Christingle becomes transphobic. Apparently.

the comments are worth a look though

What a shame, I'll be busy cutting my toenails.

Just a heads up but Freddy and Shon Faye will be having a whinge discussion with Owen Jones about trans rights on LOJ's YouTube channel at 5pm today:
twitter.com/LPLGBTNetwork/status/1339984779341643778

Yes that's exactly it MitziK

That was meant to be for Freddy's family, who I'm sure have much to put up with.

Yes Tanith I associate christingle with an orange with cloves stuck in the skin and a red ribbon round on it to symbolise the earth surround by god's love and....something, its been a while. But in any case not a church in itself. How did the editor not correct this part of it at least?

What does Freddy do for the wider community?

Freddy isn’t a Christian, doesn’t attend church except for one service aimed at children, and wants their local church to change everything to focus on Freddy’s particular demands.

At least Freddy’s consistent. They were trying to have the definitions of mother and father changed to suit their demands earlier this year.

Someone should have a word - the world isn’t Freddy’s to remake.

Christingle is when the kids bring home oranges stuffed with cocktail sticks and sweets stuck on the ends.
They eat the sweets within two minutes of walking in the door then either leave the orange lying around for the little ones to find and impale themselves or start a mini sword fight with the cocktail sticks.
Constant vigilance required on the part of the childminder!

Tried to wade through all that self-centred word-porridge to find out what's transphobic now and gave up.

I got married in a church whilst atheist and i've never felt guilty. They don't seem to feel guilty for foisting religion upon children so why should I abandon my cultural roots and traditions?

I will admit that I, as an agnostic, have gone to Church on Christmas Eve (and only then) quite often in the past decades. But I think, having lived though a Youth in a small town where Catholicism was an inescapable part of life, I‘ve earned it.

Obviously, I have done so fully aware of their teachings and where we disagree including with which of my life choices the Church will disagree. I don‘t understand what the author of this article expects from a church they want to visit for purely cultural reasons.

LouiseBelchersBunnyEars

"I’m also confused about what a ‘Christingle church’ is.

As far as I’m aware, it’s a ceremony, not a denomination of Christianity."

You are right, I took it to mean "I typed my postcode into its “Find a church” tool and the first result was our Christingle church."

The result was the church we used to go to for Christingle.

If anyone looks up a picture it looks like a Sputnik!

Just for the record regular church going committed Christians don't know what Chrstingle is all about!

So this person has never once taken an interest in attending church until a random time in their adult life and fully expects to suddenly barge in and for the church to subscribe to their beliefs.

Just imagine being that self centred that you believe whoever you go every service, person and organisation has to match your views

It occurs to me that the most telling part of Freddy’s story is that Freddy’s family continues to attend their local Christingle service without Freddy.

yes please try that Freddy then come and tell us how you get on

Maybe next week Freddy will try his local mosque and start criticising that.

Churches, even churches within the same denomination, really aren't contractually obliged to have the same colour scheme, packaging, menu and cooking processes as every other branch!

The Catholic Church of my youth had exactly this, colour schemes and all (vestments for different times of year). Obviously ritual identical everywhere. The franchise comparison is excellent.

It's a little odd to judge a church, especially one you already sporadically attend, by a video hosted on the international website of the network.

Individual churches differ because they are shaped by the ethos and personality of the church leader/vicar/reverend and how that interacts with the community the church serves. If someone managing an official website uploads a video, that won't mean every single church leader downloads the message straight into their brains. The Archbishop of Canterbury could announce tonight that he had grave concerns about the colour turquoise. It wouldn't be reasonable to assume that my local vicar hated people who owned turquoise clothing or to write an article about how excluded I felt.

It's treating churches as if they're fast food franchises like Subway or Dominos. Churches, even churches within the same denomination, really aren't contractually obliged to have the same colour scheme, packaging, menu and cooking processes as every other branch!

The idea of starting your own thing/ getting your own funding/ spaces never seems to occur though in some areas.

I mean religions are easy to start, or cults if you have enough charisma.

And if existing mainstream religions need to change then starting with issues like historic child abuse cover ups, still protecting the men, rules that totally fuck things up for women, perpetuating patriarchal set ups in families, etc etc etc etc etc. Are quite serious issues.

Also thinking about it. Reading something on a website linked from somewhere etc. With Christianity of most flavours in the UK you can rock up, sit at the back, see what you make of it, in any old church/ congregation.

All in all. Yeah it's a bit silly really.