{"id":16665,"date":"2018-04-18T09:52:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T13:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16665"},"modified":"2018-04-18T09:59:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T13:59:48","slug":"gender-and-sexuality-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16665","title":{"rendered":"Gender and Sexuality: Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Gender and Sexuality: Week 1<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/the-essential-self-and-the-passing-self-2018-04-18\/\"><strong>The Essential Self and the Passing Self<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\n<strong>Wednesday, April 18, 2018<\/strong><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DXXxLwxfo0U\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nAs I shared in my meditations on human bodies the last two weeks, Western Christianity owes our separation of body and spirit to Greek philosophy much more than to Scripture or Jesus. Social psychologist Diarmuid O\u2019Murchu suggests that Plato and Aristotle are primarily responsible for our binary view of gender and the idea that gender and sexuality are \u201cbiologically ingrained, and determined by God, the creator of the natural order.\u201d Over the next few days, I\u2019ll summarize some of O\u2019Murchu\u2019s helpful insights from his recent book, <em>Incarnation: A New Evolutionary Threshold<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Murchu outlines the \u201cnorms\u201d with which we are all no doubt familiar:<\/p>\n<p>Men are supposed to be rational, assertive, tough, and focused on material success; women are supposed to be more emotional, modest, tender, and concerned with a nurturing quality of life. According to that same philosophy, the male is superior in strength, wisdom and fertility; the woman provides the passive, receptive incubator to fertilize the male seed and assure the continuance of the human race. [1]<\/p>\n<p>This was not always the case. Many ancient peoples treated men and women in a much more egalitarian way. Our current binary roles can be traced back to the Agricultural Revolution. These gender stereotypes are socially constructed behaviors and attributes that differ by culture, rather than absolute truths or tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition. [2] Many cultures identify a third or even fourth gender. The Bible often refers to \u201ceunuchs\u201d (see Isaiah 56:4-5 and Matthew 19:12, for instance) which may or may not have included people that today might identify as transgender, bisexual, intersex, gay, or lesbian.<\/p>\n<p>Modern scholars tell us, O\u2019Murchu writes, that \u201chow we experience ourselves as male or female is largely the result of learned conditioning.\u201d Our different biological features are \u201csecondary to our identity.\u201d Both sex and gender are \u201cfluid concepts that exist along a spectrum, rather than as fixed binaries determined by biology or genetic imprinting.\u201d [3] In spiritual terms, gender is an attribute of<\/p>\n<p>the \u201cfalse\u201d or passing self, and is thus <em>not one\u2019s essential identity in God<\/em>. The \u201cTrue Self\u201d or \u201cAnchored Self\u201d is beyond gender, which is probably the point Jesus is making when he says in heaven there is no marriage or giving in marriage (Luke 20:35).<\/p>\n<p>Several weeks ago, in the Daily Meditations, I explored Evolution, a concept many Christians tend to dismiss or fight. [4] A view of Creation as static and unchanging has not served us well when it comes to our own bodies and the way we treat others. An evolving universe gives us the freedom to be surprised and change our minds when reality doesn\u2019t match our preconceived notions. It allows growth and change.<\/p>\n<p>Aristotle believed humans were superior to all other life forms because we are capable of rational\u2014dualistic\u2014thinking. And he thought that men had stronger rational abilities than women, thereby making men more important and powerful. Yet rational thinking is not the only or even best way of knowing! While it\u2019s certainly helpful, the critical mind can\u2019t fully comprehend the most meaningful issues in life like God, love, sexuality, grace, suffering, and death. For that we need contemplative, nondual consciousness, which is much more like intuitive knowing.<\/p>\n<p>As we become more aware that arbitrary categories of male and female don\u2019t fully describe human experience (for example, that of transgender people), we must look at reality with more compassionate eyes. The Gospel skips over gender and sexuality as arbitrary and passing. Gender is not the essential self, but merely a pathway to wholeness. The Gospel says <em>I am a precious, beautiful being created in God\u2019s image and likeness\u2014and we all share this identity equally and in common<\/em>. This totally levels the playing field of humanity. This is why I cannot give up on Christianity.<\/p>\n<p>_________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>April 18, 2018<br \/>\n<strong>Called by Name<\/strong><br \/>\nColin Harbach (Cumbria, England)<\/p>\n<p><strong>I have called you by name; you are mine. &#8211; Isaiah 43:1 (CEB)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The day\u2019s news brought another image of refugees. I had seen many scenes of distraught people huddled together on their perilous sea journey or their long march to safety and new life. This time it was an image of a crowd pressing against an impassable razor-wire fence. Then, over the commentator\u2019s voice, I heard someone call, \u201cZaria!\u201d Suddenly I no longer saw a crowd but a group of individual people. Like Zaria, each one has his own personal story, her own experiences of horror, fear, loss, pain, and sacrifice, as well as hopes, faith, and loves.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus taught us that while God\u2019s love is for the whole world, it is also very personal. In today\u2019s reading Jesus likened God to the perfect shepherd who knows each sheep by name. God will suffer for and with each one to ensure no one is lost.<\/p>\n<p>From that day on, my prayers have changed. I no longer pray, \u201cLord, help refugees,\u201d but \u201cLord, take into your loving care Zaria and every other refugee and asylum-seeker like her.\u201d No longer do my prayers come from impersonal concern, but from intimate compassion \u2014 closer to the way God loves<br \/>\neach of us.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Prayer<br \/>\nLord Jesus Christ, give us your compassion to share the pain and joy of individuals in a crowded world of injustice until all our prayers are acts of love. Amen.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gender and Sexuality: Week 1 The Essential Self and the Passing Self Wednesday, April 18, 2018 As I shared in my meditations on human bodies the last two weeks, Western Christianity owes our separation of body and spirit to Greek philosophy much more than to Scripture or Jesus. Social psychologist Diarmuid O\u2019Murchu suggests that Plato [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16667,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16665\/revisions\/16667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}