Timothy Broglio, Archbishop for the Military Services and the sending endorser for Catholic chaplains, has expressed support for President Trump’s decision to ban transgenders from serving in the US military, but he explained that the pragmatic value of “military readiness” wasn’t the core issue [emphasis added]:

The President’s announcement…fail[s] to address the essence of the issue – the dignity of the human person.

The dignity of the human person is rooted in the fact that people are created in the image and likeness of God…A recent conference…noted that gender ideology undermines basic Christian anthropology by defining the person as a disembodied mind and the body as a mere instrument…

Sexual orientation and gender identity issues reflect a rapidly increasing and incorrect societal attitude that individual behaviors in life should pursue immediate and personal choices rather than eternal truth.

In extending the maternal care of the Church to the faithful of this Archdiocese, it is opportune to reaffirm that personal choices in life, whether regarding the protection of the unborn, the sanctity of marriage and the family, or the acceptance of a person’s God-created biology, should be made not solely for a penultimate reality on this earth but in anticipation of the ultimate reality of sharing in the very life of God in heaven.

In not so many words Archbishop Broglio reminded the military that homosexual and transgender ideologies are wrong. That is, of course, a consistent statement with the basic tenets of the Christian, and thousands of chaplains in the US military likely agree with it.

The United States does itself no favors when it institutionalizes or celebrates sin, even if portions of society think — wrongly — that there is benefit for it in this life.

No nation is perfect, certainly, but there seems to be a sense of cultural amnesia, as Americans have forgotten their nation once sought to be a “beacon on a hill” of moral courage and leadership.

These days, it almost seems like divisive, activist, personal/special interest groups are trying to see who can drag America down the fastest.

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