The Horan of Babylon Strikes Again

Fr Dan Horan, a/k/a the Horan of Babylon is having heretical verbal diarrhoea again, not that that's anything unusual. OMM takes him to task.

From One Mad Mom

There’s a reason Fr. Dan P. Horan is called the Horan of Babylon in the Catholic world. He literally authors confusion at every turn. This one was just an extra dose of nauseating.  And, as usual, Daniel P. Horan overlooks reality.

Why Catholics should use preferred gender pronouns and names

Oct 13, 2021

by Daniel P. Horan

Names play an important role in the Catholic tradition. At the celebration of baptism, the first question posed to the parents is “What name do you give this child?” At confirmation, it is customary for the confirmation candidate to select and embrace the name of a patron saint. Many members of religious congregations adopt a new name as part of their religious profession, even when their “legal” names (on government documents like birth certificates) do not reflect it. Clergy and religious alike take on new titles and appellations such as “Father,” “Sister,” “Brother,” “Bishop,” “Deacon” and so on, and expect others to address them accordingly.”

And? That’s your argument? Please tell me you can see a slight difference? Let me help you, starting with two things that you always seem to miss: one is God and the other is authority. Interestingly enough, your examples of clergy and religious actually hurts your lame efforts. Please note the “titles and appellations” are based on the God-endowed gender of the person. They are based in reality. You? Not so much.

The significance of names, the changing of names and the importance of being identified by a preferred name is also present throughout the entirety of the Bible. From Abram to Abraham and Sara to Sarah, to the angelic revelations about the names John and Jesus in the Gospels and the change from Saul to Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, embracing a new identity tied to a new nominal expression is commonplace and rooted in our faith tradition.

Yes, dear Father, that is important, but even more important is to realize who changed the names and what that signified. Again, try to think about God the creator for just a second. Changing your “personal pronoun” (and I’d argue that pronouns are not personal), or your name, for that matter, to reflect a lie is not from God.

So why is there so much resistance and pushback among some in the church — including in Catholic schools — to using the gender pronouns or gender-affirming names preferred by individuals, especially those who are members of the LGBTQ community?

Uh, because the Catholic faith is all about TRUTH. It is Truth. It doesn’t embrace the lies of a person’s choice of anything. Truth, truth, truth, truth. Please note I did not use the term “personal truth”, because that is not Truth.

Calling individuals by the names and pronouns they prefer would not only seem to be the decent and respectful thing to do, which follows from the “golden rule” of doing unto others what you would like others to do unto you (see Matthew 7:12), but it also aligns well with the important role names have throughout Christian Scripture and tradition.

This is the difference between the faithful Catholic and you and your ilk. Faithful Catholics, those who actually believe in all the beautiful teachings of the Church, the reality of the natural world as God created it, etc., don’t want to be confirmed in lies. We want to be rooted in truth even if it’s hard for us. So, the Church is, in fact, following Matthew 7:12.  You are not.

I recently participated in a workshop on how Catholic institutions of higher education can better support their LGBTQ students, staff and faculty. At one point during the discussion, another workshop participant made the simple yet profound point that an overwhelming number of people request that they be addressed in some form that differs from the plain reading of their given or family names.

I think you need to brush up on the definition of profound.

For example, my given name is Daniel, though I generally go by “Dan” when meeting people in person. That may seem like an inconsequential point, but think about how disrespectful it would be if I introduced myself to someone and asked to be called Dan only to have the same person insist that I only be called by the name as it appears on my birth certificate or some other name or moniker that I did not select.

That’s the most “profound” argument you have?! Ignoring the point that you should go by “Father” when meeting people, calling you a short derivative of your name versus, say, Cindy, are two very different things. Odds are that your parents, who have authority over you in the spiritual realm of things, called you Dan, Danny, Daniel or whatever they called you on that day. It doesn’t contradict your chosen name. And let’s go back to the argument of religious and clergy changing their names…another sophomoric attempt at argument on your part. That name change is, indeed, a God oriented move, not a secular move. Sometimes the name is chosen for them by their brothers or sisters in the order, and it is usually a saint of that order, someone they might strive to emulate as someone with great love and devotion to God. Sometimes they choose a new name for themselves for the same reason. Both usually signify a new life in CHRIST, not a new life in a lie or something counter to God. So, name changing can be a good thing or a bad thing. For example, would Fr. Dan cheer changing one’s name from, say, John to Beelzebub? Or how about Adolf Hitler? Well, he might. Can someone change their name? Of course, we have free will. Does that mean it’s right and should be recognized? Not in the least. Nor is it always kind and loving to do so when it’s rooted in a lie.

