User blog comment:Madkatmaximus/pronouns/@comment-4964341-20150107034521/@comment-4845243-20150107072802

First of all, I'd like to say that I don't want a debate on this issue in these comments. However, I also find it irksome when certain poor arguments are made, so I'm going to say something, again.

Keplers, you seem to be insisting that your Christian beliefs are the basis of your stance on this matter. However, I am very curious to see where in the Bible, or even in other respected documents in the Orthodox tradition (IIRC, you are a Coptic Orthodox?), it says anything about it being wrong to refer to a biological male with gender-neutral pronouns.

The fact is, you won't find it anywhere, because it isn't there, especially considering that the English language did not exist at the time. English words cannot be defined by reference to books written in ancient Hebrew and Koine Greek.

However, the Bible does contain some other, very explicit commandments. These include being kind to everyone. Kindness is a part of love, which is central in any informed Christian moral philosophy. Love, according to Saint Paul, who I am sure you respect greatly, does no harm. Unfortunately, projecting your opinions about gender (which are not "Christian," since they were not taught by Christ or His apostles) onto other individuals does potentially inflict harm on them—specifically emotional harm that is impossible to measure over the internet. In my opinion, being kind and considerate is a much more important part of being a Christian than holding specific beliefs about gender.

You also invoke your Christianity to justify the belief that all people have a single biological sex. Unfortunately, this is simply a scientific falsehood that does not correspond to reality. Originally, yes, God created male and female. However, sin corrupts, and that is no longer the reality.

Finally, your belief that the English words "he" and "she" refer to biological sex are in no way based on Christianity; as I said, the Bible says nothing about how to define English words.

However, there are some good, rational, moral reasons for why we should not use he/she to refer only to biological sex. One is that this excludes intersexed individuals.

Anyways...you can choose to believe whatever you want about the definition of certain English words, but please, please, don't pretend that these definitions come from Christianity. Also, please keep in mind that Christianity places more emphasis on being kind and considerate (and being at peace with one another) than it does on being pedantic.