Gnostic Cultural Liturgies:  The Press for Pagan Conformity

TruthXchange Newsletter, 4/24

By Dr. Jeffery J. Ventrella

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”^[1]

And, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles to, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them[.]”^[2]

Because God created mankind, humans are religious creatures.  Worship is therefore an inescapable concept or category; mankind can’t not worship.  When the Truth is exchanged for the Lie, the object of worship changes from the Creator to something in Creation, but worship continues.  This change in object also shapes how we worship.  This means that mankind in his cultural endeavors will do the “work of the people,” that is, liturgy.  Liturgy describes how we worship the objects we worship.  

Because Satan and his minions are not divine and are mere creatures, they can only ape the true and living God – as God has provided rhythms for life – for example, working six days and resting one – Satan also mimics God by promoting ersatz rhythms.  Just as the Church notes a “church calendar” to remember, revere, and repent as to crucial matters of Reality’s narrative – Creation, Fall, and Redemption – so too does paganism seek to form mankind to conform to pagan notions of the world consistent with the idolatrous worship of the creation.  How so?  Let’s get to the gist.

The LGBTQ Liturgical Year

This past Easter, we saw the White House and Health and Human Services officially acknowledge and fete something called The Trans Day of Visibility.^[3]  Note the President’s fawning rhetoric:

I am proud that my Administration has stood for justice from the start, working to ensure that the LGBTQI+ community can live openly, in safety, with dignity and respect. I am proud to have appointed transgender leaders to my Administration and to have ended the ban on transgender Americans serving openly in our military. I am proud to have signed historic Executive Orders that strengthen civil rights protections in housing, employment, health care, education, the justice system, and more. I am proud to have signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law, ensuring that every American can marry the person they love.^[4] 

This Dicta will not delve into the sinfulness of same-sex attraction or behavior.^[5] Rather, the burden here considers the cultural promotion of those matters, and they are not matters indifferent.   In particular, these efforts show how the State lends its moral authority to advancing the LGBTQ agenda by liturgicalmeans by acknowledging this day from the LGBTQ calendar.  This is a form of what is popularly known as “nudging,” a Statist technique officially implemented by the Obama Administration called euphemistically, the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team.^[6]

This Statist jockeying perhaps has many motives; however, what is plain is that it reflects precisely the outcome Paul noted when the truth is exchanged for the lie:  When unrighteous practices arise like those mentioned in Romans 1, cultures not only permit them, “but give approval to those who practice them.”  (Rom. 1:32).  In other words, pagan worship presses for these practices to be codified officially – to become the rule of the land and the law.  The mechanism for this codification usually does not commence with the State, however, but with the Culture – Politics is (mostly) downstream from Culture.^[7]

Let’s consider the worldview implications of the President’s Proclamation.  The legal and other analytic errors and half-truths expressed by the Proclamation aside, readers may think this represents a one-off addition to June’s “Pride Month”.  The reality is these Gnostics^[8] actually push an entire liturgy promoting what Paul calls unnatural desire and unrighteous practices.  

This liturgy is expressly designed to craft awareness, and normativity, thereby “nudging” citizens, including Christians, to accept, if not celebrate, these unrighteous practices.  These advocates intentionally and regularly put these matters before the public.  They understand that regularity and “visibility” often morph into normativity and acceptance.  This is the aim of their nudging.  And, make no mistake:  they promote this with a fierce religious fervor and an unswerving evangelistic devotion.  

This is not surprising given that the LGBTQ agenda is in fact a religious worldview^[9] before it’s a political agenda.  The LGBTQ agenda presents a systemic way to view reality – and then politicizes its spiritual reaction stemming from its disordered worship.  

