I am quite sure it will surprise you not at all to know that I agree entirely with your argument. Your analysis of names in the Bible is particularly interesting. I would also note that when Fr. Horan invokes the command to "do unto others as you would have done unto you," he misses the point. People, including Christians, often read this in an essentially libertine way, i.e. "I value certain things and don't want people interfering with my ability to pursue them, and so I am commanded not to interfere with anyone's ability to pursue what he or she (or, as Fr. Horan might insist, they) value!" But this obviously cannot be the case. Even Plato, writing before the coming of Christ, was able to reason his way out of such a mess when he determined that it would be wrong to return a borrowed axe to your friend if he comes to your door and says he wants it back so that he can go and murder someone. The charitable, loving, commanded thing to do in such an instance is to try to talk your friend down from his murderous rage--or at least not to assist him in his planned sin. When the Golden Rule discusses what we "want" done unto us, what it refers to is not whatever whims, fancies, or even deeply important desires come upon us. It refers to what we truly want, which is the good, a concept which we may not always be able to comprehend in the moment but which is intrinsically bound up with the nature of what we are and our relationship with the Creator who made us that way. Hence, your focus on what is true is critical, both for our own good and that of our friend. The command does not mean to defer to whatever those around us want and to affirm them in that pursuit; rather, it is a command to assist one another towards holiness "as iron sharpens iron" (Proverbs 27,17), correcting (lovingly) our brother's wrongs as we would want him to correct our own.
Hear hear! It's one thing for leftists and their fellow travelers to go around lying, in effect, or at least embracing an un-truth, but it's another thing for them to impose that choice on everyone else. That really is an affront to decency and to freedom of conscience.
Agreed 100%. What's so troubling is the implicit claim that's made, too, which I discussed here (https://sedkontra.substack.com/p/dont-bow-to-the-woke-gods-america): We're all trans in principle, it's a mere (perhaps happy) accident if your sex and gender align, and there's nothing normative, vis-à-vis nature, about sex.
If only that nonsense were true: then we'd all be trans, and therefore we'd all be in a protected class! Somehow I don't think that's part of the plan...
It sounds easy until you actually have to live with the situation. When your sibling changes and gives the family an ultimatum to accept and endorse it fully, with pronouns, or else cut you out, you have no choice. Same with the job situation. How else are you going to support yourself, when every job, including self-employed business owners, demands that you follow the law and accept the new name, lifestyle and identity? My late mom and I refused to go along with the sibling's change. He didn't go to her funeral in 1999. Now it's 2022, my other brother died, and he approached me about it. I used that as a window of opportunity to reconcile. I learned that he now has dementia. What difference does it make who he thinks he is with this illness? He may as well say he is Madonna or Elvis. I was able to re-establish communication with the family. I don't approve of his change, but I don't say that. I did go to confession for rejecting him and not communicating with him for decades. I would suggest to Fr. Horan and others who are judging this situation, you don't know what sin is until you walk in someone else's shoes. Yes, it is being an accessory to sin to support the new lifestyle. But it is also a sin against God to reject that person's new identity if it causes the family undue pain and separation, estranging them from you for decades.
I'm really sorry to hear of this family tragedy, Mary. Thank you for sharing and shedding light on a practical reality related to what I wrote. Know of my prayers for you.
I am quite sure it will surprise you not at all to know that I agree entirely with your argument. Your analysis of names in the Bible is particularly interesting. I would also note that when Fr. Horan invokes the command to "do unto others as you would have done unto you," he misses the point. People, including Christians, often read this in an essentially libertine way, i.e. "I value certain things and don't want people interfering with my ability to pursue them, and so I am commanded not to interfere with anyone's ability to pursue what he or she (or, as Fr. Horan might insist, they) value!" But this obviously cannot be the case. Even Plato, writing before the coming of Christ, was able to reason his way out of such a mess when he determined that it would be wrong to return a borrowed axe to your friend if he comes to your door and says he wants it back so that he can go and murder someone. The charitable, loving, commanded thing to do in such an instance is to try to talk your friend down from his murderous rage--or at least not to assist him in his planned sin. When the Golden Rule discusses what we "want" done unto us, what it refers to is not whatever whims, fancies, or even deeply important desires come upon us. It refers to what we truly want, which is the good, a concept which we may not always be able to comprehend in the moment but which is intrinsically bound up with the nature of what we are and our relationship with the Creator who made us that way. Hence, your focus on what is true is critical, both for our own good and that of our friend. The command does not mean to defer to whatever those around us want and to affirm them in that pursuit; rather, it is a command to assist one another towards holiness "as iron sharpens iron" (Proverbs 27,17), correcting (lovingly) our brother's wrongs as we would want him to correct our own.
Hear hear! It's one thing for leftists and their fellow travelers to go around lying, in effect, or at least embracing an un-truth, but it's another thing for them to impose that choice on everyone else. That really is an affront to decency and to freedom of conscience.
Agreed 100%. What's so troubling is the implicit claim that's made, too, which I discussed here (https://sedkontra.substack.com/p/dont-bow-to-the-woke-gods-america): We're all trans in principle, it's a mere (perhaps happy) accident if your sex and gender align, and there's nothing normative, vis-à-vis nature, about sex.
If only that nonsense were true: then we'd all be trans, and therefore we'd all be in a protected class! Somehow I don't think that's part of the plan...
It sounds easy until you actually have to live with the situation. When your sibling changes and gives the family an ultimatum to accept and endorse it fully, with pronouns, or else cut you out, you have no choice. Same with the job situation. How else are you going to support yourself, when every job, including self-employed business owners, demands that you follow the law and accept the new name, lifestyle and identity? My late mom and I refused to go along with the sibling's change. He didn't go to her funeral in 1999. Now it's 2022, my other brother died, and he approached me about it. I used that as a window of opportunity to reconcile. I learned that he now has dementia. What difference does it make who he thinks he is with this illness? He may as well say he is Madonna or Elvis. I was able to re-establish communication with the family. I don't approve of his change, but I don't say that. I did go to confession for rejecting him and not communicating with him for decades. I would suggest to Fr. Horan and others who are judging this situation, you don't know what sin is until you walk in someone else's shoes. Yes, it is being an accessory to sin to support the new lifestyle. But it is also a sin against God to reject that person's new identity if it causes the family undue pain and separation, estranging them from you for decades.
I'm really sorry to hear of this family tragedy, Mary. Thank you for sharing and shedding light on a practical reality related to what I wrote. Know of my prayers for you.