One of the many books I’ve read in the last two years is The Abolition of Sex by Kara Dansky. Here is a recent Newsweek opinion piece by Dansky on the passage of a new law by the Scottish Parliament. She documents legal developments in other Western countries as well, including the U.S. Equality Act and asks the question: Are we seeing the global abolition of sex?
On December 22, the Scottish Parliament passed a controversial new law that allows for "gender self-ID." Two days earlier, it had voted down an amendment to the law that would have prevented sex offenders from being able to gain access to women's prisons on the basis of their self-declared "female gender identity." On Wednesday morning, it voted down another amendment that would have made an application to change sex retroactively fraudulent if the applicant was subsequently convicted of rape.
What this means is that any adult (or minor as young as 16), including sex offenders, can obtain legal recognition that he or she is a member of the opposite sex on the basis of his or her say-so. The law passed over the objections of countless Scottish women who have explained repeatedly that this will result in men being able to force themselves into women-only spaces like domestic violence shelters and prisons, and despite two-thirds of the Scottish population opposing it.
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Anyone who cares about the rights, privacy, and safety of women and girls; anyone who cares about acknowledging the material reality of biological sex; and anyone who thinks that public policy should be grounded in science needs to take a stand. Now would be a good time. Sex was abolished under Scottish law this month and it may soon happen in Spain and Germany. Americans should not be surprised when it comes for us next.
Source: Newsweek
The Good Creation Podcast – A “Terror” Sermon?Rev. Dr Bernard Randall, former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge
Podcast Script
Rev. Dr. Bernard Randall, 48, an ordained minister in the Church of England, former chaplain of Christ’s College, Cambridge, is out of a job and is suing his former employer, Trent College, for discrimination, harassment, victimization and unfair dismissal. After a sermon he preached in the school chapel, Trent College reported Rev. Randall to the UK government’s terrorist watchdog, Prevent, as a potentially violent religious extremist and then dismissed him. The sermon was entitled ‘Competing Ideologies’ and it encouraged respect and debate on ‘identity ideologies.’ He had been approached by students at Trent to discuss the LGBT issue. One student indelicately asked: “How come we are told we have to accept all of this LGBT stuff in a Christian school?” So he wrote and delivered a sermon to help his young pupils sort things out.
You may read the sermon in full here and judge for yourself whether the School’s actions were appropriate.
After delivering that sermon he was summoned to a meeting with the Deputy Head (vice-principal) and the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL). The meeting did not go well. He was told his talk had hurt some people’s feelings and undermined the School’s LGBT agenda. After the meeting, and without his knowledge, he was reported to Prevent, the government’s counter-terrorism watchdog! In addition to that, the DSL reported him to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) as a danger to children!
Additional details here. And video of the chaplain describing his ordeal is here.
If you read the sermon that brought about his dismissal, and I hope you did, ask yourself the following: Is this how we want to order our lives together? Our Christian lives (for those who are Christian)?
In his sermon Randall explained to his young students what the Church of England’s historical teachings are on marriage sexuality and gender. He reminded them they are not required to embrace the claims of LGBTQ activists, and are entitled, under English law to believe what they wish on such issues.
Randall’s main point in the sermon, was that people who hold to profoundly different ideologies must treat each other with respect:
“Now when ideologies compete, we should not descend into abuse, we should respect the beliefs of others, even where we disagree. Above all, we need to treat each other with respect, not personal attacks — that’s what loving your neighbor as yourself means. By all means discuss, have a reasoned debate about beliefs, but while it’s OK to try and persuade each other, no one should be told they must accept an ideology. Love the person, even where you profoundly dislike the ideas. Don’t denigrate a person simply for having opinions and beliefs which you don’t share.”
This is a point I’ll make repeatedly going forward. Some listeners will not share my basic assumptions about life, assumptions which flow from my understanding of God and the world created by that God, conscience forming beliefs that cannot be easily undone. We will differ. Which brings me to my next point: No one should be compelled to go against their most deeply held beliefs. That’s why Religious Freedom is a high priority for me. Moving forward I’ll be devoting some of the content of this blog/podcast to defending that basic Constitutional principle.
Religious Freedom was placed in the FIRST Amendment of our Constitution for good reason. Unfortunately, Rev Randall lives in the U.K. and must rely on the British courts and British Common Law for legal relief, if any. But first he must encounter the British Administrative State. An employment tribunal hearing is expected to be heard on June 14, 2021. If you sympathize with his plight, you might want to include him in your prayers.
