Notice how many times parents are mentioned in these guidelines. Noticed how many times educators are encouraged to tell children to turn to their parents for guidance and help.

So the WHO wants various strangers in schools and perhaps other institutions talking to toddlers about masturbation? And their “right” to explore various gender identities? Do we want random adults to teach our kids that the standard for what is good or bad is what feels good? That’s how you tell right from wrong and decide when to say yes or no? Do we want these adults telling little kids that “physical closeness” from someone else (say, a coach, teacher, or other authority figure) is just a healthy expression of love and affection? And that they “do not always have to comply” IF it doesn’t feel good?

When I quoted a couple of these items to an alert mother I trust, her immediate response was, “They’re groomers!” She was outraged. And that’s when it hit me: these guidelines are hard to fathom as just accidental foolishness from over-educated elites who don’t understand the threats our children face, which was how I was tempted to view it initially. Rather, the guidelines make more sense if they are coming from people who are disconnected from the challenges and joys of family life and parenthood, who think the State needs to take over the role of parents to transform and reprogram children, unaware of the harm to children that such an approach can bring. It’s also possible some of the people behind this effort may sense some kind of benefit from corrupting children, whether they are groomers, profiteers, Marxist radicals seeking to destroy religion and middle-class opposition, or just bitter sociopaths. These are not the things that normal healthy people with a respect for the institution of the family would push onto children. Something is very wrong here.

One of the things that is wrong is downplaying the role of parents, if not overriding the duty of parents to shape and guide their children. On page 40, the document recognizes the “informal role” of parents in sex education and also note their general inability in Europe to opt out of sex education for their kids, which is fine for parents, we are told, because they aren’t comfortable doing it themselves. The existence of parents is acknowledged in several places, mostly to indicate their need to be supportive, but the “matrix” of guidelines for various age groups essentially ignores their fundamental role and rights in sex education. It’s obvious that this document is all about other adults, all tools of the State, shaping the views and behavior of children in all aspects of sexuality from their earliest days into adulthood. Of course, this is already happening in many parts of the world and in the US. Do parents understand that adequately? Do they understand what can go wrong?

One of the key tools for actual groomers and pedophiles is to encourage children to keep secrets from their parents and to trust other adults rather than mom and dad. Here we have guidelines that totally leave parents out and will obviously go against the wishes of many parents. The instructors are being told to help kids know that there are “good secrets” that they can have with respect to sexuality — no need to tell parents about any of this, right? They are told to turn to “somebody” that they trust when they have questions or concerns, say some non-parental authority figure, perhaps? After all, it’s their body and they can make their own decisions at ages 3 or 4 (like deciding if one is a girl or boy — again, no recognition of parents having any role in such vital decisions). They tell children that masturbation and physical closeness with others (adults other than parents?) is normal and pleasurable and that the standard to follow is not any form of absolute morality, rules from parents, or principles from one’s faith, but whether something feels good or not. But no need to worry about groomers, for the kids will also be told that if something doesn’t feel good, they don’t always have to comply. Not always! So there’s that safety valve.

Parents are right to wonder what a molester or groomer could do with these guidelines. But even if the schools only hire moral, decent teachers and coaches, if they follow these guidelines, great harm can still done through what is taught and how it’s taught. Having kids at age three or four learn about masturbation is sick. Having them get used to talking to random adults other than mom or dad about sexuality is wrong. The guidelines read like a handbook for groomers. Again, is there a more charitable but accurate way to put it?

No, I am not saying anything about any alleged conspiracies of pedophiles, but there is such a thing as pedophiles, and there is such a thing as danger to children, and when what is being taught to children undermines the protective principles that wise parents want to teach, then something very ugly is taking place. I am also not saying that any of the motivation for the WHO to support the push to have young children question their gender has anything to do with powerful companies that make huge profits by convincing young people that they need drugs or surgery for the lengthy and expensive process of transitioning. I don’t know the motives behind the guidelines — that may be the field of wild conspiracy theorists — but I can see what the guidelines are and can recognize that there is great evil and danger in what they are doing. No conspiracy theories needed. No appeal to secret combinations. It’s the public combinations and public works of darkness that have me worried. 

Perhaps some corruption and greed or perversion is behind these guidelines and some of the movements that all seem aligned along a common deviant direction. Perhaps we need to explore the funding of the WHO and who influences it. But just because, say, a rich billionaire with some ties to, say, Jeffrey Epstein or other perverts could theoretically be a WHO influencer and major funder absolutely does not mean that some secret shenanigans were at play. Nor does the involvement of people associated with the abortion industry such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), who provided some of the sexual “rights” alluded to in the document, mean that the interests of that industry are being served. But there may be fruitful data somewhere to help us understand why such troubling agendas are being pushed from so many angles. Perhaps there could be “secret combinations” at play that might be inferred from profit motives, conflicts of interest, and obscure alliances, but what is public is trouble enough.

Many parents in schools across the country have become alarmed at the content their children are being exposed to, whether it’s from once-trusted entertainment sources, “family friendly” activities with gyrating drag queens, classroom and media indoctrination regarding sexuality, encouragement for little kids to identify as the opposite gender without letting parents know, and teaching such blatantly unscientific doctrines as “doctors just guess your gender at birth.” It seems like many aspects of our society, from the schools to movie makers to the US government are suddenly supporting radical doctrines on sexuality that can have harmful effects on young people. Now we see the WHO coming out to push nations to accelerate the efforts to change the mindset of children in ways that will make parents less influential in the crucial area of preparing children for their roles in life. And for those rare villains who genuinely delight in corrupting children, these standards may play into their desires or lusts. There is cause for concern — not necessarily from anything secret, though, but for what is open and public, and yet very dark. This may be one of those times when some righteous indignation is really needed to counter the attack on families from the WHO and other “public combinations.”

