The Gnostic Roots of Transgenderism
Ideas have consequences, and few more dire than the idea of that one can transition one’s gender. The notion that our bodies may be manipulated and transformed at will has its roots in the early heresy of Gnostic dualism, already evident in the time of the Apostles. The Gnostics taught that we are really spirits, created by the ‘good’ god, while our bodies, made of malleable and messy matter, are the stuff of the ‘bad’ god. The end goal of life is to cast off our bodies, and so return to our original spiritual state. In the meantime, the body is a tool – to be used, and abused as we see fit.
We may not quite put things this way, but the underlying concept is the same, that who we ‘really’ are is not our bodies, but rather some sort of interior ‘ego’, or ‘I’ that constitutes our true self. It is incumbent that the body must conform to that true self.
Take tattoos, which many Catholics accept as morally neutral, if not a valid form of self-expression. But what are they, except irrevocable images carved into our skin, deliberate wounds which turn into scars, in turn filled with ink? Whether they are religious or not is beside the point.
Cosmetic surgery is more or less on a similar continuum, from breast reduction to silicon implants to nose jobs.
Surgical gender ‘transitioning’ is the last and most tragic stage in this process, mutilation ad absurdam, which Bethel McGrew describes quite rightly as a monstrous mutilation. Jordan Peterson makes a convincing appeal that these Mengelian medical practitioners, blocking puberty with hormones, and lopping off healthy breasts, penises, and testes, should not only have their licences revoked, and be thrown in jail to reflect and repent, along with those who aid and abet this horror. If there is a sane future to history, we will look back on this practice, especially inflicted on children, as a crime against humanity.
Scroll through this reflection, and the twitter post contained therein, and the reader may not be surprised that all too often the end point of these disfigured and maimed victims is suicide. (Caveat: It is tough reading, and not for the squeamish).
How did we get to this point? Well, like Hemingway said of going bankrupt, it happened gradually, then suddenly. Aristotle says that a slight error in the beginning, if not corrected, will lead to a very large one in the end. An inch or two off on those trucks painting median lines on the highway will soon have them in the forest, unless they realize, and correct, their error.
What’s wrong here, from the inch to the mile, is thinking that we have the right to do whatever we want with our bodies. There is some freedom for rightly ordered self-expression, to wear this or that, to shape our bodies with exercise, to style our hair, (even if long hair be degrading to a man, as well as a woman’s glory – at least so sayeth Saint Paul (I Corinthians 11:1)
If we travel down the road of mutilation permanently altering our bodies for no therapeutic reason, we begin the road to where we are now. We may soon see the call for transhumanist implants and surgeries, digital ‘tattoos’ with all of our financial and biometric data; as well as ‘silicone chips inside our heads’, as the Boomtown Rats sang decades ago.
In order to halt the continued degradation of the human, we need to recapture what it means, in a truly integrated way, to be a person, made in God’s divine image, body and soul, male and female. Our bodies are not just malleable canvasses or tools, but temples of the Holy Spirit, to be kept undefiled, as a sign not only of what we are, but of what we are to become in the glory yet to be revealed.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
A Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop
As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]Continue reading→
Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk
(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk
As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Pope Leo and a Rosary for Peace
Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray, to join in intercession with the[…]Continue reading→
Payette’s Payout
I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette – engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen’s representative in Canada – which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created a ‘toxic work environment’, with allegations[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→