Disregarding The Body – Podcast
The Crisis of our Time
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art
Companion Posts
+++
Starting Again
I was born in the sixties. But I am not a child of the 60’s. My family was lower-middle class, and by the standards of the time, traditional in most every way. Dad was a minister. If he or mom had lived into their 90’s they would not have imagined the social changes we have witnessed in the last 20 years. It would be too easy to say the sexual revolution of the 60’s caused all this change, as some conservatives maintain. But the roots of this change go back much further than the swinging 60’s.
So I’m embarking with some misgivings on a survey of cultural history. There are deep intellectual and cultural traditions that have shaped our everyday lives. We’ve come to a point in the Western world where the statement “I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body” is comprehensible to many public leaders, at least in public. That phrase would be completely incomprehensible to my parent’s generation, in public or private, not to mention every preceding generation. It is still incomprehensible to many, if not most people today. But if you express your bewilderment in public, say at many workplaces in the Western world, increasingly the odds are you will be regarded as stupid, immoral or worse. You may be reprimanded for your irrational “phobia.” You might even have your career derailed. If you broadcast your view on a public forum, say Twitter, expect the Twitterati to pounce with the ferocity of a caged unfed Tiger. In certain parts of the world you may even be charged with a hate-crime for your expressed incredulity at the latest massive cultural shift. (See the following posts, here & here.)
As a 60’s poet might say, “The times they are a changin.”
The tectonic cultural shift in the last 20 years is quite breathtaking. Regardless of what you think about gay marriage, we have gone from year 2000 where the majority of Americans were opposed to gay marriage to today where normalization of Transgenderism is fast approaching.
A long and winding road brought us to this point. I want to offer a thoughtful and hopefully generous exposition, from a Classic Christian point of view, of how we got here. As I go, I’ll be documenting some disturbing current events. (Read my next post). I hope that even those who disagree with Classic Christianity will find here a fair and readable assessment of our state of affairs. (post continues page 2)
The Sinister Fiction of the ‘Transgender Child.’
A Book About Gender Identity.
There has always been a small number of children distressed by their developing sexual characteristics, though when counseled appropriately (i.e., not lied to that they can change sex) most grow out of these feelings by the end of puberty. The reasons for this distress can be complex and multifaceted. In recent years, the huge and unprecedented surge in teenage girls with no prior history of gender confusion suggests social contagion as a likely factor.
What the evidence does not point to is the sinister fiction of the “transgender child”: the pseudoscientific idea that children are “born in the wrong body.” Or are capable of consenting to life-altering medical interventions to try to “fix” their appearance, all while impairing and irreparably damaging their healthy sexual development and functioning.
As for how trans activists captured the NHS to begin with, the Times of London notes that as far back as 2015, staff from the NHS gender youth clinic “told a select committee hearing that its treatment protocols were safe, regulated and based on guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health [WPATH].”
Recently leaked internal messages from WPATH destroy whatever credibility the organization had left.
Britain is backing up. When will we?
+++
The Damage Done To Children
As a Christian I would argue that it is impossible to change sex or gender. I would never support puberty blockers or surgery for someone who wishes to change what they were given, a normal functional body.
The UK is finally coming around. David Bell, former president of the British Psychoanalytic Society has written a piece in The Guardian (hardly a right-wing rag). He finishes by saying:
“In years to come we will look back at the damage done to children with incredulity and horror.”
But will we hold people accountable for that horror?
+++
Corduroy Creek
A few days ago I spent some time in the area near Fort Apache Indian Reservation, Arizona. Here is a late morning shot of Corduroy Creek. This meandering creek isn’t clad in striped textile but runs through a landscape that is every bit as textured. It’s a place where the high desert meets pine forests. And a river runs through it. (Apologies to Norman M.)
The trees with the striking white bark that stand out against the rugged backdrop of Corduroy Creek are Arizona sycamores. These are rather grand trees that can be easily recognized by their mottled bark, which peels away in patches to reveal a creamy, almost ghostly underlayer. They are often found near streams and rivers in Arizona, as they prefer the moist, well-drained soils these environments provide.
Now, for the greenery – those robust, ever-present fellows are likely to be a mix of juniper and pine trees, staples of Arizona’s higher elevation flora.
It’s a beautiful part of God’s world.
+++