“Looking For An Escape” With Gnosticism

Please pay attention to DeTransitioner Estella Suarez-Hamilton:

“Oftentimes, people are looking for an escape. There’s a lot of escapism in my generation, and this is especially true with the trans ideology,” Estella Suarez-Hamilton, a young woman who “transitioned” as a teenager and presented herself as a man, told Breitbart News. “It was a distraction that I needed, to not look at the parts of my life and the relationships in my life that I was not succeeding in, and were falling apart.”

“I was looking for escape — and the political, kind of spiritual, aspects of trans ideology, when they’re combined with the online [community], that offers a type of escapism,” she continued. “A lot of times people will say that it’s a ‘cult,’ and in a way, that could be applied, but I think a more accurate term is a ‘cyber sect’.”

Estella called herself “Phillip” and took testosterone injections over a period of over seven years before realizing her emotional ills could not be healed by changing her hormonal composition and physical appearance. Estella was recommended for hormone therapy at the age of 18 by a counselor who identifies as “transgender.” Her mother was deployed with the U.S. Air Force at the time.

She is now in early menopause at the age of 27, despite having stopped taking testosterone a year ago.

Estella views the transgender movement as a pseudo-spiritual belief system she describes as “modern Gnosticism,” which includes initiation, rituals, and rules.

“If you are thinking about how to describe the sect, it is very much connected to, like, the modern Gnostic principles. This is a syncretic cyber sect of modern Gnosticism,” Estella said, “and I love how complicated it sounds, because the trans community loves language, and they love to complicate language to the nth degree. So, I think that this term is just very — from my experience — very accurate to explain what I went through, that’s what I think happened, and that’s how I can articulate it.”

“The trans community has this stupid line, ‘When you become trans you become your authentic self.’ It’s actually the complete opposite,” Pamela Garfield-Jaeger, licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), told Breitbart News. “You’re actually becoming somebody else, you’re actually, in a way, killing off, or getting out of touch with your authentic self, and you’re now becoming this almost fake identity.”

Full Story. Read the whole thing! [Standard link disclaimer1Links from this blog to online resources don’t necessarily mean I support everything found there. But as adults we should embrace viewpoint diversity. And make alliances where we can.]

GNOSTICISM: the Gnostics taught a bewildering variety of views. Fundamental to clearly gnostic systems was a dualism, which opposed the transcendent God and an ignorant demiurge (often a caricature of the OT Jehovah). In some systems the creation of the world resulted from the presumption of Sophia (Wisdom).  In any event the material creation, including the body, was regarded as inherently evil. Sparks of divinity, however, had been encapsuled in the bodies of certain pneumatic or spiritual individuals, who were ignorant of their celestial origins. The transcendent God sent down a redeemer (Christ), who brought them salvation in the form of a secret gnōsis or “knowledge.” Most Gnostics were docetics, who held that Christ did not really suffer as he was not truly incarnate. Gnostics hoped to escape from the prison of their bodies at death and to traverse the planetary spheres of hostile demons to be reunited with God. There was for them, of course, no reason to believe in the resurrection of the body. – (Dictionary of Paul & His Letters, InterVarsity Press, 1993, pg 352,)


Companion Posts

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God The Creator Will Not Be Mocked

The Immutable “Trans Soul” and Radical Dualism

Here is a splendid article by Bernard Lane about the dramatic policy change in Britain resulting in the closing of the countries only youth gender clinic, the Tavistock.

Some grab graphs for us Americans.

In plain terms, the verdict against the Tavistock is that its staff allowed gender ideology and experimental drugs to crowd out prudent medicine and exploratory psychotherapy that ought to be open to the full range of possible reasons for a troubled child’s distress. An American-style “gender affirming” treatment model zeroed in on a dysphoric child’s supposedly immutable trans soul, and gave too little weight to a patient’s more earthly issues such as psychiatric disorders, struggles with same-sex attraction, autism, or family trauma. Though nobody can prove the existence of a trans soul, gender dysphoria had a history in psychiatric diagnosis that met the bar of health insurers. But the condition is unusual because it involves what is in effect a Cartesian dualist intervention, by which hormonal drugs and surgery are used to make the body’s appearance accord with the mind’s idea of how it should be.

Our current Western obsession with radical dualism, the notion that only my inner feelings and desires and thoughts are relevant to who I am. My body, so to speak, has no say in the matter and may be regarded as entirely dispensable if “my authentic self” my soul says so.

This erroneous ideology is at the root of today’s disembodiment madness (I speak as a Christian here). Ideally, soul and body exist as an integrated unit. That is God’s intent. We must help those who experience body discomfort to reconcile with their bodies. Bodies given to them through their parents, which is to say, God-given bodies.

Let us not deny God’s Good Creation.

I tried to find an appropriate public domain image that shows the soul trying to escape the ‘prison cell’ of the body. Unsurprisingly, I found many at DeviantArt.com. But they were subject to copyright. So I couldn’t use them. Long-time readers may remember that web-site.

You can read about how DeviantArt.com is a central location where gender-confused kids hang-out and get indoctrinated with radical dualism and Trans/Gender-Fluid Ideology in the “Parental Authority and Our Schools” blogpost below. These worldviews cultivate a desire to hate and thus escape our ‘horrible bodies.’ An ancient Christian heresy, called Gnosticism seems to always be ‘hangin’ round the house.’