Consider the 2024 LGBTQ calendar or liturgy[^10] and notice how it sets forth various “holy days” to mark and recall the “Ebenezers” of the movement – days, weeks, and months^[11]:

February

• February 7: National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• Week after Valentine’s Day: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week
• February 28: HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day

March

• March: Bisexual Health Awareness Month
• Week varies in March: National LGBT Health Awareness Week
• March 10: National Women & Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• March 20: National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• March 31: International Transgender Day of Visibility

April

• April 6: International Asexuality Day
• April 10: National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• Third Friday of April: Day of Silence
• April 18: National Transgender HIV Testing Day
• April 18: Nonbinary Parents Day
• April 26: Lesbian Visibility Day

May

• First Sunday In May: International Family Equality Day
• May 17: International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia
• May 19: National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• May 22: Harvey Milk Day
• May 24: Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness and Visibility Day

June

• June: LGBTQ Pride Month
• June 1: LGBTQ Families Day
• June 12: Pulse Remembrance 
• June 15: Anniversary of U.S. Supreme Court Bostock decision expanding protections to LGBTQ employees
• June 26: Anniversary of U.S. Supreme Court legalizing marriage equality
• June 27: National HIV Testing Day
• June 28: Stonewall Day
• June 30: Queer Youth of Faith Day

July

• Week of July 14: Nonbinary Awareness Week, culminates in International Nonbinary People’s Day on July 14
• July 16: International Drag Day

August

• August 14: Gay Uncles Day
• August 20: Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

September

• September 18: National HIV/AIDS & Aging Awareness Day
• Week of September 23: Bisexual+ Awareness Week, culminates in Celebrate Bisexuality Day on September 23
• September 27: National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

October

• October: LGBTQ History Month
• October 8: International Lesbian Day
• October 11: National Coming Out Day
• October 15: National Latinx HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• October 19: National LGBT Center Awareness Day
• Third Wednesday in October: International Pronouns Day
• Third Thursday in October: Spirit Day
• Last week in October: Asexual Awareness Week
• October 26: Intersex Awareness Day

November

• First Sunday of November: Transgender Parent Day
• November 13 – 19: Transgender Awareness Week
• November 20: Transgender Day of Remembrance

December

• December 1: World AIDS Day
• December 8: Pansexual/Panromantic Pride Day
• December 14: HIV Cure Research Day

These rhythms are not neutral or harmless, nor are they occasional “one-offs”.  Rather, they seek to comprehensively shape us by making visible^[12] that which should not be spoken^[13], by normalizing sexual deviance, and shaping our gazes within the culture to accept and approve these things^[14].  How should we respond?

Andy Crouch^[15] suggests that five modes exist for engaging culture.  We can (1) criticize it^[16]; (2) condemn it^[17]; (3) copy it^[18]; (4) consume it^[19]; or (5) create it.  While each mode can be rightly exercised, only the last creates curated cultural relics.  This is what a Christian liturgical calendar^[20] can do:  be a countercultural rhythm of rehearsing the initiatives and acts of God according to real reality’s story:  Creation, Fall, and Redemption.  This stands opposed to Gnostic liturgies, and offers a dying world a better way – because it’s the way grounded in the Truth, not the Lie.

Fantasy Sports as a Gnostic Cultural Liturgy?

Now, what other cultural liturgies exist?  Consider something more anodyne:  Fantasy Sports leagues. If readers react negatively or recoil to even my mentioning such leagues in the same breath as the LGBTQ calendar, perhaps it shows an overfondness for “this precious.”  Certainly, the moral content is vastly different, however, this Dicta is about liturgies and how they shape us culturally, including their underlying operative assumptions.

