Why biological truth is the key to our new politics
January 21, 2025
U.S. President Donald
Trump signs documents in the Oval Office at the White House on Inauguration Day
in Washington Jan. 20, 2025. He signed a series of executive orders including
on immigration, birthright citizenship and climate. Trump also signed an
executive order restoring biological truth of two sexes to the federal
government. (OSV News photo/Carlos Barria, Reuters)
One Sunday morning, two of my uncles – then teenagers – were
waiting for my grandmother to head to Mass. They stood in the garage and
decided to do a “Three Stooges” style slapstick routine. The one brandished a
shovel and promised to swing it hard but to stop it just in front of his
brother’s face.
He didn’t stop the shovel.
Bleeding profusely, they tried to cover the injury, knowing
my grandmother would be furious to miss church. “Don’t tell Mom,” the one
whimpered…as if she wouldn’t figure it out from the evident need for stitches.
Reality had quite literally hit them in the face.
President Trump’s recent executive order reaffirming
the immutable reality of biological sex (“Defending Women From Gender
Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government”)
has reignited today’s most important cultural conversation. That conversation —
the conversation about the very meaning of what human beings are: embodied males
and females — is not some sideshow of the new Trump agenda.
It is center stage.
Whether President Trump intended it precisely this way or
not, clarifying the reality
of male and female is not just a matter of one policy among many; it
is the necessary foundation for all discussions about life, family and the
common good.
‘Male and female He created them’
As Catholics, we affirm that this order aligns with
fundamental truths about the human person revealed in natural law and Sacred
Scripture. At the core of Catholic teaching is the belief that God created
human beings in his image, “male and female He created them” (Gn 1:27). This
duality of man and woman is not a social construct or an arbitrary distinction,
but rather a reflection of divine design.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the
differences between male and female are ordered toward the complementarity of
persons and the flourishing of family life (2333). Any attempt to redefine or
blur these distinctions undermines human
dignity and confuses our God-given purpose.
President Trump’s executive order confronts the cultural confusion
that has resulted from the rise of gender ideology — an ideology that, as Pope Francis has
warned, seeks to erase the natural distinctions between man and woman in favor
of a subjective, self-defined identity. In his encyclical Laudato
Si’, Pope Francis cautions against “gender ideology” as an attempt to
impose a “technological mindset” on human identity, detached from biological
and spiritual realities. The Holy Father calls on the faithful to accept the
body as a gift from God and resist cultural movements that sow confusion and
alienation.
The executive order highlights the practical implications of
ignoring biological reality. When gender ideology is imposed upon society,
women and girls are the first to suffer. The erosion of sex-based protections
threatens their safety in shelters, their privacy in intimate spaces, and
fairness in athletic
competition.
Beyond issues of privacy and fairness, the question of sex
and gender has far-reaching consequences for broader societal discussions.
A culture in desperate need of fundamental truth
When we reject the objective truth of male and female, it
becomes impossible to have meaningful conversations about so many things,
including national security and military risks in time of war, but most
fundamentally, marriage, family policy and even the sanctity of life. If the
fundamental identity of the human person is left to subjective interpretation,
how can we defend the right to life of
the unborn or argue that assisted suicide is the rejection of the value of the
life one has? How can we advocate for family structures rooted in the
complementarity of mother and father? Without acknowledging reality, the
threads of the social fabric that binds us unravel.
Critics of the order will undoubtedly argue that it excludes
or marginalizes individuals who experience gender
dysphoria.
However, the executive order, while a legal affirmation of
biological reality, presents an opportunity for the Church to accompany those
struggling with gender identity issues, offering them pastoral care rooted in
truth and love. After all, authentic compassion never requires someone to
abandon the truth.
Today, as relativism reigns and identity politics obscure
reality, clarity on this fundamental issue is a welcome sight. A culture of
life and a civilization of love must be built on the firm foundation of truth —
beginning with the truth of who we are as male and female, created in God’s
image.
Recognizing that the culture has taken a hard hit against
reality and needs a bit of crisis management is a first step to coming to terms
with unchangeable, objective truths.
https://www.oursundayvisitor.com/why-biological-truth-is-the-key-to-our-new-politics/
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