REPOSTED...

 LUCY FER WRITES...

 

Hi everyone,

My name is Lucy Fer. I am a Church of England parish priest with a lovely parish, St Cuthbert’s  on Tyneside. I love my work and the Geordie people, but sometimes life as a parish priest has it’s problems. Let me relate a recent incident which illustrates this.

A little background about myself first. I have always been interested in religion, and  yet I never imagined I could be a religious minister, specifically not in the C of E. As a child, I was obsessed not with growing up, but with becoming vaguely, romantically good in the sense of morally triumphant. My parents were scornful avowed atheists, so my path to goodness was education, and then the right career. Good was all the things religions weren’t: liberal, open-minded, tolerant, generous toward difference, educated, focused on practical ways to make our world better.

At Oxford University I joined a feminist group. You get the picture: strident harridans, lesbians in paratrooper boots, all sorts of weirdos and men-haters. To may shame I also campaigned with them on pro-abortion rallies. I remember one incident from this time that had a profound impact on me. One Saturday afternoon I set out on a pro-abortion March through Oxford. At the front of the march we had a banner reading: A WOMAN’S RIGHT TO CHOOSE. At one point on our march we were confronted by a young man – about nineteen/twenty – who heckled: ‘You bitches. No one has the right to choose murder’. One of the leaders of our march, a strident harridan with acne and halitosis, started to remonstrate with him. He flung a carton of strawberry yoghurt right into her face. Splat! How she yelled! A right melee ensued, but the young man disappeared before the police arrived. I remember thinking he was a handsome young man and his face somehow reminded me of Saint Padre Pio – not that Padre Pio was a saint in those days. That incident propelled me away from all the radical feminism  and pro-abortion evil.

I became a police officer—a bad idea, now that I understand how most people succeed in this profession.

Eventually I trained for the C of E priesthood. I love my work but it is not without its problems. A big issue is the LGBT and Gay Lobby faction who want their own way even when this clashes with the Christian faith. But I am solid as a rock on Church teaching. I know there are many C of E sodomite bishops and priests who are champing at the bit to have gay marriage recognised and to have gay marriages celebrated in C of E churches but that will never happen on my watch. I uphold doctrine and tradition.

The bishops of the Anglican Communion in 1998 upheld the traditional Christian teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman and that those who are not called to marriage so defined should remain celibate. A resolution was passed stating that "homosexual acts" are "incompatible with Scripture" by a vote of 526–70.

Anyhow to recent incident that I mentioned. About a week or so ago after the morning service here I went for a stroll through the meadows at the back of the vicarage. It was such a glorious morning – and I heard the first cuckoo. I was euphoric.

Back indoors I switched on Radio Three at low volume. Janacek. I find Janacek such a spiritual composer. I began work on my homily for the next Sunday. My text was the gospel passage where Jesus warns anyone that leads little children astray that it be better that they were cast into the ocean with a millstone around their neck. I had a flash of inspiration. I would mention the Paedophile Information Exchange, a notorious organisation from back in the Seventies which sought to legalise sex between children and adults. The political Left had supporters of this evil. Also, the C of E had done precisely nothing about this monstrous threat to children.

The doorbell went. I peeped out. It was Canting Detterlng a self-righteous, pompous bore and parishioner at St Cuthbert’s. “Botheration,” I said to myself, “What does the old so-and-so want?”

I opened the door and there he stood. Eighty years old, grossly overweight and bizarrely dressed in a Sixties blue denim jacket, lovat chinos and green woollen socks in open-toed sandals. What a sight!

“Good morning Lucy, can you spare a moment. I have something perhaps you could help me with,” he wheezed.

“Better come in then – I can’t spend too long as I am in the middle of writing next Sunday’s homily,” I replied.

“Very gracious of you Lucy,” he muttered as he came in and planked himself on my best settee which groaned under the unaccustomed weight.

“Lucy,” he continued, “I have got myself into a spat with a character named Swashbuckling Mulligan. I have published that we do not know what the views of Jesus would be on sodomy as he is not quoted in the gospels on this subject. Swashbuckling Mulligan disagrees…”

“You bastard!” I replied. “Let me stop you right there. Of course we know what the views of Jesus would be on this abomination. Jesus is not quoted in the gospels on the heinous sins of bestiality, abortion and paedophilia for example. Does that mean we do not know what the views of Jesus would be on these evils?

