Sarah, in today’s Old Testament reading, has yet to give birth to a child. She is judged by the society surrounding her as cursed by God. God is believed to be inflicting this suffering upon her for some sin. Sarah suffers deep shame as a result.
That Sarah is yet to give birth to a child refers to her female sex. Sex means her biological and physiological characteristics (breasts, ovaries and uterus for reproductive organs, XX chromosomes, and hormone levels of estrogen, progesterone). Sarah’s husband Abraham is of the male sex (penis, testes, XY chromosomes, and hormone levels of testosterone). That Sarah’s childlessness is judged a sin and she suffers shame because of it, refers to gender. Gender means “socially constructed characteristics… (being) taught appropriate norms and behaviors.” To “not fit established gender norms (is to) face stigma, discriminatory practices or social exclusion.” Gender as a social construct is related to the dualities of masculinity and femininity. The dualities were constructed long ago by Militarism, a religion invented by War Lords. War Lords, who did not give life, claimed the right to take life. For vanquishing opponents, the ungodly, they imagined themselves to be god. War Lords were not genuinely god. They were genuinely human. In their self aggrandizement, they constructed society around their invented dualities of godliness and ungodliness, goodness and badness, heaven and earth, honor and shame, as well as masculine and feminine. The latter having dualistic offspring like dominates-submits, abuses-vulnerable, violates-violated, aggressive-passive, lustful-virginal, savior-saved. Such is the dualistic society Abraham constructs that honors him and shames Sarah. Gender as Militarism’s social construct harmful to human beings is ancient and is still operative. War Lords target challengers to that construct with ridicule unto threats and violence. Yet challengers persist so as to co-create a society based on equality, oneness – qualities opposed by the War Lord religion dominating us with its duality. Duality is oppositional, for example, masculine and feminine. It is not to be confused with binary which simply means two. The binary identification is not a judgment, just a state of being that is distinguished from another state of being. Binary may be felt as a limitation of options and perceived as bad though neither of the two things themselves exist as bad. It is possible there are social constructs that are unnecessarily binary and stifle creativity that can open us to alternatives. Alternatives are being expressed in language, for example job titles. Some people think male and female pronouns are binary or even bad and need alternatives. They may be unlikely to change soon. As it is unlikely the identification of male and female will change. In 99.95% to 99.98% of all births, distinct male or female genitalia are observed, with some asserting the observable male to female distinction occurs only 99% of the time. “Ambiguous genitalia (is) rare.” For this reason, as well as noninvasive prenatal testing, the alternative phrase ‘sex assigned at birth’ may not replace ‘sex recorded at birth.’ As yet, no alternative or third sex organs have been discovered and thus male-female remains a binary. Pew Research reports approximately 1 million individuals identify as nonbinary. Currently, 1.6 million people 13 years and older identify as transgender (o.5%). Some seek medical assistance to aid their identification. Hopefully all are experiencing their genuine self. It would be sad if an identification was based on an internalization of Militarism’s toxic masculine and toxic feminine gender duality. How unfortunate if people, youth especially, were changing themselves physically or emotionally or spiritually to conform themselves to Militarism’s dominating dualities. It would mean we are internalizing shame and feeling the need to change ourselves to conform to the dualistic society Militarism constructs. We can instead live as genuine human beings.
“There is something in every one of you that waits, that listens for the genuine in yourself… and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.” “Cultivate the discipline of listening to the sound of the genuine in yourself.” “Now if I hear the sound of the genuine in me and if you hear the sound of the genuine in you it is possible for me to go down in [my spirit] and come up in [your spirit]… and we will become one because the sound of the genuine makes the same music.” (Howard Thurman)
Prayer: Spirit of Life, keep us in communion with one another.
Question: Who and what helps me be genuinely human?
July 17, 2022 Gospel Luke 10:38-42 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time