Tag: bible

  • Chapter 9: Chad and Luke Share Bible Stories

    Chad was hard at work finding Bible stories he could tell the kids while they ate after soccer. He had managed to speak the story from Daniel chapter 1 in his own words, which made more sense than how it sounded in the King James Bible.

    Meanwhile, Luke was also busy picking his own set of Bible stories. He was looking for something he could use to fight against Chad’s Vegan diet and also justify his own beliefs about eating meat. He also remembered that Chad said he could bring any food he wanted for the children. He decided to buy some regular hot dogs and buns because he knew it would make Chad angry.

    On the next Sunday, Chad and Luke coached the kids in soccer, and everyone had a lot of fun. There seemed to be more children there than the previous week. Chad said it was probably because they told their friends about the fun of soccer and free food.

    When it was time for lunch, Chad got a big cooler out of his car and bags of chips. This choice of food surprised Luke, because he had expected Tofu sandwiches. He also noticed that there was no grill, and Stacy wasn’t there.

    Chad served everyone a plate full of chips and filled several cups with cold lemonade. He brought a cup to each child and told them to come to the table for more if they were still thirsty.

    “Chad, do you have a Bible story prepared today?” said Luke.

    “You bet I do, but first I need to drink some lemonade,” said Chad.

    “In that case, I will tell my story,” said Luke.

    “The story begins in Genesis chapter 6, when humans were so evil that God regretted making them. He decided the earth needed a great reset. He liked a man named Noah, who was righteous, and told him to build a big boat called an ark. He and his family would collect animals and lots of food to eat during a flood that would drown every other living thing. The only humans on the ark were Noah, his wife, their 3 sons, and their wives. They also had a male and female of every kind of animal,” said Luke.

    “Why did all the animals on the earth have to die?” said Simon.

    “They were not necessary because the animals on the ark would reproduce after the flood, and there would be more of all the animals,” said Luke.

    “What does it mean to reproduce?” asked Simon.

    "You might want to ask your parents about that. I am not qualified to answer that, especially for children. Anyhow, that’s not the point. After the flood ended, God gave humans permission to eat animals for food. In Genesis chapter 9, God said

    
    And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
    
    2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth [upon] the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
    
    3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
    
    

    “So you see, animals exist to be eaten, which reminds me, I brought hot dogs,” said Luke.

    The children hissed and booed at Luke. They wanted no part of eating animals, and they were quite traumatized by the Noah’s Ark story. They asked Chad to tell another Daniel story.

    “Of course, I can tell you a story,” said Chad.

    “Many years after King Nebuchadnezzar died, and also his son Belshazzar was killed, a new king named Darius took over. In spite of this, Daniel was still trusted by the new king and still considered a wise man or a prophet because he had interpreted dreams for King Nebuchadnezzar and had translated the writing on the wall for Belshazzar. He was assigned to be in authority over the princes and presidents,” said Chad.

    “The presidents and princes became jealous of Daniel because he was their boss and the king liked him more. Therefore, they tried to find a way to turn the king against him. They asked King Darius to write a decree that for the next 30 days, anyone who prays to any God or human other than him would be thrown into a den of lions. He agreed and wrote a decree that anyone caught praying to someone else would be executed by being thrown into the Lion’s Den. Though he didn’t realize that this was a trap being set for his most trusted servant, Daniel,” said Chad.

    “The men who asked him to make the decree knew they would find Daniel praying near his window as he always had. Daniel knew about the law, but he still prayed to God 3 times a day and didn’t change anything he did.”

    “Why didn’t he just keep his prayers hidden or hide somewhere where the bad guys couldn’t catch him?” said a young boy named Trevor.

    “I think that he knew it was better to be faithful to God and live in his truth, even though he knew he might be in trouble for it,” said Chad.

    “What happened after that?” said multiple children.

    “The princes and presidents told the king that Daniel was still praying to his God, despite the decree. They demanded that he be thrown into the Lion’s Den as was written in the executive order,” said Chad.

    “The king tried to talk his way out of his, but the law of the king could not be disobeyed even by the king himself because he would be admitting he made a mistake and was not a God. He knew he had been tricked by the bad guys. Daniel was thrown into the Lion’s Den, and the king could not eat or sleep that night because he was so worried about Daniel. The next day, he went and found that Daniel was still alive. The lions had not even touched him. Daniel said that God closed the mouth of the lions because he was innocent,” said Chad.