Out! Out! Out!”

I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and the ass of his lovat chinos and propelled him out the door.

What we C of E priests have to put up with!

 

They Want to Start Euthanizing Babies in Canada

Back in April, a reckless assisted suicide bill looked like it was going to pass and be made British law. Instead, it was shut down by the House of Lords. Then, in May, the Irish parliament rejected an expanded abortion bill by a vote of 85-30. On this side of the Atlantic, things are headed in the opposite direction. 

Like all such “mercy” killing laws, Canada’s MAiD was promised as an option only for those facing imminent death and who could consent. Things are long past that and will likely go even further. Recently, a Quebec physician suggested that the nation’s already draconian MAiD program be expanded to include babies. In response, Brandan Tran of Canada’s Campaign Life Coalition said: 

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Canadian law currently permits the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for critically ill newborns. This medical practitioner’s proposal goes further. He calls for the calculated killing of an infant. These are patients, babies, who cannot speak, cannot consent, and cannot ask for help. If we cannot draw the line here, I am not sure where medical professionals imagine the line to be. 

Physician-assisted suicide is always sold to the public as a “compassionate” measure, necessary to spare those with no reasonable chance of recovery fromunbearable pain and suffering during the last days of their lives. In every context in which it has been made legal, however, assisted suicide has never remained limited to the rare instances for which it was sold.  

There are reasons this slope has proven so slippery everywhere it has been made legal. Once it’s decided that certain lives are not worth living, the list of people eligible for assisted suicide inevitably grows. It becomes easier to re-evaluate lives based on some criteria other than intrinsic value, such as convenience or financial costs. It’s a small step indeed from “eligible to die” to “expected to die.”  

That’s why, wherever physician-assisted suicide has been legalized, it happens by a series of bait-and-switch claims to the public. “Terminal” illness is often expanded to include “chronic” illnesses and permanent disabilities. In Belgium, the Netherlands, and Canada, even mental illness and depression are considered sufficient justification for suicide. Given this trajectory, it’s only a matter of time before the requirement of an actual illness is dispensed with. 

For example, the original promise was that only those certifiably in their right minds could be euthanized. But that was always a lie. Anyone who goes into an American emergency department claiming they want to die would be diagnosed with “suicidal ideation,” admitted, and put on a psych hold. To not do so, in fact, would be medical malpractice. Suicidal ideation is rightly regarded as a symptom of an underlying mental disorder. People with untreated mental illnesses are not allowed to make life-and-death decisions. 

Or at least they weren’t. In Oregon, for example, since physician-assisted suicide was legalized, over 96% of people given lethal drugs did not undergo a psychiatric evaluation. This is why, as a “What Would You Say” video on the topic so clearly explained, there’s nothing compassionate about physician-assisted suicide. In fact, it is the exact opposite of compassion, the abdication of a civilized society’s responsibility to offer care to those who need it most when they need it most.  

In his book The Thanatos Syndrome, Walker Percy described how a society devolves to the point of thinking that killing patients instead of healing them is compassion. A psychiatrist, Percy wrote of well-trained and exquisitely credentialed doctors who “turn their backs on the oath of Hippocrates and kill millions of old useless people, unborn children, born malformed children, for the good of mankind.” What Percy wrote in 1987 has become reality. Some form of assisted suicide is now legal in 13 states and the District of Columbia.  

Like abortion, the legal fight against assisted suicide is only part of the battle. It must become unthinkable to strip away the intrinsic and indelible dignity every human possesses, no matter their life condition. Otherwise, there is no way to stop from sliding down a slope so slippery.

 She saw Jesus in a Vision, 

AND LEFT  HER 

LESBIAN LIFE

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The woman who leads a growing number of former LGBTQ people who are now following Jesus instead, MJ Nixon, remembers hearing the gospel at a church as she sat next to her female partner of six years.
 
Drawn by the worship with guitars, drums and a clear message of salvation, MJ knew seeds were planted within her that day, though they remained dormant during the ongoing season with the woman she met in college.

"We both innately knew that there's always a tug-of-war between the spirit and flesh, so we started to pray for a way out of the relationship," said Nixon, who today leads a ministry she co-founded with a man who was gay at one time.

