Last week Jackie Hill Perry retweeted a TED-talk that seeks to normalize pedophilia.
Perry, the celebrated Evangelical ex-lesbian, author of “Gay Girl, Good God”, and self-proclaimed “writer, rapper, preacher, poet,” provoked a tweet storm when she posted an excerpt from this highly provocative video. Her only commentary: “I knew this was coming.”
“We should accept that pedophilia is a sexual preference that people do not choose.”
— Jackie Hill Perry (@JackieHillPerry) June 26, 2019
I knew this was coming… https://t.co/zKAf90t86i
Yes, she did. Because there is a logic to these things. It is a logic with which she is familiar.
Not too long ago, Jackie Hill Perry told a Desiring God interviewer that even though she is a Christian and a married mother she is still very attracted to women. Perry thinks she can have it both ways because, “I am to judge my position with God not by my temptations but rather by how I respond to my temptations.”
Sadly, we can trace a pattern between the words Perry used to describe her own lusts in this DG interview and those used in the offensive TED-talk she posted. While Christian SSA (“Same Sex Attracted”) pioneers such as Jackie Hill Perry, Sam Alberry and Rebecca McLaughlin may loathe the connection to pedophilia, both “orientations” rely on an inborn, fixed victim status.
The presentation Perry retweeted featured a medical student, Mirjam Heine from Würzburg University in Germany.
Be forewarned. The following excerpts from Heine’s presentation will sicken the heart.
What are the origins of pedophilia? Are there moral implications to being a pedophile? This TED Talk answers:
“According to current research, pedophilia is an unchangeable sexual orientation, just like, for example, heterosexuality. No one chooses to be a pedophile. No one can cease being one. The difference between pedophilia and other sexual orientations is that living out this sexual orientation will end in a disaster. Right now, most of us feel discomfort when we think about this scenario, and most of us feel discomfort when we think about pedophiles. But just like pedophiles, we’re not responsible for our feelings.”
And how can we help pedophiles?
“We… must make a decision it is in our responsibility to reflect and to overcome our negative feelings about pedophiles and to treat them with the same respect we treat other people with. We should accept that pedophiles are people who have not chosen their sexuality and who unlike most of us will never be able to live it out freely if they want to lead an upright life. We should accept that pedophilia is a sexual preference, a thought, a feeling and not an act.”
So then, in this upside down world where evil is good and good is evil, whose fault is it when children are molested?
“We shouldn’t increase the suffering of pedophiles by excluding them, by blaming and mocking them. By doing that, we increase their isolation, and we increase the chance of child sexual abuse.
With how much of the TED Talk does Perry agree or disagree?
She doesn’t say.
Jackie Hill Perry’s tweet elicited strong responses. Comments fell into one of three categories.
Type #01 – Holy Sanity:
“Normalizing Sin & desensitizing our young people to it is characteristic of our world today. Only those with twisted thinking & twisted theology would agree w/her position.”
“I am sick. Lord save us.”
“Evil abounds.”
Type #02 – Quite the Opposite:
“I hurt for those who are reading these replies to your tweet that struggle with pedophilia. The speaker in this video is right-they need a safe place to process, confront, and deal with the cards they were given. Not repress their sexual desire in secret and darkness.”
Type #03 – Those Who Notice Things:
A third group drew a connection between key assertions in the SSA narrative Jacky Hill Perry has promoted in our churches for years and those made by the militant medical student.
“When you open Pandora’s box, you might as well expect every other monster to come out, Bestiality will be next as sexual orientation… Crazy.”
“Well, given what we have now, if you have one you MUST accept the other.” #Godless
“This was the same line that was used by the homosexual community to gain acceptance.”
This third group of tweeters is onto something.
Perry’s approach to her own shameful sexual desires parallels the approach in the TED Talk. Remember again how she describes her SSA: “I am to judge my position with God not by my temptations but rather by how I respond to my temptations.”
While pew-sitting Christians sit under confused teaching, Jackie Hill Perry and the publishing industry behind her are forced to preside in uncomfortable silence over the storm of their own making.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes. (Isaiah 5:20).”
