PCG's Demonization of Transgender People Exposed: Part 3

PCG has a long habit of vilifying and inciting animosity against transgender people. Getting PCG members to be fearful and antagonistic against transgender people has the effect of making PCG members not notice the problems among themselves within PCG.

PCG's 1% do not talk about it but transgender people are diagnosed with the recognized medical condition named gender dysphoria in which one's gender identity (which is determined in the brain) differ from one's anatomy. They are not "confused." This is a real condition.

Transgender people suffer all kinds of problems due to animosity and hatred directed against them. Last year about 22 transgender people were murdered in the United States, 19 of them African Americans.

Furthermore about 40% of transgender people in the United States have contemplated suicide. This is far higher than the national average which is below 10%. There is even a helpline, Trans Lifeline, specifically dedicated to helping transgender people to not commit suicide. That is how severe this problem is among the transgender community. Clearly they need support, not demonization and condemnation.

For anyone who wants to read about suicide I would suggest the National Suicide Prevention Helpline. Their phone number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Bearing these sobering facts in mind let us continue to see PCG's demonization of transgender people. This is a continuation from Part 1 and Part 2.

Below are quotes from Joel Hilliker, Stephen Flurry, Robert Morley, Jeremiah Jacques, Tyrel Scholte and Brent Nagtegaal.

***

On the surface, preventing society from badgering poor, gender-confused individuals may sound like a worthy goal. But this cure is far worse than the disease. Rather than helping people overcome thoughts and tendencies that lead to self-destructive, depressive, anti-social behavior, the transgender crusade encourages and inflames them—and demands that everyone else play along. (Joel Hilliker, Let Boys Be Girls. Or Goys or Birls., July 25, 2013.)

Here Hilliker insinuates that transgender people are suffering a disease. The NHS says it is not a mental illness. These words confuse people.

Hilliker blames transgender people by insinuating that embracing a transgender identity is responsible for the widespread social problems transgender people endure. The problem of hatred against transgender people is carefully ignored.

Ripple effects from these laws are enormous, and they are already spreading. Transgender law advocates are pushing for health insurance plans to include hormones and sex-reassignment surgery. They are succeeding in efforts to open public toilet facilities and locker rooms to transgenders. Universities nationwide are hosting gender-neutral student housing, bathrooms and locker rooms. In June 2013, a governing body in Colorado ruled that a 6-year-old boy who thinks he’s a girl has the right to use the girl’s bathroom at his elementary school. Later that summer, the state of California passed a bill saying that throughout K-12 education, a student is “permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities [e.g. bathrooms, locker rooms] consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.” (Joel Hilliker, The War on Marriage, 2014, pp. 19-20. Excerpted from Joel Hilliker, Redefining Family, 2013.)

These words are directed at the parents, not the children. These words exploit the parents' love for their children and uses this love as a weapon to make people fearful and loathing towards transgender people. What twisted cunning it is to use a parent's love for their children to fear, loath and despise this vulnerable minority. Also such fear mongering also happens to be untrue.

But the problem is greater than just the sheer number of laws. Many of these laws promote practices that a great number of people consider immoral. In California, transgender students will be able to choose which restrooms to use and which sports teams to play on based on “gender identity” rather than physical anatomy. (A New Year, a New 40,000 Laws, January 7, 2014.)

Once again transgender people are condemned as "immoral." Do scientists and professional health care providers say such things? They do not. Once again this vulnerable minority is slurred and vilified.

Users who want their Facebook friends to know that they consider themselves to be anything from “gender fluid” to “transsexual” to “two-spirit” can now conveniently convey that right on their profile page. (Jeremiah Jacques, Facebook Adds More Than 50 ‘Custom Gender’ Options, February 24, 2014.)

But considering the widespread stigma, discrimination and violence against transgender people it is baffling that PCG seems to view this as a problem. There seems to be no awareness of the problem of hatred against transgender persons.

Incidentally "two-spirit" is a Native American term for transgender people. What a way to denigrate transgender people and Native Americans at the same time.

At least 51 universities, including Yale and Harvard, now force their students to help pay for sex-change operations for peers at their colleges. The extra surgery coverage on college campuses marks a victory for aggressive lobbying by homosexual, bisexual and transgender activists.
The University of Maryland also added gender-reassignment surgery to students’ health insurance plans this year. The university’s health center director said she will only seek student input if the cost estimates come in higher than the expected 1 percent increase. The university already forces students to subsidize hormone therapy for transgender students under its health insurance plan. (Robert Morley, Government Meddling Making Student Insurance Expensive, April 14, 2014.)

Once again transgender people are negatively portrayed as a financial burden. PCG demands three tithes from lay members and then insists that this small minority of transgender persons are the financial burden. It is a distraction to prevent PCG members from acting.

In case you missed the rainbow flag flying alongside the Stars and Stripes outside the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, June was Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) pride month. Pride month is celebrated throughout the United States to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. The Stonewall riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the U.S. Since that time, homosexual rights activism has subtly maneuvered to become the belligerent social movement that it is today. ... (Tyrel Scholte, Homosexual Movement Makes Massive Strides in One Year, July 9, 2014.)

Since 2005 the State of Israel has run an advertising campaign named Brand Israel, one aspect of which is to portray the State of Israel as a haven for homosexuals. Somehow PCG has never seemed to notice this.

A man who says he’s a woman, and a white woman who says she’s black.
These stories are bizarre and crazy. Yet they give a stark picture of America’s morality and character—and sadly, also of its future.
Story number 1: Bruce. A man decides he is actually a woman, he has a 10-hour operation on his face to make it look more feminine, and now he wants to be called Caitlyn.
The fact that this type of thing is becoming less uncommon tells you something—but surely there have been individuals doing this type of thing for years.
According to the abrupt new conventional wisdom, anyone who views this man’s actions as unhealthy and abnormal is out of touch, insensitive and bigoted.
Transgenderism is now brave, courageous, praiseworthy and beautiful. Biology doesn’t matter—reality doesn’t matter—all that matters is what you think. If you think you’re a woman, then you’re a woman—and anyone who disagrees is a bigot. (Joel Hilliker, Tales From an Upside-Down World, June 17, 2015.)

PCG has continuously vilified transgender people since 1998 at the latest. PCG's 1% has had plenty of time to educate themselves. Any minor discomfort PCG's 1% should happen to experience regarding this topic is their own fault for not educating themselves. But it is unfortunate that many others have been taught by PCG to view transgender people as a threat. It is bizarrely hypocritical that PCG should vilify transgender people so terribly and then complain about needing to learn how to address them in conversation. They condemn others but can't take it themselves.

Also Hilliker chooses to consistently call Caitlyn Jenner a man in this article. 

Also he incorrectly insists that there is no biological reason why one should happen to be a transgender individual. It is insinuated that transgender people merely chose to be that way when in fact medical experts say gender dysphoria is a real medical condition and it is not a mental disorder. Gender dysphoria is real and it is worrisome that his readers are being misinformed on this issue.

A few weeks ago, the people of the Western world were focused on the Supreme Court’s same-sex “marriage” ruling. Next, their attention was monopolized by a white woman who identifies as black. Then it was a male Olympic champion who sees himself as a woman. Focus then shifted to transgender rights—women’s rights—minority rights—immigrant rights—prisoner rights. (Stephen Flurry, The World Has Gone Mad Over the Slaying of Cecil the Lion, August 2, 2015.)

Once again Stephen Flurry denigrates a transgender individual.

First openly transgender official hired at White House. Sign of things to come. (Brent Nagtegaal, August 18, 2015 tweet.)

Once again transgender people are used as a prop by PCG's 1% as a sign that America is falling apart and is destined to soon be conquered by scary Germans.

American morality is transforming. Where will it be five years from now? It progressed from the traditional Judeo-Christian family to the non-religious family to the dysfunctional family to the divorced and remarried family to the fornicator to the adulterer to the homosexual/bisexual/pansexual/transsexual/transgender. (Joel Hilliker, The Next Frontier in the Sexual Revolution?, January 2016.)

Once again a numerically small minority, namely transgender people, are denigrated once again to scare PCG members into thinking everything will soon fall part.

