BRUCE JENNER, THE “SHADOW COUNCIL,” AND ST. IRENAEUS

June 9, 2015 Michael Gormley

From the Word on Fire blog...

In justifying the transformation that he has undergone, Jenner consistently says something along these lines: “Deep down, I always knew that I was a woman, but I felt trapped in the body of a man. Therefore, I have the right to change my body to bring it in line with my true identity.” Notice how the mind or the will—the inner self—is casually identified as the “real me” whereas the body is presented as an antagonist which can and should be manipulated by the authentic self. The soul and the body are in a master/slave relationship, the former legitimately dominating and re-making the latter. This schema is, to a tee, gnostic—and just as repugnant to Biblical religion as it was nineteen hundred years ago. For Biblical people, the body can never be construed as a prison for the soul, nor as an object for the soul’s manipulation. Moreover, the mind or will is not the “true self” standing over and against the body; rather, the body, with its distinctive form, intelligibility, and finality, is an essential constituent of the true self. Until we realize that the lionization of Caitlyn Jenner amounts to an embracing of Gnosticism, we haven’t grasped the nettle of the issue.

Father Robert Barron

A commenter on this blog post, Susan Ellis, who has a child "transitioning to female," said that she sees this bringing "her body in line with her spirit. I am not sure I understand that as separation but more as integration."

The focus here is on the antagonism set between the physical and the mental, or the physical-self and the conscious-self, with the physical-self being the one blamed as misaligned. Why would it not be the other way around and instead focus on therapy to bring the conscious-self in alignment with one's physical-self?

The reason why this is dismissed is because of our culture's Gnostic mentality. Of course use technology and alter the body so that it fits my spirit. If you tell me there is something wrong, misaligned, or off about my "spirit," then you are an intolerant bigot.