Vatican Issues a Sugar-Coated Call to Action Against Some Vulnerable Kids
In a recently released document, the Vatican asserts that responsible educators shouldn’t go along with all this transgender business. Parochial school teachers should fall in line, and Catholics (including public school teachers) should “bear witness” to the absolute gender binary fixed at birth, for the good of gender-confused kids and their parents. (The Vatican news release for the document emphasizes this: “In particular, it is addressed to Catholic schools and to those who, inspired by a Christian vision, work in other schools.)
I read the entire 31 pages and it was eerily similar in tone and strategy to an 89 page document written by my former denomination (Vineyard USA) in response to a modest proposal I made in 2014 to give pastors leeway in deciding whether to perform weddings for same-gender couples or ordain gifted and called LGBTQ people. That experience gave me some insight into how the game of such documents is played.
- Give it a dull, non-alarmist title.
The Vatican’s version of this is “‘Male and Female He Created Them’: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education.” A real snoozer, nothing to worry about, right? An olive branch, even! The sub-title makes it sound like the known-to-be-traditionalist church wants to open a dialogue with Gender Theory — oh happy day!
Not so much.
I’ve seen a title like this before. The document that was used to lower the boom on me and my gay colleague, Emily Swan, was titled mildly enough, “Pastoring LGBTQ Persons.” We’re doing better now and happily co-pastor a fully inclusive congregation after escaping our Evangelical tormenters. Despite the irenic-sounding titles, both documents (the Vatican’s transgender document and our former denomination’s justification for harming LGBTQ people) are about asserting hard-edged policies used to stigmatize sexual minorities — to judge them as sinners in the hands of an angry God. My evangelical former colleagues have their own made-for-media statements that cover this hard edge —akin to the once-upon-a-time “Who am I to judge?” misdirection of Pope Francis.
2. Hope the mild title obscures the hard-line intent.
This Vatican document was published under the aegis, tellingly, of “The Congregation for Catholic Education.” It will be used in Catholic schools to reinforce the absolute gender binary “assigned at birth” by divine fiat. Parents beware: If your child is dealing with gender identity issues, schools where this document hold sway will not be good for them. (Of course, you may not know if your child is dealing with these issues, especially if the kids know it’s a shameful thing to have gender non-conformity feelings.)
But this document will also be used by conscientious Catholics (and Evangelicals, already praising it) who want to “bear witness” in public schools to the dangers of efforts to make space for transgender students. At the tippy-top of the document, indicating where it originated, The Congregation of Catholic Education is followed by the parenthesis, (for Educational Institutions). Not “Catholic Educational Institutions,” just “Educational Institutions.” Public school boards across the land, be prepared to have this document cited in the public-comment portion of your meetings. Because it encourages Catholics to “bear witness” to its authoritative truths in any schools in which they are involved — as teachers, parents, concerned citizens. (Each paragraph of the document is numbered; see paragraph 7.)
3. But first, obfuscate your ignorance.
Wherever possible, use terms that indicate you are fully informed by the latest enlightened stuff. Refer to people as “persons” throughout, sprinkled with that canard “dignity of persons” used when advocating harmful policies like the rule of men over women. You will sound just like a liberal philosopher that way. (If I had a nickel for every time my former denomination’s position paper on LGBTQ referred to sexual minorities as “persons,” I’d have a lot of nickels to add to my penny jar.)
When writing such documents, make it clear you must be WELL READ in “Gender Theory”! And thankfully, because your readers are not well read in Gender Theory — but have to google it and wade through the wikipedia entry until their eyes glaze over — they will trust you as the authoritative discerners of the goods and ills of Gender Theory. But the only reason you have engaged Gender Theory is to protect yourself and your church and God Himself, against it. Save the “Gender Theory is Bullshit!” section for the middle (Paragraphs 19–23) — and don’t use language like that. Be very calm and reasonable-sounding instead.
3. And don’t forget: lots of footnotes!
Lots of footnotes signals: We’ve done our homework so you don’t have to! Ah, but check those footnotes — less there than meets the eye. Medium writer, Katherine Stevensen sums it up best: “The document contains 68 footnotes, each one citing another Vatican publication or public remarks from a prelate. It is redolent with confirmation bias.”
4. Find meaningless agreement with Gender Theory to pretend you are listening to its insights.
This is the part I loved the most. (By “loved” I mean “torqued my gourd” — an undecipherable metaphor attached to an indescribable feeling.) The document is organized around three main sections: Listening, Critique, and Reasoning. The “dialog partner” is, remember, Gender Theory, source of much evil and harm to children. But as the reluctant and reasonable critics of Gender Theory, you want to first show how much you have listened to its insights — because you are eager for dialogue! Here’s what you have learned from Gender Theory, which correspond to the same things you might learn from Mike Pence: 1. “Unjust discrimination” against gender non-conforming people (kids, remember) is bad (Paragraph 15). The implication of this term implies that “just” discrimination is fine, like regarding their gender dysphoria as a hoax perpetrated by the Gender Theorists these kids have been following on YouTube. 2. No bullying, violence, or insults! (Paragraph 16.) Thank you, Gender Theory, your dialogue partners hear you! 3. We owe a great debt to the nurturing values of our feminine women who teach in our schools (Paragraph 17). I’m not sure where Gender Theory advocates promote education as a career especially suited to women, but these guys have read their Gender Theory, so they must know.
And by the way, it’s telling that the document loves this term “Gender Theory” as though it were an abstraction disconnected from the facts of human experience and genetic and medical research — facts and research that this document shows scant awareness of and treats with a wrist-flipping gesture of contempt cloaked in philosophical gobbledygook (see, in particular, Paragraph 26).
5. Spend your “Listening” section on this pablum, so you can ignore the anguish and suicidal grief pouring from the hearts of kids dealing with gender dysphoria.
The “Care of LGBTQ Persons” document that sent me packing from Vineyard (as intended) included plenty of interaction with bits and pieces of “the revisionist literature on homosexuality.” But that document didn’t even pretend to incorporate the experience of actual LGBTQ people, beyond those few who feel called (or consigned) to lifelong celibacy. The document even said at the beginning, “This position paper is not intended for LGBTQ people!” Honestly? Like a paper on the treatment of diabetes should not be read by diabetics?
The Vatican document gives no indication of consultation with front line clergy, nuns, or parochial school teachers — leaders who interact with children whose gender identity does not comport with their birth certificate. (Not surprisingly, Vineyard pastors with a view outside the soon-to-be party line were not consulted in the preparation of the Vineyard LGBTQ document.) But so it goes: Institutions know what their needs are and they meet those needs first, last, and always.
Obviously, I’m angry about this latest Vatican document. Because I know parents working hard to make space for their gender non-conforming children. They are grappling with what happens when a child says, “Mom, inside I feel like girl, not a boy, and always have. What’s wrong with me?” These parents soon learn that it’s their most devout Christian family and friends who will soon be giving them and their child the most grief — refusing to change pronouns and all the rest that goes along with “bearing witness. ”
These parents know, or quickly learn, that their children are at elevated risk for some frightening mental health outcomes — owing to the hostility they face (brazen, vicious, or sugar-coated with religious justification and dished out with a look of pity). Note: depression rates for transgender children who not allowed to “socially transition” (change their dress, name, pronouns to match their perceived gender identity) are high. But with a supportive family, once kids transition socially their suicide risk is equivalent to the rest of their age cohort. The Vatican document would urge parents and educators to oppose the “social transition” process, which consigns children to greater risk.
So imagine you are the parent of a child with gender dysphoria (a profound sense that one doesn’t “fit” one’s gender assigned at birth.) You are on a crash course to learn about this. If you are a part of a church tradition that regards gender transition as an affront to God, you (and your child) have probably absorbed this anxiety — even if everyone is very nice about denying your child’s reality and can say “Gender Theory” without spitting. But in time, you realize that your child is not in a trendy phase of playing fast and loose with gender identity now that it’s encouraged by the work of Gender Theorists.
Parents in this situation need love, they need care, they need wisdom and courage from their church to face what they are actually dealing with. For the love of God and their children, they do not need yet another document — laced with the usual au currant compassion — that only injects more venom into a culture that puts their kids lives at risk.