A letter released last December, initiated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and joined by faith leaders from the Lutherans, Anglicans, Orthodox, Presbyterians, and Southern Baptists, addressed the great harm we are doing to our children by promoting what today is called “transgenderism.”
“We come together to join our voices on a more fundamental precept of our shared existence, namely, that human beings are male or female and that the socio-cultural reality of gender cannot be separated from one’s sex as male or female,” the letter begins.
“We acknowledge and affirm that all human beings are created by God and thereby have an inherent dignity. We also believe that God created each person male or female; therefore, sexual difference is not an accident or a flaw – it is a gift from God that helps draw us closer to each other and to God…
“A person’s discomfort with his or her sex, or the desire to be identified as the other sex, is a complicated reality that needs to be addressed with sensitivity and truth. Each person deserves to be heard and treated with respect…
“Children especially are harmed when they are told that they can ‘change’ their sex or, further, be given hormones that will affect their development and possibly render them infertile as adults. Parents deserve better guidance on these important decisions, and we urge our medical institutions to honor the basic medical principle of ‘first, do no harm.’ Gender ideology harms individuals and societies by sowing confusion and self-doubt. The state itself has a compelling interest, therefore, in maintaining policies that uphold the scientific fact of human biology and supporting the social institutions and norms that surround it.
“The movement today to enforce the false idea – that a man can be or become a woman or vice versa – is deeply troubling. It compels people to either go against reason – that is, to agree with something that is not true – or face ridicule, marginalization, and other forms of retaliation.
“…Therefore, we call for policies that uphold the truth of a person’s sexual identity as male or female….”
“WHEN HARRY BECAME SALLY”
In his recently released book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, author Ryan Anderson documents that more than 40% of those who identify as transgender will attempt suicide at some point in their lives, an inconvenient fact that the pro-abortion news media never reports.
“Transgenders are not the group of happy, smiling, newly minted guys or gals that the media would have you believe our transgender moment is producing.
“Perhaps the greatest harm inflicted by the promoters of transgenderism is on children who show signs of gender dysphoria. Parents are nowadays led to believe that the only way to prevent their gender-confused child from committing suicide is to allow them to begin to transition while they are young. What parents aren’t being told is that 80 percent to 95 percent of children who express gender dysphoria will naturally grow out of it and come to identify with their bodily sex if natural development is allowed to proceed.”
YOU CAN’T BE CATHOLIC AND PRO-ABORTION
“Where it is particularly problematic is when we have Catholic politicians who flaunt their Catholicity, but take positions that are inconsistent with our Catholic teaching. This was the case with Kathleen Sebelius, who was our Kansas governor previously. She would talk about how Catholic she was, but act totally contrary to Church teaching. It creates a problem for us as bishops when Catholic politicians do that. They teach our people that it is okay to be Catholic and support legalized abortion,” teaches Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, the Chairman of the Pro-Life Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“When they do this, they’re taking on a teaching role and misleading our people,” he said.
“I’d also like to say to our priests: we can’t fail to talk to our people about these real sins that affect the lives of our people,” stated Naumann. “If we talk about sins they don’t commit, of what good is that?
“Certainly we want to preach about the topic in a sensitive way and be supportive of those who chose abortion but now regret it. But if the Church is silent on the destruction of life, we’re being negligent and leaving our young people vulnerable to making this tragic decision.”
