​When will the door of mercy open to gays?

When will Christians recognize the science of genetics?

When some Fargo Catholics walked the seven-mile pilgrimage last week from the “holy door of mercy” on the Sts. Anne & Joachim Church to the “holy door of mercy” of St Mary’s Cathedral, I wonder if they thought of members of the LGBTQ community passing through those holy doors without prejudice, without labels of being “intrinsically evil,” but with the complete “religious freedom” from the Vatican to pass freely through those doors.

According to Roxanne Salonen in The Forum, Pope Francis had “set in place” these open holy doors. But the Vatican has not changed its views on homosexuality and gender. Most of the civilized world has accepted same-sex marriage, military service for gays, and the science of genetics, which has revealed a broad and infinitesimal range of sexuality for the human race.

Sure, the Pope said: “Who am I to judge?” But his Vatican is still judging that anyone who is not completely “straight” is a second-class, malformed human under the influence of Satan—even after, according to the Bible, being checked out and approved by God in the womb.

Dignity USA, an organization of LGBTQ Catholics under Executive Director Marianne Dudley-Burke, recently chastised the Pope for revealing a “dangerous ignorance” about gender identity. Francis expressed his ignorance by complaining that some countries have programs that teach children they can choose their gender from a long list. He called it “ideological colonization.”

The Pope seems totally ignorant of the fact that seven billion humans on earth have had different doses of testosterone and estrogen. There is a long list of “different” humans—and it’s getting longer.

Think of the game of dodge ball played with small water balloons loaded with testosterone and estrogen that break and spread the hormones indiscriminately on human beings when thrown about. This is how we end up with heterosexuals and homosexuals, transgenders and cisgenders, lesbians and bisexuals, and the intersex often born with both male and female private parts.

Welcome to the real world of 21st Century genetics, Pope Francis—and cardinals, bishops, and priests. We are now well out of the 13th Century Inquisition heresy burnings—and the fact that all the original Apostles happened to be men.

A reader recently sent me an e-mail containing a quote by Rodney Sheffer about religion and science which is appropriate for this subject: “The antidote to misery, suffering, poverty, disease, crime, and hate is education. Religions have a strong history of exacerbating these social ills with their absolutist thought and condemnation of critical thinking and reason.

Choosing between the scientific paradigm and the religious paradigm for solving our problems is a real no brainer. The Pat Robertsons, the Franklin Grahams, the Jerry Falwells, the Duck Dynasty crowd join the Southern Baptists in the absolutist thought expressed by the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops, regarding the “religious freedom” to discriminate against fellow human beings. Will Leviticus “abominations” die of neglect or will scientific genetic truths?

Why all the push for “religious freedom?”

Republican legislatures across the country are bingeing on“Religious Liberty” or “Religious Freedom” bills that would legalize discrimination against LBGTQ people in housing, employment, public accommodations, schooling, marriage licensing, health care, and any other public function that heterosexuals enjoy.

Republicans desperately need the evangelical and Catholic vote to win national elections. These bills aren’t about religious freedom, it’s the freedom to discriminate against fellow humans. Christian Fundamentalists and celebratory Bible Thumpers are fighting for this “freedom to discriminate.”

Should we regulate pro basketball by limiting height and sex?

The International Olympic Committee has come up with a whole mess of rules regarding transgenders and intersex athletes. Sometimes participation in a number of sports is determined by the amount of testosterone in a human body.

Remember Bruce Jenner, that magnificent, tall, muscular hunk who won Olympic gold in that most demanding of events, the decathlon? Now Bruce is Caitlyn, who graces the cover of Vanity Fair and is quite a 65-year-old chick. If Bruce had entered female track and field events back in 1976 he would have won most of them with a 10% margin. The testosterone of males adds enough difference in speed and strength events to make this 10% difference.

If we control athletes by sex when there are seven billion sexual possibilities, should we also control all of them by physical characteristics? We do have weight classes in some direct contact sports such as wrestling and boxing, but we do not restrict athletes by size and weight when it comes to some contact sports. NFL, NBA, NHL, and soccer athletes can be of any height, weight, strength, and hand size.