    “At that moment, the king ordered Daniel to be taken out of the den and to throw in all the men who had accused Daniel. The lions tore them each up before they even hit the ground. He then made a new executive order that everyone should worship and pray to the God of Daniel. He believed that he was the true God who could make sure that even hungry lions would not eat the innocent,” said Chad.

    “Come on, Chad, do you really believe this story? Those lions would have eaten Daniel if he were in there all night,” said Luke.

    “Tell me, Luke, do you believe the flood story you told the children in Genesis? Do you really think that a God who prevents lions from eating innocent man would drown all the innocent animals of the whole earth, and that only 8 humans were righteous enough to be saved?” said Chad.

    “Well, these stories are both part of the Bible, so I guess they are both true,” said Luke.

    “But that’s not what I asked you, Luke. I asked whether YOU believe the story you read to the children,” said Chad.

    “I am not sure. But do you believe the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den?” said Luke.

    “You bet I do. It only makes sense. Daniel was innocent, and he had done nothing wrong. We also know that he did not eat meat from last week’s story. He did not have the smell of meat on him, and the lions probably didn’t think he smelled like food. They probably would have left him alone even if God had not intervened. This story not only matches what I believe, but it makes sense to my brain as well,” said Chad.

    The children clapped and continued to enjoy the salty chips and the cool. Lemonade. Chad knew just what their bodies needed in the summer heat and told a story that they could understand and relate to.

    Nobody touched Luke’s hot dogs, not even him. He was too angry to eat. He was jealous of Chad, just like the princes and presidents who had tried to turn King Darius against Daniel.

  • Abortion prevention: don’t forget about the men

    Consider this situation: A man chooses to have sex with a woman who he knows will go for an abortion if she gets pregnant. She does get pregnant. She goes to an abortionist, who performs the abortion. Which of the three people killed the baby? The father, mother, or abortionist?

    It should be obvious that all three people played a part in the abortion. So no matter what your answer, you are partially correct. The father chose to do the one thing that could result in a pregnancy the mother did not want. The mother chose to abort rather than seeking out alternatives. The abortionist was the final step in causing the death of the baby.

    Keeping all of that in mind, if you could go back and talk to one of the people—the father, mother, or abortionist—and convince them to become pro-life, which one would you choose?

    Again, there’s no one right answer, but I would pick the father. Talking to the abortionist could have a major impact if he’s the only abortionist in town and has no one to replace him, but otherwise, the mother will just go elsewhere for the abortion. Of course talking to the mother is good because if her mind changes, the child will live. But will she have the support of the father? He had expected the mother to have an abortion even before they had sex, which implies that he has no interest in taking care of the child.

    Talking to the father makes sense because he has the power to change his ways and stop creating children who will be killed. He also has the ability to support the mother in taking care of the children he is responsible for, making the mother less likely to want to abort. Many women abort due to fear of being a single mother.

    Outreach to women in crisis pregnancy situations is great, but we need to make sure we’re reaching the men too, rather than placing all of the weight on the women. The idea that men are irrelevant to the abortion debate is incredibly misguided.


    This was a post that I submitted to Kelsey Hazzard at Secular Pro-Life back in 2014. At that time, I was still known as Chandler Klebs. You can still read it where Kelsey posted in on the Secular Pro-Life Blog

    http://blog.secularprolife.org/2014/08/abortion-prevention-dont-forget-about.html

  • The Intersection of My Religion and My LGBTQIA+ Activism

    The Question Hook

    “Have you ever been told that you have to choose between your soul and your self? For years, I was warned that my identity and my faith could never occupy the same room. But what if the gap between scripture and advocacy isn’t a canyon we fall into, but a bridge we build?”

    The idea that I had to choose between being a Christian and admitting that I was transgender was strange to me, but it is what other humans seemed to imply. I am too smart to think that other people or God can be fooled by dishonesty. A person who is of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum has the choice about whether to LIE about their feelings, but they can’t change them. Those who come out of the closet are just being honest with themselves and others, which, in my opinion, is always less sinful than the alternative of coming up with new lies.