***

It is terrible and wrong for PCG to vilify transgender people in this way. They are a numerically small minority. And unfortunately transgender people have often been forced to endure so much hatred.

While PCG's 1% insist on getting three tithes from their followers they tell their followers to be fearful and loath transgender people, a vulnerable minority. No good can come from such venomous and misleading rhetoric

It is shameful and terrible that PCG should add fuel for the fire instead of helping in this dire situation.

PCG's Demonization of Transgender People Exposed: Part 1 (1998-2007)

PCG has a long habit of vilifying and inciting animosity against transgender people.

PCG's 1% do not talk about it but transgender people are diagnosed with the recognized medical condition named gender dysphoria in which one's gender identity (which is determined in the brain) differ from one's anatomy.

Transgender people suffer all kinds of problems due to animosity and hatred directed against them. Last year about 22 transgender people were murdered in the United States, 19 of them African Americans.

Furthermore about 40% of transgender people in the United States have contemplated suicide. This is far higher than the national average which is below 10%. There is even a helpline, Trans Lifeline, specifically dedicated to helping transgender people to not commit suicide. That is how severe this problem is among the transgender community. Clearly they need support, not demonization and condemnation.

For anyone who wants to read about suicide I would suggest the National Suicide Prevention Helpline. Their phone number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Bearing these sobering facts in mind here is some of PCG's demonization of transgender people.

The Anglican Church is rife with dissension from within, populated by homosexuals and transsexual priests, in deep decline into the most dubious of spiritual practices, to the point where historian Paul Johnson declares that it is time that this ancient and traditional bastion of British spiritual faith just close up shop. Protestantism presents no respectable resistance to the incursion of Catholicism in Britain. (Ron Fraser, Terror Triumphant!, July 1998.)

So we see above that PCG has vilified transgender people as far back as 1998. In the instance above transgender people are used as a prop to portray Britain as falling apart.

God created sex when He made Adam and Eve so that man and woman could cleave together and form families—families as God designed them to be .... Yet, a new tidal wave in moral decadence finds U.S. judges—supposed purveyors of decency and upholders of the law (under a Constitution based on the Ten Commandments)—not knowing which way to rule in family issues involving transgenders.
As highlighted by Time magazine (March 4), even the top courts have become temporarily paralyzed over the question of whether a person who has turned to medical science in an attempt to change their sex should be given the same legal rights as natural mothers and fathers. ...
Astounding! America as a nation has lost sight of God—so much so that men and women are becoming ignorant of why the great Creator made them male and female. (Today's Greatest Conspiracy, June 2002.)

In the quote above we see legal discussion about transgender people is insinuated as "moral decadence" and condemned as a sign that the United States "has lost sight of (PCG's) God". Instead of trying to understand the situation this article vilified transgender people.

In early August, California became the fourth state to pass a law protecting transgender people from housing and job discrimination—one which would impose penalties including fines of up to $150,000 on landlords or employers who violate it. (Joel Hilliker, War Over Marriage, September-October 2003.)

Actually discrimination in regards to housing against transgender people has been a problem. PCG is confusing people by insinuating that it is not a problem.

Australia’s Daily Telegraph reported on a child-care center in a Sydney suburb teaching toddlers that homosexual and “transgender” parents are normal; this is part of a drive to “challenge the perception” young children have about sexuality. The center, which receives government and council funding, has developed a specific curriculum to teach children of ages 6 weeks to 6 years old about “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and inter-sex issues” (May 27). (Homosexual Ed at Child Care, November-December 2006.)

It is quite unusual for PCG to put the word transgender in quotes like that. It insinuates that transgender people are somehow making up their identity. But with quotes or not PCG has constantly portrayed transgender people in the worst possible light.

Also a major reason why educators would wish to talk to children in this way is because they are worried that people like PCG's 1% have constantly condemned and vilified transgender people.

Children as young as kindergarten-age could be taught homosexuality, transsexuality and other lifestyles.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed four bills over the weekend that promote homosexual, bisexual, transsexual and other deviant lifestyles in the classroom, as early as the kindergarten level. ... “Dad” and “Mom” or “husband” and “wife” for instance, will likely have to be eliminated from textbooks, instruction and activities, or portrayed alongside homosexual, bisexual and transsexual ideas. (New California Law Requires Schools to Promote Deviant Sexual Practices, October 17, 2007.)

In the previous quote transgender people are demonized as "deviant". This section of writing is used in several PCG articles.

California is now one of nine states with explicit non-discrimination laws for transgender individuals. By January, similar laws will also be in effect in four other states. Thus, against all common sense, gender confusion is protected by law—placed in the same category as biological realities like race and sex.
The implications of these laws are enormous. Universities nationwide are hosting gender-neutral student housing, bathrooms and locker rooms; transgender law advocates are pushing for student health insurance plans to include hormones and “sex-reassignment surgery.” Last year, New York City’s homeless shelter system, which segregates men and women, began allowing people to decide which shelters to use based on whether they “feel” male or female. Some people are pushing to open women’s public toilet facilities and locker rooms to Burts-turned-Berthas everywhere. Thus, to protect the right of a man who says he feels more comfortable as a woman, the law is preparing to trample on the right of women who feel more comfortable in public bathrooms devoid of perverted men. (Joel Hilliker, The Alarming Push for Transgender Rights, November 7, 2007.)

This is particularly ghastly rhetoric. It is also untrue. 22 transgender Americans have been murdered this year but PCG instead falsely equates this vulnerable minority with violent criminals. Clearly transgender people need help and protection from violence. It is terrible that transgender people are falsely insinuated to be violent criminals.

Western society has divorced itself from fatherhood. Reasoning from more than two generations of evolutionary hypothesizing, educators and the leaders they produce have declared the traditional father not only non-essential, but also an archaic, oftentimes negative influence. Politicians are increasingly taking up the cause on behalf of scholars like Silverstein and Auerbach. For instance, Democratic presidential candidates have committed to overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, which, for federal purposes, defines marriage as a heterosexual union. In October, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed four bills, written by California’s first openly lesbian senator, that promote homosexual, bisexual, transsexual and other deviant lifestyles. Two of them affect the classroom, as early as the kindergarten level; one suggests that these lifestyles must be portrayed in textbooks and instruction, and in a positive light. “Dad” and “Mom” or “husband” and “wife,” for instance, will likely have to be eliminated from textbooks, instruction and activities, or portrayed alongside homosexual, bisexual and transsexual ideas. Another of the bills prohibits state funding for programs that do not support deviant sexual practices, which affects churches, day cares, preschools, senior services and other organizations. (Phillip Nice, The Best Man I Ever Knew, November-December 2007.)

Is PCG trying to get state funding? Then why scare monger about that?

In October, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed four bills that promoted homosexual, bisexual, transsexual and other deviant lifestyles in the classroom. One of the bills will prevent any public school from offering instruction that might be interpreted as negative toward transsexuals. (Stephen Flurry, The California Dream Is Dead, December 28, 2007.)

Does PCG have a public school? Then why is the PCG 1% worried? A government is duty bound to protect its people. It is perfectly natural for the American government to try and look out for the interests of transgender Americans. Why is PCG trying to make this look like a bad thing?

To be continued...

PCG's Demonization of Transgender People

Normally people are born male or female. But reality is so hard to define in simple black and white ways. There are transgender persons.

What Scientists Say About Transgender People

Let's check and see what medical scientists have to say about this transgender people.

Let's try the American Psychological Association.

A psychological state is considered a mental disorder only if it causes significant distress or disability. Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder. For these individuals, the significant problem is finding affordable resources, such as counseling, hormone therapy, medical procedures and the social support necessary to freely express their gender identity and minimize discrimination. Many other obstacles may lead to distress, including a lack of acceptance within society, direct or indirect experiences with discrimination, or assault. These experiences may lead many transgender people to suffer with anxiety, depression or related disorders at higher rates than nontransgender persons.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), people who experience intense, persistent gender incongruence can be given the diagnosis of "gender dysphoria." Some contend that the diagnosis inappropriately pathologizes gender noncongruence and should be eliminated. Others argue that it is essential to retain the diagnosis to ensure access to care. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is under revision and there may be changes to its current classification of intense persistent gender incongruence as "gender identity disorder." ("Is being transgender a mental disorder?" American Psychological Association.)

