By Professor Timothy J.A. O’Donnell
The “Triumph of Orthodoxy” (as it is known) on March 11, 843 AD marks the official end of the great heresy of Iconoclasm. More than a thousand years later Iconoclasm is being inflicted on us once again.
In this essay, I will briefly revisit the first crisis of Iconoclasm in the Church of the East then I will pull us into the present age with its contemporary manifestation: Transgenderism. This heretical social contagion I term “Next Generation (ng; next gen) Iconoclasm” to name the intrinsic theological dimension of transgender ideology and its pernicious manifestation today. My purpose is not to address any specific person(s) truly suffering from a medical condition. Instead, I seek to offer an explanation and critique of the poisonous ideology known as transgenderism/gender ideology and its unholy relations.
Let’s begin here:
“Iconoclasm (Eikonoklasmos, “Image-breaking”) is the name of the heresy that in the eighth and ninth centuries disturbed the peace of the Eastern Church, caused the last of the many breaches with Rome that prepared the way for the schism of Photius, and was echoed on a smaller scale in the Frankish kingdom in the West. The story in the East is divided into two separate persecutions of the Catholics, at the end of each of which stands the figure of an image-worshipping Empress (Irene and Theodora).”
– Catholic Encyclopedia, Iconoclasm
Image-Breakers or iconoclasts beginning with Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741ad) in 730 imposed Iconoclasm on the Church in the East by abolishing the use of icons. Going further, iconoclasts smashed these sacred images to pieces with the force of law from the Emperors and Empresses believing icons were idolatrous.
The First Commandment is explicit:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.”
– Ex 20:2-5; cf Deut 5:6-9
Idolatry, of course, must be resisted vigorously. So the veneration of icons, seen as idolatry, must be destroyed and purged. And they were.
Fierce opposition to iconoclasm was offered by Pope St. Gregory II, monastic orders, and great theologians such as St. John Damascene and St. Theodore the Studite whose writings held fast to orthodox belief to correct the heresy. It wasn’t until Empress Theodora brought a close to this difficult episode in Holy Mother Church in 843. Nevertheless, the Church of the East was weakened and the Iconoclasm crisis was a major contributor to the eventual schism between Constantinople and Rome in 1054.
Heresies are perennial; there are no “new” heresies. Rather, many theologians and historians argue that heresies simply reassert themselves in new circumstances over time and in novel ways, but the fundamental errors which form the foundation of heresy are specters that haunt us from the past.
It is my claim that transgenderism/gender ideology is a re-emergence of the iconoclast heresy albeit a next-generation version of it. The basis of my argument is:
- All Human beings are made in God’s image
- Transgenderism/gender ideology tears into (breaks) the human being
- Therefore, transgenderism/gender ideology attacks the image of God
- The heresy called ng-Iconoclasm names this phenomenon
The proof of ng-Iconoclasm follows.
We begin with the truth of Sacred Scripture:
“So God made man in his own image, made him in the image of God. Man and woman both, he created them. And God pronounced his blessing on them, Increase and multiply and fill the earth, and make it yours; take command of the fishes in the sea, and all that flies through the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.”
– Gen 1:27-28
Every person who ever has lived, is living now, or ever will live is created in the image and likeness of God.
Pope Benedict XVI perceived the crux of the matter when he said “[T]his is the age of sin against God the Creator”.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops began to compile a response to the avalanche of gender theory and ideology sweeping across the West. The document Gender Theory / Gender Ideology – Select Teaching Resources (Updated 07 August 2019) is a compilation of Church teaching from various sources. Pope Francis states quite clearly:
“Yet another challenge is posed by the various forms of an ideology of gender that ‘denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family. This ideology leads to educational programs and legislative enactments that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female. Consequently, human identity becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time.’ It is a source of concern that some ideologies of this sort, which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how children should be raised. It needs to be emphasized that ‘biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated.’ …It is one thing to be understanding of human weakness and the complexities of life, and another to accept ideologies that attempt to sunder what are inseparable aspects of reality. Let us not fall into the sin of trying to replace the Creator. We are creatures, and not omnipotent. Creation is prior to us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to protect our humanity, and this means, in the first place, accepting it and respecting it as it was created.”
– Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (March 19, 2016) (No. 56)
We need to understand the severity of the heresy. Last year, the good and holy Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote:
“But meanwhile, tens of thousands of young teenagers are being physically medicated and sometimes mutilated for life, the majority of whom would probably have found the way to reconcile with their bodies if left uninterrupted. Parents are threatened with being cut off from their children. The opportunity to self-identify has also been exploited by some men claiming to be women. Imprisoned women have been raped and impregnated by biological males forced into their living quarters. Women in homeless shelters and young girls at swimming pools in many states are being denied a safe space, and even the haven of female sports is being invaded by biological males.