This fellow workshop participant rightly noted that insisting on calling individuals by a name not of their choosing, let alone intentionally refusing to reference or address them by their preferred name or pronoun, is rude and hostile.

Sorry, Fr. Dan. This is just an attempt to control language, ignore truth and a few other things any good Orwellian character would attempt by calling the alternative “mean.” Honestly, can you come up with a new schtick?

I would add that such behavior is also unchristian and sinful.

Ah, the doctrine according to Fr. Dan. Please. The sad thing is that there are people who are willing to buy his false doctrine, which is the really unchristian and sinful thing.

Names have power, and the significance of naming oneself and others is not to be taken lightly. One can think of other ways throughout history that the refusal to acknowledge an individual’s preferred name or self-referential identity was used to deploy subjugating power and resulted in dehumanization.

This is rich coming from a guy who is all for the subjugation and dehumanization of worldly beliefs.

Take, for example, the practice of those Americans who enslaved kidnapped Africans and treated them as chattel, without rights, culture, history, agency or names. In the despicable system of the American slave trade, the common practice was for the enslavers to “name” the enslaved, giving them monikers not of their choosing.

Right. Isn’t it cute how he compares faithful Catholics to slave owners? Very telling. Fr. Dan has zero understanding of authority. He doesn’t believe there is an authority higher than himself. That’s pretty much the belief of most lost souls. What you are engaging in is what’s now called “Dark Psychology.” Scary stuff, Fr. Dan.

Another, more contemporary example is taking place today in western China where the oppressed Uyghur community, the minority Muslim population in China, has been not only imprisoned in “reeducation camps” but also forbidden from using numerous preferred names of Arabic or Muslim origin by the Chinese government.”

Dude! Don’t even try to go there with the Uyghurs. The Catholics have been fighting for them from the get go, and not because of their faith but because they are children of God. I realize you have to try to compare Christians to communist China in some feeble attempt to advance your cause to free the delusions of the confused, but you’ve never seemed to have much of a problem with Communist China persecuting most of its citizens and killing unborn children en masse, their mothers, the Catholic Church, etc. Don’t go there. Take your tokenism elsewhere. And by the way, ”Dan”, you are the one who promoted the party that made it oh so easy to persecute the Uyghurs when we were trying to make their cause known. You were more than willing to throw them under the bus back then, yet now you’re trying to use them for a cause they’d want nothing to do with. Unbelievable.

No decent person would dispute that both of these examples are clearly instances of human rights violations. So then why do so many self-identified Christians and especially Catholic pastoral leaders insist on enacting comparable practices and policies?

You’re such a good little liberal. When all arguments fail, call people racists and xenophobes. Let me ask you this, Fr. Dan, when were you last outside an abortion clinic in a poor area as the children of minorities were being slaughtered? Yeah, thought so. Stop using the vulnerable to prop up your evil, confusing propositions. They’re still just as evil, and even more so by preying on the confused.

I don’t have a good answer to that question. To be honest, I am continually perplexed — as was my fellow workshop participant — by both the arrogance and audacity of those who would demand such dehumanizing practices. Not only is refusing to call another person by their preferred name or pronoun disrespectful, in the case of many Christians who refuse this basic act of decency, it is because they deny the very existence and experience of transgender or nonbinary persons.

You actually don’t have a good answer to any question. It is not dehumanizing to embrace truth. It’s the polar opposite. God does not created chaos. He does not create our bodies to be in conflict with our souls. Nobody is denying the existence of anyone. We are simply speaking truth to them because we love them. You? You love a deviant ideology. Encouraging people to embrace confusion and lies is no different than telling the drug addict “You do you.”

The overt transphobia reflected in such behaviors as denying others the fundamental human rights to personal agency and self-identification is not compatible with the message of the Gospel nor with the long-standing history of name changes within the Catholic tradition that are associated with one’s religious discernment and deepening sense of identity before God and others.”

