This is so good. I love it. I will repost it. It is a longer, more thorough explanation of what I was trying to say in a short (and not as serudite) version. And you write so well! Thank you, my friend.
Wow. This is really impressive in its thoroughness and insight. Thank you Andrew.
So many takeaways and gems, but I’ll highlight the following:
“…by blandly and uncritically saying there are only two genders, each is connected to one sexual identity, gender dysphoria is sin and any deviation from the above is satanic, some youngsters will be lost to the ether – not because beliefs they hold are necessarily correct, but because they were not heard. It might only be one of the sheep – but we know how Jesus feels about that (Luke 15:4–6). Any sense of religious correctness one might feel making such assertions is surely drowned out by the sense of alienation felt by our youngsters who feel like they cannot even safely speak about the dynamics of their interior world.”
There is the underlying need of equipping to discern, understand and live the faith illustrated by people who seemed to ‘blindly’ follow Harris’ book in the first instance, but that precipitated by the historical absence of safe, healthy, mature spaces to dialogue and examine personal and communal sexual ethics and experience within the faith context.
Anyway, I can’t say it better than it’s already been said here, but this piece offers a needed challenge to develop the character, knowledge and compassion required to engage in what appears to be a dialogue that intersects generations, identities, experiences etc.
This is so good. I love it. I will repost it. It is a longer, more thorough explanation of what I was trying to say in a short (and not as serudite) version. And you write so well! Thank you, my friend.
Thanks so much Nadine! Keep doing what you're doing!
Wow. This is really impressive in its thoroughness and insight. Thank you Andrew.
So many takeaways and gems, but I’ll highlight the following:
“…by blandly and uncritically saying there are only two genders, each is connected to one sexual identity, gender dysphoria is sin and any deviation from the above is satanic, some youngsters will be lost to the ether – not because beliefs they hold are necessarily correct, but because they were not heard. It might only be one of the sheep – but we know how Jesus feels about that (Luke 15:4–6). Any sense of religious correctness one might feel making such assertions is surely drowned out by the sense of alienation felt by our youngsters who feel like they cannot even safely speak about the dynamics of their interior world.”
There is the underlying need of equipping to discern, understand and live the faith illustrated by people who seemed to ‘blindly’ follow Harris’ book in the first instance, but that precipitated by the historical absence of safe, healthy, mature spaces to dialogue and examine personal and communal sexual ethics and experience within the faith context.
Anyway, I can’t say it better than it’s already been said here, but this piece offers a needed challenge to develop the character, knowledge and compassion required to engage in what appears to be a dialogue that intersects generations, identities, experiences etc.