"No person is an Island..."

A reference to John Donne, Josephus? Here is another:

“And who understands? Not me, because if I did I would forgive it all.”

Which could translate your objection to gender and sexual identity issues being from your ignorance or your lack of understanding?

Dear Josephus,

I think that David is doing a great job renouncing his material possessions - both physical and mental. It is a proper and commendable spiritual practice, especially for someone his age, indicating that he is not only alive, but also spiritually well.

I disagree with you that someone can be dead just because they fail to entertain this or another mental idea. Think for example of a baby that was abandoned and raised up by wolves: they have no language, no abstract concepts and certainly never heard of "spirit" or "soul", yet they are alive as any of us.

Perhaps as you say, the reasoning and convictions of the mind are part of the spirit of the person - I even tend to agree about it, though I am uncertain and unable to confirm it with my own direct experience, but if so, then the spirit too is material, a subtler material perhaps which may even survive the death of the gross body, yet it would still be material - thus not what I focus on and not what I was referring to in my discussion with David.

Dear Josephus,

You wrote, "The impact of your having lived lives on."

Does the impact of a particular ant or worm live on? Does the impact of a particular breeze on a particular blade of grass live on? Can such impacts be detected? Your statement sounds like a bit of human hubris to me? I expect my children and those who knew me when I was alive to remember me. However, as time passes I will be forgotten, and any impact I have made will disappear. Given enough time the names of Jesus and Shakespeare will be forgotten.

Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 1:3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? 1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.

We know now from the work of astrophysicists that the earth will not abide forever. Those who wrote the Bible did not know that, but they knew about vanity.

Your statement with which you started this string was, "Under the guise of Kids Help line which is supposed to give assistance to those being bullied at school we have it promoting gender reassignment to those teens not happy with their gender."

I looked up the reference and the help line did not 'promote gender reassignment'. Why did you make an untrue statement? Why does the help line bother you? Please examine yourself?

david f,
I have never seen or touched you as a material being; but I know you are alive because your spirit is expressed here. You would hope that your values would abound after you are dead in others thoughts.

If you read the original link it is suggesting if you believe you are born in the wrong body maybe consider gender realignment. Young vulnerable teens who are unsure of themselves do not need such suggestions.

Quote: "Working it out' for some people may be about determining which gender they are. Sometimes people are born feeling they are in the 'wrong body' and may experience themselves to be the opposite sex to their anatomy. Someone born with a female body may feel 'male' or with a male body may feel 'female'. Sometimes people decide to make physical changes to their body through surgery and hormone treatments so that their body aligns with who they are. This is called 'transitioning'

I have friends assisting male prostitutes in the Philippines to come out of that degrading industry and they assist them to find employment and self respect, to marry and build family.

Josephus, what does male prostitutes in the Phillipines have to do with gender reassignment?
There is nothing wrong with informing teenagers about all the different people, races, religions, sexualities and other differences in the wider world.
We don't want our teens believing in only a very narrow-minded existence.
We want them to be broad minded and well educated.

Surely, if you have not ever considered that you were born in the wrong body by the time you are in your teens, all the info on that condition in the world would not make anyone 'want' to go down that path?
That suggestion is simply ludicrous, and doesn't take into consideration that most teens are really quite bright these days and far less likely to be constrained by religious shackles.

Dear Josephus,

The paragraph you quoted is shocking: it suggests "...hormone treatments so that their body aligns with who they are", that is likely because the "Kids Helpline" people believe that they are a "mind".

When we are born, it is possible that OUR minds do not match with OUR bodies. In fact, it is quite common as some people would have liked to be taller or shorter, have a different skin-colour or a different-shaped nose, etc. etc.

The "Kids Helpline" group is calling on children to make a big deal over such mis-matches, at least when they occur in the area of sexuality, and that goes counter to the child's peace and spiritual well-being, promoting discontent. The correct approach is to explain to one's child that both their body and their mind are their temporary tools, that neither is "them" and so they need not fuss if the two don't match or let it distract them from a fulfilling life.

Sexuality comes from our body's genes. Those genes work in their own "interest" - not ours, affecting both body and mind in their "desperation" to multiply. Whatever they scream, it is best to ignore them!