On Monday, the Vatican declared sex change surgery as a “grave violation of human dignity,” putting sexual mutilation on par with abortion and euthanasia as practices that reject God’s plan for human life.
The Vatican’s doctrine office issued “Infinite Dignity,” a 20-page declaration that has been in the works for five years. After substantial revision in recent months, it was approved March 25 by Pope Francis, who ordered its publication.
Pope Francis has made outreach to LGBTQ persons a hallmark of his papacy, but not to the point of changing Catholic doctrine to approve of “gender re-assignment surgery.” Francis’ message is that while trans people should be welcomed in the church, gender ideology should not be welcomed into Catholic doctrine.
In its most eagerly anticipated section, the Vatican repeated its rejection of “gender theory,” or the idea that one’s biological sex can change. It said God created man and woman as biologically different, separate beings, and said people must not tinker with that or try to “make oneself God.”
The section on gender theory follows:
Gender Theory
55. The Church wishes, first of all, “to reaffirm that every person, regardless of sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his or her dignity and treated with consideration, while ‘every sign of unjust discrimination’ is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.” . . .
56. At the same time, the Church highlights the definite critical issues present in gender theory. . . . Regrettably, in recent decades, attempts have been made to introduce new rights that are neither fully consistent with those originally defined nor always acceptable. They have led to instances of ideological colonization, in which gender theory plays a central role; the latter is extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal.”
57. Regarding gender theory, whose scientific coherence is the subject of considerable debate among experts, the Church recalls that human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God. This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes, apart from this fundamental truth that human life is a gift, amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God, entering into competition with the true God of love revealed to us in the Gospel.
58. Another prominent aspect of gender theory is that it intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference. This foundational difference is not only the greatest imaginable difference but is also the most beautiful and most powerful of them. In the male-female couple, this difference achieves the most marvelous of reciprocities. It thus becomes the source of that miracle that never ceases to surprise us: the arrival of new human beings in the world.
59. In this sense, respect for both one’s own body and that of others is crucial in light of the proliferation of claims to new rights advanced by gender theory. This ideology “envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family.” It thus becomes unacceptable that “some ideologies of this sort, which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised. It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.’” Therefore, all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected: “We cannot separate the masculine and the feminine from God’s work of creation, which is prior to all our decisions and experiences, and where biological elements exist which are impossible to ignore.” Only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in reciprocity can each person fully discover themselves, their dignity, and their identity.
While this is a rejection of gender theory, it is a bit mealy-mouthed and equivocating. I think the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which defends creational distinctions like the difference between Sabbath and Sunday as well as the distinction between male and female, should issue a much clearer and more robust statement rejecting gender theory.
First, any statement on gender ideology should point out the texts where Scripture tells us that God created us male and female, and that both male and female (but only male and female) are in the image of God. (Gen. 1:27; Gen. 5:1-2; Mat. 19:4-5) Second, it should be pointed out that gender ideology disconnects body and mind in a way that Adventist anthropology rejects. Third, it should be pointed out that physical reality tells us that there are only two sexes, that gender is and should be tied to biology, and that a person who believes he is of a gender that does not correspond to his biological reality is suffering from mental illness. Fourth, it should be pointed out that it is unhelpful and even cruel to indulge the mentally ill by pretending their delusions are real. Gender ideology is intensely evil, and this needs to be pointed out in any Christian statement on the topic.
The Vatican statement also condemns “gender re-assignment surgery” in the following language:
Sex Change
60. The dignity of the body cannot be considered inferior to that of the person as such. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expressly invites us to recognize that “the human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God.’” Such a truth deserves to be remembered, especially when it comes to sex change, for humans are inseparably composed of both body and soul. . . . Moreover, the body participates in that dignity as it is endowed with personal meanings, particularly in its sexed condition. It is in the body that each person recognizes himself or herself as generated by others, and it is through their bodies that men and women can establish a loving relationship capable of generating other persons. Teaching about the need to respect the natural order of the human person, Pope Francis affirmed that “creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.” It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception. This is not to exclude the possibility that a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities. However, in this case, such a medical procedure would not constitute a sex change in the sense intended here.
This equivocating statement does place a dark cloud over the practice of sex change surgery but, again, I think we as Seventh-day Adventists can do a lot better. This statement does not even mention the use of puberty blocking drugs on minor children, and the perverse economic incentives in the medical profession (and the hospital business) to keep doing these unethical surgeries.
A good statement on this topic should point out that it is evil to make permanent alterations to the body God has given us based upon mental unease or dysphoria that is often transitory. Let us be clear: it is unbelievably cruel and satanic to make permanent changes to a child’s body, either through drugs or surgery, when the overwhelming majority of cases of childhood gender dysphoria will naturally resolve by early adulthood.
The Vatican’s real condemnation of gender theory and sex change surgery is not in the language used, but in the fact that these have been placed on a list with war, poverty, violence against women, human trafficking, sexual abuse, and abortion.
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Gen. 19:4-5