Invasive Gnosticism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Gelernter claims that Trump has identified the elephant plopped on our national coffee table - political correctness. He doesn't think the label is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/02\/invasive-gnosticism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Invasive Gnosticism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Gelernter claims that Trump has identified the elephant plopped on our national coffee table - political correctness. 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{"id":17922,"date":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2743"},"modified":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","slug":"invasive-gnosticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/02\/invasive-gnosticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Invasive Gnosticism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

David Gelernter claims<\/a> that Trump has identified the elephant plopped on our national coffee table \u2013 political correctness. He doesn\u2019t think the label is very descriptive, preferring to call it \u201cinvasive leftism or thought-police liberalism or metastasized progressivism.\u201d It is, he says, \u201cthe biggest issue facing America today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its attitude is captured by the motto that Gelernter says is \u201cmounted . . . above the main door at the White House, the IRS, and the DOJ: We <\/em>know what\u2019s best; you <\/em>shut up.\u201d It\u2019s evident in the blithe attitude toward Christians and our convictions \u2013 in Obama\u2019s indifference to the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East and the administration\u2019s demand that Catholics pay for contraceptives. \u201cPolitical correctness,\u201d Gelernter says, \u201cholds that Christians are a bygone force, reactionary, naive, and irrelevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you think he\u2019s exaggerating, consider what has been quietly happening for the past several months in Washington State.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Christmas last year, the Washington state Human Right Commission \u201cillegal for business owners to limit sex-specific facilities such as bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms to persons with the anatomical parts of one sex,\u201d according to a report<\/a> in the Daily Signa<\/em>l.<\/p>\n

The regulations state: \u201cAll covered entities shall allow individuals the use of gender segregated facilities, such as restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, and homeless or emergency shelters, that are consistent with that individual\u2019s gender expression or gender identity. In such facilities where undressing in the presence of others occurs, covered entities shall allow access to and use of a facility consistent with that individual\u2019s gender expression or gender identity.\u201d The rules prohibit any \u201ccovered entity\u201d from requiring \u201d an individual to use a gender-segregated facility that is inconsistent with that individual\u2019s gender expression or gender identity, or request or require an individual to use a separate or gender-neutral facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInvasive\u201d hardly begins to describe what\u2019s happening when the state redefines gender and takes control of public access bathrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the next step in this war on gender,\u201d said Joseph Backholm of the Family Policy Institute of Washington. \u201cTo my knowledge, this is the first time in the country that there\u2019s been a statewide effort to mandate all public accommodations cooperate with the gender identity concept that somebody declares.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ancient Gnostics never dreamed of being able to manipulate stubborn matter so easily to our whims. We can wish away the shameful bits of our bodies with a wave of the will.<\/p>\n

According to the Daily Signal<\/em> report, the rules \u201capply to businesses with eight or more employees\u201d and require \u201cthat schools should \u2018allow students to use the restroom that is consistent with their gender identity\u2019 and in most cases, give transgender students \u2018access to the locker room that corresponds to their gender identity.\u2019\u201d Washington Representative Graham Hunt raised questions about the secrecy of the procedure: \u201cit\u2019s really been done quasi-private.\u201d<\/p>\n

A legislative effort to reverse the Commission\u2019s regulations was narrowly defeated on February 11. It didn\u2019t take long for Washingtonians to take advantage of the rules. In early February<\/a>, a Seattle man undressed in a woman\u2019s locker room at a community pool. Because of the new rules, police refused to arrest him.<\/p>\n

The rules are published here<\/a>, and include prohibitions against \u201cunwelcome personal questions about an individual\u2019s sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity, transgender status, or sex assigned at birth.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another of those \u201cI can\u2019t believe we\u2019re talking about this\u201d moments that have become so common over the past few years, a stunning illustration of what Gelernter means by \u201cinvasive leftism.\u201d It\u2019s an effort to use the blunt power of the state to to make Gnostics of us all.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"