Dear Christians: Practical Ways to be an Ally in 2017 America

Alright, peoples. The board is set; the pieces are moving. If you’re a person of good will, and I know most of you are, you need to get real serious about your commitment to your own values. It’s time to cash them in for some hard currency. Christ said: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me,” and:

 “Come, you that are blessed… for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” (Matthew 25:40, 34-36)

 This isn’t a matter of political ideology. It’s a matter of basic common humanity. I know I risk sounding alarmist — I’m not about to claim that the world is on the brink of collapse — only that this is not the best time to be a minority in the United States of America, and in many other parts of the world.

 Below are some basic things Christians can do to help minorities feel safe:

1.  Pray for change – but don’t stop there.
2. Have real messy human relationships with minority friends.
3. If you have a spare bedroom, be willing to put it to use.
4. If you can, signal to minority groups that you’re a safe resource.
5. Use your professional skills to help those in need.
6. Educate yourself.
7. Volunteer.
8. Use language respectfully, because it sets the tone for how a person will be treated.
9. Stand up to bullies, even if it inconveniences you (even if they’re your family).
10. Teach your children to stand up to bullies and defend others.
11. Make your churches welcome to any person who needs a warm environment – so make your churches warm.
12. Be the warm body that will stand or sit beside a friend. As in: sit yourself physically down next to a minority friend (in the pew – yes, in church) and help them deflect all those nasty stares they’re accustomed to.
13. Donate to initiatives that actively help minority groups. If not shelters and charities, then to law centers. We need good lawyers more than anyone else.
14. Publicly support us. Stop worrying about your social clout.
15. Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. This means, don’t expect to be given a ribbon for basic human decency. Thank you, really, but this isn’t about you. It’s just not.
16. In summary, practice what you preach.

“Transgender Catholics hope to build bridges in the Church” (news)

I was blessed to be interviewed for another cool article, this time by Crux Magazine following the RECon trans panel. Michael O’Loughlin wrote a very charitable piece and gave my co-panelist Mateo and I lots of space to share our thoughts

You can read the whole piece here: “Transgender Catholics hope to build bridges in the Church”

Interview with Dan Hitchens about transsexuality and Catholicism

Last month I was blessed to be interviewed by an excellent journalist, Dan Hitchens, about the theological and pastoral landscape of transsexuality in the Catholic Church. I was interviewed alongside two other dear Catholic trans women: my friend Aoife Assumpta Hart, and a fellow activist Jane Fae.

An article based on the interview was featured in the Catholic Herald. You can read the entire article here: What’s the truth about transsexuality? by Dan Hitchens.

“Call Me Caitlyn” – Commonweal (Link)

“Call Me Caitlyn” By J. Peter Nixon

The question as I see it is whether a person with a gender identity that is at variance with their chromosomal/physical gender necessarily violates the moral law if they choose to live according to their gender identity and (although this is a separate question) ultimately undergo gender reassignment surgery.

[…]

Perhaps the Church will come to recognize that a decision to pursue gender reassignment surgery need not be motivated by an understanding of gender that is incompatible with our theological anthropology.

Read the full article here.

 

 

Peter Kreeft on Sexed Souls

[Why is the notion of sexual souls] not only unfamiliar but shocking to so many people in our society? …

The first reason would be a reaction against what is wrongly seen as monosexual soul-stereotyping. A wholly male soul, whatever maleness means, or a wholly female soul, sounds unreal and oversimplified. But that is not what sexual souls implies. Rather, in every soul there is—to use Jungian terms—anima and animus, femaleness and maleness; just as in the body, one predominates but the other is also present. If the dominant sex of soul is not the same as that of the body, we have a sexual misfit, a candidate for a sex change operation of body or of soul, earthly or Heavenly. Perhaps Heaven supplies such changes just as it supplies all other needed forms of healing. In any case, the resurrection body perfectly expresses its soul, and since souls are innately sexual, that body will perfectly express its soul’s true sexual identity.

– Is There Sex in Heaven? 

   Peter Kreeft, Catholic philosopher and apologist