    Although some claim that their faith caused a change in their gender identity or sexual orientation. I think these are not something the individual does but is forced to undergo over time. Either they are pleasing people and trying to conform to what their church teaches them, or perhaps being gay or transgender doesn’t seem to matter as much when they learn their purpose in life is better served as a single person who can do with fewer friends to influence them in the wrong direction.

    The Universal Code

    “In computing, a binary system uses ones and zeros to build infinite worlds, yet we treat the gender binary as a cage. What if God’s mind isn’t a simple ‘either-or,’ but a complex digital landscape? Understanding this logic didn’t just save my faith—it revealed how my advocacy is the ultimate prayer.”

    There have been moments when I almost feel I see something supernatural and beyond anything I was taught about God or the power of the soul. When I am deep into math algorithms used in my computer programs, I sometimes am shocked by the idea that math is a Universal Language, which is at least partially represented by programming languages and the traditional math notation used by physicists and other mathematicians. Humans may have invented the symbols used, but they never could have created numbers, colors, or geometric primitive because these things must exist before anything else can exist.

    Many religions cannot agree on how many gods there are or whether the one Christian God is split into 3 parts. Others like me tend to believe in a dualistic bi-theism where good and evil can only be defined when both exist. Otherwise, the statement that God is good and the devil is bad makes no sense.

    But beyond that, it is important to see that the binary numeral system is the closest way of representing this duality in computers. Perhaps this is why it is the checkerboard or the yin-yang of everything, I believe.

    The Provocative Question

    “What if respecting the identity of the LGBTQIA+ community is precisely what Jesus would have done if he walked the earth in 2026? Most assume faith and advocacy are at war, but I’m deconstructing that myth. Let’s reconcile tradition with authenticity to prove these worlds are beautifully and inherently compatible.”

    When looking at the character of Jesus. He spent a lot of time around the sinners and was often criticized by religious leaders for it. I like to think that Jesus might actually be a better example for people like me than he was for mainstream heterosexual and cisgender people.

    After all, if Jesus is God, and humans, both male AND female, are made in the image of God. Then clearly God is not simply a man or a woman. Even if he presented as a man two thousand years ago, this says very little about what he truly was before he came to inhabit a human body. The pronoun he is only a convenience and tradition, but I would not call it a reality, especially when I don’t identify with my birth sex because it never felt right.

    Of course, much of this is speculation, but I think it is fair to make connections to modern topics that were not discussed in ancient times but are relevant today. In fact, none of the things in the Bible match our modern society. There were no cars, airplanes, or computers in the ancient Middle East. The English language didn’t even exist back then.

    But there is no doubt that gay, transgender, and intersex people would have existed during Jesus’ time. The closest mention of it is what he said about eunuchs.


    "9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

    10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

    11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

    12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." – Matthew 19:9-12


    Clearly, some of us were born different. I would argue that the LGBTQIA+ people were what Jesus was referring to, although the language we use today didn’t exist back then. Even if it had, we can assume most of Jesus’ audience were cisgender and heterosexual people. Those of us who are not like the majority must find our own path.

    And the final question that I think about every day is: Am I a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven’s sake? I am not sure what it means, but I can’t help but feel it is relevant in some way that I don’t have the education to understand.

  • March for Life Re-Condensed Pro-Life Speech

    The following is the final version of the speech directly as I read it in Washington DC at the March for Life. I had to do it quickly because there were many speakers but the people loved it.

    March for Life Re-Condensed Pro-Life Speech

    My name is Chastity, and I am a transgender woman here to represent the Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance as well as the Transgender people specifically. I am the last person you might expect to see at a Pro-Life event because I am not aligned with a specific church, political party, or anything else that you have been told is the foundation of defending the unborn. Still, I do follow the Golden Rule as taught by Jesus and other great teachers.

    As a former fetus, I speak for those who have not lived to speak for themselves. I speak for the unborn humans who were declared unworthy of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Each one of them was a human who would have been capable of doing many of the things I enjoy. I am not more or less worthy of life than those who were aborted for whatever reason invented by doctors, politicians, their parents, and whoever else convinced them that murder was the only solution to a child they saw as a problem.

