I, you, he, she, or What is the danger of "gender equality"
Recently, Mr Shkarlet has said that school textbooks will be rewritten taking into account gender equality. It even sounds a little funny if all this were not so sad ...
Not so long ago, the Minister of Education of Ukraine, Mr Shkarlet, said that school textbooks will be rewritten taking into account gender equality. Probably, there are no other problems in our education since the Ministry of Education revises textbooks every two years: the revolution of dignity – revision, the Tomos of the OCU – revision. Now revision reaches gender equality.
What is this, another attempt to equalize the non-equal, covered by the notorious notions of humanism, tolerance and respect? Or maybe just preparing the ground for more global changes in the public consciousness? Let's try to look at all this from the point of view of theology and common sense.
Tolerance towards LGBT people, juvenile justice, feminism, the upside-down movement against domestic violence, gender equality are very much cut from the same cloth, and you can immediately see where they come from. After all, this handwriting is difficult to confuse: a beautiful, conventionally unobtrusive presentation, a good purpose and, as a result, legalization of the idea at the state level. According to the laws of trade, as a rule, the defected content is beautifully wrapped, and what sells badly is advertised hard. It is not difficult to notice how systematically, and most importantly, systemically they are trying to impose on us ideas that are clearly at odds with common sense and certainly have nothing to do with the Gospel.
But the Overton window works! Even 20 years ago, the events that have been taking place before our very eyes in the "advanced" countries and in the world as a whole seemed absolutely impossible. Here is some of them:
- “transsexualism” and “gender inconsistency in childhood” are excluded from the list of mental disorders in the WHO international classification of diseases;
- in a number of countries, changes were made to official documents, taking into account gender neutrality;
- in a number of countries, new rules of correspondence have been introduced, now communication between the parties can be carried out exclusively with regard to gender neutrality;
- the widespread appearance of new curricula and subjects in schools on gender education;
- in some countries, laws according to which the concept of a family as a union of a man and a woman is replaced by a union of two people, and dad and mom are replaced by "parent 1" and "parent 2" have been adopted;
- all over the planet, state-funded programmes for gender reassignment are actively working.
As you can see, all the steps from “unthinkable” to “legal” in Europe and the United States have already been passed, now it is possible to plant these ideas in “lagging” countries. Do we have a choice and how to protect our children from such "help"? Unfortunately, we were not asked and everything was decided for us. What to do? At the very least, understand and realize the depth of the problem: forewarned is forearmed; and, to the extent of the strength and ability of perception, explain this to children. And in order to be ready for such conversations and in general for confronting this devilry, let's take a closer look at the essence of the issue.
Before considering the ideas imposed on us from the point of view of theology, let us first consider them from the point of view of common sense.
Manipulation and wickedness
Criminal liability in our country starts from the age of 14-16, young people aged 18+ receive the right to vote. Cigarettes and alcohol in stores, again, are not sold to persons under 18 years of age. Why, then, are our children offered to decide what they are, a boy or a girl, already at elementary school? It is when the child passes through puberty and has not yet fully become either physiologically or psychologically a man or woman, he is already offered to independently make a fateful decision to change sex. “Come on,” they will object to us. “We only propose to think that being different is not bad, even good so that the child can fully realize himself/herself in accordance with his/her inner self-identification.”
What kind of internal self-identification can we talk about at an age when a small person still does not have the slightest experience or sufficient knowledge about themselves and the world, when hormonal changes occur in the child's body, and emotions are overwhelming? What kind of balanced, deliberate and rational decision that will radically change the rest of his life can we talk about?
The apogee of gender education is chemical hormonal correction and gender reassignment surgery. But in those colorful brochures about the benefits and beauty of free choice of gender identity, there is not a word that after such a "correction" a person most often becomes sterile and cannot become a father or mother. However, there will be helpers here too: they will enlighten and tell us about all the charms of the ultra-progressive and mega-comfortable “childfree” subculture.
In fact, among other things, it turns out that the very idea of sex change is absolutely asocial and leads to the complete extinction of humanity. But, for some reason, no defenders of human rights shout at all corners about genocide or a crime against humanity.