Should we be limiting athletes by sex? Females are now playing football and baseball for primarily male teams. We have girls participating in wrestling on boys’ teams. We have intersex athletes who have extremely high testosterone levels who could probably compete successfully with most male teams.

Let’s examine the case of South African track star Caster Semenya. Slate writer Daniel Engber in his article “Who Decides Who Competes as a Woman?” writes: “The New Yorker’s Ariel Levy described (her) as ‘breathtaking butch’ with a torso ‘like the chest plate on a suit of armor.’”

Among athletes with intersex conditions, none is as prominent or as magnificently gifted as Semenya. Seven years ago, while still a teenager, she destroyed her rivals in the 800 meters at the track and field world championships.

Shortly thereafter, a clumsy, ad hoc and supposedly secret assessment of Semenya’s true biological sex made its way into the press. She’d been found to have internal testes in place of a uterus and ovaries, as well as high levels of testosterone and a vagina.

Semenya addressed the controversy in early 2010: “I have been subjected to unwarranted and invasive scrutiny of the most intimate and private details of my being.”

Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar, also had unusual physical characteristics at 7’2”, so he dominated NBA basketball for 20 years. Should we have limited NBA players to a height of 6’7” during that time? I don’t think so.

Is there such a thing as fair play? Are there level playing fields?

Experts in several sports have some fascinating statements about fair play and level playing fields. One states that: “It’s not the anatomy that matters, it’s the hormones.” Especially testosterone.

Another says: “People come in all shapes and sizes. We don’t disqualify swimmer Michael Phelps (who just won his 23rd Olympic gold medal) for having super-long arms; that’s just a competitive advantage he has in his sport. We don’t regulate height in the WNBA and NBA. Being tall is just an advantage for a center. For as long as sports have been around, there have been people who have had advantages over others. A universal level playing field does not exist.”

Another expert says: “The fundamental issue is, why do we have separate competition for women? If you answer truthfully, it’s for fairness and equality. If you didn’t have a separate competition, women would have no chance to win anything in sport—ever. Female competition exists to protect women.

“Look at Paula Radcliffe’s record in the marathon. It’s the strongest world record in women’s sports compared to men. The average difference between men’s and women’s world records is 12% and Radcliffe’s is 10%. Her record was set in 2003 and back then it was 4,300th on the list of best times for men. It’s now outside the top 5,000.”

Another discusses physical attributes: “That enormous difference is not just down to testosterone. But most of the distinctions between men and women—lean muscle-mass, larger lung capacity, cardiac volume—can be attributed to testosterone development. Ask parents. Up to the age of 11 or 12 their children can play together. But after that you can’t have boys and girls playing sport together because puberty brings testosterone and testosterone brings differences.”

Another expert supports this fact: “Some women are always faster than some men. But the best men are always faster than the best women. Testosterone is the least overlapping physical characteristic I’ve encountered. It’s the most obvious difference between men and women—other than the gene.”

Will priests and ministers ever accept genetic science as fact?

It took the Vatican over 400 years to accept that the Earth revolves around the sun. How long is it going to take theologians with all those crazy hats to accept the scientific fact that homosexuality is not a mental disorder?

Five states currently ban gay conversion therapy for youth under 18. Illinois is one of them. But a group of pastors is suing the state of Illinois to lift that ban because they argue homosexuality is “contrary to God’s purpose” and a disorder that “can be resisted or overcome by those who seek to be faithful to God and His Word.”

The Illinois law states that anyone who practices and/or advertises gay conversion therapy is liable for consumer fraud. Sufficient evidence exists that conversion therapy leaves victims feeling suicidal, humiliated, and often completely alienated from their families. The American Psychiatric Association condemns such therapy as useless, torture, and sexual abuse.

How will you convert a person born with both sets of genitalia--or a male who knows at age three he wants to live a transgender life as a female? Science is going to win this one over the “intrinsically evil” crowd in the end.