Let's try Britain's National Health Service (NHS).

While biological sex and gender identity are the same for most people, this is not the case for everyone. For example, some people may have the anatomy of a man, but identify themselves as a woman, while others may not feel they are definitively either male or female.
This mismatch between sex and gender identity can lead to distressing and uncomfortable feelings that are called gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a recognised medical condition, for which treatment is sometimes appropriate. It is not a mental illness. (NHS, Gender dysphoria.)

What causes gender dysphoria? Here is part of what the NHS have to say about that.

Gender development is complex, and there are many possible variations that cause a mismatch between a person’s biological sex and their gender identity.

Hormonal problems

Occasionally, the hormones that trigger the development of sex and gender may not work properly on the brain, reproductive organs and genitals, causing differences between them. For example, the biological sex (as determined physically by the reproductive organs and genitals) could be male, while the gender identity (as determined by the brain) could be female. (NHS, Gender dysphoria - Causes.)

So we see that it is possible for one to be born with male genitalia and yet have a brain with a female gender identity. It is possible for one to be born with female genitalia and yet have a brain with a male gender identity. Gender dysphoria is a recognized medical condition and it is not a mental illness. Let us keep those facts in mind.

Violence Against Transgender Americans

Furthermore transgender people in the United States have endured widespread discrimination and are often targeted for violence.

For a few transgender Americans, this has been a year of glamour and fame. For many others, 2015 has been fraught with danger, violence and mourning.
While Caitlyn Jenner made the cover of Vanity Fair and Laverne Cox prospered as a popular actress, other transgender women have become homicide victims at an alarming rate. By the count of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, there have been 22 killings so far this year of transgender or gender-nonconforming people — including 19 black or Latina transgender women.
The toll compares with 12 last year and 13 in 2013, and is the highest since advocacy groups began such tallies a decade ago. (Associated Press, Homicides Of Transgender Women In U.S. Reach Alarming High, November 23, 2015.)

So far 22 transgender Americans have been murdered this year.

And because of widespread hostility against transgender people they also have a high rate of suicide.

Since January of this year, a transgender person was murdered somewhere around the globe every 29 hours. Additionally, trans people are statistically at a much greater risk to commit suicide; the rate of suicide in the general population is under 10 percent, yet within the trans community it is over 40 percent. Dr. Alex Abramovich, a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says, "Transphobia leads to suicide. End of story." (Derrick De Lise, Transphobia Leads to Suicide -- End of Story, Huffington Post, December 11, 2015.)

There is even a helpline, Trans Lifeline, dedicated to helping transgender people from not committing suicide. That is how severe this problem is among the transgender community. Clearly they need support, not demonization and condemnation.

For anyone who wants to read about suicide I would suggest the National Suicide Prevention Helpline. Their phone number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Clearly this is a severe problem that needs urgent attention. Clearly transgender people need help. Clearly vilifying them will only add fuel to the flames of this terrible problem.

PCG's Demonization of Transgender People

Unfortunately PCG has shown no interest in understanding and addressing the needs and concerns of such people.

Instead these transgender people are vilified and condemned by PCG as "gender confused," "deviants," "perverted men," having a "disease," having "a mental illness" and "immoral".

Any attempt to accommodate the concerns and interests of transgender people by authorities are belittled, condemned and portrayed in a most alarmist way.

Sometimes they are portrayed in a hostile manner as a financial burden to the public. The possibility that such help will allow transgender Americans to lead happier lives is not side lined.

It is sometimes insinuated that such measures will somehow "spread" or somehow "trick" people into thinking they are transgender when in fact this is impossible.

At times PCG has even promoted the "bathroom predator" myth against transgender people. Joel Hilliker alluded to this idea in a November 7, 2007 article. But this myth used to demonize transgender people is complete nonsense.

The possibility that there are biological reasons for transgender people being who they are is never admitted. At the most this possibility is mentioned only to be dismissed.

It is terrible that PCG should talk of this vulnerable minority in such a dehumanizing and harsh way. In reality transgender people are targeted for murder and experience high rates of suicide.

I found about 22 PCG articles dating as early as 1998 of PCG articles demonizing transgender people. This included articles written by Joel Hilliker, Ron Fraser, Phillip Nice, Stephen Flurry, Brad MacDonald, Dennis Leap and Robert Morley. There is also a tweet by Brent Nagtegaal relevant to this topic.

It is terrible and wrong for PCG to vilify transgender people in this way. They are a numerically small minority and because of widespread prejudice against them are particularly vulnerable to suicide. And unfortunately transgender people have often been forced to endure so much hatred.

While PCG's 1% insist on getting three tithes from their followers they tell their followers to be fearful and loath transgender people, a vulnerable minority. No good can come from such venomous and misleading rhetoric.

It is shameful and terrible that PCG should add fuel for the fire instead of helping in this dire situation.

For anyone who wants to read more about suicide I would suggest the National Suicide Prevention Helpline. Their phone number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

PCG's Demonization of Transgender People Exposed: Part 2 (2008-12)

PCG has a long habit of vilifying and inciting animosity against transgender people. Getting PCG members to be fearful and antagonistic against transgender people has the effect of making PCG members not notice the problems among themselves within PCG.

PCG's 1% do not talk about it but transgender people are diagnosed with the recognized medical condition named gender dysphoria in which one's gender identity (which is determined in the brain) differ from one's anatomy.

Transgender people suffer all kinds of problems due to animosity and hatred directed against them. Last year about 22 transgender people were murdered in the United States, 19 of them African Americans.

Furthermore about 40% of transgender people in the United States have contemplated suicide. This is far higher than the national average which is below 10%. There is even a helpline, Trans Lifeline, specifically dedicated to helping transgender people to not commit suicide. That is how severe this problem is among the transgender community. Clearly they need support, not demonization and condemnation.

For anyone who wants to read about suicide I would suggest the National Suicide Prevention Helpline. Their phone number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Bearing these sobering facts in mind let us continue to see PCG's demonization of transgender people. This is a continuation from Part 1.

Below are quotes from Stephen Flurry, Joel Hilliker, Brad MacDonald, Dennis Leap and the late Ron Fraser.

***

This trend is sweeping across America. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed four bills last October that promote homosexual, bisexual, transsexual and other deviant lifestyles in the classroom, as early as the kindergarten level. Other states are exploring similar laws. Liberal, activist educators are ensuring the homosexual lifestyle seeps into the nooks and crannies of the entire educational system, from homosexual teachers to politically correct textbooks to school-sanctioned homosexual clubs and organizations. Almost half of all California high schools have Gay-Straight Alliance clubs. (Brad MacDonald, The End of the “New Morality”, April 24, 2008.)

Once again transsexual people are vilified as "deviant". By fear mongering about kindergarten classes the parents' love for children is exploited to incite fear and loathing of transgender people.

And why are there Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in the first place? Are people forced to join these organizations? PCG constantly portrays gays and transgender people in a hostile manner and the PCG 1% have never bothered to understand or meditate why so many heterosexuals are not fearful or loathing towards gays and transgender people the way PCG teaches people to be. The COGs use hatred and fear of gays and transgender people to keep the lay members of PCG divided and fearful among themselves.

Not to be outdone, the Labor Party is also working diligently to woo homosexual voters. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently hosted leading homosexual advocates at his house on Downing Street. “I’m very proud of all that this government has achieved on LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] rights these last 12 years—often in the face of fierce opposition,” Mr. Brown said.
In America, President Barack Obama also played host to a large gathering of homosexuals at the White House on June 29. He had proclaimed June as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month” to commemorate the 40-year anniversary of the LGBT rights movement in America. This struggle, Obama told more than 250 homosexuals at the White House reception, is “incredibly difficult.” (Joel Hilliker and Stephen Flurry, The War Against the Family, September 2009.)

And considering about 22 transgender Americans were brutally murdered this year clearly President Obama was right to note how that the situation is very difficult for this vulnerable minority. Once again PCG is wrong.

