Armor Up Against Diabolical Identity Theft

It’s popular to have identity theft monitoring services to protect your finances, and credit score from scam artists and hackers — and for good reason, as clever schemes know no bounds. Nevertheless, the most nefarious identity theft is occurring all around us, stealing us blind daily — and being promulgated in the media, entertainment, educational and even some medical institutions. What about insulating a person’s body and soul from the most diabolical identity theft being accepted and perpetrated in secular culture today?

Upon conception, a unique and unrepeatable human person, who is either male or female, has been loved into existence by God the Father, our Good and Perfect Creator.

Right in that divine moment, a son or daughter of the King Most High is entrusted with a specific plan and purpose to fulfill. This is someone who matters and will make a difference in the lives of fellow brothers and sisters in the body of Christ here, now, and for all eternity.

Be Who You Were Created To Be

Can you think of just ONE person in your life who is “disposable?” Of course not! And neither is their biological (and theological) sex superfluous. When we question our givenness as male or female, we discard an integral part of ourselves that reflects the image and likeness of God. We image the Trinity via our intellect, our will and our ability to love fully and authentically, selflessly giving love and wholly receiving it. Doubting our divinely predetermined sex strikes at our desire and ability to cooperate with our Creator to be fruitful by loving new life into existence spiritually and/or physically only as a female (daughter/sister/mother) or male (son/brother/father) can.

The Devil is shrewd. Throw a question mark into this God-given binary of sexual reality and the chaos of Pandora’s box is unleashed, casting doubts about immutable facts in the minds of unsuspecting victims. Overnight, the evil one is virally purporting the most diabolical identity theft scam in the history of mankind. We are being robbed blind of our core identity by the lies of gender ideology.

A House of Cards

Bear in mind that, building anything upon a shaky, unstable foundation, guarantees the arrangement will come crashing down. We must not forget the truth of what it is to be a human person at its very foundations. Identity precedes action. If we don’t know who we are, then how do we know how to act? We have taken our all-knowing, all-loving Creator’s blueprint to seeking holiness, happiness and healthfulness and scribbled it out. Yes, pain and suffering are a part of life, but how much more unnecessary heartache do we bring upon ourselves when we refuse our “manufacturer’s recommendations” for fulfillment and human flourishing by choosing to play God? God’s laws of nature are written into the human heart. He has determined what is morally right and what is wrong or better yet, what is helpful and what is harmful to the human person. And His opinion is the only one that really matters, as He so deftly let Job know, “Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.” Job 38: 4

There is a dire need to get back to the basics, if we are going to get the rest of life right. 

Made for Love, by Love, to Love As God Loves

We are called to love as the Father loves. He reveals that genuine love is willing THE objective good of the beloved, often through self-sacrifice. In other words, to paraphrase from Pope St. John Paul II’s encyclical Gaudium et Spes 24, we find authentic fulfillment when we give of ourselves completely to others. In a world screaming for control, self-indulgence and consumerism, this goes against the cultural narrative for happiness that we are inundated with every single day, all day long.

The Archbishop of Cincinnati recognized this identity crisis moving full speed ahead, years ago.  So Archbishop Schnurr asked Ruah Woods Press to develop a K-12 Theology of the Body supplemental religious curriculum for our Catholic schools to combat the cultural lies with the truth of who we are. ROOTED helps children to discover the very foundations of what it means to be human, a male or female body-soul unity within God’s plan and purpose.

ROOTED Teaches the Inestimable Value of the Human Person As God Intended

How did our team of graduates from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family break open these  teachings for young children through teens? Well, some lesson themes recur in deeper and deeper increments according to the child’s maturity level such as Creation is a Gift, Order, Design & Meaning, Gift-of-Self & True Happiness, The Body Reveals the Person, Virtue & Freedom, and Vocation & Communion.

Furthermore, our curriculum authors were inspired by the greatest teacher of all time. Just as Jesus used parables and stories to disclose deeper truths, ROOTED employs beautiful award-winning literature from which to discover various themes of TOB together by tapping into the awe, wonder and beauty of God’s perfect designs.

Likewise, when asked tough moral questions to trap Him, what does Jesus say? He references Genesis, “From the beginning, it was not so…” He points us back to God’s original plan and purpose for mankind to help us answer the deep moral truths about our God-given human nature. Working against our own eternally established nature will always bring devastating consequences physically, spiritually and mentally. ROOTED: K-12 Theology of the Body supplemental curriculum explores God’s plan by extrapolating universal truths for man through reflecting upon mankind’s “original” experiences. Next, the students recognize and place themselves in the salvation history timeline provided within the “historical man” era of the tryptic. Lastly, the children are learning to point their compass towards their intended future, fully redeemed body and soul as delineated by “eschatological man.”

Seeing with New Eyes

Finally, ROOTED includes activities, games, crafts and discussions to engage the senses. After all, we are bodily, sentient creatures by design. By engaging the students wholly in the lessons, a new biblical perspective becomes the lens with which everyone and everything is seen as a gift. A substantive Christian anthropology of the human person provides the possibility of an entirely new worldview.

Protect against the most significant identity theft that pervades our culture today. Put on the armor of truth.

Make sure your school, parish or entire diocese is employing ROOTED to arm your educators, students and staff against the lies of the culture of death and destruction. Together, we can reclaim our God-given identity and dignity intrinsic to every single human person, male and female, from the womb to the tomb. Won’t you join us in our mission?

Written by,
Evie Estes,
TOB Curriculum Support for Ruah Woods Press
evie@ruahwoods.org