Bi The Way

The Pope’s end of year address has angered LGBT groups as Pope Benedict XVI made a clear rejection of Gender Theory. Gender theory explores sexual orientation and the roles assigned to individuals by society according to gender.

The address follows the Vatican’s refusal to endorse a UN sponsored universal declaration to decriminalize homosexuality. And is the latest in a number of anti-gay statements from the Roman Catholic Church. To quote from the pope’s address:

“We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way. The Church speaks of human nature as ‘man’ or ‘woman’ and asks that this order is respected.”

This belies the Pontiff’s preference for “traditional” gender roles and with it heterosexual relations. In fact the statement goes further. In asking that this traditional male-female world vision is respected, he is actively opposing, both equal opportunities for men and women and same-sex relationships.

Pope Benedict goes on to explicitly oppose the individuals right to self-identify, not just their gender, but their gender’s role in society.

“What is often expressed and signified with the word ‘gender’ leads to the human auto-emancipation from creation and from the Creator. The human being wants to make himself on his own and to decide always and exclusively by himself about what concerns him.

“But, in so doing, the human being lives against the truth and against the Spirit creator. Rain forests deserve, yes, our protection but the human being – as a creature which contains a message that is not in contradiction with his freedom but is the condition of his freedom – does not deserve it less.”

This extract of the speech closes with the (un)holy father suggesting that people who want to adopt a “non-standard” gender role need saving from themselves. Once again the Catholic Church is trying to exert mass mind control, suggesting first that adopting non-traditional gender roles is counter productive and second that as individuals we shouldn’t have the right to decide our path for ourselves.

These must rank as some of the most autocratic utterances to come out of the Vatican since the Inquisition.

Naturally LBGT groups have reacted with outrage, but I’m surprised there hasn’t been a bigger response from women’s groups. It would seem that as well as his objection to same-sex relationships, Herr Ratzinger wants all women to go back to being birthing machines as proscribed by the old testament.

My first reaction is “This man needs to be stopped!”, but on reflection, the Pope is the architect of the church’s downfall. Whilst this type of rhetoric might appeal to die-hard conservatives, it will cause the majority of free thinking Catholics will begin to question whether the path to god lies with this man.

Photo Credit: Janusz Stachoń
License: Creative CommonsAttribution ShareAlike 2.5

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