USCCB: Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders

I was alerted to something interesting on the website of the USCCB.  The bishops posted a letter signed by religious leaders of various groups.  HERE  My emphases.

Created Male and Female: An Open Letter from Religious Leaders
December 15, 2017

Dear Friends:

As leaders of various communities of faith throughout the United States, many of us came together in the past to affirm our commitment to marriage as the union of one man and one woman and as the foundation of society. We reiterate that natural marriage continues to be invaluable to American society.

We come together to join our voices on a more fundamental precept of our shared existence, namely, that human beings are male or female and that the socio-cultural reality of gender cannot be separated from one’s sex as male or female.

We acknowledge and affirm that all human beings are created by God and thereby have an inherent dignity. We also believe that God created each person male or female; therefore, sexual difference is not an accident or a flaw—it is a gift from God that helps draw us closer to each other and to God. What God has created is good. “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27).

A person’s discomfort with his or her sex, or the desire to be identified as the other sex, is a complicated reality that needs to be addressed with sensitivity and truth. Each person deserves to be heard and treated with respect; it is our responsibility to respond to their concerns with compassion, mercy and honesty. As religious leaders, we express our commitment to urge the members of our communities to also respond to those wrestling with this challenge with patience and love.

Children especially are harmed when they are told that they can “change” their sex or, further, given hormones that will affect their development and possibly render them infertile as adults. Parents deserve better guidance on these important decisions, and we urge our medical institutions to honor the basic medical principle of “first, do no harm.” Gender ideology harms individuals and societies by sowing confusion and self-doubt. The state itself has a compelling interest, therefore, in maintaining policies that uphold the scientific fact of human biology and supporting the social institutions and norms that surround it.

The movement today to enforce the false idea—that a man can be or become a woman or vice versa—is deeply troubling. It compels people to either go against reason—that is, to agree with something that is not true—or face ridicule, marginalization, and other forms of retaliation.

We desire the health and happiness of all men, women, and children. Therefore, we call for policies that uphold the truth of a person’s sexual identity as male or female, and the privacy and safety of all. We hope for renewed appreciation of the beauty of sexual difference in our culture and for authentic support of those who experience conflict with their God-given sexual identity.

Sincerely Yours:

SIGNATORIES

Go there to see the list of signatories and their religious groups.

I was encouraged that this is posted on the site of the USCCB.

Let’s add something.

Same-sex sexual acts are intrinsically evil and God does not make people sexually attracted to members of the same sex.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, Sin That Cries To Heaven, The future and our choices and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

14 Comments

  1. Ave Maria says:

    I am surprised! Way to go whoever from the USCCB wrote this.

  2. Absit invidia says:

    “Same-sex sexual acts are intrinsically evil and God does not make people sexually attracted to members of the same sex.”

    I wish more bishops would be making this statement rather than cowering behind the shield of “immigrant awareness” and “refugee social justice” as their safe and easy talking points. Homosexuality and gay marriage is a wrench in society that is a full frontal attack on the family structure and is tearing the world apart.

  3. Henry Edwards says:

    “I was encouraged that this is posted on the site of the USCCB.”

    Why? Wouldn’t one naturally assume that the U.S. Catholic bishops would be more strongly committed to the principle of “marriage as the union of one man and one woman” and to the fact that “human beings are male or female and that the socio-cultural reality of gender cannot be separated from one’s sex as male or female” than the leaders of any other group in our society?

  4. EmilB says:

    Now THIS is the kind of Ecumenism I can get behind!

  5. Joy65 says:

    THANK YOU JESUS! Finally the TRUTH is spoken. This NEEDS to be said and heard by all.

  6. dbf223 says:

    I find this confusing. This list of signatories is fairly short and oddly composed – a handful of Catholic bishops, ACNA bishops, and Lutheran leaders, plus a smattering of leaders from other traditions. Andrew Walker is an odd representative as an evangelical – he doesn’t carry the weight that would come with, say, a Russell Moore or the prominent evangelical pastors who signed the Nashville Statement. I don’t know anything about Tony Suarez or Eugene Rivers, whether they would also be classified as evangelical or not.

    I’m curious – if you only get four bishops to sign it, why post this on the USCCB website? And it’s two weeks later and this is now being brought to your attention. If they’re not drawing attention to it, why do it at all?

  7. Good and important letter, but why has only one Orthodox bishop signed it? (I mean Orthodox as in Eastern Orthodox.) Should be a no-brainer.

  8. tho says:

    If the Pope could excommunicate Napoleon, Elizabeth I, and many others of lesser stature, why not lay the law down to our weak kneed Catholic politicians, and their partners in apostasy, Catholic justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

  9. NBW says:

    That’s is very encouraging!

  10. DavidR says:

    @ Henry Edwards:
    Why surprised? Because we are talking about the USCCB. “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”

  11. frjim4321 says:

    The etiology of sexual orientation is far more complex than is eluded to here. Is one to infer the opposite; that “God makes everyone straight?” To assert such would be problematic on many grounds.

    Further, if there is a skilled therapist treating children who are presenting with some degree of gender dysphoria, who would in turn tell a child the he or she could “change her or his sex,” I’d really like to have a reference for that; because that is not the indicated course of treatment. I’m sure such a practitioner would be suitably sanctioned.

    Hormonal treatments generally do not commence until many months, if not years, of talk therapy; reassignment surgery typically does not take place for many years if not decades. Please let’s not promote the myth that people walk into a doctor’s office one day with one kind of genitalia and walks into an operating room the next day.

    Person with gender dysphoria are already living with a great deal of psychic pain; they deserve to be treated with understanding and compassion, not ignorance and fear.

  12. Only 4 Catholic Bishops signed the letter? I find that very disturbing. I can only conclude the overwhelming number of Bishops either
    a) disagree with the content of the letter.
    b) do not find this to be a high priority.
    c) all of the above.

    [I have been deleting comments like this from the queue because I kept thinking that, eventually, someone would figure out that this is signed by the CHAIRMEN of certain pertinent USCCB committees.]

  13. @frjim4321

    “The etiology of sexual orientation is far more complex than is eluded to here. Is one to infer the opposite; that “God makes everyone straight?” To assert such would be problematic on many grounds.”

    Father, in your attempt to take sin out of all deviant behavior exhibited in today’s society, you over reach in your suggested inference of “God makes everyone straight”. On the contrary, the letter is very specific in stating “God makes everyone male or female.” As to your suggestion the etiology of sexual orientation is far more complex…. I suggest you are once again digging too deep to rationalize and justify your position.

    To summarize your comments, you are justify your position by saying treatment for transgender persons does not occur immediately or dramatically, therefore the content of the letter should be disregarded as rubbish.

    Try again Father.

  14. frjim4321 says:

    “To summarize your comments, you are justify your position by saying treatment for transgender persons does not occur immediately or dramatically, therefore the content of the letter should be disregarded as rubbish.”

    No, I’m observing that typically those who hold rigid views on various moral problems tend to oversimplify them.

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