That this is now a thing in the world should cause every Christian church to respond with similar shows of peaceful mourning.

The Greek Orthodox church is protesting a recently passed transgender law that would allow for someone as young as 15 years old to change their sex, simply by a simple declaration.

Specifically:

“On the Free Change of Sex” passed with 171 votes in a 300-member Parliament on October 10 with the strong backing of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. It grants legal recognition to sex changes without any requirement other than the desire of the applicant, allowing anyone age 15 or older to legally change gender.

The new law officially makes gender a matter of personal choice completely unrelated not only to biology but to any medical or psychological diagnosis confirming gender dysphoria. The government sanction on gender-by-declaration need not be evidenced by therapy, testing, counseling, hormones, or surgery.

The position of the Greek Orthodox church is, correctly, that gender dysphoria is a mental illness, and should be treated, not humored.

In response to this affront to the natural order and dignity of human life, Metropolitan Ambrose of Kalavryta and the clergy of his diocese are ringing their church bells every day at noon, for 3 minutes.

Those bells are normally reserved to signal joy before a service, mourning before funerals, as alerts to the community about important news, or to warn of coming attacks.

I’m going to say this isn’t a joyous event.

“It is an outrageous inspiration for someone to change his gender in a few minutes, with a simple declaration, so contrary to what God has gifted people with,” the clergy of the diocese wrote in a released statement. “Whoever has ‘gender dysphoria’ is mentally ill.”

And they are correct.

I’m of the belief that gender dysphoria isn’t the only mental illness involved with this move that’s sweeping across the globe. Liberalism, and a sick, humanist idea that the laws of nature and God can be twisted and subverted without a price to pay is dangerous for us all.

Yes, I just called liberalism a mental disorder.

“We are engulfed by unease as to what the future is preparing for us,” the monks of Mount Athos wrote to the Ministers of Education and Justice of the Greek Republic. Is it really permissible in our Orthodox fatherland to legally and blatantly defy Divine law?  ‘God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them’ (Gen. 1:27).”

Indeed, but world governments, puffed up by their own self-importance now eschew God’s Word. They think that they can legislate a better pathway for life than the author of all life.

How foolish.

Orthodox Church leaders unanimously condemned the law as “immoral,” “blasphemous,” “unnatural,” “madness,” “satanic,” “sin,” an “affront to society” and a threat to “the sanctity of family.” The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece warned that the law will result “in the dissolution of social cohesion and the spiritual death of man.”

Again, every syllable there is correct.

This is an egregious attack on the family, society, and God. Any government that sanctions it should know that it won’t come without rebuke.

Along with condemning the new law and ringing the bells in protest, the Orthodox faithful are also calling on Parliament to repent. They’re putting up posters around the largest city in the diocese, Aigion, citing that they do not hate the sinner, but hate the sin.

That’s the right attitude. Hate the sin. Love the sinner, because we were all there, once.

And again, people who think a cosmetic fix is the same as completely changing their gender are mentally ill. They may not be able to help themselves.

What we don’t do is cater to a grave mental illness, corrupting our societies, in the process.