President Obama has also pushed to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law barring admitted homosexuals from joining the military. The Pentagon has begun implementing the directive, with the defense secretary and joint chiefs of staff chairman testifying on “progress” toward open homosexuality in the U.S. military. This came soon after it was published that the president had appointed the first ever transgender individual to a senior government post. (WorldWatch, March 2010.)

And so transgender Americans are treated like any other and are able to get employed in the government and somehow PCG's 1% thinks this is strange?

Wow, after countless forms, original certificate procurements, and applications for upcoming examinations in the “green card” process to prove exactly who I am so I can remain in the country, I find it incredible that citizens can choose to make this paperwork say whatever they want. I was born with a fantasy too: to be a billionaire. Can anyone legislate that into fruition? I just know I am a rich woman trapped in a poor woman’s body! (Letter in Philadelphia Trumpet, October-November 2010, p. 34.)

The issue of gender dysmorphia is ignored in the letter above. It is most unfortunate that PCG's hostility against transgender people promotes such negative attitudes against this vulnerable minority.

Before this generation, pediatricians and psychologists would have recommended corrective therapy for gender-confused children. There would have been an effort made to prevent children from becoming transsexual or homosexual. Our generation has chosen to go in a different direction. ...
The article points out that the greatest support for this kind of thinking has come from the homosexual rights movement. No surprise there. Transsexual activists are hard at work to change the psychiatric establishment, which still considers children’s confusion over gender identity a mental illness. (Dennis Leap, Is There Anything Good About a Boy Wanting to Wear a Dress?, August 22, 2012.)

The NHS says it is not a mental illness. So Leap is stridently asserting his non-medical view. These words confuse people. Let this be a warning that we should look for advice from experts and not from indoctrinated PCG ministers talking about things without the benefit of a professional qualification. 

Let me say from the beginning that I am totally secure in my manhood. I was born a male. I have thoroughly enjoyed my masculine roles as boy, youth, husband, father, grandfather. One of my greatest joys has been to see a third generation of boys in our family raised to be real men, with no confusion about their clear identity. Our extended family has been entirely successful in completely countering the influence of the feminization of society on it.
Thus it is with complete confidence in my male role that I will go on opening doors for women, offering to carry their bags, offering my seat to them and generally regarding them in their God-given roles as the physically weaker (not weak) vessel (1 Peter 3:7) in need of strong masculine protection for their general security. I will remain the provider for my wife and her leader in our marriage.
These are all God-given rights that I will yield up to no power, state or individual. (Ron Fraser, The Descent of the Anglo-Saxon Male, August 6, 2012)

In the quote above Fraser insinuates that a proper education will produce men who are not confused about gender identity. This ignores the possibility cited by medical experts above that gender dysphoria is caused within the womb. Ron Fraser misinforms his readers by insinuating that a proper education and rearing of male children will prevent the occurrence of conditions such as gender dysphoria.

***

How dare PCG's 1% choose to vilify and incite animosity against a numerically small and vulnerable minority which distracts PCG members from the problems within PCG. We do not need to listen to ill informed condemnation on this topic. Rather transgender people need support and help, not this non-scientific condemnation and loathing.

To be continued...

PCG Vilifying Transgender People Again

Some babies are born without an arm. Should we blame them for being born that way? Of course not. Some babies are born a leg. Should we blame them for being born that way? Of course not. But then why do some choose to blame people who happen to be born with gender dysphoria?

Every human embryo begins as a female but about half of the time it will undergo a process of hormonal transformation to make it male. But sometimes this transformation is not completed so the embryo is not quite entirely male or female. So it should be no surprise that some people do not quite fit either gender. This condition is known as gender dysphoria.

People with gender dysphoria deserve and need help and compassion. Unfortunately transgender individuals tend to be vulnerable to all kinds of social problems. Some transgender people are even murdered for who they are. Last year twenty-two transgender Americans were murdered. This year at least twenty transgender Americans have been murdered. Every November 20 the Transgender Day of Remembrance is held to commemorate transgender people who had been murdered each year.

The last thing this community of often desperate people need is to be vilified as some sort of threat to society but unfortunately that is how PCG's 1% talks about them. PCG continues scare mongering against the transgender community with a recent article by Christopher Eames. (Separate Clothing for Boys and Girls? Get It While You Can, September 18, 2017.)

The title,"Separate Clothing for Boys and Girls? Get It While You Can," implies that such clothing will soon disappear. How is that even possible? This is ridiculous hyperbole.

The author complains about John Lewis clothing stores.

If you are a Brit walking into your local John Lewis department store, you may notice that something has changed. You may have trouble navigating your way around the children’s clothing aisles: That would be because there are no longer sections for boys and girls. 

Not only are the separate sections done away with, but so are the individual labels on the clothing. The children’s clothing section is now a conglomeration of non-specific clothing, intended to encourage children to branch outside of gender “boxes” and try out clothing pertaining to that of what was once known as the opposite sex.

First of all most PCG members are in America, not Britain. Also if one does not like this he or she can move to another store or even if such a person shopped there he or she can control what children are going to wear. The parent is in charge.

John Lewis isn’t the only store going in this direction for children’s clothing. Target has just launched a new gender-neutral line, which will be featured in many stores between the girls’ and boys’ sections. The move comes in conjunction with Target’s decision to start installing gender-neutral bathrooms.

Does it never occur to the author that parents who may happen to choose not to know the gender of their child before birth would find gender neutral clothing to be useful? Also Target continues to have boys' and girls' clothing but somehow that is not enough for the author.

Note the highlighted phrase below. Is it true?

What was just yesterday a drive to make the minuscule segment of the population that is transgender feel accepted is quickly becoming a mainstream effort to teach our children that there are no differences between males and females. And that, should they so desire, they may change sex or identify as no sex. That by the age of 2 they can make a decision about being transgender.

Who says there are no differences between males and females? Not the majority of the transgender community. Generally they do not say there is no difference. Rather most transgender individuals say, "I am female but I am labelled as male." Or, "I am male but I am labelled as female."

Among the transgender community there are some who identify themselves as not belonging to either male or female and this is referred to as a non-binary identity but that only describes a portion of the transgender community. As far as I can tell most transgender people are not non-binary.

Children are deeply impressionable. Naturally, this kind of instruction has caused a massive uptick in children seeking medical advice for their gender. The UK’s Gender Identity Development Service (a clinic specifically for young people) has seen a 2,000 percent increase in referrals since 2009.

Being referred to a clinic does not reveal much.

This education has left several young people traumatized. Stories have been emerging over the last several months of American kindergarten students, who had transgender books read to them in class, coming home confused and in tears for fear of turning into a different gender. Those young kids who accidentally refer to their transitioning classmates by the “wrong pronoun” risk the trip of shame to the principal’s office.

This is anecdotal evidence and the problem with anecdotal evidence is that what is true in one instance may be unusual or the anecdote may misleading in most other contexts. It also sidesteps the issue of gender dysphoria.

Also it is impossible to turn into another gender after birth. This is a misconception. The hormonal change of an embryo from female to male occurs during an early stage of pregnancy.

Also if a transgender individual states which gender pronoun he or she wishes to be referred to it is good manners to address such a person in that way.

This all represents an extremely potent step in a lightning-fast, radical social transformation.

This is emotive language designed to make the readers panic. We should not panic but rather boldly learn about the issue. Sadly an organization with a history of denigrating and condemning science such as research into how gender forms in the human womb is ill equipped to teach people about how the world works or how to deal with transgender people.

The people behind these moves want us to raise up a new generation to believe they can be any sex they want, whenever they want. 

As mentioned about that is not true for most of the transgender community. They do not view their gender identity as a "choice" but simply who they are. This also ignores the issue of gender dysphoria.

They want parents to accept that if children decide (perhaps by the age of 2) that they are not the right gender, they can start wearing clothing of the opposite sex—which quickly begins to have far more radical ramifications: taking pre-puberty hormone blockers; later getting nipped, tucked and inserted with various plastic appendages. Many of these young people will surely decide to be no gender at all and may go down the track of removing nipples and genitals altogether to become purely “sexless.”
That’s not choice. That’s abuse.

Most transgender people identify as male or female. While some may happen to identify as not belonging to either gender that does not describe most transgender individuals. They all need to treated with respect and compassion not vilified in this manner or made to be ashamed of themselves. Denying gender dysphoria helps no one.

