The message was that Christian’s shouldn’t look down on slaves or see them as any lesser. I see it as calling people to act as John Brown, to not only free the slaves but to look at them as one’s full equals
Gender ideology, which seeks to blur differences between men and women through movements such as transgenderism, “makes everything the same,” Francis said.
No mate, your paedophile organisation is an actual danger, genocide in the name of religion is a danger, Christianity is a danger.
Trans people are not a danger. Non-binary people are not a danger.
How will the priests, bishops, cardinals etc. know who to molest if they can't tell the boys from girls? And then what if they can't? They just STOP molesting people? Then what? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA!
Many many years ago, I saw a doco during a high school health class. It had stuff about gender identity, and included an interview from the 80's with George Pell. He was ranting about how fashion these days was too androgynous, and you couldn't tell the girls from the boys.
That was the first I ever heard from that man, and immediately disliked him.
If CPS agents sent by Greg Abbott come knocking on my door because some teacher at my kid's school reports me for having a transgender kid, my non-binary ass will definitely be a danger.
Imo ",the trans issue" is cut and dry. Be who you want, do what you want. Doesn't affect me, or anyone else.
I'm starting to take an issue with everyone who isn't trans though, and how weirdly obsessive and angry everyone iand their mother is about an issue that doesn't affect a vast majority of the population.
I get that people can care about more than one issue at once. But wage inequality, homelessness, war, genocide,declining standards of living, student loans - there are so many issues that deserve our collective consideration and action on more.
It's a non issue. What other people do to themselves and how they present themselves is their business. Its not that these issues don't matter, they do, but we have bigger fish to fry and while I'm personally glad to see such a widespread desire to advance causes like this I can't help but feel like the time so many people spend bickering online about it is time that could be better spent offline doing things that would advance these causes anyway.
And it doesn't help that the time spent bickering isn't even productive. It's just people who already agree withe sch otherr aggressively reinforcing each others,' beliefs to the point of militancy.
I'm not allowed to have opinions on the subject, and I largely don't because it really doesn't affect me snd I'm already in support of people being able to live how they choose anyway, but I'm bombarded with posts about the issue wherever I go, and I'm ju#t so fatigued by how little it matters on the grand scale of things, while being sensitive to how it can be the most important things of the world to some people.
On the left, it's due to intersectionality. And that the attacks against trans people is part of a broader attack from the christofascists to create outgroups and use hate and fear to obtain power (very similar to what the Nazis did with "degenerates" and jews). "First they came for..." and all that.
Yes, this. I wore makeup and spent all day in the wood shop yesterday. We better burn down society so that isn't allowed. Never mind that the world is literally burning and homelessness is rampant even in the richest cities. Don't look at that, look over here at the queer person!
I'm upvoting this, not because I agree with it, but because it is relevant for this community. Like it or not (and I certainly don't), the Catholic Church has massive global power. Knowing where they stand on this issue is important, especially since this Pope, seemingly, has been trying to appear more progressive.
Huh. Fascism is on the rise everywhere. The planet is being destroyed by greedy billionaires. People are struggling to pay for food. There are wars and genocides. But he thinks the ugliest danger is "gender ideology", whatever that is.
And he says it erases differences. If "gender ideology" is being a non-bigot about gender, then that respects differences. What erases differences is forcing everyone to conform to only two set gender stereotypes.
It's saddening that dogma prevents him seeing how dramatically advances in understanding and respect for gender have improved so many people's lives. And it's disappointing to see him align himself and his church with forces of oppression.
It's doubly sad because Christian teachings could actually be a good influence on people. Like that quote above shows, there's good thoughts in there (alongside bullshit, of course.) When modern people, who respect science, develop a reflected and balanced faith, that can be a good thing. It's just so damn rare, and the bigots are in charge
And he says it erases differences. If "gender ideology" is being a non-bigot about gender, then that respects differences. What erases differences is forcing everyone to conform to only two set gender stereotypes.
