Gender w perspektywie "nowego porządku moralnego"

Sobkowiak, Jarosław Andrzej

Gender w perspektywie "nowego porządku moralnego"

Abstract

Gender in the Perspective of the New Moral Order Summary A few years ago the term new moral order appeared in the moral literature. Apparently it was not preceded by any revolution, programmatic manifestos, abolishing of the old way of thinking or interpreting the world. It would also be difficult to explicitly point out its forerunners and sympathizers. But slowly new ideas became visible in the social life, ideas that from year to year pervaded social consciousness more and more. Today the issue is ripe enough to ask a question: To what extent has the gender revolution changed the view of identity of a person, marriage and family, as well as social life? We can perceive the beginnings of such changes in the way of thinking in the seemingly innocent sentence of Simone de Beauvoir: One is not born a woman, one becomes one. So who is the human being born as? Only a human being, without any definitely declared sexual identity? Biblical reflection allows us to maintain that the truth about the creation of human being as man and woman is not just an outlining of the possibilities of their future development, but right from the starting point a clearly-defined way of expressing one’s humanity, and consequently one’s fulfillment. Further on there is reflection on the issue of the relations between nature and culture. The point is to determine the direction of such human development. Equality in dignity between man and woman does not mean the equality of being a man or a woman. It is demonstrated that the cultural perspective is by no means the only basis of the occurring differences. Another issue under study is the truthfulness of the thesis that homosexual psyche of man is expressed in heterosexual society. An inappropriate mental shortcut as well as a methodological error might lead to the conclusion that as culture is formed by nature, a homosexual structure of social life should be established that would better express the mental aspect of human being. Later on the relation between body and soul is analyzed. It is demonstrated that this relation is not only a historically worked out paradigm, but it reflects the true nature of human being, its complexity. The utopia of lack of difference between man and woman is shown to be closely related to the postmodernist vision of human being, especially to such elements as anti-dualism, anti-essentialism or anti-ontologism. Finally it is shown that the gender revolution (and here its ties with the new moral order are revealed) goes against the institutional character of marriage and family, as well as that of social life, particularly threatened by introducing the institution of the so-called mediator. All that points to the fact that the gender phenomenon requires not only particular watchfulness and carefulness in reflecting over modern concepts of marriage and family, but also – taking into account the threats mentioned before – calls for constant deepening of anthropological reflection in that aspect.