Archive for the ‘Christianity and Crossdressing’ Category
Testimony Movie - Religion, Coming Out And The Transgender Experience
Testimony is a documentary that explores the similarity in experience between evangelical Christians who accept Jesus Christ and that of gays and lesbian who come out for the first time. This documentary takes a unique look at people who have had both experiences in their lives - coming out and accepting Jesus Christ. As well as their struggle to accept themselves in spite of God’s seeming condemnation of their life style.
This is not a transgender movie
But there are still many parallels with the transgendered experience. The transvestite who struggles with her disillusionment at the church’s lack of acceptance. The crossdresser who has to cross an untraveled spiritual road, sometimes alone.
No, this movie is not a transgender movie, but rather a movie that captures the troubled journey so similar to ours, as told through the lives of our gay brothers and sisters. Rather than a deep cry against religion, the Testimony movie seeks to offer hope and encouragement to others who are struggling to live as who they are and love the God they know exists.
You can view a mini-film version of Testimony here, which provocatively opens with the question: “Is it possible to be religious and queer?” Where the answers range from the life affirming “Absolutely, I think that Jesus loves us all” and “Love knows no gender” to the hurtful “The people that I grew up with no longer speak to me”.
In my life it has been a struggle to reconcile being transgendered with following Jesus Christ. After many years of agony and soul searching I believe that crossdressing has made me more human. That I have a greater capacity for love and tolerance because I was blessed with being different. In accepting who I am, my soul has had to bend and shape itself to accept others for who they are.
How has being transgendered affected you?
Loading ...If you are struggling to reconcile your religious beliefs with being transgendered I strongly encourage you to take a look at the wonderful resources at transfaithonline
God Cannot Save the Crossdresser
This week I feel the Holy Spirit moving in me to share what’s on my heart about His son, and His love for us. Before I do so, I want to let you know about a wonderful blog I just discovered this evening called First Born Son. The author Omar is wonderfully in touch with the word of God, and the intentions of Jesus and shares his thoughts in a well written and often humorous manner.
The crossdresser is doomed
God cannot save her. In response to my recent post on why do men cross dress, Katie shared some of her thoughts about verses in the Bible that perhaps shouldn’t be taken at face value. It’s worth a read, and as you’ll see, verses such as Lev 1:9, Lev 15:19-24, Lev 25:44, Lev 11:10 and Lev 19:27 clearly demonstrate that there are parts of the Bible that are not directly applicable in the modern context. The verses vilify seafood, allow slavery and command against a good haircut.
Swimming within a sea of verses specific to the culture and society of the times, we encounter Deuteronomy 22:5 - the Christian Crossdressers kryptonite (try saying that three times fast!). The church doesn’t seem to have a problem dismissing all the verses in Leviticus, yet for some reason holds on to the verse against crossdressing. Strange. Who got to decide?
I digress though, I did not mean to
Lament about Christianity and Crossdressing
I’ve come to realize that no matter how long you stray from God, He is there waiting for you. I found it amazing, as I read through my Bible this evening how close I felt to God. It had been a while, and I’ve been going through some struggles reconciling my support for a church that has different political beliefs. Like a rush of water, or a warm ray of sunshine I could feel my heart drawing closer to God as I immersed myself in His word.
God’s word is more than just a book - it is a living and ever adapting expression of His will for us and His love. Tonight I am encouraged, because I know that in the grand scheme of things
God will not disown me for cross-dressing
Try Him. Spent some time searching for Him and He will show up. There is nothing like His presence to still a frantic heart, to bring rest to a weary soul.
May the weekend be filled with love for all of you.
—
P.S. Feeling tired and fat? Get a beautiful slender body with the Fat Loss Bible.
Sometimes the ‘men of God’ make me ashamed to be a Christian
In his quest to make ‘real men’ out of his parishioners Ken Hutcherson, pastor at the Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, WA was quoted in a recent sermon saying:
“God hates soft men” and “God hates effeminate men.” He went on to say, “If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end.”
Is that his answer to the question ‘What would Jesus Do?’
Perhaps king David was delusional when he said:
‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.’ - Psalms 139:13-14
Maybe the apostle John was misquoted in his old age when he said:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” - 1 John 7-8
It seems ‘God is love’ only holds as long as you’re not a soft man. And by soft, could Hutcherson perhaps mean: ’sensitive, caring, kind and gentle’? Yes, that’s what I picture when I think of a soft man. It also sounds suspiciously like the fruits of the Holy spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22. I guess that makes me worthy to be ‘beaten with the wet end’ of my own arm.
