The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Gender-Neutral at Notre Dame?

Posted on | April 5, 2016 | 63 Comments

 

The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic school, most famous for its Fighting Irish football team and, uh, “gender-nonconforming people.”

Gender-neutral Bathrooms
Easy access to a bathroom without fear of harassment is a privilege that is often taken for granted. Transgender, genderqueer, and other gender-nonconforming people often feel uncomfortable and are subject to harassment and violence when using male- or female-specific bathrooms.
If you know of a gender-neutral bathroom on or around campus, let us know by filling out a brief Bathroom Survey so that we can make Notre Dame a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.
The most recent list of gender-neutral bathrooms can be found here.

About 8,500 students attend Notre Dame, where the tuition is $47,929 a year. How many Notre Dame students are “gender-nonconforming people”? Do these students not have parents or high-school guidance counselors who can advise them that, you know, if you want to be “gender-nonconforming,” maybe Notre Dame isn’t the best place to do it?

Alas, the advocates of “progress,” “equality” and “diversity” insist that every institution must be equally diverse and progressive, including Catholic universities. Here’s a headline from December 2012:

Notre Dame concludes comprehensive review
of GLBTQ student services and support
After a five-month review process, University of Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., has accepted recommendations from the Office of Student Affairs to expand and enhance the support of and services for students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ), including the creation of a University recognized student organization.
The recommendations are part of a comprehensive pastoral plan that includes an array of initiatives grounded in the Catholic mission of the University.
“I appreciate the careful and thoughtful work of this review that considered both the needs of our students and the teachings of the Catholic Church,” Father Jenkins said. “As articulated in the University’s ‘Spirit of Inclusion’ statement, Notre Dame’s goal remains to create and sustain a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students, and I am confident that this multi-faceted, pastoral approach represents the next step in advancing our efforts toward this aspiration for our GLBTQ students.”
The plan, titled “Beloved Friends and Allies: A Pastoral Plan for the Support and Holistic Development of GLBTQ and Heterosexual Students at the University of Notre Dame,” was crafted by members of the Student Affairs staff. It follows a study of Catholic doctrine and teaching, listening sessions with Notre Dame students and an examination of student clubs and structures at other Catholic universities. Rooted in Catholic teaching on sexuality and gender identity, the plan emphasizes the “respect, compassion and sensitivity” due to all, and calls all Notre Dame students to cultivate chaste relationships and to support one another in a community of friendship. A document detailing the review process, relevant Church teaching and specifics of the implementation of the plan is available online at friendsandallies.nd.edu.
After requests last spring by Notre Dame students for a gay-straight alliance or similar club, Father Jenkins asked for a review of the breadth of structures and support for students who identify as GLBTQ. While respectful of the education and awareness work of the University’s Core Council for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Questioning Students, students voiced a desire for services that provide greater community and support.

You see that once Notre Dame decided to appease the forces of “progress,” “equality” and “diversity,” complete surrender was inevitable.

The “Gender Relations Center” at Notre Dame now offers a plethora of services to the, uh, “gender-nonconforming” community:

 

LGBTQ 101
LGBTQ 101 is a two-hour long interactive presentation, designed to provide participants with a basic understanding and greater awareness of issues faced by students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) within today’s culture. This presentation includes an overview of the Catholic church’s teachings on sexual orientation, definitions related to sexual orientation and gender identity, introduction to the concepts of homophobia and heterosexism, as well as common myths and misunderstandings about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities. Please contact Maureen McKenney, Assistant Director for LGBTQ Student Concerns (mmckenney@nd.edu), for more information or to sign up for a session.

 

PRISMND
Founded in 2013, PrismND is Notre Dame’s first official student organization dedicated to serving the LGBTQ and ally community on campus. The organization provides programming dedicated to fostering the development of the community, and raising awareness on campus as to the community’s needs.
In the Notre Dame family, intolerance against some of us intolerance against all of us.

Certainly, alumni of Notre Dame University and parents of prospective students will want to learn more about the inclusive agenda of diversity, equality and progress at the university’s “Gender Relations Center.”

 

The rhetoric of “Beloved Friends and Allies” cannot disguise what actually happened, i.e., Notre Dame’s abject surrender to the totalitarian demands of an anti-Christian movement which is ruthlessly determined to destroy the Church, insofar as it cannot control the Church. When you see what “The Radical Theology of Feminism” has done to the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), don’t you realize that if the Church refuses to cling to truth, and instead becomes “conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2), eventually there will be no Church at all? My Catholic friend Pete Da Tech Guy had a big “I told you so” at the expense of the Lutherans, but what does Notre Dame’s surrender portend?

