Same-ism is the resistance to any statement, any word, any organization, any law that recognizes real differences in people. It is the value of infinite fairness, perfectly level playing fields, elimination of any advantages whatsoever.
For example, secular egalitarianism (basically, liberal feminism) seeks to obliterate - or atleast ignore - all genuine differences between men and women.
Segregation of males and females in school activities, sports, olympic events, etc.
- on this note, I have in the past attempted to have a guys night, only to have several men simply bring their wives. The insinuated sentiment was that, "look, don't ask me to come unless girls can be included." So, there is no appropriate context for guys to be guys, do guy stuff, talk about guy things, without somehow sending a "you're not as good as us" message to all surrounding women?
Politically correct speech regarding race - there is almost no way to speak "correctly" about a person's country or culture of origin without somehow unfairly highlighting a difference between your culture and theirs. Therefore we see the ever evolving PC terminology of Indian, then Native, then Aboriginal, then First Nations and Indigenous, and so on. Of course, to even consider referring to someone as "white" or "black" or "Asian", etc. is beyond the pail. How could we be so hurtful in these using these offensive (if correctly descriptive) terms! The next thing you know, instead of asking someone if they are from China or Japan, we`ll be asking them, "Are you of eastern origin?", not willing to say what is obvious from their physical appearance.
"You can't just ask someone why they're white!" 10 points if you can guess the movie reference.
Physical appearance in general is a touchy subject. You've all had that situation where you're trying to describe someone to a group of people. And you could just so "he's the large black fellow over there", we choose terms that are less descriptive like "middle aged, jovial looking, the guy next to the soda fountain." I am not saying we should refer to people as pejoratively as possible - not at all. I think we should hold our neighbor (that is, each person that we encounter) in higher honor than ourselves. But we do not hold someone in high honor simply by ignoring who they actually are.
So, men should be able to have breast implants and use the woman`s washroom. And woman should be able to enlist for the army, and be sent to the front lines of battle. And rich business men should pay 80% in taxes so that they'll be more like the poor men who are biding their time on government aid.
Leveling real differences leads to a rejection of personal responsibility. The overweight person begins to think the government owes them liposuction and six pack ab transplants, instead of thinking they should really get a gym membership and a workout partner. The poor person thinks they deserve to have a decent paying job handed to them. The woman believes she deserves to be freed from the burden of her fertility and likewise, the man believes he should be unhinged from his burden of taking responsibility for his sexual choices. Rather, a just society would tell the woman to behave in accord with her fertility - in other words, don't have wonton sex with strangers, since you may end up having their child. Choose your partner carefully. To men, we would say that he should live as the man he has been created to be - an individual that takes responsibility for all his choices, and does not abandon the fruit of them - even if the fruit of his choices are children. Because all men are meant by their Creator to be protectors, providers and givers. Not assailants, consumers, theives.
We should seek to treat people in accord with their nature. This is why we should not send women into combat, but we should send men. We should not ask men to bear or nurse children - because there is an innate difference that prevents them from doing so.
A retort from a thinking person might be, "well, aren't YOU the one who is making sweeping generalities and eliminating true differences by lumping all men into one group, and women in another (or all people of a given race, or whatever the group in question is)." (this criticism could probably be leveled with a straight face, even if the generalizing statement were "all women have wombs")
My response would be, if we do not recognize genuine differences, generally speaking, we will be forced into banal individualism that secularism holds so dear. Each person can only be judged on their own individual preferences and personality. To quote a recent government brief, "an individual's self identification is the sole measure of gender identity" (or any other kind of identity) This is the spirit of the age - it seeks to level any God-given, inborn qualities like gender, physical make up, and country of origin, in favor of identifying factors like the things that you might list on your online dating profile - attracted to people of the same sex, or dog lover, or loves indie folk rock, lives on the west side, and so on. These are not factors that should ground your identity as a human. These are real features, no doubt. But what should we take to be foundational to us as human beings?
There is only one way to ground identity - to accept the identity given by the Creator. So, we then can accept that we are not all the same - we have been given real differences like height, muscle mass, gender, intelligence.
But there IS one feature that does radically bind us as people, and once again this is received from our Creator - it is His image on every bit of us. This is precisely what allows each of us to accept our real differences, learning to live with all the many things we cannot change about ourselves.
If we do NOT recognize the Imago Dei as grounding our identity, then we most certainly will look for identity in passing, insignificant or even sinful things.
This is why I do not tell my son you can be anything you want to be. That is not a message of empowerment - it is a message of bondage to desire, personal inclination and personal choice. Were he to believe it, his life would be spent trying to find himself. Rather, I tell him that God has made you to become a good, strong man. There are differences in men, but there are also guideposts. He does not need me to tell him to search for his radical uniqueness, but to bring his gifts, personality and desires under the Lordship of Jesus, seeking the sort of manhood that his Heavenly Father has bestowed upon him.
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