April 28
To Heidelblog and Rosaria Butterfield for the segment of Butterfield's article that acts as a public repentance for using the preferred pronouns of those who changed their gender identity due to gender dysphoria.
Butterfield's full article can be found at:
Besides the fact that Butterfield hardline approach to pronouns and gender identity shows that she currently uses the same kind of thinking which she used as a radical feminist only on the other side of coin, there is a real problem with her whole article. What she said about Transgenderism being satanic can be said about any religion outside of the Christian faith. And yet we rightfully publicly call followers of Islam 'Muslims' rather than 'Satanists.' We call those who don't believe in God 'Atheists' rather than 'Satanists.' And it goes on down the line with other religions. We use those names respectfully because of where those people stand in society. We use those names because we recognize their equal standing with us in society.
Of course, there is another problem with Butterfield's approach here. She seems to be conflating biological sex with gender identity--something that the LGBT community does only from the other side of the coin. Biological sex deals with the physical while gender identity deals with the psychological. And so using preferred pronouns can be respectful of someone's adopted gender identity without denying what the Scriptures say about us being made male and female.
Also, quoting Genesis 1:27 the way she does shows that she forgets that that passage occurred before the Fall when both man and nature suffered corruption because of Adam's sin. So now, we have 3 biological sexes: male, female, and intersex. And now we have people identifying as a different gender than their biological sex at birth would indicate. We have others who identify as being gender fluid. We should note that gender dysphoria and identifying as a different gender than the biological sex at one's birth existed well before the recent controversy about gender identity came about. We've had cross dressers and men who identified as women in America even before the beginning of the 20th century. But more telling than that, some Native American tribes recognized up to 5 different genders and they honored such people attributing their gender identity to the triumph of the spirt over the flesh. Though their approach to gender identities are different in certain ways than the current approach by the LGBT community, what we see is that adopting a different gender identity than if one was cisgendered is not a new phenomenon that just started in our current time.
Finally, though gender identity is a psychological concept, there are possible biological factors that can influence one's gender identity. For example, the following from a plain language summary on gender dysphoria from an article posted in the National Library of Medicine says the following. (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7415463/ ):
'<b>When research has been conducted in people with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, a condition where the testosterone receptor is mutated and faulty, and thus cannot function, gender dysphoria is observed as the body is genetically male but anatomically female. It is known that the structure of male and female brains differs; it is found that people with gender dysphoria have a brain structure more comparable to the gender to which they identify. The review of the literature suggests that there is a disparity between the brains of those who identify differently to their assigned gender at birth, highlighting a multifactorial underpinning of the gender identity.</b>'
We simply don't know all of the factors involved in gender dysphoria and the identifying of being a gender different from one biological sex that occurred at birth. And so for as long as we distinguish, rather than conflate, biological sex and gender identity, it would be wise for the reputation of the Gospel that we Christians use a person's preferred pronouns when referring to them lest further research on the subject makes us look like some past Christian leaders, such as Calvin and Luther, when they openly mocked those who promoted Heliocentrism, which was later proven to be true.
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April 29
To Michael Weiner and the reposting of his article on Religion's role in America's founding and preservation. This appeared in the Imaginative Conservative blog.
Perhaps we should realize that America's religions have failed to provide what religion was tasked with in the above article. And we should note that if religion is the glue that binds society, then the religion that does just that cannot be an exclusive religion unless that exclusive religion becomes the state religion. But such a state of affairs provides a major reason why American religion has failed to deliver the goods promised in the above article.
The above provides some descriptions of America that lack adequate context. The government formed by our Constitution was one that, though providing a more free situation than the aristocracies that existed in Europe at the time, it was written because of and for the protection of America's new elites. The Senate was formed as a hedge against populism. The Constitution itself took a hands off approach to voting rights though few could vote when the document was being written.
We should note that back then, many people were protesting the economic times in which America's new elites were benefiting from. And these elites looked down on democracy back then because many people want certain practices that would benefit ordinary people. In fact, the writing of The Constitution was written in response to widespread dissent and Shays Rebellion.
If we want to know what should restrain us from exploiting each other, it is found in the meaning of the words 'freedom' or 'liberty,' not in religion. For the formula below goes a long way in telling us how to prevent ourselves from exploiting others:
Freedom - equality = privilege
With that formula, if we pursue our own freedom, we will also try to avoid being privileged and having a supremacy over others. And with that we will go a long way in not just being free, but in being virtuous as well. Perhaps we will go farther in pursuing freedom and virtue than our nation's forefathers. Then again, regarding our nation's forefathers, if they didn't favor slavery, they definitely believed in white supremacy. Thus they provided a much lower bar than we give them credit for in the pursuit of freedom and virtue.
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