Michelle Cretella, M.D., president of the American College of Pediatricians, (bravely) pointed out in her article ... it is child abuse to be pumping our children with hormone adjusters and various other largely untested medical procedures. And it’s child abuse to be brainwashing our children from toddler age that their gender is simply fluid. Gender is developed and hardwired in the womb. To pretend otherwise, and teach otherwise, is a dangerous lie.

It is incorrect to say that the majority of transgender individuals view gender as fluid or that they have a non-binary identity. It is not true at all. As far as I can tell most transgender individuals identify as either male or female. Eames is dreadfully wrong to confuse non-binary identities with the transgender community as a whole. Those are different things.

A recent article on the UK Mirror lambasted those who take issue against “boys wearing dresses.” The author stated, criticizing the religious, “The Bible does not discuss … cross-dressing.” Actually, it does.

The author then cites some verses but, again, this sidesteps the issue of gender dysphoria.

But perhaps a more compelling argument is just to watch what is happening in Western society because we have cast this law aside. The dangers are quickly becoming clear. What started small just a short time ago has overnight become a movement threatening to utterly overhaul Western culture.

This is scare mongering. How can this numerically small and often persecuted minority be that much of a threat? They are not. This is a ludicrous accusation which partly stems from failing to understand the issue of gender dysphoria.

God created two genders for a supreme purpose. Attempts to blur and destroy this will always end badly.

Again the author seems to confuse non-binary identities with the transgender community as a whole. Most transgender people identify as male or female. Again saying "God created two genders" ignores the issue of gender dysphoria. Odds are he would say God created humans with two arms but that statement cannot help one who is born with one arm. In the same way those born with gender dysphoria are not helped with this attitude.

There are many other groups out there that see the danger behind this trend, though that number is shrinking. 

The author say he is so concerned about this issue but he does not mention who this other groups are. This is partly because the organization he works for, Gerald Flurry's "Philadelphia Church of God," claims to be the only "true church" in all the world consequently his writings are made partly to convince people to join the organization.

But how many know why God created two genders—what His purpose is for marriage and family? This subject has a built-in vision more wonderful than most understand—one absolutely central to God’s purpose for man. 

This is why John Lewis’s move is so dangerous. It is destroying the family, the foundation of society. It closes people’s eyes to their supreme reason for being.

What vile demonization of the transgender community this is. How does accusing people of "destroying the family" help anyone in the transgender community? It does not.

This screed against the transgender community is awful. The transgender community do not deserve to endure this sort of ignorant vilification. Gender dysphoria is real and no amount of denial is going to change that. Getting non-binary identities confused with the transgender community as a whole also reveals a poor understanding of the issue by the author. Shamefully the author refuses to even mention that transgender people have been murdered for being who they are. That is either dreadfully ignorant or simply dreadful. This article is useless for those wishing to learn about the transgender community. The transgender community need and deserve to be treated with respect, gentleness and humaneness instead of being vilified in this way.

Condemning Disagreements with PCG's Dogmas: Overview of the May-June 2019 Issue of PCG's Philadelphia Trumpet

This is the 2300th post for the Living Armstrongism blog. I wish to thank you, the readers, for encouraging me to continue with this blog.

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Let us take a look at the May-June 2019 issue of PCG's recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet. In this issue PCG's leaders insist that left wingers are waging a war on truth and reality. But it needs to be understood that in the social milieu of PCG "truth" often only means PCG's teachings.

The editors of this issue are Gerald Flurry, Stephen Flurry, Joel Hilliker, Brad Macdonald, Richard Palmer, Jeremiah Jacques, Dennis Leap and Phillip Nice.

This issue had a circulation of 251,999 issues.

Gerald Flurry has a personal article promoting PCG's unaccredited Herbert W. Armstrong College as promoting proper religious living.

Christopher Eames has an article praising various archaeological discoveries in the Holy Land.

Joel Hilliker has an article condemning calls to address climate change by insisting that climate change is not happening and condemning the transgender community by delegitimizing their gender identity. PCG denies that climate change is happening contrary to the evidence presented in numerous scientific studies. Also transgender people are not a new thing. For instance among Samoans there are the fa'afafine. Among Indians there are the Hijra. Transgender people deserve to be treated with respect and civility. It is terrible that PCG's leaders chose to instead stir up hostility and fear towards transgender people. Furthermore the article even has a picture of Adolf Hitler in this polemics against environmentalism and transgender people to stir up hostility among this article's readers.

Richard Palmer has an article promoting PCG's dogma that continental Europe will soon unite as a military power fated to conquer the United States. Various incidents of warfare involving the Roman Empire, Emperor Charlemagne, the Hapsburgs, Spanish warfare against Native Americans, Napoleon and Nazi Germany are mentioned to insist that similar acts of war will soon be unleashed against the United States by a future European Empire. This article also features a disturbing photo of an innocent Jewish man about to be shot to death during the Holocaust.

Andrew Müller has an article scare mongering that the US dollar may lose its status as a reserve currency. Armstrongite COGs have constantly insisted that economic catastrophe will soon occur.

The Infographic insists that the US dollar will somehow soon collapse.

Jeremiah Jacques has an article speculating that differences between languages can affect how people view certain things. He notes how some languages use cardinal directions to describe left and right. He also talks about the Japanese word mokutatsu but for some reason the word is misspelled five times with an extra s as mokustatsu. One of those instances is from a quotation which shows that no one among PCG's writers bothered to check that it was written properly. Thousands of people trust PCG to gain them God's favor and to protect them from the Great Tribulation and yet PCG's writers do not even know how to write a Japanese word correctly.

Jacques speculates that the use of mokutatsu helped cause President Truman to decide to use atomic bombs against Japan. Or maybe it didn't.

Jacques also promotes the idea that after Christ returns to rule over all humanity we shall abandon their languages and switch to using a single "pure" language. While stating this Jacques promotes the Islamophobic idea that Muslims lie about their religion to non-Muslims.

An Arabic speaker might ask: “What is the term in this new language for taqiya—the word meaning it is permissible to lie to someone as long as that person is an infidel?” This individual would be shown that this concept is false. He will be taught that the thinking that led to the coining of that word was polluted, and that there is no equivalent for it in the pure language. (p. 22.)

Taqiya (or taqiyya) refers to a Shia Muslim teaching that allows them to deny their religious identity in cases of persecution. Taqiya is a desperate act to save oneself in a dangerous situation. It is not a license to lie about one's religion as is often assumed to be the case among Islamophobic demagogues. It is shameful that PCG promotes this degrading and untrue stereotype against Muslims.

Brent Nagtegaal has an article scare mongering that Iran has conquered Iraq and will soon try to conquer Jerusalem. PCG demonizes Iran on a regular basis ever since Gerald Flurry proclaimed Iran to be the "King of the South" back in 1994.

Gerald Flurry has an article promoting the Armstrongite doctrine of the Great White Throne Judgment. This teaching is also taught by many of the splinter groups descended from HWA's WCG.

WorldWatch discusses the Munich Security Conference while scare mongering that the world is turning against America; the opening of a new headquarters building for German intelligence on March 8; President Macron encouraging citizens of the member states of the European Union to vote in European elections; pro-Russia forces building an observation tower in South Ossetia, a territory internationally recognized as belonging to Georgia; friendly relations between Russia and Belarus; accusations of industrial espionage against Huawei; condemnation that the Palestinians have more control over the Temple Mount which is located in east Jerusalem which the international community legally and diplomatically views as occupied territory because it was gained by military force in 1967; and more scare mongering about Iran.

WorldWatch also condemns of a ruling by the United Nations for Britain to withdraw from the Chagos Islands which is the site of a US-UK military base. After those islands were placed under British rule in 1814 people moved to those islands and built up a community there. However they were expelled from their homes and farms back in 1967-73 by the British government in order to build this military base. PCG posted an article about this matter which was written by Jeremiah Jacques. They discussed this matter again after the United Nations General Assembly condemned Britain on this matter in an article written by Daniel del Santo. Behold how PCG's leaders choose to view people who lost their homes.

