Flannery O’Connor, who had an admirable propensity for being honest, made the remark that “the truth will make you odd.” She would not be surprised, if she were around today, to learn that a dubious student-led protest was sufficient for authorities to remove her name from one of the residence halls at Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore. More than 80 scholars and authors signed a letter protesting the change. But in the end, truth was sacrificed to political correctness.
Miss O’Connor was understating the matter. The truth not only makes you odd, it makes you vulnerable. Stating the truth can ruin you financially. A former school board trustee in British Columbia was fined $750,000 for persistently saying true things about the LGBTQ+ coalition. If the truth offends, it must be counteracted. Popular comedian John Cleese cancelled his appearance in British Columbia, fearing that he might be fined for anything he might say.
New York State, in full support of the transgender movement, and with virtually no opposition, passed a law that applies to all long-term care facilities in the state. What it means to the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne New York is not something that they can accept without violating their Catholic faith. They are dedicated to the Galilean who proclaimed that the truth will make you free and not to the untruth approved by New York State legislators.
The law prohibits single-sex rooms and bathrooms, and it requires the care providers to use patients’ preferred pronouns. The Hawthorne residence has operated for nearly 125 years without experiencing any need for what the new mandate requires of them. Superior General Mother Edward has stated that
it is an untruth to say that a male should go into a female patient’s room. You’re just trying to contort things, for whatever reason. So we have to stand by the truth of what has been taught to us in the natural law. It is not to be changed.
That truth accords with both Scripture and common sense: a male is a male, and a female is a female.
Continue reading at Crisis Magazine