The following is a comment sent by a Loyola Marymount student with my responses interspersed. Original comment can be found here in the comment section:
https://onemadmomblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/loyola-marymount-and-the-thought-police/
Oh buddy…
So here I am, a student at lmu…and I read this…
I don’t know where you come from, but this is utter nonsense…let’s break it down shalt we?
First off and formost…and let’s just get it out of the way as it needs to be addressed.
The people of the lgbt community are still just people, and ask and demand for equality and respect like an one else.
For someone to say I don’t believe in your gender, does not make it so. I dont believe in war, yet here we are doing it perpetually in the name of oh so many fruitless ideals…
Is this really what they teach at Jesuit schools these days? You’ve completely proven my point about them. Catholicism is kind of overlooked there.
So, in response, we owe each and every individual on this planet respect as a child of God. This doesn’t we mean we agree with every single ridiculous notion they proffer. If you were to ask any devout Catholic if people who want to label themselves with the alphabet are beautifully and wonderfully made, we would answer yes. Sadly, we realize that better than they. Whether or not we believe in something does not change its reality.
For someone to say “Hey, there are only two genders!” is science as God made it. It’s not some fundamentalist notion. It’s hard, empirical science. It’s in DNA. There are x and y chromosomes and they unite to make something wondrously unique and beautiful. It doesn’t change. It’s not fluid depending on your notion. It’s a reality that cannot be changed at its core, no matter how people try. Why people constantly try and rail against God’s creation is beyond me and it’s REALLY beyond me how this notion can be so prevalent at a Catholic school.
I digress…
This person ( who has had polarizing issues in the past) has not evolved with rest of the world. Is it hate crime to say you essentially don’t exist…
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this bleeding heart cry. Nobody is saying somebody didn’t exist. It’s just silly to keep repeating this ad naseaum. It’s a red-herring. It makes a heart wrenching tale which is completely inaccurate. Just because you disagree with someone (and this time it’s on the wonderful world of science that God created) doesn’t mean you don’t exist. It means someone is scientifically right and someone is scientifically wrong. And for Catholics, it means someone is morally right and someone is morally wrong.
Perhaps not, but we aren’t the deciders of that. The person who it is said to gets to make that judgement.
Clearly you have not read much of this blog. Yes, there is actually a tangible reality. It does exist and we can decide whether or not something is in keeping with this. We can also judge (oh it’s such a mean ol’ word). Can we judge someone’s immortal soul? Nope. There are things, like culpability, that are beyond our purview but can we morally and in good conscience judge peoples’ actions? Absolutely. If anyone tells you otherwise, run far, far away because this is anything but Catholic. We should be using our judgment all day long.
There was even a conversation about this incident, and there was still hate issues about it.
If I tell my child that the stove is hot and they shouldn’t touch it, is that hate? Try to move beyond the touchy-feely crud spewed in the world today and realize that truth is the loving way to go.
To trash the school for liberal indoctrination is a fallacy. Our conerstone is the promotion of social justice through the world.
You have to know justice before you can actually promote it. Justice isn’t running round telling people fanciful tales to make them feel better. The catechism is a beautiful thing. Let’s look at it, shall we?
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
1928 Society ensures social justice when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, according to their nature and their vocation. Social justice is linked to the common good and the exercise of authority.
According to their nature and vocation. What does that mean in the eyes of the Church? Well, let’s look at nature. That’s really what’s being twisted at good old LMU.
I. “BODY AND SOUL BUT TRULY ONE”
362 The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that “then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”229 Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.
363 In Sacred Scripture the term “soul” often refers to human life or the entire human person.230 But “soul” also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him,231 that by which he is most especially in God’s image: “soul” signifies the spiritual principle in man.
364 The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:232
Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. 233
365 The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body:234 i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.
