Does anyone know what "redeem us from binaries" might mean?

[AG31]

It was part of a prayer at a church where everyone on the staff but one is gay. That’s for context. I assume it has something to do with not discriminating against non-binary people. But I can’t make it work. I only know binary as an adjective.
I’m hoping it’s a new term with a clear meaning that I just haven’t encountered before. But Google didn’t help one bit.

tia
ag

 

[Kumquatqueen]

A binary as a noun is any pair of things where you have to have one or the other. So black-and-white thinking, where everything or everyone is either good or bad, is a binary, and likely the sort they wanted people to avoid, because people and life are More Complicated Than That.

A gender binary (everyone has to be male or female) is just one example of Things Being More Complicated, and a reason not to look for the nice simple answers.

 

[StillStunned]

Presumably that church is locked in an eons-old struggle with some Zoroastrians.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

It's a common line of prayer in the Hexadecimalian church. They have been oppressed by the binaries for so, so long. If only they could find some common ground with the Octalian church, the fight would be so much easier...

 

[AlinaX]

O Lord, save us from this accursed hangover from Victorian morals. Let those who assert the binary nature of sex, sexuality and gender in all defiance of observed nature be shown the wickedness of their ignorant beliefs, and let once again the peoples of this world rejoice in the true diversity of the human soul. Amen

 

[StillStunned]

It's a common line of prayer in the Hexadecimalian church. They have been oppressed by the binaries for so, so long. If only they could find some common ground with the Octalian church, the fight would be so much easier...

The Hexadecimalian version of the Ten Commandments is so much stricter though, they lose a lot of followers because of that.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

The Hexadecimalian version of the Ten Commandments is so much stricter though, they lose a lot of followers because of that.

I am trying to figure out what would the other six commandments be...

The Octalians are probably quite popular with the LW crowd though. I am guessing they dropped the "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shall not kill"

 

[VerbalAbuse]

I know some stars are actually binaries -- unlike our own Sun.
Maybe they were afraid of them.

 

[intim8]

The Hexadecimalian version of the Ten Commandments is so much stricter though, they lose a lot of followers because of that.

The binaries only have two: 1. Thou Shall, 2. Thou Shall Not.

 

[intim8]

The Hexadecimalian version of the Ten Commandments is so much stricter though, they lose a lot of followers because of that.

I'm wondering how they render 0Xa through 0xf in Roman Numerals.

 

[StillStunned]

This thread has taken on a decidedly nerdy note.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Does anyone know what "redeem us from binaries" might mean?​

Something to do with Generative AI maybe?

Emily

 

[Yesok1]

Pussy, cock or either, and both.

Pussy, pleas!

Does it boil down to that? Or is that oversimplified?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

OP - mind-bending though all this has been, a serious question. Was your quote from a real church or from something you read or saw online?

 

[Rob_Royale]

O Lord, save us from this accursed hangover from Victorian morals. Let those who assert the binary nature of sex, sexuality and gender in all defiance of observed nature be shown the wickedness of their ignorant beliefs, and let once again the peoples of this world rejoice in the true diversity of the human soul. Amen

That's quite good.

 

[Britva415]

A binary as a noun is any pair of things where you have to have one or the other. So black-and-white thinking, where everything or everyone is either good or bad, is a binary, and likely the sort they wanted people to avoid, because people and life are More Complicated Than That.

A gender binary (everyone has to be male or female) is just one example of Things Being More Complicated, and a reason not to look for the nice simple answers.

As a queer person, this is how I take it, too.

@AG31 Cis/trans is not the only binary-of-identities that there is. Male/female and gay/straight are the most obvious among the others. But literally everything in the human condition is binary.

Some people are more asexual than others, and there aren't a lot of people who are 100% one or the other. Some people are more aromantic than others. Some people are more dom or sub than others. Some people are more sado/maso. Some people are more conforming than others.

Etc., etc., etc.

It would be weird for a gay church to be anti-"binary people." That would be just as homophobic as it would be heterophobic, and it would be both transphobic and cisphobic.

Maybe another way of looking at it would be as a form of "anti-labeling."

 

[ElectricBlue]

OP - mind-bending though all this has been, a serious question. Was your quote from a real church or from something you read or saw online?

It's a fairly mind boggling thing to hear from a pulpit, that's for sure. I tend to agree with Britva415's comment in the post above - it's something phobic, if you take it on face value.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

As a queer person, this is how I take it, too.

@AG31 Cis/trans is not the only binary-of-identities that there is. Male/female and gay/straight are the most obvious among the others. But literally everything in the human condition is binary.

Some people are more asexual than others, and there aren't a lot of people who are 100% one or the other. Some people are more aromantic than others. Some people are more dom or sub than others. Some people are more sado/maso. Some people are more conforming than others.

No, those are sliding scales, the exact opposite of a binary!

If you say gay/straight is a binary, you're denying the existence of bisexual people and that they're all either straight or gay 'really'. Even male/female isn't an actual binary given the existence of intersex people. All your other examples are similar - there may be more people at one or other end of a scale, but there are also many in between.

It would be weird for a gay church to be anti-"binary people." That would be just as homophobic as it would be heterophobic, and it would be both transphobic and cisphobic.

If they were, yes. But being against binary *thinking*, which is always over-simplistic even before you get to the biphobic and other dismissive conclusions, makes perfect sense.

Maybe another way of looking at it would be as a form of "anti-labeling."

Yes, but it's not just being anti-labels, it's opposing people who are ignoring facts that don't fit their world view. Someone who claims everyone is gay or straight and thus all bisexuals are just queers in denial isn't just mislabelling, they're denying reality.

Another example: laws or people saying that everyone is either disabled or disabled misses the huge complexity of impairments, the effects of surroundings (the social model), and leads to fuckers who go "you're not really disabled because you did X yesterday" (which is probably why the person can't do X again today) or even worse, "you can't not be able to X because you can do Y". Disability is a hugely complex spectrum, not a simple yes/no binary!

 

[Britva415]

No, those are sliding scales, the exact opposite of a binary!

If you say gay/straight is a binary, you're denying the existence of bisexual people

The endpoints are "a binary," but yeah, we're on the same page that these are all examples of spectrums.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The endpoints are "a binary," but yeah, we're on the same page that these are all examples of spectrums.

A binary doesn't have a middle, though - it's the wrong word. 0 or 1, a yes or no forced tickbox - those are binaries. As soon as there's anything that doesn't fit the box, you don't have a binary.

Which means there's pretty much no binary options involving people. Can/can't accept particular blood types was the only one I could think of, and even there there's exceptions (rhesus factor makes it quaternary, four options, and then there's other factors besides ABO that can become relevant...)

 

[AG31]

OP - mind-bending though all this has been, a serious question. Was your quote from a real church or from something you read or saw online?

A real church.

 

[StillStunned]

In the struggle against binaries, you're either with us, or you're against us.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

AG31. Damfino. Weird anyway one looks at it.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

A church said it, so it can't be anything good or paying mind to.