The Lord answered both women's prayers. 

Nixon clearly remembers the day because it was the last time she saw her girlfriend and the first experience she had hearing the voice of God.

"I was driving from Kentucky to Atlanta alone when the Lord said, 'MJ, you have to choose this day life or death, blessings or curses.'" 

Recognizing the words from Proverbs 18:21, Nixon saw in the Spirit a line in the sand. She knew the Lord was calling her to lay down the relationship, her sexuality, and potentially calling her to live a celibate, single life.

It was a frightening challenge for Nixon, a former college basketball player, but she accepted the Lord's call to a new lifestyle of discipleship and sanctification.

Growing up, Nixon was a middle child between a younger and older brother. The family was conservative and Catholic – a cause of Nixon's shame and secret about her sexuality, until the day she saw Jesus in a vision.

"I encountered the living God as He's sacrificing Himself for me," Nixon said. 

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Reflecting on that day and a Mark Twain quote – "The two greatest days in your life are the day you were born and the day you realize why" – Nixon realized God's purpose for her.

"Because I was yet a sinner up until that moment that Jesus saw me. He wanted to have a relationship with me. Anything I had to lay down doesn't compare to what Jesus has done for me," Nixon said. 

Fifteen years after her encounter with the Lord, the memory still empowers Nixon to take up her cross daily to follow Jesus, who is greater than any struggle, desire or pull of the flesh.

"With that has come so much peace and joy, though it's not always easy," said Nixon.

In February of this year, Nixon was a guest speaker at a Texas megachurch after she met its pastor at her brother's wedding. 

The founding pastor of Faithbridge Church, Ken Werlein, invited Nixon to speak to a seminary class of students he teaches after hearing her testimony and about the ministries she leads.

Though the seminary class was small, the Holy Spirit moved as Nixon shared with students her testimony of distorted identity and same-sex attraction. 

"One of the students emailed the next morning and said the class was incredibly needed because, 'I've struggled with that and it has given me so much hope,'" Werlein said. 

WATCH "Sexual Identity: A Conversation with MJ Nixon at Faithbridge Church

Nixon explained that some LGBTQ people get saved and then marry the opposite gender, but for many others, the men and women begin a journey of walking with the Lord, living for Him, and dying to their flesh. 

For those who are called to singleness and celibacy, the Body of Christ provides valuable community, support, and discipleship for formerly LGBTQ people, as well as for everyone else who comes to faith in Jesus.

"I would love for the church to be a safe place where someone can process and walk through this transformation as God works in their hearts," said Nixon.

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She believes God wants to raise up more spiritual fathers and mothers because many who come into the kingdom feel like orphans after leaving the LGBTQ community.

"We believe there is an undercurrent that is happening in this generation of so many coming out from this place of false identity into their true identity as sons and daughters," said Nixon.

The ministry she co-founded plans to march in New York City – not during June "pride" events – but in December, the happiest season of all for some who celebrate Christmas.

Freedom March – now in its ninth year – first rallied in Washington, D.C., bringing worship, evangelism and prayer to each subsequent city, including Portland in 2025.

Since 2018, Nixon and a combination of male and female leaders who've come to faith in Jesus have adopted the rainbow's significance and visibility at Freedom March.

"The rainbow is in Genesis. What I love about that is that it's the Lord's; it is not the enemy's," said Nixon.

She sees in the rainbow God's love for all humanity, instead of an agenda or wicked thing. "I see a community of people that doesn't not understand God's mercy for them," Nixon said.

The rainbow also represents God's completion with seven colors, unlike the LGBTQ community's alteration of it.

"They took out a color, indigo, leaving six. It actually represents the fall of man. It literally represents their pride," Nixon added.

Rainbow Revival leaders pray for a year, asking the Lord where He wants Freedom March to go next. Whatever city He chooses becomes a cause for more intercession. 

Freedom March is for everybody, Nixon pointed out. Cultivating community is important, along with Rainbow Revival's three foundational principles: discipleship, prayer and evangelism.

During Pride Month in Atlanta, Nixon's home city, 80,000 people turn out for one of the big, citywide events. She believes about 60 percent of the people who come to the event are allies of the LGBTQ community.
 
"We, as Freedom March and Rainbow Revival, are calling the Body of Christ to come and stand with us at these marches, standing on the Word of God, His principles, and the gospel; you don't have to be former LGBTQ."