    As an Asexual and Transgender person, I speak for many of the LGBTQIA+ people who were murdered or driven to suicide because they looked different, loved a person of the wrong gender, or were born with a soul or body that could not conform to the binary that society arbitrarily decided was required to earn family, friends, employment, housing, or medical care.

    For me personally, being Pro-Life is about protecting the lives of the most innocent souls who have done nothing wrong but have been killed and robbed of their life and future choices. The Pro-Choice philosophy does not respect their choices to live and become what they were conceived to be. Every single choice we make depends on being allowed to live long enough to know what these choices are, and also to understand that no choice would be possible unless our parents had chosen to let us live.

    The Pro-Choice philosophy does not ultimately care about our bodily autonomy because this ideology says it would have been completely okay for every single one of us to have been murdered in the womb. The only choice offered by those claiming to be Pro-Choice is Abortion.

    I also ask you to forgive many of the other Rainbow people who have been deceived into the Pro-Choice ideology, which promised to respect their bodily autonomy but failed to deliver on these promises, and only gave them death as a solution. Every one of the gay, transgender, and intersex people can be targeted for termination by detecting “genetic defects” which make us different, even at the DNA level. Discrimination against my people is just as common both before and after we are born.

    If the mainstream Cisgender Heterosexual Pro-Life people and the LGBTQIA+ community worked together and remembered who the real enemy is, it would lead to a much safer world for all of us. There are many misunderstandings based on false information. People like me and the others in Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance are a bridge to help the two sides see that we are not enemies by nature, but because we have been given the wrong messages by those who profit from confusing us to win elections or make money from killing us.

    And despite what you may have heard, the Pro-Life movement is the greatest ally that the LGBTQIA+ community can have, because you are fighting for our lives, even if you don’t truly know who or what we are. You may not know much about my community, nor do you have to agree with me about everything. But I am here today to tell you that as long as we agree that it is wrong to kill the most innocent people before they have a chance to live their lives, I think we can come to a better understanding over time and bridge the divide between the Rainbow people and the rest of the Pro-Life movement.

  • Plans for March for Life 2026

    For today’s post, I am doing something a little bit different. I am scheduled to fly on January 22 with some friends to the March for Life event that is held annually in Washington, DC. This year will be my first time at the March for Life, and it was the first time I considered it as a possibility, even though I have always wanted to go.

    In November 2025, I had discussed it in a board meeting with the other members of the Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance. Our group is planning an event that night. See our website: for details on attending.

    However, I am nervous about the travel aspect of this trip. First of all, only yesterday I was made aware of the new law of a REAL ID being required to fly on airplanes. With less than two weeks before the trip, I won’t have time to apply for a REAL ID and receive it in time. However, I should still be permitted to fly by bringing all the required documentation to prove my identity, residence, and citizenship. I have my original birth certificate, social security card, and will print my lease and renters’ insurance at a print shop next week.

    As it turns out, I don’t have any mail delivered to my current address and am still receiving mail at my mom’s place. There is also the increasingly digital world we live in, such as the fact that utility bills, bank statements, W-2s, and other documents are all digital PDF files that I have to go to FedEx or Copy-Rite in Lee’s Summit to get printed. As an aside, I could write an entire post about the reasons I don’t have a working printer at home, nor do I have a chance because of my insistence on using only Linux and Free and Open Source Software.

    By the time I get to the airport, I will have all the documentation to prove anything I need, so they should let me on the plane. However, that is only one aspect of this trip that makes me nervous.

    I am a little bit worried about the TSA body scanners and pat-downs that I will have to endure to be allowed to fly. For most people, this is probably not an issue because most are passable as either a male or a female. The agents have to select which mode the machines scan the body, and there are certain things they expect. However, for transgender people like me, our bodies do not match what machines or humans expect to see.

    I never changed my name or gender marker legally, and so they will probably scan me as a male in the machine, then the machine will think I have something strange in my chest because of my boobs. Yet they can’t scan me as a female either, because then it will detect my penis, which I could never afford to get removed. But beyond that, I am just nervous about how the agents will treat me because they could be people who don’t like transgender people and might harass me.

