LGBTQIA: It’s the Taxonomy, Stupid*

“Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown us, we are not discouraged. Rather, we have renounced shameful, hidden things; not acting deceitfully or falsifying the word of God, but by the open declaration of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Cor. 4: 1-2)

It is long past time for a clarion call to faithful Catholics everywhere to take action and push back against the homosexualist agenda that has spun our Church in circles for decades. Mealy-mouthed men in all ranks of ecclesial authority have laid waste to morals and virtually obliterated a once-clearly taught and unambiguous doctrine. Such churchmen have also done unfathomable damage, in real time, to real human souls.

These are the too-high stakes, the unmeasurable price of silence and apathy. People are being gravely hurt, unnecessarily, because of the wily words of false prophets like New Ways Ministry, Dignity USA, Fortunate Families, Spiritual Friendship, and the pied piper Fr. James Martin. Homosexualist voices have many like-minded supporters entrenched in the “deep Church” who manipulate and control much of what now passes for acceptable Catholic doctrine and practice.

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The alarm has been sounded, and there is one fundamentally simple way to win this crucial campaign against one of the greatest evils in our time.

It’s the taxonomy, stupid.*

Desperation of Church and State
Here is what we need to know: the real engine under the hood of the homosexualist movement in both Church and culture is the false and subhuman system of classifying living, breathing men and women (and occasionally even dead ones) by their perceived feelings and desires. As a result, these feelings and desires become identities; the identities are treated as communities; the communities are given political recognition; the political groups wield power and influence; and this power and influence causes massive harm to Church and State.

The harm caused, by the way, is not some vague concept—it compromises and kills human souls. It must therefore be stopped.

We are now 150 years removed from the root cause of this harm. Nine people out of ten probably have no clue that the human race ever didn’t have a handy-dandy LGBTQIA-type taxonomy that conveniently puts everyone in the right box, with ALL boxes being equal and no box being more equal than another.

More significantly, probably ten people out of ten reading this may not be aware that the nineteenth-century root of this sexuality taxonomy actually had some sense to it, before it was twisted beyond recognition in the twentieth century.

Throwing Out Babies, Keeping the Bathwater
Let’s take a look-see at the original taxonomy of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. If I were in the field of psychology at this time, I’d see things through this lens.

First, there was only one kind of non-perverse “sexuality”—sexuality ordered toward procreation.

Next, because of a recent innovation in the taxonomy of perverse forms of sexual attractions and acts, this taxonomy now included a distinction between two types of perverse non-procreative “sexualities.”

One non-procreative perversion was, of course, homosexuality. But, surprise, surprise, the second such form of perverted sexuality was heterosexuality. Sexual desire between a man and a woman that was not open to procreation was considered perverse. 

Don’t believe me? Then please read the history books on this. In any case, this is a sane way to view things. It’s the Catholic way, remember? Although not all sin and all perversion is identical, of course, all sin is still perverse. And if sexual intercourse between a husband and wife is not open to procreation, it’s both sinful and perverse in its own manner.

This might be something worth remembering during this 50th-anniversary year of Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae. This encyclical held fast to the notion that, alongside true sexuality properly ordered toward procreation, there was a false and perverse non-procreative heterosexuality that needed to be condemned.

Caving with the Culture
What happened next? The early-twentieth-century birth control movement happened. Margaret Sanger happened. Marie Stopes happened in Great Britain. The push to normalize the perversion previously called heterosexuality happened. It took a few decades, but it succeeded. By the Roaring Twenties, heterosexuality was quickly shedding its previously “perverse” label. It supplanted procreative sexuality and became the new “normal.”

By the 1930s, Christianity began to cave in right along with the culture. Birth control (ahem … nineteenth-Century heterosexuality, that is) began to be permitted gradually in Protestant churches. The avalanche that followed brought the Catholic Church, in the early 1960s, under immense pressure to join in the Christian collapse.

But it didn’t. Well, at least not doctrinally. Practically speaking, great numbers of Catholics caved in at every level of the laity and at every clerical rank. Open and vitriolic dissent followed Humanae Vitae’s publication in 1968. And the Church has been reaping the whirlwind ever since.

The New Normal 2.0
Meanwhile, the early pioneers of the homosexualist movement were clearly taking notes, at least to some extent. The perversion of homosexuality certainly involved thornier legal and personal issues for anyone experiencing such attractions and acting on them. But the emerging script that would bring homosexuality out of the closet and center stage in the cultural arena was strangely similar to the narrative that normalized heterosexual perversion.

It shouldn’t be a big surprise. Once the “heterosexual community” had successfully severed any meaningful connection between sex and procreation, the comparatively much-smaller “homosexual community” could coalesce without ever having to expect much pushback from its newly liberated heterosexual counterpart.

Remember—the core reason that both groups were once viewed as “perverse” is that they were both non-procreative. There was ever only one consistent outcome to be expected: the non-procreative “heterosexualist” could never, ultimately, argue against the non-procreative homosexualist, unless he wanted to undermine his own newly minted social acceptance.

And the ‘A’ Is for…?
And with that, the floodgates began to open. What was “normal” was no longer determined by procreation. Instead, everything sex-related or sexual would now be driven exclusively by either feelings or desires. Procreation was merely an add-on for the “breeders” in the population. Now, God forbid that any such group be left out of the alphabet soup.

Fr. James Martin himself provides us with some anecdotal evidence on this point. The first edition of his flimsy homosexualist book titled Building a Bridge was guilty of an omission that was glaring to one reader. Martin referred to the “A” in LGBTQIA as representing “allies.” That is, until this one reader approached him at one of his talks to correct him. The “A” is supposed to stand for “asexual,” he was told. He listened. Now the second edition of his flimsy homosexualist book includes the designation “asexual” for the “A.”

Meanwhile, that lone reader feels significantly validated and affirmed by this inclusion. The world is now supposedly the better for it, too.

Redeeming Human Identity from the Subhuman
Homosexualists like Fr. James Martin now quite openly turn, not to the Church for their understanding of human nature, but to so-called reputable psychologists who insist that every last letter of the alphabet in the sexual taxonomy (and every letter yet to come) is wholly and completely a “normal” variation of human sexuality and/or “gender.” This form of open dissent (yes, Martin is a dissenter) from both authentic Christian anthropology and doctrine must be challenged and eradicated.

Please make no mistake. The LGBTQIA taxonomy is dehumanizing. It puts a man or a woman under a false label. Catholics with spines—or men with chests—simply cannot buckle under this perverse system. A false taxonomy neither educates nor liberates. Instead it takes hostage one’s authentic human identity as either man or woman. In this light, to “come out” is merely to be held captive in another kind of enclosure. There is no dignity in that.

It’s time, readers. On this issue, go out into the streets and even into the church pews and, as Pope Francis says, “make a mess.” Renounce shameful, hidden things in your parish, your school, your diocese, and your community. Take to task those who proclaim the false taxonomy that is currently driving our cultural and ecclesial erosion, whether it be privately, publicly, softly, or loudly. Do it because things are already a mess.

And we’re all going to have to make a slightly bigger mess if ever we hope to be a Church that once again shines the light of truth upon this darkness in our midst.

*Author’s note: The character addressed as “Stupid” in this essay is fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental.

(Photo credit: Christopher St. in New York City / Wikimedia)

Author

  • Declan Carrick Lyons

    Declan Carrick Lyons is the pen name of a veteran Catholic writer and thinker, catechist, liturgist, and musician, with three decades of experience in parish ministry. He lives in Middle America. He can be reached at [email protected]. (Photo used with permission.)

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