Orthodoxy in Dialogue has published the following articles related to a greater or lesser degree to intersex or intersexuality, the condition formally known as “hermaphroditism”: Greek Prayer for Transgender Name Change: Urging Caution,  Intersex vs. Transgender: Addendum to Greek Prayer for Name Changes, and On “Gender Change” and the History and Use of a Related Prayer. Please take the time to read these.

We know personally of at least one transgender individual who, during abdominal surgery at age 35, was found to have internal sex organs inconsistent with the external organs at birth.

In framing the title of the present article as a question, we do not mean to suggest that the scriptural account of human origins is somehow “wrong.”  Rather, we wish to push again and again for what Holy Tradition itself demands of us: that we never cease plumbing the theological, spiritual, and pastoral depths of that Tradition when it seems to collide with our ever-growing body of empirical knowledge—the operative word here being “seems.” For starters, see the list of questions at the bottom of Sexuality, Gender, and Christian Tradition: A Course Outline.

A world renowned colleague has stated in a private note to us that, while we cannot allow science to dictate our theology, we cannot do good theology without good science. 

Rosie Lohman, left, poses with her brother in 2017. Rosie has been raised as a girl, but her parents refer to her as intersex and encourage gender fluidity. (Photo credit: CNN)

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MARCH 2019

How Putin Uses Russian Orthodoxy to Grow His Empire

Forgiveness

Forgiveness Sunday

Faith, Queer Identities, and Suicide

When Kremlin and Patriarchate Cry Wolf Together

Memory Eternal: Eric J. Iliff

The Catholic Sex Abuse Crisis: How Can Orthodoxy Help?

So Great a Cloud: A Celtic Litany

The Other Russian Collusion Story Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers will recall the World Congress of Families and its designation as a hate group in our Father Josiah Trenham and the Southern Poverty Law Center. (See also the related St. Tikhon’s Seminary Appoints Internationally Known Homophobe as Dean.)

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow

As we wait to learn exactly what’s in the Mueller report, there’s another Russia story that deserves our attention. It’s about collusion between the Christian right in America and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), and it will be on display this coming weekend in Verona, Italy, at the World Congress of Families.

The WCF, in case you haven’t heard of it, is an annual event sponsored by the International Organization for the Family (IOF), a Washington-based NGO dedicated to furthering the Christian right’s agenda by opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, legal protections on the basis of sexual orientation, and pornography around the globe.

It was established in 1997 by Allan Carlson, a history professor at Hillsdale College, who had the clever idea of turning the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights into a charter for traditional family values.

He did this by seizing on Article 16, Section 3, which reads, “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.” A decade later, then Metropolitan Kirill of the ROC upped the ante, justifying traditionalist policies by way of Article 29, Section 1: “Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.”

In other words, if you’re at odds with the community’s traditional family values, too bad for you. Read More

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So Great a Cloud: A Celtic Litany
(Hebrews 11:4-12:1)

Ye sons and ye daughters! Come gather around!
Find drink for your thirst at the wells of thin places;
Turn homeward your hearts to God’s verdant oasis,
Where grace glints like dewdrops on this sacred ground.

And tho’ time should fail us, and evening draw nigh,
Our fathers and mothers in faith let us ponder;
Tho’ humble and meek, theirs to labour and wander,
In glory they shine now with angels on high.

These Isles were not worthy by such to be bless’d,
Yet while we lay lifeless, the heavens were gracious;
From isles of deep darkness a Paradise spacious
They wrought on these shores by their heavenward quest.

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