Jul 11, 2023Liked by Jonathon Fessenden, Dave DuBay
Well said, Dave.
You wrote: “As Catholics, we must avoid contemptuous rhetoric, despite activists being unlikely to reciprocate.”
That we very often use contemptuous rhetoric and give in to “righteous indignation” and outrage does great damage and only serves to fan the flames. It’s sinful. It convinces no one. It’s so damaging that even clergy and religious have jumped on bandwagons and defended ideologies because of it. This applies not only to transgenderism but to all current cultural and social issues e.g. abortion and euthanasia, ssa, and others.
In our self-righteousness we claim to “love the sinner but hate the sin” just as Jesus did. In reality that’s an excuse for most of us. It’s a form of justifying our sins of hatred. It’s a lie we tell ourselves because we know Jesus never acted as we do.
My grandmother used to say the truism, “you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” It’s a lesson we all need to learn and be constantly reminded of. Our “vinegar” will only push people away, deafen them to the truth, and harden them in their error. History bears this out time and again.
Accept the sin? Never! But be overly gentle and loving. Embrace the sinner? Always! But never with judgement and condemnation, for to judge and condemn puts us on a par with the only One who is to judge people, and that is the temptation that led to our downfall in Eden.
Unfortunately it’s the #1 thing that leads people away from Christ. In my decades away from the Church I did a lot of things I shouldn’t have, so when I feel like judging I have to remember that I could be judged too.
This is so very excellent and well written! Jesus said, " hate the sin, love the sinner". For Jesus love was not a warm, fuzzy, cozy feeling. Love is a decision, an action. Love is as Bishop Barron constantly says, "willing the good of another"! Thank you for writing this. It needed to be said!!!!
What’s so telling about the deeply gnostic (and really, spiritual) nature of gender theory and ideology is that with every other mental health issue, we see the dysphoria as the problem. We could easily accept that some people feel as though they were born in the wrong body, and address this as the problem, with the compassion and grace to know it’s probably not as simple as just telling them to “be a man.” We can easily accept that there are people who will not fit into society’s idea of what a very manly man or feminine woman looks like. But as you say, the gender theorists have made clear that anything other than their paradigm is bigotry. That is the basis of the paradigm, the critical theory framework that very deliberately explains any opposition to gender nonconformity as rooted in bigotry, or hate, or fear. It’s ironic, too, that an ideology that would have us accept such blatant psychological discord would explain away any argument against it as being rooted in inherent psychological resistance. For all the fancy terminology and the support of academia, it’s just gaslighting.
Excellent article, thank you for writing on such an important topic and reinforcing what we believe as Catholics.
Thanks, Christina
Thank you for this much needed article. God Bless Dave
God bless
Well said, Dave.
You wrote: “As Catholics, we must avoid contemptuous rhetoric, despite activists being unlikely to reciprocate.”
That we very often use contemptuous rhetoric and give in to “righteous indignation” and outrage does great damage and only serves to fan the flames. It’s sinful. It convinces no one. It’s so damaging that even clergy and religious have jumped on bandwagons and defended ideologies because of it. This applies not only to transgenderism but to all current cultural and social issues e.g. abortion and euthanasia, ssa, and others.
In our self-righteousness we claim to “love the sinner but hate the sin” just as Jesus did. In reality that’s an excuse for most of us. It’s a form of justifying our sins of hatred. It’s a lie we tell ourselves because we know Jesus never acted as we do.
My grandmother used to say the truism, “you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” It’s a lesson we all need to learn and be constantly reminded of. Our “vinegar” will only push people away, deafen them to the truth, and harden them in their error. History bears this out time and again.
Accept the sin? Never! But be overly gentle and loving. Embrace the sinner? Always! But never with judgement and condemnation, for to judge and condemn puts us on a par with the only One who is to judge people, and that is the temptation that led to our downfall in Eden.
Unfortunately it’s the #1 thing that leads people away from Christ. In my decades away from the Church I did a lot of things I shouldn’t have, so when I feel like judging I have to remember that I could be judged too.
This is so very excellent and well written! Jesus said, " hate the sin, love the sinner". For Jesus love was not a warm, fuzzy, cozy feeling. Love is a decision, an action. Love is as Bishop Barron constantly says, "willing the good of another"! Thank you for writing this. It needed to be said!!!!
What’s so telling about the deeply gnostic (and really, spiritual) nature of gender theory and ideology is that with every other mental health issue, we see the dysphoria as the problem. We could easily accept that some people feel as though they were born in the wrong body, and address this as the problem, with the compassion and grace to know it’s probably not as simple as just telling them to “be a man.” We can easily accept that there are people who will not fit into society’s idea of what a very manly man or feminine woman looks like. But as you say, the gender theorists have made clear that anything other than their paradigm is bigotry. That is the basis of the paradigm, the critical theory framework that very deliberately explains any opposition to gender nonconformity as rooted in bigotry, or hate, or fear. It’s ironic, too, that an ideology that would have us accept such blatant psychological discord would explain away any argument against it as being rooted in inherent psychological resistance. For all the fancy terminology and the support of academia, it’s just gaslighting.
Gaslighting is a good description of biological sex denial. And many of the people going along with it know they’re being gaslighted.