SocietyWatch condemns Democratic Party leaders for calling President Trump a racist; cites a report saying that anti-Semitic attacks are rising in Britain; and cites a report that death rates in the United States are rising.

Joel Hilliker has an article calling upon readers to live by God's law. Here Hilliker alludes to one of the issues that caused Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of PCG's parent organization, to alienate his followers from mainstream Christianity, namely the Armstrongites' insistence that Christians are required to observe Jewish religious laws.

Here is another statement that has, remarkably, grown controversial in today’s world: God’s perfect way of life is spelled out in the law of God. Many people, including Christians, have been taught to think of God’s law as a burden or a curse. But it is actually “holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12). King David wrote, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:7-8). 

That law can be summarized in one word: love (Matthew 22:36-40; Romans 13:8, 10). Jesus Christ said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). (p. 33.)

When HWA began to teach himself religion in the 1920s he chose to ignore the fact that early Christians long ago concluded that one did not need to observe the Jewish law to be a Christian. This may be seen in the controversy over circumcision which is mentioned in Acts 15 and Galatians. Once early Christians agreed that non-Jewish converts to Christianity did not need to be circumcised to be a Christian this also meant that non-Jewish Christians were not obligated to follow Jewish ritual law. This is no need for a Christian to observe Jewish religious law. Consequently there is no need for a Christian to observe the Jewish Sabbath or annual holy days as HWA, PCG and related sects teach today.

HWA himself initially thought that worshiping on the Sabbath was not as important as he later taught. HWA wrote in a letter to his grandparents in 1928 that "...it's not disobedience to not keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not necessary for salvation." And yet HWA ignored this and later taught otherwise to his followers for decades. It is tragic that the Armstrongites continue to promote this misunderstanding regarding Jewish law to rip people away from mainstream Christianity, evangelical Christianity and other religions using misconceptions and badly thought out ideas that HWA devised. 

Brad Macdonald has an article complaining that children and teenagers are disregarding parental authority. He condemns Greta Thunberg and her activism raising awareness about the ongoing climate change crisis, a crisis that the PCG leadership insists is not actually happening contrary to the long established scientific consensus.

Meanwhile while many people all over the world are justifiably afraid of the ongoing climate change crisis and yearn to do something about it PCG's leaders enjoy millions of dollars of income from tithes by PCG members and donations from "co-workers," namely non-members who chose to donate to PCG. Once Gerald Flurry chose to boast that PCG enjoyed an income "around $19.5 million annually as of 2012." And if any readers of this recruitment magazine choose to start tithing to PCG after reading Joel Hilliker's promotion of tithing on page 33 ("God’s Word commands tithing," he writes there) PCG's income will further increase. Such new recruits will probably be unaware that PCG has made numerous false prophecies proving that there is no need to fear their predictions of doom and gloom. There is no need to follow PCG.

PCG's Stephen Flurry Vilifies Transgender People Again

PCG has a long and shameful record of demonizing transgender people. Stephen Flurry continues this campaign of demonization in a recent Trumpet Hour broadcast (May 10, 2016).

The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against North Carolina’s governor over the state’s law regarding bathroom access. The Justice Department said the law, which requires people to use the bathroom according to their biological gender, “stigmatizes and singles out transgender employees, results in their isolation and exclusion, and perpetuates a sense that they are not worthy of equal treatment and respect.”

 And PCG thinks this is horrible.

There have already been incidents of abuse of the new laws in other states that allow people to use bathrooms according to their “gender identity.”

Criminal behavior like that is banned in public bathrooms and everywhere else. This scare mongering against transgender people relies on a discredited myth that unfairly stigmatizes transgender people.  

These are the results of a society that has fully embraced moral relativism.

Nonsense. "Moral relativism" has nothing to do with this issue. Rather people have come to understand that gender dysphoria is a real medical condition. One's gender identity is determined in the brain, not by one's genitalia. It sometimes happens that one is born with male genitalia but have a female gender identity in the brain.

PCG vilifies transgender people in order to distract PCG members from the problems within PCG. Sometimes it is wondered how PCG members can stay within it despite its many problems. A part of the answer is that they are told to be scared of people outside PCG, in this instance transgender people, and so they direct their attention to these supposedly menacing outsiders and this distracts them from paying attention to the problems among themselves.

PCG Dissing Transgender People Again

PCG's denigration of the transgender community continues unabated. It is not mentioned that the condition is named gender dysphoria.

From PCG's Ryan Malone ("Defining the Sexes," January 19, 2016).

The idea of gender is under attack in our modern world! And it’s coming from two seemingly opposite schools of thought.

One is that gender differences don’t actually exist—that our views of such differences are the result of a cultural brainwashing—so, under the guise of “equality,” society blurs the two genders into one androgynous mix.

We shall return to that idea later.

The other school of thought is that gender differences do exist—but that they are independent of our actual physical endowments. A man can think he’s a woman, or vice versa. Someone can undergo all sorts of medical procedures and drug cocktails to have the body overhauled to that of the opposite sex.

Malone seems to be referring to gender dysphoria. That is the technical term. It is a real medical condition. It is not a mental illness.

Normally one's anatomy and one's gender identity are the same. One's gender identity is determined in the brain. But when they are not the same then such a one has male anatomy and a female gender identity. Or vice versa. It is not a personal choice. They are not "confused." Gender dysphoria is real.

So you can be a man and think completely like a woman. But wait! How is that possible if there’s no real difference between men and women (as the first school of thought tells us)? Our gender-bender society is speaking out of both sides of its mouth.

Actually when I read up about transgender people I learned that there actually is a history of antagonism by some radical feminists against transgender people. From what little I read of it the radical feminists wanted to believe that there is really no such thing as gender. But transgender people challenge that idea. But from what I read it sounds as though this school of thought among radical feminists has moved away to the margins among feminists.

The sex-change example is an extreme case of this second school of thought.

It is not a "school of thought." Rather some have a gender identity in the brain that differs from one's physical anatomy. It is a real medical condition. Those not trained in medical science have no business contradicting them.

A more subtle manifestation of it is how society tells us that one gender is different—even better—than another. Men are brutish, capable of only a handful of contributions to society, but women can do it all and have it all. Again, how is that possible, if there’s no real difference between men and women?

And so a sense of victimhood is fostered among the male readers of this article.

The COGs have a very simple prescription for how to manage family life. Here it is:

Men rule over women.

That's it. That is what the COGs teach.

It does not matter that Malone says that men and women are as clever as each other. Armstrogism has always taught that men rule over women. One gender rules over another.

It is unfortunate that it appears to be assumed by PCG's leaders that in order to promote this view they should denigrate transgender people and obscure the fact that gender dysphoria is a real medical condition. It is not a mental illness. It is not "confusion." They have gender dysphoria and they need help and support not vilification and denial.

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More information about transgender people and facts about how often they are targeted with violence may be seen in a previous post: PCG's Demonization of the Transgender People.

PCG's 1% Do Not Like Donald Trump Anymore

PCG does not like Donald Trump anymore. At first PCG seemed quite impressed with Donald Trump. At times PCG's leaders talked almost as though they were campaigning for him.

Brad MacDonald discussed Trump in late August 2015. Note how Trump is portrayed as being different from President Obama. Considering how PCG's 1% loath him this would make Trump appear in a good light to many of PCG's readers.

Fences are making a major comeback in America, Europe, Asia and the rest of the globe. Some, like Donald Trump’s proposed fence along the United States-Mexico border, are literal. ...

Donald Trump, the front-runner in the race to become the Republican nominee for president, is America’s version of Nigel Farage.

Like Farage, Trump is candid, brave and totally fearless. He doesn’t worry too much about political correctness. He doesn’t mind offending other nations or peoples.

Trump’s message has a distinct nationalist tone to it. His campaign slogan is “Make America great again!” The central question for Trump on almost every issue is: What is best for America?
 
When Trump and people like him look at the world—at China, at Russia, at Latin and South America, at Japan—they see these nations increasingly moving away from globalization and increasingly putting national interests first. Donald Trump knows that if America is going to survive, it needs to start playing the game the same way other nations are!

Like some nations in Europe, Donald Trump wants to build a fence too—the great wall of Mexico that will be 2,000 miles long.