What about Fantasy Sports leagues?  These are big and big business.  Over 85 million Americans participate in Fantasy Sports; that’s up 10% from 2023.^[21]  They have spawned Vegas glamour conventions, draft days, TV specials, and surprise, surprise, wagering.^[22]  These are all rhythms in addition to the game days which form the basis for the all-important player stats, with NFL football being supreme.  There are fantasy playoffs, trades, trade deadlines, “managing” teams, and of course, league fees – all reflecting rhythms throughout the calendar year.^[23]

Who plays?  Mostly men (92%) and they skew younger (ages 25-44).^[24]  “Play” of course doesn’t really exist.  Rather, leagues consist of constructed virtual spheres:  real teams are dissected in an effort to assemble and combine selected players – called a “team”^[25] – via “drafting.” These discrete players are then clustered together in “virtual” teams.  They then compete against other constructed “teams” based on the aggregate statistical performance of drafted players.  

The basis for a fantasy team requires the disintegration – on paper – of a real incarnate team to feed the fantasy league’s stat-spitting algorithms.  If this sounds rather abstract and well, Gnostic, it’s because it is. 

Is it harmless?  It depends.  Many players “own” several teams and compete in several leagues.  This leads to constantly following real games, that is, by screen-staring, surfing, and swiping, to ascertain whether “their players’” stats benefited or hurt their fantasy cause.  This could waste swaths of time and some studies show a diminution in work productivity because of fantasy league distractions:  $11 billion dollars per week of wasted work productivity during the NFL season alone.^[26]

What about personal well-being?  Managing a fantasy team means that rooting for one’s favorite real team can conflict with the fantasy team’s performance leading to divided loyalties and cognitive dissonance.  And, betting is now conjoined with the fantasy endeavor; the lure is explicit: “Play your favorite fantasy sports for huge cash prizes!”^[27]

From a worldview perspective, Fantasy Sports bear some uncanny similarities with Gender Ideology and the Trans agenda.  First, both operate in the Gnostic realm, dealing with imagined realties predicated on dualism: the virtual and digital constructs matter more than real reality.  How so?  With Gender Ideology the appearance of a sexed person is exactly that:  only an appearance^[28].  And, in the Fantasy Sports context, the “team” only appears to be a real team because discrete players are collected on paper.  They neither practice, nor play together – the “team” is an artifice for algorithms fueled by statistics and nothing more. 

Second, both rely on constuctivism^[29] to define what’s “real”:  According to LGBTQ metaphysics, the “real person” is that which is cosmetically, chemically, and/or surgically crafted in a way that expresses the person’s inner feelings, desires, or delusions;^[30]the fantasy “football team” is that which is pieced together from disparate parts in order to compose the “owner’s” version of his optimal team.  In neither case does the real thing have an acknowledged true nature or irreducible essence—they are just assembled parts and those parts are both fungible and disposable.

Third, the appearance of a wholly integrated and functioning “trans person” is illusory, just as the appearance of a whole Fantasy team is as well.  Surgically altered – disfigured actually – faux genitalia, for example, do not perform or integrate with the transitioned person’s entire biological system.^[31]  Rather, these mere similitudes are actually biologically inert wounds framed in silicon.  They are designed to placate imaginations, not perform integrally within a biological system.  

Similarly, on a fantasy team, the players do not really interact nor perform together.  Consequently, the drafted quarterback does not actually call a play nor complete a pass to his receiver, nor does that receiver actually catch a pass from his fantasy quarterback – they in reality serve different actual teams.  Team play is an illusion.  There remains a crucial difference in comparing these liturgies, however:  Under LGBTQ’s worldview, the claim is that its illusions ARE real AND everyone must submit to them in law, language, and life.^[32]

Back to basics:  What are cultural liturgies and why do they matter?  They consist of those rhythms that captivate and regulate our imagination and thereby shape our attitudes, actions, and devotion.  And, they therefore drive us, nudging us to accept the liturgy’s object of worship and reject its competitor’s.  