Yeah. I read things like this and just wonder what exactly I'm erasing by being myself? And if I do my best to try and parse his statements about how we should be acting instead of the "gender ideology" way of acting... I don't stop being a lady. It's not a thing I've "decided' I'm going to do now that I'll stop once you remind me that I'm called to be a human and live for good or whatever. Pretty sure I've been doing that the whole time, if I understand it at all.
Our planet becoming nearly uninhabitable or uninhabitable with millions if not billions of people dying seems like a bigger problem. But then again spreading hate about the LGBTQ+ is more important to the spokesperson for 'god'.
Well, those other problems become dramatically more difficult to manage while there is a very vocal movement attempting to nit-pick and re-write nuances of our existing social structures, like they think it's some computer program instead of the cumulative product of thousands of years of trial and error paid for in blood, sweat and tears.
I truly am confused about what point you’re trying to make. That we should live by the social structures from a thousand years ago? Or is it that you believe we’ve perfected the social structure and it needs no further change as of today? Or something else?
Well, the society we've had through "trial and error" got us to the point of climate collapse so maybe it deserves to be "nitpicked" a little bit. 🤷♂️🤦♂️
“It is very important that there is this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the ugliest danger is gender ideology, which cancels out differences,” the pope said during an audience with members of the French-based academic organization Research and Anthropology of Vocations Institute (CRAV).
Gender ideology, which seeks to blur differences between men and women through movements such as transgenderism, “makes everything the same"
I mean...isn't this a good thing? Why the fuck do men have to hold doors open for women, specifically? Why are women supposed to be the stay at home parents? Equality seems pretty fucking good tbh. I mean, good lord, men have nipples and that line on the scrotum because we start out as women while in development. The proto-ovaries descend to become testicles. We have some hormonal differences and some brain development differences, but we truly are not that different. Being seen as equals should be a thing we strive for. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter who you fuck or what privates you have. We all only have one life on this planet, make the most of it. And be nice to other people while on this place.
Sure, it's a good thing for people for whom these differences represent disadvantages. The Catholic Church, however, is a historical beneficiary (and cause) of the oppression of women, so blurring the line threatens that disadvantage.
The world is on fire, fascism is rising, and your god is dead.
ETA: I actually personally left the Catholic Church over their stance on trans people. I had had other issues for a long time, and was firmly pro abortion, gay marriage, and female priesthood, but those were things I thought I might see them come around on. But then I got to trying to figure out why I was so damn miserable. Long story of self discovery later I learned I’m trans and that the psychological agony I’d been in my entire pubescent life was gender dysphoria and that’s why nothing was fixing it. The Catholic Church’s stance was that I either accept easily curable pain for the rest of my life that has little downside or a loving god will punish me forever when I die. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I took a year off of Christianity to cleanse my palate as I transitioned expecting to go episcopal or Quaker and wound up atheist -> pagan with an understanding that I will choose gods by their morality rather than choosing my morality by my gods.
I left the Catholic Church shortly after leaving Catholic school. Like, in Catholic high school, they taught us about the "issues" (read: CA scandal) the church was "going through" and how we all need to "pray for the victims" of these "isolated incidents." You then step into the real world and learn that the church protected monsters from the law for DECADES (and continues to do so), it really fucks with your head. In college, I went "spiritual but not religious" for a while and then landed squarely into atheism town... been a resident there now for more time than I was ever Catholic.
If nothing else, I'll say that the Catholic Church really doesn't seem to have an official stance on "transgenderism". There's lots of priests and bishops who will try to convince you it does, and there are plenty of them talking about how "gender ideology" is "colonizing the family" or some other similar things, but even the Pope who just said all this also says of trans women that they are "daughters of God" and meets with them regularly. There's are groups in the church made of bishops, Cardinals, and priests who explicitly support LGBTQ people and trans people in particular.
