Hedgerow
First it was Lesbians (women and women) then Gay (homosexual men and men) then Bisexuals (attracted to men and women), then Transgender (gender dysphoria), then Queer (an umbrella term for those who don’t identify as heterosexual) to comprise the LGBTQ acronym first gaining popularity in the 1990s.
Over time, the LGBTQ acronym has expanded to include Polyamorous (having multiple partners), Intersex (sexual fluidity), Asexual (not identifying as any sex), Pansexual (identifying as all sexes, or sexual fluidity), Cisgender (gender identity corresponds to biological sex), and some argue, MAPs (minor attracted persons, or pedophiles).
MAPS is seeking to normalize pedophilia, even promoting its own pastel rainbow flag:
According to Urban Dictionary, MAPs can also include Infantophiles (being attracted to infants), Pedophiles (attracted to pre-pubescent children), Hebephiles (attracted to pubescent children), and Ephebophiles (attracted to post-pubescent children).
In other words, MAPs has a subcategory: IPHE.
According to Gay Star News,
“Considering the long-standing trope that LGBTI people are rapists and/or child molesters, the fact those who actually have attraction to children are attempting to co-opt LGBTI spaces is disturbing.
“Many on social media are warning LGBTI people and allies to be wary of the MAPs flag during Pride season. Additionally, many also called out the problematic nature of using a term like ‘minor attracted persons’ to normalize pedophilia.”
In a column published by The New York Times, former visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School, Margo Kaplan, argued that those who are sexually attracted to children are classified as having a psychological disorder, and that being a pedophile is not a crime. Within this vein, some MAPs refer to themselves as NOMAPs or “Non-Offending Minor Attracted Persons.”
MAP/NOMAP people claim pedophiles are misunderstood and marginalized. ThePreventionProject.org/maps, which has since been taken offline, has an archived podcast of testimonials.
Pedophiles about Pedophilia, a site dedicated to explaining pedophilia written by pedophiles, hopes to provide insight into the “born this way” culture of adults sexually attracted to the body type of a prepubescent child.
Some of the site’s entries include, “Correcting Propaganda about Minor Attracted People,” “Ideological Spectrum of MAPs,” “Five lies about Pedophiles,” and LGBTQ & Pedophiles. In LGBTQ & Pedophiles, the author writes:
“LGBTQ+ community is celebrating, asking for your help in accepting them as human beings. Why? Because they never chose their attractions, and they deserve to be socially accepted without being hated, maligned, beaten, etc.
“What Do Pedophiles Want? Much the same thing, the right to be seen with just as much dignity and respect as anyone else, without being hated, feared, beaten, or stigmatized for an attraction we never chose.
However, Trans Cat Lady, Phaylen Fairchild, disagrees, arguing that MAPS has no place in the LGBTQ community. Phaylen writes:
“Pedophilia is NOT a sexual preference. It is not a consensual act with a mutually informed adult. Children cannot consent. Pedophiles are child rapists, full stop.
“There is no such thing as a MAP. Do not normalize or sanitize child predation by allowing them the dignity of identifying themselves as anything but a sexual threat to children. They are pedophiles. Child sex offenders. There is no pathway to acceptance by using confusing/deceiving identifiers or disarming the public perception by legitimizing their crimes.”
While the word pedophile isn’t the Bible, Got Questions Ministry rightly points out that the word fornication, is. Fornication comes from the Greek word porneia, the root of the English words, porno and pornography. It notes, “Fornication is among the “lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16–21) and among the evil things that come from the heart of a man apart from God (Mark 7:21–23).”
The ministry adds that “pedophiles share the characteristic of being “without natural affection” (Romans 1:31; 2 Timothy 3:2).
It also points to a text that immediately comes to mind in Matthew 18:6 when Jesus talked about not letting harm come to children– and that it would be better that those who hurt them to be drowned and killed. (Also mentioned in Mark 9:42.) In Revelation 21:8, John says that those who are sexually immoral, among others, will end up “in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Christians are called to protect children from harm– which includes child abuse, sex trafficking, child pornography, pedophilia, and many other acts.
On the other hand, the message of the gospel is that if we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful to forgive us of them. His death on the cross cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
One of the most astounding changed lives is that of Ruth Bell Graham’s Chinese nanny, Wang NaiNai.
From The Foreign Devil in China by John Pollock, NaiNai and her husband “had run a traffic in small girls, buying some form debt-ridden parents and kidnapping others, selling them down to Shanghai for the teahouses as ‘little flowers’ for the lusts of male customers.”
When NaiNai heard Sophie Graham talk about Christ she believed. Her life was changed. Her sins forgiven, and she became Ruth and Rosa’s nanny.
There is more to life than one’s gender. Who we are, and in whom we identify–Jesus Christ– eliminates the manmade acronyms and false ideologies. Our identity in Christ wipes away past sins. It restores and redeems. And we like little children become sons and daughters of the most high God.
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