I realise that renaming this blog Gallican Anglican Orthodox probably doesn't help to make it look any more sensible (let alone intelligible) than it did before, but I have not done so without reason. The three adjectives are in an ascending order of significance (as you might well expect) and to my mind the most significant does not obliterate those which are less so. But then, neither are they are all equally significant.
It seems to me that holding together two or more separate things without making them equal to one another can be a very difficult thing to do.
The temptation to ignore differences altogether and to give First Prize to everyone is as great as the temptation to throw something (or even someone) overboard. In my opinion neither of these options is satisfactory. At the present time in the West it seems that Prizes for All are obligatory among the bien pensant, and no more so than in matters to do with the distinction between male and female and its attendant consequences.
Do we have to pretend that nothing has changed even when Bruce becomes Caitlin (if only more or less)? Are designer babies and wombs-for-hire as ho-hum as all that? And must we refer to David Furnish and Elton John as husband and husband? I am not in any way aligning myself with those who are still a little teary over the cruel abduction of gay - that lovely, happy word straight out of Swallows and Amazons, but then neither do I intend to go to prison in Kentucky with any county clerks.
Perhaps we would do well to reaffirm the difference between the sexes and then recognise that this difference can and does include ambiguities - without either rejecting them or canonising them.
So let's just sit on the fence for a bit and have a think, shall we?
No comments:
Post a Comment