The LGBTQ liturgy aims to generate acceptance and approval of the abominable.  The Fantasy Sports liturgy aims are not inherently ungodly, like the LGBTQ’s.  However, liturgies are not neutral.  The Fantasy Sports liturgy can lead participants astray.  How?  That liturgy aims to entice the pursuit of Mammon through gambling; the industry is explicit in connecting Fantasy sports with gambling.  Aside from this enticement, the data suggest that in effect, if not intent, participation tends to sideline folks by distracting them from more pressing Kingdom work, including work and vocation by squandering resources and dissipating productivity – a version of Postman’s warning:  amusing ourselves to death.^[33]  As Solomon noted:

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”^[34]  

The Gnostic impulse, together with its cultural liturgies, exchange the Truth for the Lie – and want to nudge you to do the same.  Let’s politely reject that invitation and instead worship the Creator in Spirit and Truth, demonstrating by our own faithful liturgies that the Light of the Truth dispels the darkness of the Lie.

[1] Rm. 12:2

[2] Matt. 6:7,8

[3] This “day” has existed since 2009; this year it coincided with Easter and the President devoted a lot more ink feting it than he did with his rather bland Easter note.

[4] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/03/29/a-proclamation-on-transgender-day-of-visibility-2024/ and see also, https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/03/29/statements-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-hhs-principals-ahead-transgender-day-visibility.html.  The former President’s Easter tweet hardly manifested the fruit of the Spirit.https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1774489330532106685

[5] The sinfulness of same-sex attraction and behavior reflect Christian conviction.  See, e.g.. Rosaria Butterfield, Five Lies of our Anti-Christian Age, (2023), Robert Gagnon, The Bible and Homosexual Practice:  Text and Hermeneutics, (2002), Greg L. Bahnsen, Homosexuality, A Biblical View (1978), S. Donald Fortson & Rollin G. Grams, Unchanging Witness:  The Consistent Christian Teaching on Homosexuality in Scripture and Tradition, (2016)

[6] Richard H Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge:  The Final Edition, (2021).  See, also, Corydon Ireland, Mr. Sunstein Went to Washington (2013), https://hls.harvard.edu/today/mr-sunstein-went-to-washington/ – note the Polly Anna cheerfulness of how this Orwellian effort is depicted; and also, see, Evan Nesterak, White House Formally Establishes US ‘Nudge Unit’, (2015), https://behavioralscientist.org/executive-order-formally-establishes-us-nudge-unit/

[7] Jeffery J. Ventrella, “Law Follows Culture:”  Except When it Doesn’t (2020), https://www.amazon.com/Law-Follows-Culture-Except-Doesnt/dp/1657754367

[8] The Trans Agenda is inherently Gnostic because it rejects the material (physical biology) and privileges the “inner” supposedly real person.  It’s ethically rebellious because it’s metaphysically rebellious – precisely as Paul describes what results when the Truth is exchanged for the Lie.

[9]  Peter Jones, Whose Rainbow:  God’s Gift of Sexuality:  A Divine Calling (2020)

[10] For example, this is from a leading LGBTQ advocacy group, GLAAD – and this is the 11^th edition of this liturgy. https://glaad.org/reference/calendar/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwtqmwBhBVEiwAL-WAYepzv_UxMcENGhAYMe2PYfMwIZITTv27Y-_SI4wOiBHua9N_O_D8eBoC-V4QAvD_BwE

[11] For an orthodox Christian the liturgical calendar similarly marks days, weeks, and months, see, e.g.,https://www.lectionarypage.net/CalndrsIndexes/Calendar2024.html

[12] Again, aping the Christian faith, the notion of “making visible” mimics the Incarnation and the Resurrection, which made visible the love and justice of God.  The LBGTQ agenda in contrast uses visibility to repudiate, rather than redeem, reality.

[13] Eph. 5:12

[14] Rom. 1:32

[15] Andy Crouch, Culture Making:  Recovering Our Creative Calling (2013).

[16] This mode can be crucial for discerning and understanding the times; however, it can also foster a lack of gratitude for the operation of common grace – good literature, music, and art can be created and performed by non-Christians, in spite of their worldviews.

