At the turn of 2013 and 2014, the world community is facing numerous problems. That’s indisputable. For nearly two years, the people of the country that used to be the most stable part of the Middle East have suffered from the bloody and unnecessary war, while the West has woken up to realize that the policy of stabilizing the Muslim world by supporting authoritarian regimes and sending troops to take down the „less loyal” ones isn’t working in the deserts of Libya, nor in the „unconquered” mountains of Afghanistan. In the meantime, the society of Yemen is facing a never-ending civil war, while people in Thailand and Bangladesh are coping with serious social tensions, with innocent people getting killed – virtually unaccompanied by any coverage in the Western media.
A disastrous typhoon has struck in the Philippines, leaving the place with incomprehensive losses and vulnerable to intensified activity of terrorist organizations. The richest of the nearest neighbors, the People’s Republic of China, doesn’t care to send any real help – they won’t be helping the nation which disputes the divine rights of the 3rd largest country to some territories that no one really cares about. Anyway, for China the most important issue now is solving the territorial dispute with Japan – maybe even with military means.
Under such circumstances, who really cares about growing violence in Central African Republic, which might soon be referred to by future commentators as „the next Rwanda”? We’ll have a time, for sure, for bitter reflections on how incompetent the international community is to prevent genocides.
Now, Europe and other developed regions are facing their own problems. Demography and immigration – these are the key words. In the European Union, the USA, Australia, and Israel the primary problem is developing more and more advanced technologies to help us live with a delusion that the problems of Africa, Asia, and South America are only „theirs” – and we don’t even need to face such heavy burdens as granting asylum to people who can’t live in their place of origin (who really cares about the Western culture, human rights and democracy when it comes to responsibilities, anyway?). If someone accidentally dies on their way to a better world, it’s not our fault at all, right? It’s not like the American-Mexican border wall shares any similarities with Berlin Wall. We’re not the commies, after all!
In fact, we could find a lot of ways to speak about the problems of the global community. My approach is just one of many possible. History certainly hasn’t ended, but we are faced with something that can be a clash of civilizations for some, or a war between Jihad and McWorld for others. If we don’t have institutions strong enough to secure peace, bring stability without authoritarianism to developing countries and resolve every major conflict with diplomacy, it’s always better to have at least some moral leaders.
No matter what our experiences with spirituality are, the religious leaders can be the ones who are able to take on this role. The New Pope is making every effort in this area. Looking at his role apart from religious issues (it’s not really my duty to judge his influence on the Church), it’s almost a miracle to have amongst the global leaders someone from the South, who introduces the perspective of those who still believe in the meaning of the sentence „knock and the door will be opened for You.” His true commitment to the concerns of poor people, understanding for the people who don’t necessarily fit into the vision of a „good true Catholic,” and strong opposition against alienation of the Church from the problems of the people means a lot to the unheard masses. No doubt he deserves the Time‘s „Person of the Year” Title.
Amongst so many problems and questions, what is the primary problem of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland? Maybe, the role of Poland in Europe’s responsibilities toward refugees? Nope, actually the only organization which has done something about this problem is National Movement – a nationalist and populist party, which arranged a mass protest against accepting the asylum for five families of refugees from Lampedusa in Poland.
Maybe, the problems of Polish emigrants? Well, the Polish national-conservative leader Kaczynski tried to convince David Cameron (their parties form the common euro-sceptic fraction in European Parliament) of the de facto anti-Polish (and anti-Bulgarian, and anti-Romanian) immigration policy reform. Asking this of one of the strongest supporters of Europe with borders was this time as efficient for the leader of national-conservatives in Poland as his negotiations with the same guy (one of the biggest opponents of EU’s spending) about giving strong financial donation to Poland. Well, it’s always good to find a trusted ally in the politics.
It should take a lot to name every serious problem which is not perceived as primary for the leaders of Roman Catholic Church in Poland. So, what’s the main problem of Polish society?
Do you remember Gallileo’s problems with the Holly Office, or the disputes on Darwin’s theory?
Here you are – XXI century, modern-day Poland: the smartest minds of the Catholic Church care about preventing the spread of the disease called gender theory, or as they refer to it – gender ideology, as they proclaim it is not compatible with the scientific standards at all.
Quite a funny statement for the masters and doctors of theology…
How could this happen? How the scientific paradigm could have been targeted as the main threat to the very foundations of the Western civilization by the members of the biggest religious community in Poland? For the Catholic Church in Poland, „gender ideology” is a relatively new term. It has been mentioned during the debates about civil partnerships, or about sexual education.
But only when the Polish Episcopal Conference, the central organ of Catholic Church in Poland, addressed the pastoral letter about the „gender ideology”, did we realize that it’s the central point of teaching for Polish clergy. And again, the Church is taking care of the area in which its officers have the least competence…
What can we read in the letter? The Church is defending the institution of family, which is threatened by the gender ideology. Despite the fact that Abraham legally had a sexual slave (and some other patriarchs were known to be living in polygamy relationships, including The Wise King Solomon and his 700 wives/300 mistresses harem) – the idea of marriage is not culturally-related, the Church officials say. It was always in the state, and it is described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And now gender ideology comes and wants to destroy this order, as Gabriel Kuby, Ph.D., quoted on the website of Episcopal Conference. This foul ideology is behind the disintegration of the family.
Well, alcoholism, male’s domination over women, irresponsibility, the random tragedies… I didn’t know all these phenomena could be described as part of the gender ideology!
But we can also quote Gabriele Kuby, Ph.D. – a German sociologist known for telling the truth about the feminist movement and about the true nature of Harry Potter (which in fact is an infernal tool to enslave young people’s minds, and make them Satan’s slaves– yep, looks like a nice piece of reliable sociological work, doesn’t it?). She states that a „feminist doesn’t wish to serve God, life, men, children. She wants to be a man and rule over man.”
Ah, that’s the point! It’s good that for centuries no family has been broken! We must defend ourselves. Don’t you all remember these great conservative times without divorces and crimes amongst family members?
Well, you don’t. You’re all too young. Maybe our great-great-grandparents could tell us something about these great times without feminist/gender ideology, when the most common way to get a divorce was to kill your wife/husband. Certainly, those were better times!
Will this madness ever end? The war on gender remains one of the leading topics in Polish politics. Beata Kempa, an ultra-conservative member of Polish parliament, formed a „Stop gender ideology”. Kempa and 15 male MPs decided to form a group in spite of the “promotion of traditional family values against destructive ideology”.
After 2 days, they have found the first ally – Anna Grodzka, the first ever transsexual Polish MP, who has joined the group. She states it’s important to prevent gender “ideology”, because gender is a scientific theory which can’t be treated in ideological terms.
I can only wish Miss Grodzka good luck. She was able to get to the essence of the problem – something which is a scientific theory is referred to as “ideology”. I hope more female MPs will join this group to save Polish Parliament’s dignity. They should all gather to give one simple message: “Have no fear, my conservative brothers and sisters!” You had time to accept Greek philosophy; you had time to accept the Copernicus and Galileo’s discoveries; you had time to accept Darwin’s theory.
Gender theory certainly can’t be more dangerous for you and your ideology. The sooner you realize this, the better for you.