This week, Catholic convert, apologist and radio host Dr. David Anders came to Fargo. It was a blessing to have him here, and I was doubly blessed to hear him twice; once at a pro-life luncheon at my parish, and again, at a Catholic radio fundraising banquet.
The pro-life talk was especially interesting because, though his daughter works for a pregnancy help center — and he’s involved indirectly in pro-life activism through her work — it’s not an area he’s used to speaking about. But I took three pages of notes, so I guess something he said seemed relevant.
I’ll share more about his pro-life insights in time, but in the midst of all that came a story that verged into another cultural issue being discussed a lot lately — that of blurred gender identity.
Interestingly, it’s an area in which, in some cases, traditional feminists are lining up with conservatives. It makes sense. The feminist narrative has as its base this complaint that women don’t enjoy equal opportunities and treatment in civil society. But what happens when the identity of womanhood itself is in question? What happens when you’re told there’s really no certainty that anyone is actually a woman? Then what do you do with yourself as a feminist? Some are catching on to the flaws here.
About midway through his talk, Dr. Anders was describing a conversation he’d had a while back in a coffee shop, where he was enjoying a cup of java with his 18-year-old daughter. He prefaced it by describing his daughter as being a beautiful young lady, and overtly feminine. He wasn’t just being a doting father; this point matters later on.
So they’re having this conversation of gender identity and how, in some schools now, teachers are not even allowed to call children female or male, girl or boy. Instead, he said, it’s more of a, “Okay, all the purple penguins, gather at the mat.”
Since we can no longer identify ourselves or those around us as pink or blue, we’re all plain purple. That way, in the event someone’s biologically-assigned gender shifts into another, more desirable category, no one will be offended. Please know that I would not want to minimize the real struggle that must be part of a true gender identity crisis. But we have to put all of this in perspective, and find a way to make it logically fit reality.
Back to Anders’ story; as they talked, another patron, overhearing, began to offer her two cents. The woman, wearing scrubs (a medical professional), told them she supports this new, more neutral way of addressing human beings.
After a while of hashing this out, Dr. Anders pointed to his beautiful daughter and said, “Would you say my daughter is a female?” The woman wearing the scrubs paused for a moment, then answered, “Honestly, no, I cannot.” At which point, Dr. Anders said, or maybe just thought, “Okay, well, your ideology has overrun your intellect.”
On Fox News last night, Tucker Carlson was discussing this same issue with a guest, who said that her children’s pediatrician confessed that the medical profession is in a conundrum over gender identity and how to approach their patients. Tucker asked if the scientific community has begun to cave to the gender identity ideology, and she said, no, it cannot refute what it knows to be true scientifically. “So basically,” Tucker responded, “a whole bunch of us are being told to lie.” “Yes,” she said.
My question is, if someone doesn’t feel either fully pink or blue, will he/she feel any better being labeled purple? Or is there something else here that we need to look into?
I’m not one to quote Scripture, because in a mostly secular world, it can often be a deterrent to advancing a conversation. But when we’ve reached the point of calling ourselves purple penguins, I’d say Biblical truth can be a helpful antidote.
And why not go back to the very beginning? From Genesis (5:2): “He created them male and female and blessed them.” Simple, clear and true.
Though we seem to be seeing more and more examples of individuals in whom the gender lines are blurred, those individuals need our mercy, not our lies.
God loves us all, no matter our color, or where on the gender spectrum we fall. I trust he will help us work this out so that we all can discover our truest identity of being a beloved daughter or shttp://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/post-abortion-gift-guideon.
Here’s another recent incident of reality-overruns-ideology. Teen Vogue magazine recently came out with a “what to give your friend after she’s had an abortion” gift guide for post-abortive teens. Here’s a powerful response to that nonsensical and troubling piece, from a young Students for Life representative. The original article that prompted this is here.
Q4U: When have you witnessed ideology overrunning intellect?
When I was in elementary school, my teachers usually just said something like, “First graders, time to line up for milk break.” It might have been fun to be called a purple penguin, with the intent of inclusion and creativity. I think our society spends too much time worrying about labels. If you don’t know what to call people, start by asking their name. I’m sure that health care professionals have learned how to talk to their individual patients about their anatomy and treat them accordingly.
Mary, I can see you smiling at being called a purple penguin as a kid, and I think I would too. For little kids it’s fun, and yes, inclusive. I grew up feeling very conscious of my skin color, as you know. I definitely felt a bit on the edge. And it was hard at times but also helped me understand when others feel excluded. I don’t think he was making the point of intentionally excluding people or being unkind. He is a very kind person. However, to some extent we do have categories. We are in fact male or female. Biologically, that’s real. It’s not feeling but fact. While we need to be sensitive, we also can’t go too far and be ridiculous about it. Honesty is important too; but of course, with kindness added in. I just think we have to be careful not to take it too far, where we can no longer use boy, girl, man, woman anymore. We are NOT the same. We are different, for good reason. Equal in dignity, but not in every single way.