    With all these fears and doubts, you might wonder why I still want to go to the March for Life. I want to go because I am the Token Transgender person of the Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance. We are not your average Pro-Life Organization, and this will be the biggest event I have participated in with them so far.

    The following is the first draft of an essay/speech I have prepared to explain who I am and why I think the LGBTQIA+ community should be involved in the Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice debate on Abortion.

    Why I am a Pro-Life Transgender Woman

    My name is Chastity, and I am here to represent the Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance as well as the Transgender people specifically.

    Many people believe that the Pro-Life Movement depends on a specific branch of Christianity that is full of people who hate gay and transgender people. The media and the Pro-Abortion lobby continue to promote this lie because the last thing they want is for us to all work together.

    Being Pro-Life is about protecting the lives of the most innocent group of humans: those who have done nothing wrong because they haven’t even been born yet. Those who choose to let these children live are making the statement that they should be allowed to live their lives and do what they were made to do, whether or not we agree with the people that they will become. Therefore, the Pro-Life position is ultimately Pro-Choice by allowing these babies to be born and make their choices, for better or worse.

    On the contrary, the Pro-Choice position cannot in any way respect the choices or bodily autonomy of humans because the Pro-Choice philosophy ultimately says it would have been completely okay to murder them in the womb. The only choice offered by those claiming to be Pro-Choice is Abortion. When it comes to choice over who to vote for in elections, whether to homeschool children, or choosing to vaccinate these children or not, they often do not respect the choice of the parents.

    I speak as an Asexual Transgender person who will not Procreate. I have no financial or social reason for being Pro-Life. I am also not associated with a particular religion. However, I do follow the Golden Rule above all principles and find value in the teachings of Jesus, as many others do. Yet, I speak and write my opinions as part of the Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance, as well as an individual who knows quite clearly that people like me are those most likely to be killed both before and after birth.

    I do not have the power to make the world understand the unique experience of being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, or Asexual. However, what I can do is tell you that I see parallels between the hate crimes against the Rainbow people and the unborn babies.

    Gay people have historically been murdered, denied housing, employment, and disowned by friends and family. Moreover, they have been accused of being a danger to children.

    Transgender people are currently experiencing what Gay people did years ago. We are murdered or arrested just because we look different or because we used the “wrong” restroom, even if it does match our biological sex. More often than not, we are told that our identity is not “real” but merely a mental illness that can only be cured by murdering us or sending us to conversion therapy until we commit suicide from hopelessness and rejection.

    However, much to my disappointment, I have seen many of the LGBTQIA+ people embrace a Pro-Choice philosophy that says it is okay to murder the unborn for any reason or no reason given at all. Ultimately, I reject that anyone has the right to murder anyone, whether born or unborn, male or female, Jew or Gentile, gay or straight, black or white.

    I believe that the only reason the LGBTQIA+ mostly embraces the Pro-Choice ideology is that they falsely believe the movement is about respecting their bodily autonomy. They can even get some services at Planned Parenthood, but at a price of working with the enemy, which is the actual danger to children, because it makes a profit from killing them. For many of us, the Pro-Abortion message is the only one we hear, because we have not been welcome in Church nor seen Christians who act as Jesus taught them to.

    If the mainstream Cisgender Heterosexual Pro-Life people and the LGBTQIA+ community worked together and remembered who the real enemy is, it would lead to a much safer world for all of us. There are many misunderstandings based on false information. People like me and the others in Rainbow Pro-Life Alliance are a bridge to help the two sides see that we are not enemies by nature, but because we have been given the wrong messages by those who profit from confusing us to win elections or make money from killing us.

    And despite what you may have heard, the Pro-Life movement is the greatest ally that the LGBTQIA+ community can have, because we are at higher risk for being aborted due to supposed “genetic defects,” which can actually explain a lot of the causes of why people are Gay, Transgender, or Intersex.

    You may not know much about my community, nor do you have to agree with me about everything. But I am here today to tell you that as long as we agree that it is wrong to kill the most innocent people before they have a chance to life their life, I think we can come to a better understanding over time and bridge the divide between the Rainbow people and the rest of the Pro-Life movement.


    For more writing on LGBTQIA+ topics and Abortion, you may be interested in my free online book/webpage here: