Tag Archives: gender ideology

Sexuality and gender, Transgender

Gender Reality and “Ideological Colonialism”

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Today is “Transgender Day of Remembrance”, a day when in particular, we remember those who have lost their lives to transphobic violence. (New Ways Ministry notes in their post, that around the world, there have been 350 such murders recorded in the last year alone. That’s almost one a day – and does not include those unrecorded, or not recognised as transphobic).

St Joan of Arc, cross-dressing martyr

In addition to the human tragedy inherent in each and every one of these deaths, for the Christian churches, and the Catholic churches in particular, there’s a particular religious tragedy, which erases the transgender elements in church history, and distorts the understanding of gender in theology, and in the world.

The most notable example from church history is obviously St Joan of Arc, condemned  by the church authorities as a heretic  and executed in part for her practice of dressing and behaving as a man, in contravention of standard gender roles. Later, the church re-evaluated her, and recognised her as a saint and martyr. It is notable that Pope Benedict once discussed this, as an illustration of the distorting tradition in church history, and how there have been times when the theologians and cardinals of the church, can be wrong.




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Books and other resources, Sexuality and gender

The Vatican War on “Gender Ideology” – a Journal Resource

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For some useful material on the  Vatican’s attacks on (so-called) “gender ideology”, see the special issue on the topic at the on-line journal Religion and Gender, under the title Habemus Gender! The Catholic Church and ‘Gender Ideology’.

Describing itself as “the first online, peer reviewed, international and open access journal for the systematic study of gender and religion in an interdisciplinary perspective”, this issue lives up to the claim with a range of articles from respected writers with differing backgrounds and geographic perspectives. As a South African, I am particularly concerned that some of the harshest rhetoric has come from African hierarchs – and so delighted to note that one of the articles is a specifically African response by Kapya Kaoma.

There is also an important interview with Msgr Krysztof Charamsa, and additional material by writers I am familiar with are by Tina Beattie, Mary Hunt and Mark Jordan – as well as much by others not yet known to me.

All the material is available on-line, by open access. Follow the links in this list of articles for abstracts, and to download a PDF.

Editorial: Unpacking the Sin of Gender (Sarah Bracke ,David Paternotte)

Articles:

The Role of the Popes in the Invention of Complementarity and the Anathematization of Gender ( Mary Anne Case)

Gender and the Problem of Universals: Catholic Mobilizations and Sexual Democracy in France (Eric Fassin)

Against the Heresy of Immanence: Vatican’s ‘Gender’ as a New Rhetorical Device against the Denaturalisation of the Sexual Order (Sara Garbagnoli)

Sexual Politics and Religious Actors in Argentina ( Mario Pecheny, Daniel Jones, Lucía Ariza)

Interview

The Sin of Turning Away from Reality: An Interview with Father Krzysztof Charamsa (David Paternotte,Mary Anne Case, Sarah Bracke)

Responses

Gender and Meaning in a Postmodern World: An Elusive Quest for Truth ( Tina Beattie)

Moral Panic and Gender Ideology in Latin America (Gloria Careaga-Pérez)

‘Theologies’ and Contexts in a Latin American perspective (Sonia Corrêa)

Unreal: Catholic Ideology as Epistemological War (Elsa Dorlin)

‘Gender Ideology’: Weak Concepts, Powerful Politics (Agnieszka Graff)

Catholic Gender Denial (Mary Hunt)

Vetera novis augere: Notes on the Rhetoric of Response (Mark Jordan)

The Vatican Anti-Gender Theory and Sexual Politics: An African Response (Kapya Kaoma)

The Vatican and the Birth of Anti-Gender Studies (Elżbieta Korolczuk)

How are Anti-Gender Movements Changing Gender Studies as a Profession? (Andrea Pető)

Gender and the Vatican (Joan W. Scott)

Francis and ‘Gender Ideology’: Heritage, Displacement and Continuities (Juan Marco Vaggione)

Book Reviews

Thinking about Goddesses: A Review of Three Recent Books (Carol Christ)

Review of Robin L. Riley, Depicting the veil: Transnational sexism and the war on terror (Linda Duits)

Review of Rebecca Moore, Women in Christian Traditions (Janet Eccles)

Review of Joanna Mishtal, The Politics of Morality. The Church, the State, and Reproductive Rights in Postsocialist Poland (Dominika Gruziel)

Review of Tine Van Osselaer, The Pious Sex. Catholic Constructions of Masculinity and Femininity in Belgium, c. 1800–1940 (Alexander Maurits)

Review of Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip and Sarah-Jane Page, Religious and Sexual Identities: A Multi-Faith Exploration of Young Adults. (Lieke Schrijvers)

Review of Masooda Bano & Hilary Kalmbach (eds.), Women, Leadership, and Mosques. Changes in Contemporary Islamic Authority (Yafa Shanneik)

 

Review of Gina Messina-Dysert & Rosemary Radford Ruether (eds.), Feminism and Religion in the 21st Century: Technology, Dialogue, and Expanding Borders (Nicola Slee)

 

Review of Tine Van Osselaer, Patrick Pasture (eds.) Christian Homes. Religion, Family and Domesticity in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Marguerite Van Die)

 

Catholic_Church, Theology

Schonborn: “Doctrine is Not a Series of Abstract Statements”

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The strength of the pushback by some conservative bishops against what they fear the Family Synod will introduce changes in Church teaching on divorce and on sexual orientation is clear evidence of their fear that change is on the way. Their fear is well – founded, at least in the long term.  The synod itself was not called to change doctrine, but only pastoral practice – but pastoral practice will inevitably lead, in the long run, to changes in the teaching itself.

Cardinal Christoph Schonborn

More than that, those insisting on rigid adherence to a set of rigid rules as laid down in the Catechism and Canon Law, completely misunderstand the nature of “doctrine” itself. In a recent interview with the Italian Jesuit publication Civita Cattolica, the eminent theologian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn was asked about this concern, in some quarters, that doctrine should be the main focus of the synod, and their fear that it could be undermined. His response was illuminating, and has great importance for LGBT Catholics (emphasis added):

Civita: According to some, however, the aim should be eminently doctrinal; some even fear for the doctrine.

Schonborn: The challenge Pope Francis puts to us is to believe that, with the courage that comes from simple proximity, from the everyday reality of the people, we will not turn away from doctrine. We not risk diluting its clarity by walking alongside people, because we ourselves are called to walk in faith. Doctrine is not, in the first instance, a series of abstract statements, but the light of the word of God demonstrated by apostolic witness to the heart of the Church and in the hearts of believers who walk in the world today. The clarity of the light of faith and its doctrinal development in each person is not in contradiction with the way that God works with ourselves, that we are often far from living fully the Gospel.

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Sexuality and gender

In Mozambique, decolonization includes decriminalizing gay sex

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The persecution of gay men and lesbians in much of Africa is a tragic hangover of the colonial period. It is not homosexuality that was introduced by the colonists and missionaries, but homophobia. Historians and social anthropologists have amassed extensive empirical evidence that a wide range of same – sex relationship patterns and gender variant behaviours were common-place in many traditional societies in all regions of the continent. An ILGA guide to LGBT rights worldwide has noted that only eight countries worldwide have never made homosexual activity illegal: ALL are in Africa.

LGBT_flag_map_of_Mozambique.svg

So it is, that when Mozambique undertook a comprehensive review of its statute book to remove all outdated colonial laws, one of those discarded was a colonial law that allowed “security measures” to be taken against those engaging in so-called “social perversion” .

Gay Star News has the details.

Mozambique officially makes gay sex legal

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Catholic_Church, Sexuality and gender

Synod’s Gross Distortion of International Pressure & Gay Marriage

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There only two paragraphs In the synod’s final “Relatio” referring specifically to homosexuality. The second of these, which was approved by the comfortable margin of 159 to 21, states (in a modified Google translation):

56 It is totally unacceptable that the Pastors of the Church suffer pressure in this matter and that international bodies make financial aid to poor countries conditional on the introduction of laws that establish “marriage” between persons of the same sex.

If this had any connection with reality on the ground, I would find this completely unexceptional I am a firm supporter of the principle of equal marriage in civil law. I am also an African, and deeply conscious of how well- intentioned Western attempts to influence African governments are perceived (all too often, quite justly) as neo-colonial interference. Such efforts can easily backfire, with serious unintended consequences. For that reason, I agree with the bishops that Western attempts to manipulate foreign aid to force gay marriage on African countries is unacceptable – if such pressure existed, or was even under discussion. It is not. In this matter, the bishops are tilting at windmills, a figment of their fevered collective imagination. The tragedy is that in their terror of the imagined threat of gay marriage, they are ignoring a serious reality, which even an African Archbishop at the synod. acknowledged is a real problem – the criminalization of gay people.

There just is not a single government, multilateral agency, or NGO that has ever suggested that aid should be tied to the introduction of gay marriage, or any other legal recognition of same – sex unions. What has been proposed is quite different: using aid to oppose the criminalization of homosexuality, and the victimization of gay people.

Archbishop Kaigama said the Church’s position against criminalisation has been misrepresented in the media:

“We would defend any person with a homosexual orientation who is being harassed, imprisoned or punished….so when the media takes our story they should balance it….we try to share our point of view (but) we don’t punish them. The government may want to punish them but we don’t, in fact we will work to tell the government to stop punishing those who have different orientations.”

– Vatican Radio

I’ve noted before that Archbishop Kaigama’s protestations that the Church’s alleged “misrepresentation in the media” would be more credible if he could demonstrate any actual record of having opposed the criminalization legislation, or other grievous harms against gay and lesbian people in Africa. It is disgraceful that the synod has ignored one real problem, by itself grossly misrepresenting the nature of Western concerns about criminalization and persecution of gay people.

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