My first semester of college, I took a sociology class. I had never heard of gender theory before, but I was soon educated, much to my confusion. Gender was a social construction? My “gender identity” had nothing to do with the fact that God had created me as a female, but instead was based on the way I had been socialized? At this point, I wasn’t aware of Pope Francis’s comments on gender theory, which spoke out against it, or of the Catholic Church’s stance on the issue. As a result, I was extremely bothered by what I was learning, and on top of that, confused. It unsettled me to be told by my professor and by my textbook that a key part of who I am as a female was partly biological, mostly socially constructed, and anything but intrinsic.
My generation shares my confusion; it’s evident all around us. We say that we hate labels, yet label ourselves by our sexual orientation and “gender identity.” We believe that we live in an age of great personal freedom and tolerance, but we are sorely deceived. As a result, we are lost. And we are lost because we have forgotten where our true identity lies, the only identity that matters – our identity in Jesus Christ.
In Galatians 2:20, St. Paul writes: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.”
In the Nicene Creed, we recite every Sunday at Mass:
For us men and for our salvation
He came down from heaven,
And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
And became man.
For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
He suffered death and was buried,
And rose again on the third day
In accordance with the Scriptures.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became the Son of Man so that we might become members of the Body of Christ. He died for our transgressions and rose again so that we might find our identity in Him, and nowhere else.
The United Nations supports gender theory and the enslavement of our vices, and they do so in the name of freedom and equality, and in the name of “human rights.” By all means, we should fight for the dignity of every person, as we are all made in the image and likeness of God, and as Christ calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But as we believe in Natural Law and objective Truth, we are able to say with conviction that gender theory does not dignify the human person.
As Pope Francis said, “Gender theory is the problem, not the solution…communion with God is reflected in the communion of the human couple and…the loss of faith in the heavenly Father generates division and conflict between men and women.”
Let us always remember that our identity lies, not in things of this world, but in Christ Jesus.
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