Nevertheless, she will continue to persist
“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” — St Catherine of Siena
Okay, this blog post isn’t about me, but it sort of is. It’s now well past midnight, but I can’t fall asleep. Usually I fall asleep easily, but too much has happened tonight, and I won’t be able to fall asleep until I finish this post lol.
Like many, I was shocked by the stabbing of controversial Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and three others at Wakeley’s Christ The Good Shepherd Church in south-western Sydney. Last I heard, they should be okay. Naturally, I don’t agree with some of his choice of sermon words in the past, stabbing is inexcusable, and I hope the four speedily recover.
Whilst this and the ensuing chaos was taking place, I was attending a Catholic catechism class on the ups-and-downs of Christendom in the Roman Empire. It was a timely reminder that the Edicts of Milan of the world never lasts forever — the price of religious freedom, of being uncancellable, is eternal persistence, and unfortunately as a vocal Christian I know this truth all too well.
In recent times, I’ve being doing some street preaching. I had plans to do more, and now that tonight has happened, I think I feel less afraid. I think everyone should feel less afraid, after all, the price of religious freedom is eternal persistence. I have no doubt that the Bishop will dig deep in his recovery, and everyone should follow suit.
After class I followed my friend Chriscoveries for a bit on his livestream of the ensuing chaos. Last time he did something similar, he was injured in last year’s #BelfieldRiot. From what I can tell, he’s safe this time, and I’m glad that’s the case. His media work is important, cutting through some of the MSM bs, especially on protest news in Sydney. Again, the price of freedom of the press is eternal persistence.
Quite a contrast to the non-event that was The Day Of The Unborn Street Procession at St Mary’s Cathedral, the day prior. It was a smaller parishioner attendance this year it seems, and the prochoice protest across the road was smaller than previous years. But then again the element of surprise is always around the corner, like that infiltrator from last year: https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/unseen-moment-before-antiabortion-rally-arrest/news-story/68fe32dd5cd19ff4c52cc4d50054eec8.
So before starting on this post, I got around to listening to my friend Melody Rachel’s latest podcast episode “Graham Linehan — Why I Spoke Up About Transgender Activism”. Spicy!
So I tried really hard to keep an open mind about Graham, I really did. At one point I did think we might have more in common than at first sight when he started talking about truscum: https://danapham-au.medium.com/why-im-a-transmedicalist-a-truscum-4f6fffab9522. It’s worth mentioning that I don’t take too hard of a line on transmedicalism these days.
In general, he presented what seems like a very North American / UK perspective on trans issues, and Melody was great at keeping him on his toes, which I think could be described as a more reasonable Australian perspective which reads a bit like: https://www.ranzcp.org/clinical-guidelines-publications/clinical-guidelines-publications-library/role-of-psychiatrists-working-with-trans-gender-diverse-people.
At the 48 minute mark of the YouTube video, Melody really challenges him on why gender transition is important for those who won’t regret (I don’t regret it all these years later), and it was at the 49 minute mark of the video, that any sympathy/empathy I had for him leading up to that point quickly evaporated. I felt that he was cismansplaining to me why I will eventually regret my transition, even though he doesn’t know me from a bar of soap.
I had already paid to go see him in Canberra this Saturday. So nevertheless, I will continue to persist, like I always do. For God, for King, for Country.