Malarkey. Where does it end Fr. Dan? Are you good with the “transfelines?” How about the “transabled?” I mean, personal agency, self-identification and all. Comparing one’s religious discernment and sense of identity before God and so-called transgenderism? You are, in short, a rather sick man.

Frankly, I’m not sure what it would take for those who willfully ignore the realities and experiences of people who are different from them to realize the harm they are causing. Perhaps some kind of nonviolent civil (or maybe better put, ecclesial) disobedience might help our fellow Christians — especially those in positions of leadership and authority in the church — get a taste of their own medicine and experience a small piece of the shame, disrespect and dehumanization such unethical practices place on others.

Oh ho! He really might want to re-read this paragraph. You can’t comment on “dehumanization” if you attack those striving to end the murder of children, attack those trying to stop the selling of the body parts of children, attack those trying to stop the sick practice of doing science experiments with these children, say it’s OK to support the party giving thumbs up to China and who are most definitely silent on the Uyghurs, etc.

As should be evident by now in this column, I am fully supportive of all people being addressed in the respectful and dignified manner of their preference, and my Christian faith tells me that this should also apply to transphobic and small-minded individuals and communities even as they insist on withholding the basic dignity and respect owed to their siblings in Christ.

Respect and dignity come from truth, not lies, but just keep on telling everyone how mean and small-minded we are. Call me crazy, but “because I say so” seems seriously small-minded.

However, I do wonder what it might mean for the bishops who have discouraged the faithful from using the preferred names and pronouns of others, or the school principals who forbid teachers, staff and students from expressing their preferred names or pronouns, or anybody else in a comparable position to be called by others something they did not choose and may not like. 

And, BTW, you apparently think  Pope Francis is small-minded. That’s awkward.  Did you point that out to your followers? https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249425/vatican-recalls-pope-francis-condemnations-of-gender-ideology-in-letter-to-pro-life-association

I mean, after all, if these self-proclaimed faith leaders are exercising the “golden rule,” then we should do to them what they are doing to others, right? And if they insist that disrespecting individuals and forcing them to respond to names or identities not of their choosing is the “Christian” path, then I suppose the same bishop wouldn’t mind it if we called him “her” or “Sister Mary” instead of “Bishop So-and-so.” Or, we should insist the school principal who prefers to be addressed as “Mrs. Smith” ought to be called “Bob” now.

I’m having trouble remembering how the Golden Rule states “Anything goes and we should promote all of the lies that we can.” But maybe I just missed it. And his examples kind of prove the faithful’s point, not his. I think he realized somewhere along the way in this missive that he lost his own battle and is now just lashing out by cramming in as much “They’re evil because I say so!” lingo in there as possible.

Obviously, I don’t believe that inflicting the same harm on the victimizers that they are perpetrating on an already vulnerable population in our schools, churches and communities is the correct course of action. As my mother often said to my brothers and me growing up, “Two wrongs do not make a right.”

Oh, the humanity!!! Man, Fr. Dan nails down all the drama of a 15-year-old couldn’t even muster.

But I do hope that those who are quick to endorse such disrespectful and abusive policies step back and think about what such an experience might feel like and do to them if they were in the proverbial shoes of the students, parishioners and neighbors treated in this way.

OK, it’s getting just a smidge laughable. Unchristian, sinful, dehumanizing, subjugating, just like slave owners, disrespectful, indecent, arrogant, withholding basic dignity, the usual transphobic, small-minded, victimizers. Did I miss anything? Got it, Fr. Dan. We’re mean, mean, mean. You’ve totally made your case.

The Catholic tradition, which values the importance and power of names and naming, is also one that is firmly committed — at least in principle — to the inherent dignity and value of all human persons. It is a continued disgrace that so many of those who self-identify as Catholic use our faith tradition to reject and erase the self-identities of our sisters, brothers and other siblings in Christ.

“Self-identify as Catholic”?!? God gave us those identities through our baptism, confirmation, and the rest of the sacraments. Any “self-naming” should reflect the one HE destined us to have, our covenants with HIM, our new lives with HIM, and not our mind of confusion. Fr. Dan is nothing less than another hypocrite who likes to say those who embrace the truths of the spiritual and natural worlds as GOD authored them are evil. Meanwhile, I’d still like him to answer the transfeline, transabled questions. He, however, will just keep his fingers in his ears with a hearty “Lalalalalala! I can’t hear you!”