“We cannot be silent. Authentic compassion compels us to speak out for people who struggle with gender identity and for the victims of gender ideology, in all of the forms that victimization takes.”
–Public Discourse, The Catholic Church Must Be Allowed to Serve the Victims of Gender Ideology
The goal of changing one’s sex or gender (which is to say the same thing) is folly and futile. Moreover, it is spiritually and physically impossible. The effort to do so rages against the Natural Order and abuses the image of God in each of us.
Consider this question: What are the ramifications of denying God’s existence or deleting Him from our lives? There are many possible responses. One might confidently state that we become like gods, that is, I become my own god and as such I worship me.
Do you see the pattern emerge? This self-worship establishes an idolatry of the self. From which the tension emerges within the conceptual ideological framework of gender ideology: I must destroy the image of God within me to more fully become like god.
“Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Many martyrs died for not adoring “the Beast” refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.”
– CCC 2113
Transgenderism divinizes the self using techno-rituals to dislocate the person from the Created Order.
To stem the tsunami of gender ideology mania the recent Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body by USCCB (20 March 2023) establishes common sense, reasonable limits on the use of technology and healthcare professionals and institutions that serve the human person. In part, the Bishops remind us:
“The human person, body and soul, man or woman, has a fundamental order and finality whose integrity must be respected. Because of this order and finality, neither patients nor physicians nor researchers nor any other persons have unlimited rights over the body; they must respect the order and finality inscribed in the embodied person. …The body is not an object, a mere tool at the disposal of the soul, one that each person may dispose of according to his or her own will, but it is a constitutive part of the human subject, a gift to be received, respected, and cared for as something intrinsic to the person. (7)
What is widely in practice today, however, and what is of great concern, is the range of technological interventions advocated by many in our society as treatments for what is termed “gender dysphoria” or “gender incongruence.” These interventions involve the use of surgical or chemical techniques that aim to exchange the sex characteristics of a patient’s body for those of the opposite sex or for simulations thereof. In the case of children, the exchange of sex characteristics is prepared by the administration of chemical puberty blockers, which arrest the natural course of puberty and prevent the development of some sex characteristics in the first place. (14)
These technological interventions are not morally justified either as attempts to repair a defect in the body or as attempts to sacrifice a part of the body for the sake of the whole. First, they do not repair a defect in the body: there is no disorder in the body that needs to be addressed; the bodily organs are normal and healthy. Second, the interventions do not sacrifice one part of the body for the good of the whole. When a part of the body is legitimately sacrificed for the sake of the whole body, whether by the entire removal or substantial reconfiguration of a bodily organ, the removal or reconfiguring of the bodily organ is reluctantly tolerated as the only way to address a serious threat to the body. Here, by contrast, the removal or reconfiguring is itself the desired result. (15)
As the boundaries of what is technologically possible continue to expand, it is imperative to identify moral criteria to guide our use of technology. As the range of what we can do expands, we must ask what we should or should not do. An indispensable criterion in making such determinations is the fundamental order of the created world. Our use of technology must respect that order. (19)
If Christ is out of our lives, shouldn’t we expect hell on earth? The intensity, ferocity, and sheer force of ng-Iconoclasm to engulf much of Western Civilization speak to the ruinous collapse of culture and the frail – nay, feeble – public witness to the Truth, our unwillingness to suffer, and the fear of being canceled. Has the loss of the Faith in Christ and His Church opened a door?
“The unclean spirit, which has possessed a man and then goes out of him, walks about the desert looking for a resting-place, and finds none; and it says, I will go back to my own dwelling, from which I came out. And it comes back, to find that dwelling empty, and swept out, and neatly set in order. Thereupon, it goes away, and brings in seven other spirits more wicked than itself to bear it company, and together they enter in and settle down there; so that the last state of that man is worse than the first. So it shall fare with this wicked generation.”
– Matt 12:43-45
Historical Christendom is replete with epic battles such as Lepanto (1571ad) and the Siege of Vienna (1673ad) that proved to be decisive for Western Civilization. The victory saved Christianity from conquest and obliteration. These conflicts were fought in the corporeal realm with great Armies and Navies but were always deeply spiritual. Our crisis today is just as urgent and consequential. Now is the time of great Saints and holy martyrs.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms: “Man and woman have been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. ‘Being man’ or ‘being woman’ is a reality which is good and willed by God.” (369)
Life is precious and a sacred gift from God. It deserves protection from harm and evil.
Archbishop Cordileone encourages us: “We cannot be silent. Authentic compassion compels us to speak out for people who struggle with gender identity and for the victims of gender ideology, in all of the forms that victimization takes.”
Join Corpus Christi for Unity and Peace in this struggle for the Truth, which is nothing less than the salvation of souls.
Ad Jesum per Mariam.