However, such a dubious right is now being given, to children more and more often, one might even say, imposed. The results of such tragic decisions are also demonstrated to us in every possible way, modestly, however, keeping silent about those who, having matured, understood the horror of what happened. In this regard, the Keira Bell trial can be called an indicative and somewhat even consoling precedent.
Keira Bell, who went through a trans transition as a teenager and then gave up transness and returned to life in her biological field, won a court case against Tavistock and Portman gender identity clinics. Tavistock and Portman Clinics practice the organization and comprehensive support of transgender transitions in childhood and are supported in this activity at all levels.
Who knows how many people, whose lives have been mutilated by the activities of such clinics, prefer to keep in the shadows, not daring to reveal their mutilated bodies and souls to the world and not having the strength to admit that the decision made in childhood was wrong? But Keira Bell is not like that. Keira decided to make her sad story public and sue clinics that disfigure children.
In this particular case, common sense won out. Let with a delay, but the young woman returned to her God-given image. Moreover, she had the courage to announce this decision to the world. She went to court and won it, which created an inspiring precedent and saved a lot of children and teenagers.
Perfect creation of the Perfect Creator
If we look at this disgrace, in the literal sense of the word, from the point of view of theology, everything is simple here. Just as clay cannot understand a potter and a jug does not tell him that he created it incorrectly, so a person cannot understand the Creator and has no right to say that He was mistaken when creating him/her. Although the gender question can still be posed as follows: if the Lord is the perfect Creator, then his creation, Adam, must be perfect and self-sufficient, why then did the Lord create Eve? The Holy Fathers have different explanations for this: Adam-Eve-their child is a prototype of God-Trinity, Eve was created on the eve of the Fall, so that after it Eve would be an assistant to Adam in preserving the human race through the birth of children.
In our context, the answer of St. Maximus the Confessor, who says that Adam was indeed a perfect and self-sufficient creation, and Eve, who has a spiritual disposition different from Adam, was created so that Adam and Eve could improve in love, through love for the opposite. Therefore, the desire to change sex is nothing more than an attempt to doubt the Wisdom of God and His Goodness in relation to us, people, and then – enmity against God, a desire to correct His “mistake”. At the same time, the thought is not even allowed that it may be me who is wrong in the perception of my gender and my self-identification.
Oh, indeed, it is wickendess, when in the center of society, in the place of God, they do not simply put humanism, i.e. man with his whims, but they also want to make man himself God and the creator of himself.
It is also possible to draw a parallel with sectarianism, a characteristic feature of which is Newspeak, i.e. inventing new words characteristic of a particular sect or subculture in order to penetrate the human consciousness at the linguistic level and gain a foothold there. What are these “cute” words for hearing, recently introduced into the Ukrainian language: «соціологиня, психологиня, інженерка, поетка, членкиня, лікарка, колежанка», etc.
In Great Britain, they went even further: along with the pronouns "he”, “she", they created the pronoun "ze" (it, animate gender), for those who have not decided on their gender, so as not to offend anyone in official correspondence and in school, instead of the words "teacher”, “student" (masculine singular), they propose to use "teachers”, “students" (plural), they also propose to use gender-neutral profession names "police officer”, “fire fighter”, “congress member" instead of "policeman”, “fireman”, “congressman", etc. And God forbid you make a mistake and offend someone by naming him according to his biological sex, for this there can be a very specific punishment: from dismissal from work to a fine and imprisonment.
Sounds inconceivable. Apparently, they are preparing us for this, drawing for us the same reality in ten years, and maybe in five.
* * *
We cannot influence the whole world, but we can well control our behaviour and influence the lives of relatives and friends. It would be quite reasonable in this situation to calmly and prudently treat what is imposed on us, and correlate this with common sense and the Creator's plan for us: take the good from what is proposed and cut off the evil, actively participate in the upbringing of our children, and fight for their souls, for which we will be held accountable before God. Unfortunately, as Saint Paisios of Mount Athos: “we will not be able to sit out in the trenches”, because the enemy of the human race does not sleep and “walks like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5: 8).
But let us not despair but be patient and trust in God, so that in any trials we always strive to be with God and try to fulfill His commandments, in which the Merciful Lord will help all of us.