366 The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God – it is not “produced” by the parents – and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.235
367 Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people “wholly”, with “spirit and soul and body” kept sound and blameless at the Lord’s coming.236 The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul.237 “Spirit” signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God.238
368 The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense of the depths of one’s being, where the person decides for or against God.239
Sadly, sadly, sadly, people are trying to separate and change their natures. I have to tell you, my young LMU student, that the very next line is probably going to confuse you. If you really just stop and give it a read, you will hopefully see the beauty in what’s been lost at LMU for far too long:
* III. “MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM“
Equality and difference willed by God
369 Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. “Being man” or “being woman” is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator.240 Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity “in the image of God”. In their “being-man” and “being-woman”, they reflect the Creator’s wisdom and goodness.
You see, the dignity comes from God, it is not something we invented. God knew what he was doing. Do you doubt that?
Respect should be given to all people lgbt or not, religous or not, bible thumper fundementalist, or atheists like myself.
Oh, so you do doubt that! LOL! Ok, this makes things a bit more sense now. I’ve already dealt with the difference between respect due for the dignity of the human person vs. the respect due for the silly notions of people. I can see that you do not understand Catholicism, which is really sad considering the fact that you attend a Catholic school. I don’t expect everyone attending a Catholic school to be Catholic and I welcome those that are not. That said, I do expect a Catholic school to teach Catholicism or drop their pretenses. That’s why Catholic schools exist and, believe it or not, my young atheist, there are Catholic teachings on that. I would think that, just logically, you and your supposed logic-based non-religion could see that small sensibility.
When you create a dialog that undermines the identity of a person, you treat them like a second class citizen…it’s simply wrong,and the lmu community will rise up against hate rehtoric and hyperbole. Because it’s the right thing to do.
Please read this about 10 times. The only person undermining the identity of a person was the complainant. The staff member was the one acknowledging and teaching about the true nature of the complainant. It’s kind of silly to think that when a faculty member takes the time out to engage the students in conversation about the reality of science and the Catholic teachings surrounding it,they are somehow perceived as the one who is treating someone like a second-class citizen. You know how people treat other people like second-class citizens? They ignore them. This faculty member chose not to ignore them, but to explain Catholicism to them like these young students were actually thinking beings with a thought in their head. Clearly she was wrong but she made the attempt to treat them with REAL respect and dignity.
It’s not silencing or brainwashing or Satan’s liberal logic or whatever you want to call it…
Yeah, it kind of is.
It’s about respect. And that person was disrespectful to my lgbt brothers and sisters…and yes he can say it, but that doesn’t mean his opinion will be well received.
Why was “that person” disrespectful? Because she presented and opinion contrary to someone else’s? Please. This is what a snowflake society we’ve become. And, just to ask, by the way, have you actually read the account of the faculty member in question? Really didn’t sound like she went in guns a-blazing. She did run down the corridors yelling “Abomination!” Geez! Even I wouldn’t think that helpful. She had a conversation. How about the respect for freedom of religion and free speech?
I stand with equality.
Funny because you don’t seem to think that the faculty member in question has an equal say. Don’t you think Catholic morality should actually be seen as a little more than equal at a Catholic school? It wasn’t a Jewish, atheist, or pan-whatever school. It was a Catholic school.
I stand for minorities,
Um, it sounds like this poor woman is a minority. The BIRT (Bias Incident Response Team aka Thought Police) probably took care of the rest of those pesky Catholics who actually follow the teachings of the Church. Really? Have you read 1984? You might want to pick up a copy.
I stand for lgbt, and against rehtoric and hyperbole that make people feel like less than they are.
LOL! As long as they agree with you! Don’t you think for a moment, using your Spock-like, atheist logic, that this woman was made to feel like less than she was? I mean, gosh, BIRT was called in. She’s being investigated by the police for having a different opinion and her job is threatened. She must be evil! Talk about hyperbole! This whole incident was hyperbolic.
Can you say the same?
The real question is, would I want to say the same? Do I stand for LGBTQWERG…? Of course not. I stand for reality and the nature God created, like faithful Catholics do. Men and women are fearfully and wonderfully made and are called to (back to the Catechism) embrace their nature and vocation. It’s called Truth. Only there will we find true love, dignity and respect. Outside of that is a cruel hoax which many people will find out about way too late.