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I was listening to the local Christian radio station, and they play some kid-friendly shows on Saturday, including a show called "Adventures in Odyssey".
Well, I had missed part of the program today, but I heard a student and teacher talking, and the teacher said, "In computers, you have hardware and software. The hardware is how the computer is made, the software is what makes it run. Gender is like software, and its changeable, especially nowadays."
Now, I don't know the context of the speech, but it sounds like they are moving toward a place of acceptance of trans people, which is pretty remarkable for a Christian program of any kind, much more so considering its a kids show.
I think that's pretty good news ..
Comments
Software
If they are saying gender is like software and changeable, that actually sounds more like 'curing' people than accepting them. I don't want my software changing, thankyouverymuch.
you heard wrong
Adventures in Odyssey is a program produced by Focus On the Family. FOTF is not, I repeat, not LGBT friendly, nor are they going to be any time soon. They are one of the main groups that pressured World Vision to revert back to their old policy of not hiring LGB christians to work for them.
Focus on the Family will continue to refer to us as "so-called" transgender people and that is dismissive. So, I don't know what you did hear, but it certainly wasn't that.
So I decided to listen to the program. The line was said, but it was said by the "antagonist" who gave the kids a lower grade because their opinion differed from the teacher's. Also, the gay person in the episode was in hospice dying of aids and talking about how he regretted all the choices he made (message: being gay is a choice). I am sure that in subsequent episodes, the so-called trans friendly teacher will be vilified and there will be a long speech how God made people male and female for a reason and that it is sin to go against this. I've been listening to FOTF and Odyssey for 20 years, trust me on this.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
and the proof
Here is Focus on the Family's (who produce Adventures in Odyssey) stance on transgender issues. Not very friendly or supportive.
http://www.focusonthefamily.com/socialissues/social-issues/t...
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
So...
I thought right, then.
Me, I am so embarrassed and annoyed
... at all this begging for crumbs of acceptance from the religious establishment of any stripe.
Why should it even matter at all, in the great scheme of things except maybe they can brainwash their 'flocks' (sheep) into being nicer towards us?
It is actually much worse.
All this move towards tolerance... It is mostly to educate people that there is another group of people they should hate.
In "Soviet Russia" nobody knew of "transgender". But at the same time you just had to go to local police station and submit application to become female in all of the official documents. And any doctor would have told you that you don't need any surgery to be a woman. But if you insisted you would have received surgery for free. And a stack of official papers to state that you have being female all along but wrongly identifirped at birth to show to your relatives and friends. Or. Alternatively, there was an option to get transfer to another region with same kind of job but with all the papers showing you have been female all of your life.
Their reasoning is appalling
if their god made them surely he made LGBT people as well, so shouldn't they accept and move into the C21st?
I'm sorry but I find belief in sky fairies the triumph of illusion over critical thought, so nothing they say or do surprises me.
Angharad
sky fairies and other idiotic comments
I take great offense to the demeaning of my religious beliefs by callous comments such as "sky fairies". I don't hide the fact that I am a Christian, but I never once debunked anyone else's beliefs or disbelief.
I am an educated person. I have studied the evidence that has been presented to me and I have reasoned that there is a God. Who are you to dismiss me because you haven't processed the information the same way I have and have come to a different conclusion. You don't see me mocking your arrogance that there is no God or pointing out your ignorance to think that life could exist without any external help. I also find your outlook on life rather dismal and self serving, but haven't said word one. This isn't the first time you've dismissed my core beliefs as in believing in sky fairies. I kept quiet the other times. I choose not to now.
I hope this message isn't deleted, but if it is, the preceding one should be deleted as well.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Her message was not targeted at you
or your particular religion, Katie. It was targeted more at the Focus on the Family group and their leanings. There were expressions of her personal opinion concerning religion as well, but that is not surprising given the subject matter of the blog and the direction of the comments.
Honestly, Christianity is expressed often here, and is usually accepted with little to no fanfare. As a community geared toward acceptance, understanding, and friendship, expression of other beliefs should be treated the same way, or at the very least treated with the tolerance you expect your own to be treated with.
If her comment had been made in a thead not already dealing with the negative implications of certain schools of belief then the comments might be more out of line, but frankly, even with my own background there are times I want to yell at people for letting beliefs override reason when it comes to how they treat others.
Religious discussion on this board is usually not well-received for this very reason: it causes strife, and what one person views as inoffensive or simple fact can easily rile up someone with an opposing opinion.
So, chillax.
Melanie E.
Tolerance is a very bad word, actually.
Tolerance means: you know of something, you hate that something from the core of your soul, but you don't hate it enough to face criminal charges.
"Tolerance lessons" in some schools are just promotion of hate: "Look children, this person is black, that person is gay, and that person is TG. They are different from you. You should hate them, but it is crime to act on that hate, if you don't have an alibi."
Any day I will prefer someone ignoring me or not caring about me to someone who tolerates me. It just means that that person is ready to kill me as soon as he/she will not be prosecuted for it.
Returning to analogy. Software is your knowledge and your skills. You can learn new skills and learn new things. Gender is more like firmware or sometimes like operating system. And in so many cases it is easier to buy compatible memory modules and CPU or software than to get firmware or OS replaced.
Differing views on tolerance
Personally, I like the idea of using "tolerance" rather than "acceptance" for a couple of reasons.
1: Tolerance implies that both sides are allowed to hold differing opinions. This is something that is very important to me, because I am strongly of the belief that disallowing someone to think or view things in their own way is a Bad Thing. By talking tolerance, we are saying that it is okay to not agree with our views, so long as, at the same time, you don't use that disagreement to deny us our right to make our own decisions.
2: Tolerance LEADS to acceptance in many cases. My personal life can attest to this, since even within my own family I've watched this happen, with my mom. When she first learned I was trans, she didn't like it. Then, she grew to understand that she couldn't change it and would have to deal with it if she wanted me in her life. Then, over time, she grew to accept it, and we've had plenty of times we've shopped together, talked about my trans status, and even discussed how best I can move forward with my transition.
The idea of tolerance promoting hate rather than promoting understanding is one I find foreign, and fails to align much with the evidence I have seen in life.
Being trans we will likely never receive complete acceptance in the same way that there will always be those who cannot completely accept people who are gay, or of a different religious background, or another race. When dealing with others whose backgrounds and experiences are so vastly different from our own, it can only be expected that there are going to be elements of those backgrounds or experiences one finds unpalatable or disturbing. The important thing to keep in mind is that that road goes both ways. Once one understands that, one can learn to first tolerate unexpected or disliked features or behaviors, then, if one can find the positives in the person those features are a part of, acceptance becomes a greater possibility.
Melanie E.
And this is why
This is a prime example of why I hope the "Ignore" feature can be fixed and made available as soon as possible. I have strong feelings on this subject which I'm not going to reveal or debate. When ever I saw a discussion or blog on religion I could just ignore the people participating for a week or so then unignore them.
Yes I understand that Piper is under the weather and Erin is worn down to the bone, I'm not demanding this right now, I'd just like to see it bumped towards the top of the list. Sorry I broke into your discussion, Dorothy, but I could see some people beating plowshares into swords and I'd really like to not see this happen again.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
Thank you
This is not the place for that sort of discussion. I have my own views, and I have kept them to PMs.