Division of State and Church in respect to gender

No rules about vegans or vegetarianism in Buddhism. Most of the 'rules' were made for monastics, and they begged for food and took what they were given.

I mean, people can still argue at length on this point, inevitably. :D

I'm not usually a fan of this song. I think it's generally overrated. But we sang it at Greenbelt (a Christian music and arts festival in case you haven't heard of it) a couple of years ago and it made me cry.

It reminds me of a Picasso or Dali painting where all the bits are the wrong size / shape or in the wrong place.

"When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

Knees bent, arms stretched, ra, ra, ra

Apart from the vegetarianism - or is it veganism?

But any sensible cat would only follow the rules that suited them.

Ooh! I need to go and play some Alabama 3!

The Equality Act 2010's definition of a woman as "a female of any age" refers to sex, not gender. So in the UK, this question is irrelevant.

Trump's Executive Orders that talk about the large and small gametes reflect the objective fact that no one who ejaculates sperm can release eggs, and vice-versa. These EOs apply only to living people. The Galatians passage you quote refers to Heaven, the putative residence of the righteous faithful after death. Trump's EOs reflecting material reality for the living don't interfere with people's right to believe whatever they like about what happens after death.

The Thomas passage you quote refers to treating people equally and fairly. The babies are too young to be prejudiced against others and Jesus is telling people to "be more baby" by being less prejudiced. Sex segregation in sports, prisons, changing rooms, dormitories, and loos isn't based on prejudice but on a fact-based understanding that men commit far more violent and sexual offending than women and women are vulnerable to a consequence of sexual assault that men aren't: pregnancy. In this circumstance, treating people fairly means separating the sexes under some limited circumstances to enable women to work, socialise, and meet their obligations within society without being put at preventable risk of male violence and forced pregnancy. Trump's EOs, rooted in the material reality of sex, don't conflict with Thomas, if anything they support Thomas. For the female not to be female, but be simply human, in the boardroom, she has to have a female-only bathroom, otherwise she cannot safely attend the workplace.

Being housed in the men's prison and made to try out for the men's team if he wants to compete in sport isn't stopping someone male from holding a belief, religious or otherwise, that they are non-binary or trans. It's stopping them from denying women their civil rights and forcing others to submit to that belief.

Were I a cat, I think I would favour Buddhism. A good proportion of the statues have convenient laps, and there's often some butter lying around.

The Book of Wisdom is canonical scripture for the Western, Eastern, and Orthodox catholic churches.

The 'Gospel of Thomas' is a few scraps of ancient writing discovered less than a century ago.

The idea that any early writings are 'proto-Gnostic' is debated but not universally accepted. Few if any modern scriptural scholars would describe St John's Gospel as proto-Gnostic, never mind Gnostic.

Amen, Sister Kitty

Discovered in 1997, but there is some dispute about the original author.

The Gospel of Robbie?

And through it all she offers me protection
A lot of love and affection, whether I'm right or wrong

It is considered gnostic and rejected by the Roman Catholic Church. The Nicene creed was written in repose to heresies such as Gnosticism, Marcionism, Docetism, and Arianism. Protestant churches are also part of the catholic (which means “universal”) Church. Gender is just another heresy,

No probs.

The Vatican has rejected the Gospel of Thomas as Gnosticism and not written by Thomas and therefore fraud. Thomas himself was apparently busy converting India after Jesus’ death.

Wisdom is canonical for the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches as well the Roman Catholic church, so 'Catholic' was the right word. It's only the protestant churches that rejected it (in the last half millennium).

@Grammarnut

"Jesus called the Christ is not talking about gender, he is saying that in the presence of God and the apprehension of God souls have no sex."

I know bugger all about the bible but this is how I would interpret the scripts quoted. I would assume that Jesus meant there is no discrimination of souls before god. We are all equal whether man, woman, Jew or gentile. Or maybe he meant that sex, heritage and colour etc cease to exist in the afterlife where we are all become one entity.

Oh life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me

?????

You OK, hun?

Roman Catholics. There are other Catholic Churches, plus of course the Nicene creed declares there is one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

You don't have to Christian, or religious, or even human (as @EmpressaurusKitty's splendid cat demonstrated) to know neither humans nor any other mammals can change sex.

We are very much a Christian country in many significant ways, whether folks like it or not. We keep an air of stiff upper lip about it because full on religious zealotry is not the British way. But the majority of sane individuals know that humans can’t change sex.

HTH

I could not connect the sets of quotations from ancient texts with the church and state thing it left me with an extra permanent wrinkle on my brow, which is a big TUT from me.

However i had forgotten about “the gospel of Thomas”. Which i had come across somewhere in my (distant) past readings of biblical literature analysis, from a secular perspective.

Thomas, books it is thought in some theological circles, more recordings of what Jesus might actually have said, as opposed to the gospels which documented parts of his life.

He also seems to assert that Jesus, (AKA god) said heaven is within in us as is God.

And that there is no other place than earth Which we shall reside.

obviously been on google for several hours….

Do i sound clever now?????