By Judie Brown
To address the question of transgenderism, we first must define our terms. The word gender applies to the identity of the person as a male or a female. The prefix trans suggests, as the dictionary states, on the other side or a change such as translocation or transship, or for the purposes of this commentary, transgender. But what exactly separates this transfer from others? The answer is clear: A human being created male or female chooses to reidentify himself or herself as a gender other than the one as he was created.
The book of Genesis teaches, “When God created human beings, He made them in the likeness of God; He created them male and female.” Regardless of what popular culture may suggest about the capability of changing one’s sexual identity, the truth is that every person is created with a sexual identity and no matter what happens after that, the identity itself does not change.
Thus, as a Church, we should “help people discover their true identities as children of God, not support them in the disordered attempt to reject their undeniable biological identity.”
The world may reject this approach because the world is at war with God in many ways. But as Christians, we know that our fellow human beings are in possession of an eternal soul, and we are therefore serving truth to be witnesses to biological truth instead of worldly attempts to create moral chaos.
This is challenging on many levels. Professor Mary Hasson explains, “Some influencers are driven by ideology—the academics, activists and some philanthropists—while corporations were first bullied into supporting the agenda (for fear of being tagged as bigots) and now have gone full ‘woke.’”
She also stated, “The U.S. gender medicine industry refuses to acknowledge the growing medical concerns and continues profiting from these destructive and exploitative practices.”
This provoked me to remember the lyrics, “What’s love got to do with it?” As it turns out, love has everything to do with it. That is because we are talking about God’s love for each and every person no matter what. And that is why the words of Lincoln, Nebraska’s, bishop, James Conley, are so pertinent:
We are living in a time when ordinary human reason is quickly being replaced by “the barren thorns of passion.” Our entire culture has been caught up in a kind of sentimentalized and relativized tyranny of tolerance: we vilify and condemn, ever more quickly, any sense of reasonable and ordered social policy. We have a vague sense that endorsing certain fashionable kinds of social and emotional disorders—including transgenderism—is a mandate of justice, or a victory for civil rights.
But the real victims of our culture of relativism are those who suffer from serious problems, and who need compassionate help. Pathological confusion about one’s own identity is a kind of illness. It brings tremendous personal and emotional difficulties. Transgenderism cries out for compassionate assistance. Pope Francis says that “acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital,” and “valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary” for authentic human freedom.
The gender industry thrives on thwarting the human freedom of which his excellency writes. While men of God remind us how much we need Christ, His Eucharistic presence, and His abiding love, the world tells us that drawing close to Christ is ridiculous, if not downright awful.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken note of “gender incongruence,” instructing Catholic healthcare providers regarding respect for the “fundamental order of the human body.” The bishops are also revising medical guidelines for Catholic health facilities with regard to transgender surgeries and hormone treatment.
I am hopeful that the USCCB will address the matter in the same way Professor Mary Rice Hasson has. She said,
We need to be confident and convinced about the truth of who we are as human beings—and unafraid to state our beliefs. I have found that whenever one person speaks up to affirm the truth about male-female sexual difference and the immutable nature of sex, 10 other people will be nodding along. Sometimes all it takes is one person bold enough to speak the truth. And although we hold these beliefs as a matter of faith, we don’t hold them only as a matter of faith—science clearly affirms the reality that there are only two sexes (male and female) and sex cannot change. And that’s why a broad coalition of people, from radical feminists to atheist biologists, to people of faith, are working together to oppose gender ideology.
The gender industry despises God. This is why we are called to step into the breach and charitably teach His truth.