But wait — this document is for Europe. This kind of thing, woke sexual ideology being pushed on kids without the ability for parents to opt out, that isn’t about to happen in the US, right? Tell that to the parents of, for example, Montgomery County, Maryland, where Muslim and Christian parents, including Latter-day Saints, found that the school district rescinded the right to opt out when too many parents objected to the pro-LGBTQ ideology was being pushed on very young children. A broad coalition of parents sued, claiming that their freedom of religion and parental rights were being threatened, but a Federal judge didn’t see any problem and upheld the power of the school district to trample parental rights. It’s a telling example of the use of the power of the State to compel objectionable ideology being imposed on children against the wishes of patents. It’s going to get worse if you remain silent and inattentive. Why has this become such a huge movement in the West? Is this just a random fluctuation in social norms, or is something deeper going on? That’s a topic for further research and study, but it’s not a healthy sign.

Parting Thoughts on the Often Misunderstood “Secret Combinations” of the Book of Mormon

Strangely, while the theme of “secret combinations” is one of the most pervasive and emphasized in the Book of Mormon, as well as an important theme in the  ancient Book of Moses (a form of which may have been on the brass plates, serving as a source for many references and allusions in the Book of Mormon), it’s one of the least discussed topics in Latter-day Saint sermons, Sunday School lessons, and other lessons. We tend to nod our head and acknowledge that secret combinations are definitely bad and should be avoided when related passage comes up, and then we move on, as is probably the wisest course in public settings. After all, we live in a society where one of the worst, most damaging labels you can receive is “conspiracy theorist.” Nobody wants to be one of those crazies, the tin-foil hat people who think the earth is flat or that everything that happens is part of some vast conspiracy of all power secret forces controlling every aspect of society. I don’t accept either of those proposals (the earth is round, and history and current events are complicated and often chaotic). But I do believe corruption is real and needs to be called out. However, so frightening is the label of “conspiracy theorist” that we often don’t even want to look at any source that associated with that term, in some cases acting as a shield to deflect investigation into genuine corruption.

Here I must point out that the popular stereotype of “conspiracy theories” being about some all-powerful secret organization that is controlling all aspects of our lives is a caricature of real conspiracies and the real “secret combinations” of the Book of Mormon. At least in our private study, it’s a topic worth exploring more deeply and wondering just what evidences of such dangers should get our attention, if Moroni’s words in Ether 8 actually have prophetic application to our day.

In the Book of Mormon, even when very cunning conspirators gain power, the result is not successful, lasting control of all aspects of society, but often chaos and suffering as one faction competes against another. One megalomaniac murders another to gain the throne, and then another contender arises with his secret combination. Blood and horror is the norm.

The early rise of secret combinations among the Jaredites results in Jared, son of Omer, gaining the throne after enlisting the help of Akish in forming a secret combination, only to shortly thereafter be murdered by Akish’s secret combination, followed by civil war between Akish and his sons, causing massive destruction. Much later, secret combination in Jaredite society lead to a vicious civil war and the collapse of their society. In Nephite society, the prominence of secret societies before the coming of Christ results not in total control, but the destruction of the government and the division of society in multiple tribes. Then later, as secret societies rise again and gain power, the Nephites become more vulnerable and are destroyed by the Lamanites, who themselves, plagued by secret combinations, fall into chaos and civil war after their great success of wiping out their Nephite enemies.

Secret combinations in the Book of Mormon are run by utterly amoral and often incompetent, arrogant people with very bad judgment, naturally surrounded by equally dangerous and unwise fiends. They are always striving for power and wealth, but the results are terribly ugly, not a well-oiled machine that secretly controls everything smoothly. The master behind it all is not some brilliant genius, but Satan, whose goal is not a successful society but the blood, horror, and chaos that ensues when very greedy people under Satan’s influence give up every shred of decency for their temporary gain. The Book of Mormon reveals the opposite of the misguided stereotype of all-powerful secret organizations adeptly controlling every aspect of life.

Whatever the motives behind the team at WHO and other organizations who put these educational standard together, the focus on teaching about masturbation and more to very young children and giving them values and standard that are contrary to the basic values of many faiths is a woeful indicator of global directions being pushed with zeal. We must not assume that everything will be fine as long as we keep our heads down and go about our normal lives. The adversary is not sitting still in his plans, secret or otherwise, to take your children down unwholesome paths. We can see the WHO is not an organization that can be trusted, and we need to defend ourselves and our schools from their influence.

One step for today is to prepare your children for the indoctrination they will face. Teach them frequently from the inspired principles in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” Talk to them about the unscientific lies and distortions they will hear in years to come and give them knowledge and faith to resist.  Being involved in your community can also make a difference. Speaking out, teaching, and sharing information can help. Let’s not despair and do more to support that which is good and resist that which is evil. The Lamanites in the Book of Mormon were able to track down and root out secret combinations from their midst, at least for a while. We can learn from their example. This would also be a good time to dig into the profound teachings of the Book of Mormon and make it a bigger, more relevant part of your life. Its teachings on secret combinations are so profound and accurate that they constitute some important and often overlooked evidence for the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.