Nobody will get hurt. That’s what they said when sex education was brought into schools and churches. “We are sexual from birth, so let’s get comfortable with it!” Five decades later, communities are brimming with “nobodies” who were denied their childhood; who know a lot about sex but very little about manhood and womanhood; who are cohabitating, pregnant but unwed, fearful, depressed, relationally dysfunctional, discontent, insecure, and paranoid about “sexual identity.”
Nobody will get hurt. That’s what they said when abortion was legalized. Today, mothers, fathers, and grandparents grieve lost relationships with 56 million “nobodies.” Our nation is poorer economically because 56 million “nobodies” do not pay taxes, buy products, or invest in communities.
Nobody will get hurt. That’s what they said when girls were told that “equal means being the same.” In the effort to equalize the “playing field”—in sports, the workplace, and the bedroom—girls were taught that the two genders, male and female, are interchangeable. Today, three generations of “nobodies” are at odds with their own bodies and minds.
Nobody will get hurt. That’s what they said when gay and lesbian advocates began to circulate the schools. That’s what they said when same-sex “marriage” was legalized. That’s what they said when restrooms were changed from “men” and “women” to “whatever” so that people who have trouble identifying themselves can use whichever they please. How many “nobodies” will have to suffer the consequences? How many impressionable “nobodies” will believe the unnatural is “normal?”
Do we really think that nobody will get hurt when we tamper with God’s design?
Camille Paglia is a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is a feminist, social critic, and a lesbian. She is also surprising. When it comes to “identity politics” and transgenderism, Paglia says, “This hyper-self-consciousness about ‘Who am I? Where exactly am I on the gender spectrum?’ is mere navel-gazing while, in the Middle East, ISIS is beheading people. It is a kind of madness of self-absorption.”
Paglia says she pities “young people today” because “it’s one thing to feel, ‘I’m not quite comfortable in the gender I was assigned at birth,’ but the pressures are to change, change, change, and to telegraph it to the world. People are pushed into making choices about surgical interventions and taking hormones, which is dangerous, and they will have all kinds of medical problems in the long run.”
Paglia believes “there are authentic transgender people who had a genetic issue from the start” and points out that “medical science is still developing to help these people.” But transgenderism has “become a fashion statement, or a mask [for other problems]. People are being induced to think that all their unhappiness—in family life, in school, in relation to society—is to do with this gender issue. Well, maybe it isn’t. Maybe there are other issues a person needs to deal with.”
In a way, Paglia is speaking about the “nobodies that won’t get hurt” or, in this case, today’s college students. She says, “They have no sense of the great patterns of world history, the rise and fall of civilizations like Babylon and Rome that became very sexually tolerant, and then fell.”
She continues, “If you’ve had no exposure to that, you can honestly believe that ‘There is progress all around us and we are moving to an ideal state of culture, where we all hold hands and everyone is accepted for what they are … and the environment will be pure … .‘” This is their “magical utopian view,” explains Paglia, that “we are marching toward perfection.” But what is the “sign of this progress?” They believe it is “toleration,” observes Paglia, “for homosexuality, or for changing gender, or whatever.”
But to Paglia, “[I]t’s a sign of the opposite, it’s symptomatic of a civilization just before it falls.”
Babylon and Rome did fall. They fell because men and women shaped themselves after the imaginations of their own heart. They exchanged the natural for the unnatural and were foolish enough to believe that nobody would get hurt.
Our civilization may be rushing toward the abyss, but the Christian can blaze trail away from destruction. We do this when we believe that there is no such thing as a “nobody” to God. Every child—born or yet to be born—is already redeemed and called by name (Is. 43:1). Every child—born or yet to be born—will be affected by what we do or do not tolerate.
We may wrestle with our identity and, therefore, the way we choose to live. But, the Lord identifies us in His Prayer when He invites us to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven.” We are not “debtors to the flesh.” We are not slaves to our own fear. What we are, in Christ, is God’s adopted heirs! Tolerating no other identity, we and our children’s children can navigate out of hopelessness and away from the abyss.
Quotes of Camille Paglia are excerpted from an article by Carolyn Moynihan
(“Navy-gazing about gender while the world burns,” Mercatornet)
and an interview with Camille Paglia by Ella Whelan of Spiked
Graphic: Etsy
Ezerwoman's Blog 
Lack of Self-Control = Unhappy Women
Posted in Biblical manhood & womanhood, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Identity, Life issues, Relationships, Vocation, tagged arrogance, children, common sense, Dennis Prager, depression, hope, hopelessness, Jesus Christ, mentoring, narcissism, parents, promise, self-control, self-indulgence, selfishness, The Washington Times, Titus 2, Titus 2 for Life, unhappiness, women's health on June 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »
New scientific research shows that if adults cultivate the practice of self-control — starting early — in children, a great many could be saved from addictions, poverty, and crime. Isn’t that just like scientific evidence? Always lagging behind but, when pure, testifying to God’s order of creation.
This ezerwoman is a better helper — of men, children, and society — when I practice self-control. Lest I forget (or resist), God consistently reminds me to be “self-controlled.” The books of 1 and 2 Timothy refer to the virtue of “self-control” at least four times. At least five times, the book of Titus instructs older men and women to practice and mentor “self-control.” There’s good reason. Self-control glorifies God. It can result in more hopeful consequences. It can even reduce depression
Self-control is the opposite of living our lives however we please. Doing whatever makes us “happy.” Insisting that our “needs” be met. Serving self over others. Perhaps this is what happens when times are good. We give ourselves license… for whatever, whenever. We have (in my American lifetime) “lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence” (James 5:5). For sure, it is what happens when women are encouraged to let their emotions rule.
But, encouraging girls and young women to let their emotions rule has not made them happy. It is widely reported, writes Dennis Prager, that women suffer depression at twice the rate of men. If the clinical assumptions are true, Prager suggests that we consider the following:
“Wise cultures have learned that happiness is attained only when we conquer our nature. This is true for male and female. With modern feminism, however, came a belief in the superiority of the female nature. The result? Society was urged to suppress both the negative and positive aspects of the male nature with little or no suppression of the female nature. Historically, societies and parents have always known it’s a good thing to teach boys to control two aspects of their male nature — their sexual desires and their predilection for violence. Decent men were taught from youth to touch a woman sexually only with her permission and to channel physical aggression into sports or into helping fight evil by joining the police force or military. Men who didn’t learn to control these aspects of male nature not only became bad men, but unhappy men.”
He continues, “Societies and parents also knew it was important to help girls control their natures — in particular, their predilection to be ruled by their emotions. Women who allowed their emotions to rule them not only became destructive (to members of their families first and foremost), they became unhappy women. But, while modern society continued to teach boys to control themselves, it stopped teaching girls to do so. Girls’ emotions and feelings were treated as inherently valuable. In fact, to repress a girl’s emotions or feelings was labeled ‘sexist’ and showed a ‘hatred of women.’ ” (Excerpted from “Wanted by women: A few good old-fashioned men” by Dennis Prager, The Washington Times, 6-30-08)
Hmmm. I’m reminded of the woman who showed up at an abortion clinic. Why? “He kissed me and I melted. I was filled with passion and couldn’t help myself. Now, I’m pregnant and must take control of my body.”
Lack of self control + unhappy woman = desperation and hopelessness. Ugh.
There is another choice. Mature men and women can be examples of self-control and mentor younger ones to do the same. There is promise in such practice: Hope for living out our lives in anticipation of Jesus’ return (Titus 2).
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