What we are witnessing in the 21st century is the revival of an ancient heresy, a postmodern version of Gnosticism. The theologian Peter Jones first described this weird phenomenon in his 1992 book The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An Old Heresy for the New Age. Jones further explored the neo-Gnostic trend in his 1997 book Spirit Wars: Pagan Revival in Christian America. This steady drift toward syncretism suggests that many Christian “leaders” and institutions are now “giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Timothy 4:1-3 KJV).

“Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself . . . she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786

If leaders of Christian institutions will not stand up for the truth now, eventually Christians will no longer have liberty to speak the truth.





 


Category: Catholics, Education, Gays, Religion, Sex Trouble

Comments

63 Responses to “Gender-Neutral at Notre Dame?”

  1. Linda
    April 5th, 2016 @ 6:57 pm

    “the position on election held by Luther, Calvin and Augustine were aberrant.” um okay that is a new opinion in my experience. “Armenian theology holds nothing like that.” okay, but what does it actually hold? Asked as a sister in Christ.

  2. Quartermaster
    April 5th, 2016 @ 6:59 pm

    There is a difference between temptation and the act. Temptation is not sin, the act is. The act is what makes you what you are. The larger sin is actually adultery, which is sex with anyone not your spouse. The Greek word porneia was translated as “fornication” by the King James translators, but it is actually a lifestyle of adultery.

    One should take care to realize that our legal definitions do not agree with scripture.

    Homosexuality is a condition to the point it is a mental illness. It is actually one that goes to the soul. But the sin, however, is not reckoned until you yield to the temptation and act out. The larger condition is actual one that afflicts every person that has not been regenerated. After regeneration, the temptation is external and not internal. The habit of sin, however, can be hard to break.

  3. Linda
    April 5th, 2016 @ 7:04 pm

    “there is a difference between the temptation and the act.” How do you reconcile that statement with scripture: “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

  4. Quartermaster
    April 5th, 2016 @ 7:07 pm

    You need to give a bit more thought to what you are saying. If God does not remove our sins, there is no salvation. Nor is there a need for 1 John 1:9, nor most of 1 John chapter 2.

    Another issue is the matter of sanctification. Santification comes in two “brands:” Positional and practical. Positional is obtained at regeneration. Practical is a lifelong effort with the believer working under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to purify themselves. James deal with the issue in 4:8.

  5. Quartermaster
    April 5th, 2016 @ 7:08 pm

    James 2.

  6. Quartermaster
    April 5th, 2016 @ 7:11 pm

    The lust is the sin in itself. That is not mere temptation.

  7. Quartermaster
    April 5th, 2016 @ 7:16 pm

    That’s a story that is not suitable for here. Not because it’s nasty or anything, but it’s simply too long. The difference on election alone is that in Augustinianism the elect were chosen in eternity past and their salvation was decreed at that point. There is nothing they can do, or not so, that will change that a bit. Scripturally, salvation is available to all, now, although God knows who will respond to the gospel. The difference, in a nutshell, is the lack of decree. All those “in Christ” will be saved, not those chosen in eternity past.

    That is a thumbnail sketch that simplifies the situation. Frankly, I have no idea why you would never have heard what I posted earlier as it has been out in public for 2 millennia. It is the position of the early Church. Augustine was not writing until the 4th and 5th centuries and was deeply influenced by Origin, Manicheeism and Neo-Platonism.

  8. DeadMessenger
    April 5th, 2016 @ 10:06 pm

    In my case, that time is now.

  9. Squid Hunt ?Patriarch
    April 6th, 2016 @ 6:11 am

    Yes, but the expectation that I am going to keep on sinning and that’s just the way it is is wrong. And that’s what Romans 6 says. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? It is a tight rope to walk keeping it faith and not works, no doubt. But John said, “These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

  10. Squid Hunt ?Patriarch
    April 6th, 2016 @ 6:15 am

    When we get saved, we are crucified with Christ. We die for our sins through him. And then we are resurrected with Christ. He gives us his Spirit inside of us. It seals the inward man. John 8 says we are free from sin. In deed.

  11. Steve Skubinna
    April 6th, 2016 @ 10:04 am

    Crom! So he is!

  12. paykasa bozdurma
    April 7th, 2016 @ 5:19 am

    Just want to.. point out that I think .I edited after you upvoted. Don’t want you to think I’m being tricksy…

  13. ‘Gender’ Madness: How Far It’s Gone : The Other McCain
    April 17th, 2016 @ 1:08 pm

    […] April 5: Gender-Neutral at Notre Dame? […]