The unholy trinity

By Deacon Mike Manno

            (The Wanderer) – We certainly are living in a time of profound change. Unfortunately, most of it is being forced upon us by our societal overlords, those who have taken over the levers of society and are now forcing their beliefs on the rest of us. They are easy to identify because they boast of their “righteousness” to tell the rest of us how to live, and to cancel those who refuse to comply.

            I was thinking about that when I was arranging a guest for my radio program for this week – last week, by the time you read this. She is Laurie Higgins and she writes for the Illinois Family institute. Her last column, which drew my attention, dealt with how the Progressive Left have embraced the cult of transgenderism. She writes:

            “Canada will be using public funds to build a shrine to the false gods of homoeroticism and ‘trans’-cultism (a phenomenon closer to Haitian Vodou than to science). … The shrine titled Thunderhead is intended to convey the message that homosexuals and cross-sex impersonators have ‘risen up’ to say, ‘We demand change.’

            While pondering her comments I came across this story which seems to underscore her position. In Wisconsin a school counselor can apparently lose her teaching license for criticizing the same trans-gender policies as were referenced in Laurie’s column.

            Marissa Darlingh, a school counselor in the Milwaukee public schools, has had her teaching license threatened by the state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI). She was informed that DPI had opened an investigation of what it said was “immoral conduct” for statements she made at a feminist rally at the state capitol in Madison.

            Naturally you would think that she was engaged in some deviant conduct, perhaps sexual in nature. Nope, none of that. She is being investigated for making public statements opposed to school sponsored transgenderism.

            According to the pro-bono public law firm, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), who is representing Ms. Darlingh, what she said at the April 23 rally, as caught on YouTube, was that she “oppose[s] gender ideology” in elementary schools and that young children should not be “exposed to the harms of gender identity ideology” or given “unfettered access to hormones—wrong-sex hormones—and surgery.”

            She argued passionately that she “exist[s] in this world to serve children” and “to protect children,” and does not support social or medical transition of young children. In the passion of the moment, Ms. Darlingh at one point said “f***transgenderism,” referring to the ideology that she believes harms children.

            WILL responded to DPI by accusing the department of trying to “strong arm” Ms. Darlingh into surrendering her license by providing her with a pre-printed statement doing just that. It also threatened the department with a federal free speech lawsuit over the issue.

            “As you may recall, government officials have ‘no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.’ And ‘speech by public employees on subject matter related to their employment holds special value’ because they ‘are uniquely qualified to comment on matters concerning government policies that are of interest to the public at large,’” [cites omitted]. WILL attorneys wrote to the department.

            As of this writing this matter is still unresolved. However, there is another similar matter that has been successfully resolved by the same law firm. This one involves three eighth grade students in another Wisconsin school, the Kiel Area School District. This one, however, made some national headlines.

            The three boys were charged with violations of Title IX for sexually harassing another student. The school claimed the Title IX violation occurred, not by any bullying, sexual conduct, or even sexual innuendos. It occurred because the boys used the wrong pronoun to refer to a fellow student.

            Apparently in the cockamamie world of education in Wisconsin, using the wrong pronoun can be considered a federal offense.

            According to the legal firm’s press release: “Three eighth grade students … were notified of a Title IX complaint and investigation for sexual harassment for using a biologically correct pronoun when referring to a classmate, instead of the student’s preferred pronouns of ‘they/them.’ The District’s position was that once a student informs others of alternate, preferred pronouns, any subsequent ‘mispronouning’ automatically constitutes punishable sexual harassment under Title IX.”

            The district, after first releasing a letter to parents claiming that under federal law it was required to investigate the matter, but when faced with the threat of a federal lawsuit and some devastatingly bad publicity, the school district caved and sent another letter to parents, citing threats to the school, while reaffirming its policies and closed the case.

            So now we return to the beginning and the point I wanted to make from Laurie’s column. Society today is beset by numerous cults that have transformed their political beliefs into religious crusades.

            Laurie spoke eloquently about the cult of transgenderism where social theory trumps biological science, as shown in the above cases.  Despite all evidence to the contrary the “true believers” will continue to hold on to their precious theories while they evangelize society to their distorted gospel.

            There are two other cults which we ought to stiffen ourselves against. The first of these is the cult of abortion where we can be brainwashed to believe that a baby isn’t a baby and we can and must celebrate their demise much as the ancient pagans would worship their god Moloch in whose arms could be placed unwanted children to be rolled into its statue to be burned to death all the while drums would be beating loud enough to drown out the child’s cries from its mother’s earshot.

            Then there is the cult of self-aggrandizement in which we take upon ourselves the mantle of a god who can make our own rules outside of the laws of the one, true God. In it we become our own divine authority, seeding nothing to the God who has created us so to follow our own dictates by a god we ourselves create.

            And we can see in just the past few weeks how this plays out: women stripping at a Joel Osteen prayer service, baring their bodies in support of their right to kill their own offspring, and the horrific sight, last week in Dallas, of parents taking their kindergarten aged kids to a drag queen strip show where they could be seen dancing with the queens and handing them dollar bills, all under a neon sign proclaiming “It’s not gonna lick itself!”

            We, of course, need more than simple recourse to political action to conquer this Unholy Trinity, for we are not fighting flesh and blood opponents, but the “powers and principalities” that have loosed these cults on earth seemingly in preparation for the last seven plagues of the apocalypse. What we need is prayer. For as God has told us in Second Chronicles (7:14), if we humble ourselves, turn to him, and seek his presence, he will forgive our sins and heal our land.

            That, and our votes, and support of those pro-bono law firms seeking to protect us from the continued degradation of our society, should be considered our moral duty.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)