When he talks about China, or Mexico, or Japan, he uses terms like “competitors” and “opponents.”

It’s very different from Barack Obama’s approach to international relations. It’s also different from even the approach of some of the more traditional Republicans. When they talk about other countries, they use terms like “partners,” “international community” and “allies.” (Brad MacDonald, The Return of National Fences, August 28, 2015.)

Joel Hilliker later discussed Donald Trump.

The top Republican contender is a man who would likely never be considered a serious candidate under normal circumstances. But people appreciate him because he is everything that the Republican establishment is not. He presents himself as a tough negotiator. He says he can’t be bought. He won’t be walked on—if you attack him, he attacks you back. He’s not politically correct. He puts the media in their place. And he continually talks about the fact that he’s a winner. He sells optimism, and leads people to think he can actually get things done. When he says he will strengthen the military, build a wall, make America a respected nation again—it doesn’t sound like mere political rhetoric: People believe it. And they are so disenchanted with politics as usual that they’re willing to overlook this man’s considerable flaws—his arrogance, his narcissism, his public, petty, childish insults. (Joel Hilliker, How Much Confidence Do You Have in America’s Political Process?, October 9, 2015.)

Although Hilliker does criticize him near the end one is struck by how he talks almost like one campaigning for Trump. He might say he is merely describing what Trump's supporters think but this description seems slightly too long for that.

Later when Trump proposed temporarily banning all Muslims from entering the United States many criticized this statement. But at this time PCG's Stephen Flurry chose to minimize Trump's statement to instead criticize President Obama.

When Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” on December 7, America’s elites went into a frenzy. The mainstream media, Republicans and Democrats alike, united to voice their outrage over Donald Trump’s position. It was an unprecedented show of unity within America’s ruling elite. On today’s show, Stephen Flurry asks why more people aren’t focusing on the man in power who is actually making radical changes in America. (Stephen Flurry, Donald Trump and the Fundamental Transformation of the United States, Trumpet Daily, December 9, 2015.)

Later some British MPs debated whether or not Trump should be banned from entering Britain. Once again Stephen Flurry's instinctual response was to defend Trump.

British Members of Parliament spent three hours yesterday debating whether or not Donald Trump should be banned from the United Kingdom. It was a symbolic debate, as Britain’s government has already decided it will not ban Trump. But, in a world filled with crises, and plenty of evil leaders who have not been banned from Britain, was it really appropriate for British MPs to spend this much time debating about a few words spoken by an America businessman? Why all the attention about what Donald Trump said, while little attention is paid to the dangerous things some men in power have done? (Stephen Flurry, In a World Gone Mad, British Lawmakers Gather to Debate Banning Donald J. Trump, Trumpet Daily, January 19, 2016.)

In the January 2016 issue of PCG's recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet, PCG's leader, Gerald Flurry himself, cited Trump to support his condemnation of the agreement with Iran concerning its nuclear program.

The leading Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has strongly criticized President Obama for the nuclear deal with Iran and other issues. He said: “The president is just totally inept, UNLESS he has an agenda.” Well, let me tell you, HE HAS AN AGENDA—and he is using it to LEAD THIS COUNTRY TO ITS DEATH! (Gerald Flurry, The Roots of America’s Dangerous Turn Left, January 2016.) 

However whatever sympathy PCG's leaders used to have for Trump seems to have dissipated by now. In late March 2016 Richard Palmer hosted a broadcast in which he stated that Trump agreed with President Obama on some issues. In PCG's world saying anyone is like Obama or Clinton is like the kiss of death.

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and many of America's top leaders all have the same fatal flaw in their foreign policies. This flaw was on full display as presidential candidate Trump unveiled his foreign policy in a series of interviews over the weekend. (Richard Palmer, Where Donald Trump Agrees with Barack Obama, Trumpet Daily, March 28, 2016.)

And on April 27 Stephen Flurry broadcast a denunciation of Donald Trump choosing not to oppose laws allowing transgender people to use whichever bathroom according to their gender identity.

Many people are looking to this year’s United States presidential election as a huge turning point for the nation. On the Republican side, last night Donald Trump took a big step toward winning his party’s nomination in July. But is Donald Trump really the solution to America’s many problems? In many ways, his political views are very similar to politicians on the left. (Stephen Flurry, Is Donald Trump the Answer?, Trumpet Daily, April 27, 2016.)

With this broadcast Stephen Flurry continues PCG's shameful demonization of transgender people. The way he talks about transgender people in this broadcast is just terrible. He also hurls inflammatory accusations against them which happen to be largely nonsensical.

It is not possible at present to definitively determine why PCG has turned against Trump in this way. Maybe PCG's 1% feel that they cannot trust Trump since if PCG should criticize Trump he can afford to ignore them. That is if he ever heard of them.

But because PCG leans so far to the right if Trump should happen to be oppose the left on some matter it is likely that PCG will speak nicely about him in those instances. But otherwise it seems PCG no longer likes Trump as a politician.

Overview of the January 2018 Issue of PCG's Philadelphia Trumpet

PCG has released another issue of their recruitment magazine to try and gain more tithes paying converts. (January 2018.) Let's take a look at what they have to say this time.

The editors for this issue are Gerald Flurry, Stephen Flurry, Joel Hilliker, Brad Macdonald, Richard Palmer, Robert Morley, Jeremiah Jacques, Dennis Leap and Phillip Nice.

This issue has a circulation of 247,255 issues. November-December 2017's circulation was 246,769. October 2017's circulation was 245,780. September 2017's circulation was 245,925 issues. August 2017's circulation was 255,897 issues. July 2017's circulation was 267,569. May-June 2017's circulation was 263,551. April 2017's circulation was 267,569 (which happens to be the same as July's figure).

The cover is illustrated by Gary Dorning. The cover features portrayals of the leaders of Russia, China, Japan, Turkey, Austria and Hungary. It should be noted that PCG often scare mongers about Russia, China and Japan. PCG's leaders do not talk of Turley as much Turkey but PCG does teach that the Turkish people are fated to be annihilated by PCG's pathetic parody of God based on the erroneous assumption that the Turkish people are descendants of the ancient Edomites.

Gerald Flurry has a personal article which shamelessly labels the recent victories against the criminal network known as ISIL as a defeat for the United States and a victory for Iran. This is done to promote his claim to be able to see the future since he has taught that Iran is the King of the South since 1994. This prediction gives PCG's 1% a strong motive to vilify Iran as much as possible to glorify their leader as one who can see the future. Widespread concern about the criminal network known as ISIL makes this harder to do. How easy it is for Flurry to shamefully downplay the frightfulness of the criminal network called ISIL when he has never had to flee his home or see his homeland get shattered by an armed insurgency. This is a particularly disgraceful article.

Stephen Flurry has an article saying that the world is becoming dominated by authoritarian strongmen. PCG's writers complain about those they label as authoritarian strongmen and yet their own leader, Gerald Flurry, boasts of implementing "one-man rule" within PCG.

Richard Palmer has an article discussing the leaders of Hungary, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. PCG teaches that in the future a European Empire led by Germany will conquer the United States and take Americans as slave labor back with them to Europe in the days just before Christ's return.

Jeremiah Jacques has articles about the leaders of China, Russia, Japan and the Philippines. Even though Japan has been closely allied to the United States since the end of World War II PCG's leadership continues to portray Japan as a threat to their predominantly American audience.

Brent Nagtegaal has a little article about the president of Turkey.

Anthony Chibarirwe has an article about the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.

The Infographic discusses methods of politicians gaining a large amount of power over their nations.

Brad Macdonald and Joel Hilliker has an article insisting that the sexual harassment currently being exposed after the revelations concerning Harvey Weinstein is because people are not living their lives in accordance with PCG's teachings. This seems rather unhelpful considering how widespread this problem is within society, including churches.

Andrew Müller has an article condemning far left protesters labelled Antifa, crudely linking them to German Communists of Weimar Germany who opposed the Nazis.

Christopher Eames has an article insisting that Abraham was a genius in astronomy and mathematics citing Josephus and Philo of Alexandria overlooking the issue that Genesis, which was written centuries before the time of these individuals, said nothing about these alleged events. That indicates that these are legends that arose after Genesis.