[17] This mode can slip into dualism – a “taste not, touch not,” legalism (Col. 2:21) that fails to appreciate and enjoy God’s good gifts.  (Jas. 1:17).   Yet, we remain called to expose evil.  (Eph. 5:11)

[18] Sometimes good insights ought to be appropriated by Christians and Christian institutions – best business practices, technical processes, medicine, food preparation, etc. The risk arises when Christians automatically by default equate something that “works” in the world as being something that’s good and wise.

[19] To simply passively lap up what the culture offers is rarely wise – yet, this is what “nudging” does and why we must be cognizant of how cultural liturgies influence our choices.

[20] Not every orthodox Christian tradition follows the church calendar, and this Is not to suggest following such is a “more righteous” practice.  It is to suggest that we as believers need to understand that pagans (1) appreciate the cultural power of liturgy; and (2) impose it on the broader culture for the purpose of advancing their decidedly unchristian agenda. Accordingly, Christians need to stand against these false religious rhythms.  One way to do so is to engage with the Christian liturgical calendar.  Liturgy is an inescapable concept, and it is never religiously neutral.

[21] https://thefsga.org/new-fsga-research-american-participation-in-legal-sports-wagering-and-fantasy-sports-grows-by-another-10/

[22] See, e.g., Steve Gardner, Money. Power. Women.  The driving forces behind fantasy football’s skyrocketing success,[capitalization and punctuation in the original] December 15, 2023, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/fantasy/2023/12/15/fantasy-football-sports-economy/71870731007/

[23] Here is one illustrative randomly selected example of a weekly “liturgy”:  https://www.dataforceff.com/weekly-fantasy-schedule

[24] https://business.yougov.com/content/47115-fantasy-sports-in-the-us-who-is-playing

[25] These groups lack actual or meaningful indicia of a real team:  they do not practice together, nor travel together, nor live in the same vicinity, nor even compete with one another – instead, they are merely statistical commodities.

[26] https://www.workitdaily.com/productivity-fantasy-football

[27] https://www.draftkings.com/

[28] This is not unlike the ancient Christian heresy known as Docetism – Jesus only appeared to be a man.

[29] Simply put, constructivism posits that there is no essence or nature to a given thing; rather, it is simply “constructed” by desire and/or social forces.  In the arena of Gender Ideology, some contend that even the categories of male and female are therefore wholly performative, that is, a product of behavior and conformity to cultural norms and nothing more.  This is the view of Judith Butler.  See, e.g., her seminal work, Gender Trouble:  Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, (1990).  For a devastating dismantling of Butler’s latest book, see Alex Byrne, The Phantasmagoric World of Judith Butler,  (April 5, 2024), https://fairerdisputations.org/judith-butlers-phantasmagoric-world/#:~:text=In%20Butler’s%20phantasmagoric%20world%2C%20the,cassock%20flapping%20in%20the%20breeze.

[30] In earlier iterations of Gender Ideology, “trans people” were described as “a woman identifying as a man;” today, however, the claim is that a “transitioned” woman IS a man.

[31] In fact, fully transitioning results in sterility.

[32] See, e.g., Meriwether v. Hartop, 992 F.3d 492 (2021), https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/21a0071p-06.pdf, and also, Jeffery J. Ventrella, Who Do You Say That I Am:  “Preferred Personal Pronouns,” Ethics, Language, and the Gospel (2018), https://docsandlin.com/2018/06/02/who-do-you-say-that-i-am-preferred-personal-pronouns-ethics-language-and-the-gospel-by-jeffery-j-ventrella-j-d-ph-d/

[33] Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death:  Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985, 2005).  Though not a Christian, Postman decades ago articulated some important insights in terms of what our image-oriented entertainment is doing to our rationality.  And, similarly, today, another non-Christian, Jonathan Haite has documented the psychological impact technology – swiping and scrolling – visits upon children to their detriment.  See, Jonathan Haite, The Anxious Generation:  How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024).

[34] Prov. 14:12