Nothing brings people together during the holidays quite like messages of love, respect for all, the golden rule… I think the Pope needs to remember that.
In an address made yesterday, the Pope said that just as people are concerned about ecology, in order to protect rain forests and such, so too should we be concerned in an “ecology of man,” in order to protect the distinct roles of men and women as were determined during creation. He asks us to remember the order of creation, man then woman, and asks that it be respected. Ignoring it would be destruction of humans and of G!d’s work.
Italian LGBT groups have, understandably, taken offense with this speech. I’m wondering why I haven’t seen a Jewish reaction yet.
There are two versions of the creation story in Genesis; our sages have suggested that one shows that the first being was actually an androgynos. But we don’t have to go that route to see that the Pope is just, well, wrong. Gender roles and norms change from generation to century. Is he really suggesting that men should behave today as they did in the Bible? Should we be like Cain and murder our brothers? Like Noah and drink to excess? Like Abraham and alienate our wives and sons? Like Jacob and steal from our brothers? We really don’t need to think too hard about this to find that surely the Pope can’t actually believe what he’s saying.
(Besides, how can anyone listen to a speech about the preservation of ‘real’ men from a guy wearing red Prada shoes?!)