A BINARY GUY IN A CONFUSING TIME [Sat, 4-2-22]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

I have been a binary person all my life, but I didn’t know it. I just thought I was a guy. “Binary” means that a person is completely and only one sexual orientation, like male or female. But in more recent times, the NB [non-binary] spectrum has been brought into the open. Some folks aren’t just male or female.

Being a “binary” person, I don’t really understand what NB folks experience, except I know it is discrimination based on non-choice group membership, like being white or left-handed, and that is wrong.

So we are addressing the NB situation via “conscience language.” {CL}I have always tried to use CL, but I didn’t know it was called that. Now CL is a “thing.”

 [I’m a little bit confused about whether it’s “conscience” or “conscious,” but they sort of mean the same thing, and CL works either way.]

In saying that I always used CL, I mean that I always tried to be respectful about how I addressed people and what I called them. That started for my generation, of course, with race, specifically black folks.

That’s when I began to fall behind, too.

As I was growing up, the CL for black people was Negro. Then it became “Black.” Then it became African-American.

Charles Morris was the first black faculty member at IL State U. I had worked hard to get the town laws changed so that he could buy a house in Normal. We were on a campus radio station program together one night. I was proud of knowing the new, proper term of “black.” I had learned from black students that “black” was now the correct term. Dr. Morris remonstrated with me. “No, it’s Negro,” he said.

Charles caught up. The last time we talked he was African-American. But it’s hard to keep up with CL, even if you’re one who is supposed to benefit from it.

The older we get, the harder it is to keep up with the cutting edge of CL.

I used to help the homeless. Then I couldn’t anymore because they had become the unhoused. Now I can’t even find them because they are “people who don’t have addresses.”

Apparently, the prime way of starting a CL designation is “People who…” As in “People who used to be called Indians and still call themselves Indians but who must now be called Native Americans… oh, wait, now they are people who are First Nations…”

Also, you can no longer refer to whores as prostitutes. They are “sex workers,” which actually sounds worse to me, but I understand. We honor work, so even if a job is dishonorable, if you call it “work,” it becomes acceptable. That’s the problem. We think we are solving a problem by giving it an acceptable name rather than addressing the real issue of disrespect for human life that puts people into disrespecting position.

One CL that is most confusing for me right now is individuals who want to be referred to as “they.” “They,” to me, is a grammar issue; it’s plural. I guess if you think you are more than one, like the demoniac in the Jesus story who said his name was Legion “because we are many,” then “they” is psychologically accurate. It seems that some current “theys,” though, just don’t want to be restricted to “she” or “he.”

That’s okay. A person should get to choose how they want to be called. But it’s confusing, and sometimes we old, confused people are ridiculed because we can’t keep up. There’s a kind of self-righteous arrogance on the part of some CL talkers. That’s not okay.

But in terms of CL, it’s the C that counts, not the L. We need to try to keep up with language, but if we can’t, we still have to keep up with the conscience, what john Wesley called prevenient grace, the grace that caused him to be methodical about following the teachings of Jesus

John Robert McFarland