"We need the Body of Christ to come and stand with us, to hold our arms, to be alongside us," Nixon said.

About The Author

Steve

Rees

A member of The 700 Club, Steve Rees is also a Christian freelance journalist who previously worked as a news reporter for both weekly and daily newspapers. He was among two reporters who first publicized the Promise Keepers men's movement, helping its growth across the United States. He is a Colorado Press Association Award recipient for personal-columns. As a short-term missionary, he has served underprivileged children around the globe.

 ADVANCE NOTICE...

There will be no new posts published on Gene's blog from 22nd June until 15th of July 2026.

Gene will be on pilgrimage, firstly on Iona, and then on Lindisfarne.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

ps

Readers' comments can however still be posted during that time

 

'Cancel it', Trump says after artists drop out of US Freedom 250 festival

Image source,Getty Images

BySakshi Venkatraman

Published
2 hours ago

US President Donald Trump has said musical performances celebrating the country's 250th birthday should be called off after several artists dropped out, citing the event's affiliation with the White House.

"Cancel it," he said in a post on Truth Social, calling the slated performers "overpriced" and "boring".

As of Sunday, only a few musical acts were still scheduled to perform out of nine featured artists originally announced on Wednesday. Martina McBride, The Commodores, Young MC and Bret Michaels dropped out.

Vanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli are still on for 26 June as is Flo Rida on 2 July. Trump said he is now considering replacing the event with a "Make America Great Again rally".

Freedom 250, the group behind the Great American State Fair concert series, was launched last year by the Trump administration and the president appointed its CEO - but it says the event is non-partisan.

The White House is partnering with Freedom 250 on the fair, part of a "series of once-in-a-generation events for America's momentous anniversary".

Freedom 250 announced on Saturday that the president will headline the fair's opening ceremony.

"As the visionary behind the Great American State Fair, we are excited to announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic celebration on Wednesday, June 24 in an opening ceremony celebrating America's 250th birthday," spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said.

Congress created an organisation a decade ago to arrange and oversee events commemorating the country's 250th birthday, America250.

That group is led by appointees from both parties, Democrat and Republican, and has its own events. They include July 4th celebrations in New York City, Philadelphia, and California, and block parties across the US.

Image source,Getty Images

Image caption,

Martina McBride

Trump signed an executive order last year establishing his own task force "to provide a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence". The task force created Freedom 250 "to acheieve that ambitious mission", the White House site states.

Freedom 250 unveiled the artists on Wednesday for the 16-day series of events planned on the National Mall in Washington DC between 25 June and 10 July.

Country singer McBride had been slated to perform the first night. Poison frontman Michaels was scheduled on 3 July, the eve of Independence Day. Both cancelled.

Young MC, best known for his 1989 hit Bust a Move, said on his social media that artists were not told about any "political involvement with the event" and that he looked forward to performing in DC in the future at an event that was "not so politically charged".

McBride said in a statement on X that she was "presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading".

But Vanilla Ice, whose real name is Robert Matthew Van Winkle, said: "This is not a political platform. This is celebrating America's birthday," in a caption to a video post on his Instagram account.

Image source,Getty Images

Image caption,

Flo Rida

One half of Milli Vanilli's public-facing duo, Fab Morvan, said he will also perform as scheduled. The voices behind Milli Vanilli's music said in a statement on X that they will not be performing.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had heard artists were getting "the yips" - a term used in golf for involuntary spasms or freezes that impact a swing. He said he was thinking of appearing himself at the same time and location.

"I am ordering my Representatives to look at the feasibility of doing an AMERICA IS BACK Rally on Wednesday, Washington, DC, same time, same location. Only Great Patriots invited," he wrote, calling himself the "Number One Attraction anywhere in the World" and saying he "gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime".

He later doubled down, saying he wanted to replace the planned fair altogether with a rally.

"We should have a giant MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN RALLY, for 250, instead of having overpriced singers, who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain," he said.

The White House is backing a number of events organised by Freedom 250 to mark the anniversary of US independence.

They include a UFC fight on its South Lawn, the Great American State Fair in June and July, and a Grand Prix race in the US capital in August.

The US will also release a limited number of commemorative passports that feature a portrait of Trump.