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Sometimes our beliefs are wrong. Therefore humility calls out to humility as deep calls out too deep. We dialogue, we discuss, we mutually respect, in hopes of bridging the gap between us. But not necessarily. That is one characteristic about deeply held convictions, the chasm width may ultimately prove uncrossable. The distance is too great, like trying to build a bridge to the moon. (Needless to say, coercion on either side is wildly inappropriate and dehumanizing.) A New Testament scholar I know once spoke about how at Harvard Divinity School the staff and students were so anxious not to offend that everyone gravitated to a “lowest common denominator.” They would say, “oh well we can’t agree on that one so let’s lay that denominational distinctive aside.” But after going down the distinctives list, so as to throw out any offending thing, they ended up with defacto Unitarianism, “well maybe we can agree that there is a God,” although none of them were actually Unitarian. Sometimes setting aside crucial beliefs for the sake of agreement leaves you with very little to discuss.
You could bring up race as an example of how deeply held beliefs were used to justify the enslavement of blacks in America, but the analogy doesn’t work because the reality of immutable characteristics, like race, sex and ethnicity, are precisely what most Gender Ideology Activists deny. This is not your parents or grandparents civil rights movement.
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In 2018 Rev Randall attended a staff seminar at Trent College, entitled “Educate and Celebrate.” He raised an objection when the leader, Elly Barnes, instructed the staff to chant‘smash heteronormativity’, smash heteronormativity!
For his anti-celebratory concerns he became a marked man at the college.
The obvious most humane response anyone could offer to Ms Barnes, or anyone like her, is to say, without heteronormativity, without the “gender binary,” humans and many other creatures would not exist. In the normal course of life, if heterosexual males and females don’t “get together” human life on this planet would end. Transgender activist Nicholas Teich says, “There is no getting around the fact that the gender binary of men and women—as we always knew it—is not the reality.” Really! Again, it must be emphasized, in the real world, it was gender binary fruitfulness that gave Mr. Teich his life.
This could lead us into discussing the Trans-humanism movement or the push for widespread surrogate mothering via in-vitro fertilization, or the rapidly arriving Brave New World of human cloning, to name but two technological developments, but following that rabbit trail will have to wait…
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Our bodies are a gift from our Creator, says Randall. So do I. So did Jesus,
“Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’” [Matt. 19:4].
If we find someone’s thoughts morally or mentally (not to mention ontologically) indefensible we must not be compelled to say or act otherwise. It would be dehumanizing to ask that of anyone, or compel anyone to affirm what they believe is deep psychological disturbance in the case of gender dysphoria.
But today people are being asked, compelled even, to do just that. Or they will lose their job. And have their reputation besmirched. A former chaplain at Cambridge University has. No backwoods Bible-thumper he. Rev. Randall was being investigated as a potential terrorist, and released from his job at an ostensibly Christian Academy for denying the view that people can be born in the wrong bodies. Among other things.
If you read the details I linked above, you will see that the Reverend’s defense rests squarely on the official teachings of the Church of England, not exactly a non-progressive bunch. The Right Reverend rightly asks, “is the COE an extremist organization?”
“Yet I ended up being told that I had to support everybody else’s beliefs, no matter what, while my Christian beliefs, the Church of England’s beliefs, were blatantly censored. “During the disciplinary hearing, I was never asked what I thought, they just assumed that I had extreme religious views. I don’t think the Church of England is an extremist organisation.”
And I ask you, is this the world we want to live in? We need to come up with some answers quick. Things are moving swiftly.
The Scottish Parliament is currently discussing the passage of an updated Gender Recognition Certificate. This would allow people as young as 16-17 years of age to simply self-identify as any gender they prefer and secure a GRC, thus changing legal status.
In the past you had to undergo an extended period of time (2 years) and gender reassignment treatments before legal recognition of your new gender status was obtained.
But today,Self-Id is all the rage. Scotland is close to passing this Self-ID standard into law. This has disturbing implications for Female Spaces and Health Care.
Two brave Detransitioners, Sinead Watson and Ritchie Herron have been brought in by opponents of the law change to provide their unique perspective to parliament.
Ms Watson said: “The voices of detransitioners have not been heard either by the Scottish Government in developing its proposals, or by MSPs who are considering this draft legislation.
“I am particularly concerned about the plan to allow children aged 16 and 17 to get a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
“When I presented myself to a gender identity clinic, I felt so certain that medical transition was the only solution for me, but now I wish that greater care had been taken to consider all my underlying issues.
“I believe that affirming children in their identity is dangerous and could lead them to make decisions about their bodies that they later regret, as I have.”
Mr Herron said: “There has been a lot of publicity about the huge increase in numbers of young girls identifying as transgender and it is good that NHS England has commissioned the Cass Review to look at this.
“However, I am keen to tell MSPs about the experiences of young men who identify as transgender and later regret it.
“I am particularly concerned about estimates that the number of trans-identified young men having gender reassignment surgery may soon outstrip the number of trans-identified young women having double mastectomies.
“I was diagnosed with transsexualism after two short appointments and underwent medical and surgical interventions, which have left me with life-long side effects.
“When I presented at a clinic, I was in a very vulnerable state and feel that this was overlooked.”
Source: Glasgow Times
