What is Gender Ideology and how can Catholics Respond?

by Controversial Subjects, Morals & Values

The issue of Gender Ideology is everywhere these days, so pervasive that we might forget there was a time – not so long ago, in fact – when “gender” was not on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Alas, those days are behind us, and now it seems everywhere we turn, someone is waging the latest battle of the Culture Wars.

Whether it’s about jobs (i.e. what jobs do women want, and what jobs do men want, as in the video), or co-ed bathrooms, or children being raised as gender-questioning (so they can make their own decision in adulthood), or some cacophony over sexual proclivity and liberation, the Western world is inundated with gender theory.

Fortunately, as the world has taken up this cause célèbre, the “new human rights issue,” Holy Mother Church has not ignored the matter. Priests, apostolates, and our last three Holy Fathers have been responding with clarity (see links below).

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But it should come as no surprise that the Church had an answer to “the question of gender” long before Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and the sexual revolution of the 1960’s. Before Gender Theory was conjured up by academics and social engineers to justify their deconstruction and polarizing agendas, there was the Book of Genesis:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)

Notice that the sacred author does not say “masculine and feminine, he created them,” nor – alternatively – “heterosexual, and homosexual he created them.” No. And even though human behavior may seem more complicated than human anatomy, still our bodies tell undeniable truths about who and what we are.

As the video points out, our minds, our tastes, our inclinations seem to be different based on whether our chromosomes are XX or XY. But why shouldn’t the unseen differences be just as natural as the visible differences in our bodies? We can see, both in behavior and in the human body itself what a man is, what a woman is, and what our respective anatomical features are for in the context of human relations, procreation, and the fundamental building block of society, the family.

All young people, adults, catechists, future or current mothers, fathers, spouses, and religious should take notice of the accelerating cacophony over Gender Ideology.   We ought to step outside of it to examine through a clear lens:

Gender Ideology is a false ideology, and that we must opt out of the original false premise (i.e. gender fluidity, culturally imposed, arbitrary preferences) in order to see clearly. Living “our sex” comes naturally enough – either we live as man or as woman, according to our genetic design at the moment of conception.

Perhaps, given our times, it is also our job not just to live it out, but to examine and be prepared to articulate the truth about the miracle that is human design.

It is in the Truth that our greatest peace, our proper relations, our ends and means of Love reside.  Say NO to Gender Ideology, and equip yourself with the alternative YES, so beautifully expressed and bolstered by The Church, the bride of Christ.

> Here is a resource on what Pope St. John Paul II said about the sexes: The Theology of the Body Institute

> Here are some examples of Pope Benedict XVI’s commentaries on the sexes: ‘Cor Unum’ Plenary Address and Christimas Greetings to the Roman Curia

> Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about the sexes: Catechism of the Catholic Church

Finally, here are just a few examples of what priests and bishops, our shepherds, and Pope Francis are saying today in response to the falsehood of gender ideology:

Austrian bishop: Pope Francis told me ‘gender ideology is demonic’

> Polish bishops warn ‘gender ideology’ is dangerous to society

> Pastoral letter of the Bishops’ Conference of Poland to be used on the Sunday of the Holy Family 2013

 

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