As asserted by a guy who chose a non-reproductive life of celibacy, hangs out with a bunch of fellas in dresses and bases his opinions on stories preceding the Dark Ages.
The pope did not read the full address, instead delegating the task to Monsignor Filippo Ciampanelli. “I still have a cold and it’s tiring to read for a while,” the pope said to the participants assembled at the Vatican.
Where's your god now? Can't even give his #1 on earth the strength to mumble his message of hate. Fucking losers.
“It is very important that there is this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the ugliest danger is gender ideology, which cancels out differences,” the pope said during an audience with members of the French-based academic organization Research and Anthropology of Vocations Institute (CRAV).
He's demanding that everyone conform to his narrow worldview... in the name of preserving our differences?
That's some impressive mental gymnastics, even for a Pope.
Focusing the Friday morning address on the “anthropological crisis and the necessary promotion of human and Christian vocations,” Pope Francis said this task is challenged by myriad social challenges arising from the cultural zeitgeist, including gender ideology.
Highlighting the anthropological angle of the conference, the pope pointed to “an elementary and fundamental truth, which today we need to rediscover in all its beauty: The life of the human being is a vocation.”
The pope emphasized that this is a foundational element “which underlies every call within the community” and “has to do with an essential characteristic of the human being as such.”
"today the ugliest danger is gender ideology, which cancels out differences"
Well I'm glad he said the misogynistic part out loud. In a religion in which only men can hold power, blurring the lines between who can be a man undermines their power structure. They see women as inferior chattel and the strict gender binary allows them to enforce their hegemony. I suppose the pope thinks that LGBT* people around the world being murdered and persecuted is a good thing as long as the cis white straight men get to stay in power.
Your position is a joke, and everyone with 2 brain cells can tell that it can only exist by enslaving half of the population and trying to murder another 2%. Like any good tiny dictator, you don't inspire respect for people to follow you, you reach for the cudgel of violence, and make no mistake, your words inspire violence just as much as if you lit the torches yourself. Your god will judge you accordingly.
No, he's a guy who's desperately trying to market a crusty old religion to a population that gets more tolerant and progressive with each generation. They've just barely started pretending they dont actively hate gay people, it'll be a few more decades before they do anything like that for trans people.
Funny how God seems to change his mind about social issues whenever the pews start getting empty.
Yup, this is basically “ok, I’ve said some tolerant things about gay people, can’t let the hardliners think I’m out of control, let me make sure I repeat the whole “man and woman are specifically created by god” thing
“This discovery,” the pope added, “brings us out of the isolation of a self-referential ego and makes us look at ourselves as an identity in relation.”
So racism is good because it creates a "tension" that allows you to compare yourself to others too, I take it?
Fundementally these arguments aren't even about trans folks. They're reheated arguments about second wave feminism.
A "fun" game when reading quotes from bigots is to swap out "gender ideology" with "bodily autonomy" to realize how absurd, hateful, and fascist the message really is. That's really what we're talking about; being trans isn't a choice but expressing your true gender is somewhat* a choice you make with your body and aesthetic. Fascists don't want people to have freedom, they want to have power over you for power's sake. The pushback against "gender ideology" isn't the reasoned philosophic debate that they want it to sound like, it's a war against already-marginalized people. It's "a boot stamping on a human face" because power is both the means and the ends for these fucks. Anyone supporting these assholes should ask themselves what happens if they finally succeed to stamp out the queer menace. Fascists' continued existence requires another group to persecute and if history is any guide it will be religious minorities, racial minorities, political rivals, etc. until the world is empty and there is no "fruitful ‘tension" that Pope Franky states that he values so much aside from the powerful and those that they decided to keep as slaves.
*somewhat because for many the choice is transition or suicide
To steelman, or whatever they call it. Perhaps he's calling for radical acceptance; that men and women are undeniably different, and those differences are something that should be celebrated rather than denied.