As the Brits are reconsidering their approach to the problem of gender-dysphoria, Bernard Lane asks:

Are there lessons for countries such as the United StatesCanadaAustraliaNew ZealandGermany, and Spain, where, so far, dogmatic slogans have trumped critical thought? American trans activists denounce Britain as “TERF Island.” (“TERF” stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist,” a term of abuse that, of late, has been adopted as a sort of ironic badge of honour by gender-critical feminists.) It seems as if some type of British exceptionalism is asserting itself in resistance to the trans zeitgeist that permeates many other Western countries.

“TERFs” outside the UK might wonder if it’s possible to clone JK Rowling, the gender-critical Harry Potter writer who’s followed the Tavistock saga closely, presciently declaring two years ago that “it feels as though we’re on the brink of a medical scandal.” Her 3,600-word open letter, written a month before that, serves as a plain English explainer for those puzzled about gender ideology, sex-based rights, the fury of trans-rights activists, and the alarming surge in teenage girls seeking a chemical and surgical escape route out of the female category. (In writing it, Rowling quoted from a January 2020 Quillette article in which former Tavistock psychoanalyst Marcus Evans explained why he’d resigned and turned whistleblower. He also picked apart the irresponsible “transition or suicide” narrative that activists—and even patients—sometimes cite as a tactic to push aside legitimate concerns.) Rowling may be a one-off, but all countries have at least some influential voices of concern that are able to reach large audiences with the message that medicalisation of children is not something to be celebrated. And those voices should be amplified.

Great summary article of what happened in Britain. Shuttering the Tavistock. (Read the whole thing.)

Are American’s paying attention? And/or has critical thought been trumped by dogmatic slogans? Our children are in trouble. Our culture is in trouble.

Relevant “Good Creation” posts.

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As a Classic Christian I encourage everyone to “Embrace, Don’t Affirm.”

Individuals with a Gender Identity Disorder (Gender-Dysphoria) need Truth-filled Love. Please read this post for more details.

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Between Worlds, Double Arches

My trip to Arches National Park in 2021 mirrored what I believe is the fundamental makeup of God’s world. I don’t believe Heaven and Earth are far apart. As do some. I believe, when Heaven and Earth were created (yes both were created) those parts of God’s beautiful bi-natured world were created equal.

Why do so many Christians think otherwise? And other religious believers as well? Because of faulty theology. As a consequence, humanity, all too often, yearns to transcend the “good” creation that was given to us.

But this won’t end well.

In the ancient story, Adam and Eve stretched forth their hands to grasp for something which was not given to them. So that they might become “like God.”

This is also the idolatry of our time.

I wrote these words two years ago in an extended post that summarized my worldview, (as opposed to an ancient Christian heresy called Gnosticism). Here’s a relevant quote or two.

Isn’t the desire to leave our bodies behind and become a “pure Spirit” similar to the desire that possessed Adam & Eve? Eat this forbidden fruit, they were told, and you will become “like God.” The Gnostic wants to become a being like God. In other words, a pure Spirit.

But this was not given to us by God. God gave us bodies to be sanctuaries, temples for our spirits. And God’s Spirit.

You won’t find one scripture suggesting our goal is to become “a disembodied spirit.” I just reviewed every occurrence of the words “soul” “spirit” “spirits” or “Spirit” in the New Testament and not once does any passage (over 350 of them) suggest that becoming a disembodied spirit is the believers destiny. You won’t find one.

We bring that idea to the text.

I believe as creatures we should want to become what we were created to be.  Nothing more, nothing less. 

God didn’t blunder when we were given bodies. The Gnostics and Plato are grasping for something that God did not give us.  Is this not like the original couple who grasped for the knowledge they were told would make them like God?  I think it is.  We were created as embodied souls. That’s what it means to be human and humans we will remain.  

Today’s Gender Ideologues have fallen into the same temptation trap. As Christians, and all clear thinkers, we must not follow them.
It won’t end well.


My reading of Orthodox Christianity and our scriptures tells me that God intended to dwell at the meeting place of Heaven and Earth. Like Jesus, where God and Man came together. The place, the tabernacle place, where Heaven and Earth meet, where God’s “good” creation overlaps, will become the dwelling place of our God,

“And the Word became flesh and tabernacled, dwelled, among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth”.

John 1:14

This creational communion with God, is the eternal destiny of our bi-natured cosmos. We see this future in the God/Man Jesus. God desires to live both with a heavenly family (angels) and an earthly family (humans) in the middle of the created space where they all dwell lovingly together. That was the plan. From the beginning. Originally it was called Eden, otherwise known as Paradise.

You seek self-importance? Personal fulfillment? And Cosmic unity? Wholeness? It doesn’t get any better than this.

Revelation 21 and 22.1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 

“See, the home of God is among mortals. 
He will dwell with them as their God;

they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes. 
Death will be no more; 
mourning and crying and pain will be no more, 
for the first things have passed away.” 

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.


Today these signposts to our future tell us the human soul (our invisible nature) was intended to be reconciled with the body (visible nature). If this doesn’t happen, then life will not end well for us.

That’s what I believe. Reconciliation, visible with invisible, is our destiny. Eventually.

Good News indeed.

View the following video with these reflections in mind.

Double Arches, Arches National Park, 2021

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I’m a Classic Christian and regard Gender Ideology as anti-creational to the core. This blog is about “God’s Good Creation.” That’s why I’m writing about Gender Ideology. And “speaking up” as I’m confident Jesus would.

"Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female.'" [Matt 19:4]

If you would like more detail on how my Christian worldview informs my understanding of Sex and today’s Gender Ideology please read the following posts.


The Natchez by Delacroix – 1835
Oil on Canvas
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Love refuses to affirm confusion.

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