Now, let's put this in perspective.

In 2021, 47 transgender or gender non-conforming people were fatally shot or killed by other violent means.

Every day, 316 people are shot in the United States. Of this number, 106 people are shot and killed.

Today (in one day) 1,200 people will die of COVID in the U.S.

According to CDC Data, drug (opioid) overdose deaths have topped 100K for the first time. The 12-month tally of estimated deaths overlaps with COVID-19 and marks another grim milestone in the country's fight against the opioid epidemic.

2018 data shows that every day, 128 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids.

In 2019, an average of 38 people died each day from overdoses involving prescription opioids.

In 2020, around 690,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses worldwide.

617 worshippers were killed at houses of worship in the U.S. between 1999 and 2019.

Over 100,000 Christians have been slaughtered by Boko Haran and Fulani Tribesmen in Nigeria. Many of them were Anglicans.

Where is the outrage from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry or TEC's House of Bishops over these losses, or from the diocese of South Dakota especially the slaughter of Anglicans in Nigeria?

The silence is deafening. Nigeria is deemed the third most dangerous country in the world to live where Christians are systematically persecuted for their faith, right after North Korea and the Taliban in Afghanistan!

But the progressive South Dakota cathedral hosted a memorial service at Calvary Episcopal Cathedral in Sioux Falls for transgender, nonbinary victims of violence.

What's wrong with this picture?

It is woke; it is virtue signaling. It is telling us that a handful of sexually dysphoric persons deserve a memorial service when what they needed was psychiatric and spiritual help. Who they needed was Jesus, what they got was a memorial service, when we don't even know what their final destination was!

It is ironic that The Rev. Shaneequa Isaiah Brokenleg, The Episcopal Church's staff officer for racial reconciliation, is a South Dakota-based priest. He led the participants in prayer. Is he saying that Native Americans who feel dispossessed from their lands are right up there with sexually dysfunctional people? Isn't he denigrating his own roots by doing this?

Brokenleg, who identifies as nonbinary, told Episcopal News Service that she wants to send a clear message of welcome to counter the rejection and discrimination LGBTQ+ people have faced historically from The Episcopal Church and other Christian denominations. "For so many people, the church has been a source of pain and harm for them," she said. "We have to think about, as we're doing this, how are we not only inviting and welcoming but how are we also reconciling?"

Perhaps Brokenleg might want to reflect on the "pain and harm" she/he and her/his ilk have caused to orthodox Anglicans who were once in TEC but got tossed to the curb because they refused to bow the knee to allow homosexual clergy and bishops and enforce homosexual marriages in their dioceses. Just ask Bishop William Love, formerly of the Diocese of Albany how he felt. Think of the agony and pain, the ridicule, and slights he experienced because he refused to bow the knee to Resolution B012. Love insisted he would not, nor could not, break his vows over marriage exclusively between a man and a woman!

Why does this not concern Brokenleg?

It is the right time for the church to step into his necessary role, Brokenleg said. "When we have this opportunity to honor and remember all of the trans folks who have been killed or died from suicide, we need to remember that."

Yes, and we should remember all those who really suffer for the 'faith once for all delivered to the saints', for the thousands of missionaries and Anglicans who die at the hands of rogue terrorists. Let us remember people who live and die for the gospel and not this felonious nonsense. These are a handful of sexually dysfunctional people who, if they had gotten help might still be alive today and not ended their own lives, and certainly not needed a memorial service.

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