.® Used by permission.