Gerald Flurry has an article saying that science cannot help humanity solve its problems.

Joel Hilliker has an article calling for children to obey their parents.

WorldWatch mentions commemorations for the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation to scare monger about ecumenicism; the State of Israel's purchase of submarines from Germany; al-Shabaab's terrorist bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia which killed 512 people on October 14, 2017; a claim that Osama bin Laden worked with Iran; an ISIL sympathizer's terrorist attack in New York which killed eight people on October 31, 2017; an Iranian proposal to stop using the US dollar for transactions involving oil; China further building up artificial islands in the South China Sea; and restoration of full diplomatic relations between China and South Korea.

SocietyWatch mentions scare mongering about social security running out of money in 2036 (which could be easily solved by just making more than the first $100,000 of income applicable to paying into Social Security); scare mongering that young people are becoming witches; that deaths from drug overdoses have tripled since 1999 in the United States; and scare mongering that doctors in Britain are being encouraged to make children change genders as part of PCG's denigration of transgender people.

Andrew Müller has an article praising PCG's God as the true and righteous strongman who must be followed by PCG's followers.

There are letters. One letter implies that PCG has the only media outlet worth listening to.

There is a great comfort with the Trumpet, when everything else is empty.

One letter from North Carolina boasts of knowing PCG's dogmas while the rest of the world knows not.

Yes, the good thing is, we are all still here. The bad thing is, the world is in confusion and will continue to publish garbage based on the imagination of man’s heart. The brilliant thing is that God has blessed our eyes and ears to receive the truth grounded in the sure Word of God. I am so consumed by all the excellent articles and broadcasting on the Trumpet.

One letter from Rarotonga, Cook Islands seems to indicate agreement with PCG's negativity towards the well known phenomenon of climate change caused by human activity.

I sincerely thank you for the two Philadelphia Trumpet magazines, August and September 2017, which I received today. I was extremely interested in the article in the August issue on the subject of climate change. This has been a major worldwide topic that I have tried to follow over several years, and I have to say I agree with you 100 percent on what you say.

One letter from California compliments them on their illustrated covers. Back in 2012 PCG's strongman leader, Gerald Flurry, authorized the creation of an art department.

The cover designs to the Trumpet magazine are top-notch and always interesting to look at. The articles are well written, and Stephen Flurry’s Principles of Living articles are an inspirational read.

And so we see that PCG's 1% has produced yet another issue of their recruitment magazine to gain more tithes paying converts and to keep their followers in awe of them as being able to see the future. However since its founding in 1989 PCG has made at least 52 failed predictions. But despite such a poor record of predictions their talk of doom and gloom has gone well for PCG's leadership. Back in 2012 PCG had an income of about $19.5 million according to a booklet by their leader, Gerald Flurry. Even as early as 1996 PCG claimed to have more than $5 million in annual income. Recently PCG has even bought its own plane. But PCG's many failed predictions clearly reveal that PCG's leaders are but false prophets. There is no need to fear their dire proclamations. PCG's leaders are but false prophets.

Overview of the March 2019 Issue of PCG's Philadelphia Trumpet

PCG's 1% have released the March 2019 issue of their recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet. Let us see what they have to say this time.

The editors of this issue are Gerald Flurry, Stephen Flurry, Joel Hilliker, Brad Macdonald, Richard Palmer, Jeremiah Jacques, Dennis Leap and Phillip Nice.

This issue has a circulation of 270,483 issues.

Gerald Flurry has an article scare mongering that the European Union and various Latin American nations will economically blockade the United States. PCG has constantly made similar predictions of dire catastrophe and yet such things have just never occurred.

Richard Palmer has an article bemoaning the Brexit process in Britain. Even though PCG is primarily based in the United States, a nation founded by waging war to liberate themselves from British rule, PCG's leaders still let Richard Palmer claim that the British Empire was the best empire ever.

A nation that has stared down Napoleon and Hitler, that remained unstained by the bloodletting of events like the French Revolution, that led the greatest and best empire in world history, that still leads a commonwealth of nations, is now coming undone, trying to quit a glorified free trade agreement. Why? (p. 2.)

If the British Empire truly was "the greatest and best empire in world history" then why did the founder decided it was necessary to go to war against the British Empire to liberate themselves from British rule? Why was it that about a million and half people in Ireland starved to death in the famine of the 1840s? Why was it necessary for the British Empire to constantly wage war to expand its territory and suppress numerous uprisings by people who tired of living under the rule of foreigners? Most of the vast territories placed under British rule were acquired by military force.

Brent Nagtegaal has an article condemning President Trump's decision to withdrew US military personnel from Syria. Even when the President is from their preferred political party if he takes any step to lessen the military power of the United States the PCG leadership instinctively condemn any such move. PCG's militarist attitude is exposed with such a statement.

Tyrel Schlote has an article insisting that economic cataclysm will soon afflict the United States.

Jeremiah Jacques has an article discussing a man in India helping to revitalize a river. Very likely that man and those people have had nothing to do with the organization that produces this recruitment magazine.

Andrew Müller and Jeremiah Jacques have an article scare mongering that China is positioning itself to be able to economically blockade the United States by gaining influence in the Caribbean nations.

Gerald Flurry also has an article condemning the vast majority of Christian churches for worshiping on Sunday. It should be noted that PCG's practice of worshiping during the Jewish Sabbath is not unique to PCG or the Armstrongite organizations. Sabbatarianism does not prove that one should follow PCG.

Jorg Mardian has an article encouraging people to improve their sitting posture.

Christopher Eames has an article insisting that Joshua's long day happened and condemning a proposal from some academics at the University of Cambridge suggesting that Joshua's long day is to identified with an eclipse that occurred in the region back on October 30, 1207 BC. Eames insists that the Israelites moved into Canaan just before 1400 BC.

Eames cites the Amarna letters as corroborating evidence of the Israelite conquest of Canaan as described in the Book of Joshua. The Amarna letters mentions a people called the Habiru and Eames identifies this people with the Israelites. But back in the 1960s, before HWA's organization began to experience schisms within its midst, Herman Hoeh, a major leader of what was then called the Radio Church of God, stated in his Compendium of World History, that the Amarna letters were to be dated to the ninth century BC, about six hundred years later than Eames' assertion, and he insisted that the Habiru were not Israelites. Why is it that PCG's leaders now believe that Herman Hoeh was wrong?

Joel Hilliker has an article denouncing transgender peoples while condemning the appearance of such such person on Good Morning America. He makes no mention of the numerous difficulties that transgender people face.

Richard Palmer also has an article discussing NASA's observation of Ultima Thule. It should be noted that NASA was able to make such an astounding feat without any help from PCG.

There are letters. Here is one letter praising Gerald Flurry's denunciation of President Macron.

So now Macron is paying the price for his arrogance. Look at the riots in France.

Here's a letter from an individual in France expressing skepticism about PCG's fear mongering about Karl-Theodor zu Guttenburg.

I regularly receive the Trumpet magazine, and I can see the positive evolution of its content and layout as well. I thank you for presenting a new aspect of political games. Although I do not share your point of view concerning Russia and your belief that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg should become the new leader in Europe, I share a lot of points of view you present (such as, Germany building its new reich). Guttenberg is a dead political figure. But he may act in the background. He is rich.

PCG's leaders respond with this simple statement.

Keep watching Guttenberg. –Ed.

Since 2009 PCG's leadership have constantly insinuated in their writings that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenburg may be destined to be the dictator fated to lead Europe into conquering the United States and Britain and taking those peoples as slaves in Europe. They continue to do so even after he was removed from the German cabinet following a plagiarism scandal.

Here's a letter from a person who had been listening to HWA and his imitators since about 1969.

I had read The United States and Britain in Prophecy when Mr. Armstrong was still with us. My dad, when he was alive, and I were subscribers and viewers of The World Tomorrow. I have read most of his books and am now 60 years of age. I listened to the radio broadcast back 50 years ago, when I was 10. It was good to learn from Mr. Armstrong. He sure knew what was up.

For thirty years PCG's leaders have constantly promoted fear inducing prophecies of woe and catastrophe but many of their dire predictions have failed miserably.