Facing a Changing Culture Wisely
Calvary Chapel Old Bridge Conference: Helping Families Face Gender Indoctrination
Story by Margot Bass
Parents have become increasingly concerned about the forced indoctrination of the LGBTQ+ agenda. In March 2021, Calvary Chapel Old Bridge (CCOB), NJ, sponsored a Call to Action Presentation, addressing the dangers of the controversy and ways parents can talk to their children about gender and sexual confusion.
Patti Height is the founder of Out of Egypt Ministries, a nonprofit that helps churches reach out to those who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community or those with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion. Here she gives an interview for The Bridge, the Christian radio station out of CC Old Bridge, NJ. Having been delivered from these issues by Jesus Christ, she joyfully spreads a message of hope around the U.S. Photo courtesy of Patti Height
One speaker was Patti Height, founder of Out of Egypt Ministries, a nonprofit that helps churches reach out to those who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community or those with unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion. Shawn Hyland, director of advocacy for the Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey, shared important information. Lloyd Pulley, senior pastor of CCOB, was the moderator.
Beware Indoctrination
Advances in the LGBTQ+ movement are “definitely” turning into indoctrination, according to Patti, who lived as a lesbian and suffered from gender confusion for many years. “I use that word—indoctrination—as someone who came from the LGBTQ+ community, as someone who, back in the day, just wanted to live my life quietly and not be harassed by Christians. Most LGBTQ+ 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 there was a growing agenda, Patti reflected. “It was an agenda to move to nationwide approval of all things LGBTQ+, 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.”
That indoctrination can come from public schools, warned Shawn. “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.”
The media amplify the message, Lloyd added. “There’s a worldview that is basically void of what God has to say. 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 also 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.”
At 4 or 5 years old, Patti 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 age 5. In addition, she was sexually violated. In her teen years, Patti experienced suicidal thoughts. 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.
“Lies—not the truth—brought me to suicidal thoughts,” Patti related. “All the voices I heard for years were lies. Satan is the father of lies, and if we affirm someone in their own false identity, we are hurting them, not helping them at all.”
[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. “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 emphasized, “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.”
Guidance for Parents
“According to the Word of God, parents are responsible for their children, to pour into them,” Lloyd proclaimed. “We want to challenge parents to not give that up.”
The skewed message on sexual identity begins early, Patti warned. “It’s starting in kindergarten. That’s the age we need to start talking to our children about this. Because whatever they hear first, they’re going to believe. If you are a child with gender confusion or same-sex attraction, and you do not hear a voice of truth, you’re going to listen to all the other voices screaming at you from society.”
Shawn cautioned that parents should closely monitor school curricula for ideology. “The end-game of government education is to control the culture for the next generation. Early on in school, [children] become aware of sexual orientation and identity; in middle school, they become allies; and in high school, they become activists,” Shawn observed. “Talk to your students about what they’re learning and reading. Drill down and ask them more questions. Don’t just assume that books that ‘seem’ innocent are harmless.”
Talking to Children
Shawn explained that talking to younger children about transgenderism and sexual orientation is more difficult than with older children, who are more open to having conversations regarding your beliefs about sexuality. “With young kids, just reaffirm the fact that they’re not mistakes, that the way God made them is beautiful and perfect,” he related. “And if they feel somehow that their bodies don’t match their feelings, don’t repeat the mantra of the world: You’re right, honey, you are an absolute mistake, and we have to alter you.”
And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth. 2 Timothy 2:24-25
Pastor Lloyd strongly emphasized that as parents talk about these issues, they must be careful to not show bias against—or hatred towards—those who hold different views. “Whoever people are, I treat them with the dignity and respect that a person made in God’s image deserves, no matter what they believe or how much I believe that what they are doing is sinful or wrong,” he clarified. “They also are valuable because they are eternal souls and certainly worthy of hearing the truth in love for their eternal salvation.”
Learn more:
Family Policy Alliance Back to School for Parents
Out of Egypt Ministries Learn More
This story first ran in Summer 2021, Issue 88 of Calvary Chapel Magazine. Since then, the issues addressed in this article have become even more timely.
All verses above are quoted from the New King James Version, unless otherwise noted.
© 2022 Calvary Chapel Magazine (CCM). 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.