California Episcopal Church Holds ‘Beyoncé Mass’ Where Hundreds ‘Worship’ With Her Songs!

A “church” in San Francisco, California raised eyebrows with an event they called a “Beyoncé Mass.” With matters such as bibles being outlawed in California, this “church” has nothing better to do with it’s time than to pay homage to Beyonce. 

 

With hundreds in attendance, Grace Cathedral Church says the event is a chance for people to find God through secular music. Others calling it “evil,” saying they’re trying to substitute Jesus with Beyoncé.

 

“We have a community that is youthful and loving and looks to the world as a partner, not an enemy,” Reverend Jude Harmon said speaking to the crowd.

I guess Jude Harmon doesn’t care what God says about being “partners” with the world. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, now ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” James 4:4

 

Harmon says mostly in attendance are people of color and the LGBT community, including, “People on who other people’s narratives have been projected. Just to be honest, the church hasn’t been the best about lifting up those voices.”

 

To take things a step further, Rev. Harmon goes on to say that Beyoncé is “a better theologian than many of the pastors and priests in the church today.”

 

“That is not an exageration,” Harmon states.

 

The video includes examples of Beyoncé’s “religious symbolism” in her music and performances, from dressing as African deity’s, the Virgin Mary, and scenes in her videos that reference the Last Supper.

 

The event’s organizer, Rev. Yolanda Norton, told ABC7 News she uses Beyonce as a way to bring diverse groups together to talk about God.

 

 

Norton is an Assistant Professor of Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary who teaches a class she calls, “Beyoncé and the Hebrew Bible.”

“People think we’re worshiping Beyoncé, none of that is true,” she said. “This is a way to have different kinds of conversation.”

During the service, Norton said in a separate interview, they use lyric’s from Beyoncé’s songs as examples of what the crowd’s prayers to God could be. She said the service focuses on empowering women of color and other minority communities.

“I’ve been asked time and time again, ‘Why Beyoncé?'” Norton preached to the crowd during the mass. “I believe she reminds us that you have to do your thing your way, you don’t do it on demand, you don’t do it for your oppressor, you don’t sing when they want you to sing…you sing when God calls you to sing.” 

 

Many even pointing out parts of scripture that they say rebuke this type of gathering, including 2 Timothy 4:3-4 and Galatians 1:8.

 

2 Timothy 4:3-4 

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

 

Galatians 1:8 

“Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you.”

 

Children as Young as 11 Could Start Irreversible Hormone Treatment to Change Gender After Court Ruling

By LEAH MARIEANN KLETT ( news@gospelherald.com ) Sep 06, 2017 

TGender Identity Development Service (GIDS) found that 1,986 children under the age of 18 have been accepted for specialist treatment in the past year. Getty Images

Children as young as 11 could be permitted to start irreversible hormone treatment to change their biological sex without the permission of a court under an upcoming landmark family court case in Sydney.

The Daily Mail reports that five Family Court judges will sit on the case to be heard by the Full Court later this year – the first time they have done so in 12 years.

The case was brought by the father of a 16-year-old who was born female but identified as male from nine-years-old, according to the Daily Telegraph. The child, “Kelvin”, reportedly changed schools to start as a male, used a chest binder and attended the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersex and Questioning “campout” on the Central Coast in 2014.

The court has already decided that Kelvin is “competent” and fully understands what is ­involved in starting hormone treatment; however, his father has launched the appeal to ask the court to step out of the process all together. Should the judges rule in favor of the family, children wishing to undergo hormone therapy will only need the permission of a parent and a medical professional.

Currently, for access stage one treatment known as puberty blockers, children are no longer required to go to court, as the process was recently deemed fully reversible. The second stage of treatment – irreversible gender-affirming hormones, is what will be contested.

A June report from the Daily Telegraph said that an analysis of Family Court judgments from the start of this year show 10 children have been granted legal approval to start “stage two” treatment to allow for physical changes.

Recently, the court ruled in favor of 17-year-old “Ashton” to undergo treatment to fulfill his wishes of becoming a boy after the family spoke of “Ashton’s” distress at having female attributes.

Data released earlier this year by the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) shows 1,986 children under the age of 18 have been accepted for specialist treatment in the past year. That’s up from just 94 in 2009-10, with 37 young children under the age of five referred since then.

Western Sydney University professor John Whitehall, who has more than 50 years’ experience treating children, called the rise in transitioning “an infectious trend” and called for an age limit of at least 18 before children who claim they have gender dysphoria are permitted to undergo treatment.

Professor Whitehall said it was “unreasonable” to expect children to understand the gravity of the decisions they were making at such a young age.

“It is unreasonable to expect juveniles to have a complete picture of where they want to be in later life, especially kids that haven’t even yet reached puberty. This is an infectious trend, a dangerous fad and I think it’s nonsense. The courts should stop messing with our kids until they are at least 18 because once you change, that’s it.”

He urged a “watchful waiting” approac­h instead, arguing that a vast majority of children who question their gender will revert to their biological sex by puberty.

“I think it’s a dangerous fad; a dangerous behavioral fashion trend fuelled by the ideologues and fuelled by the media,” he said, adding he was concerned that programs such as Safe Schools, which promotes “gender fluidity”, were causing extra pressure.

“Even making that so-called social transition has consequences,” he said. “It nails the child to the cross. It’s very difficult to come back from that.