Now, pastor Ken tries to pass this off as a joke. If we believe him, it’s one made in extremely poor taste. Joke or no, I think it points to something deeper - to the doctrine of hate being preached in so many churches across the country.
It is unfortunate that senior leadership among many Christian denominations has allowed themselves to be defined by what they hate. Anti-abortion and anti-gay. Against pre-marital sex and against gay marriage. Somewhere in all the rhetoric, the message of hope, faith and love Jesus Christ came to preach is lost. Along with that, we Christians are losing the ability to influence others for the kingdom of God. We are no longer seen as a refuge from the world, but rather a group of people who will heap on judgement and guilt until the fragile, broken person has been molded into our own version of Christian virtue and purity. We no longer love people as they are, but rather as we believe they should be. Those who don’t conform are quickly tossed aside. Demonized and alone.
In the word’s of Dr Seuss, the Christian church is quickly becoming those who ‘don’t matter’.
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” - Dr Seuss
The pitfalls of being a good Christian crossdresser
There are Christians who ostracize the transgendered for being different. They say crossdressing is a sin. By submitting themselves to the will of the church, and fervently seeking God, a few of us have found freedom. Yet for most of us, no matter how hard we pray, how much we definitely want to be cured, how guilty we feel - we wake up each morning as who we are. A transgendered person. Not free, but shackled by the guilt heaped upon us by ‘loving’ and ‘well meaning’ Christian brothers and sisters.
There are other Christians who believe differently. Who believe that God loves the transgendered, and that who we are is not in. Many of these Christians have previously had the weight of the church’s disfavored poured upon them.
I believe, humbly, that whichever group of Christians we choose to believe, that there are dangers that lurk for us. If we submit to the first group, and label our transgendered-ness as sin, we label ourselves as sin. We do not accept who we are.. Then rather than let our light shine, we hide it under a bowl, trying to constrain our spirit. We live only the half-live of those who are afraid to love to much, or sing too loudly.
If we throw our lot behind those who accept and love us, we may be fooled into believing that our purpose is to be transsexual or transgender. In doing this we create a god our of our difference, and spend our days worshipping the desire to fully become woman.
Again Allyson has provided some insight for us.
I believe our challenge is to fully embrace who we are, while at the same time living for God. The transition is not an end unto itself, but a means to more fully fulfill God’s purpose in our lives.
Christianity Today comes up short for the transgender community
Christianity Today attempts to address how Christian leadership should treat the transgendered, but fails both in their compassion for people who are transgendered, and their interpretation of God’s Word. They begin by describing the situation John Nemecek found himself in - a former Baptist Pastor and long time dean at the Spring Arbor University had struggled for years with his gender identity. When he finally accepted his identity as a woman and found peace, he was fired from his job.
They demonstrate very clearly their lack of understanding by deriding what they term “liberal religious groups”, and say that “transgender impulses … don’t match up with the Christian sexual ethic.” I’ve been a Christian for most of my life and have no idea what the “Christian sexual ethic” is. Is it perhaps the ethic that rails against interracial marriage, or is the one that ensures woman are kept in their rightful place at home? It seems to me that the ‘Christian sexual ethic’ is conveniently defined to be whatever the conservative Christian community feels comfortable with this century.
Despite the paucity of their understanding of what God’s Word says about the transgendered, they do accurately recognize that a church community is likely to feel tension between welcoming us into their church, and keeping the peace with long standing church members. This is the unfortunate reality that we live in today.
I honestly think it is disgusting for conservative organizations to comment that we’re “wacky” and “radical”. I know very few transgendered folks who didn’t struggle for years to “be normal”.
“The transgender lobby is following the example of the homosexual lobby in that they are co-opting the language of the civil rights movement in order to push their own radical and wacky agenda,”
We are not a “violation of natural law” as some conservative Christian’s would have you believe. I do strongly believe that God can do anything, and should He choose to make us feel whole in the body we were born with, it is well within His power.
I am deeply angered by self righteous Christian who claim to know God’s word, yet they only choose to obey the commandments they conveniently self-selected.
Addendum:
After reading many of the comments on their website I’m heartened by the love, compassion and understanding so many of their readers have shown. I remain hopeful that if we would give it a chance, the love of Jesus Christ would shine through us all.
God’s calling for the transgendered
I was reading Psalm 86 today, and was reminded again of the beauty and wonder of our God. I’ll quote a portion of it, and I encourage you to read along in your own Bible, or if you don’t have one, to request one from your local church (they will be happy to provide one for you!).
Teach me your way, O Lord,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.
For the transgendered a Christian walk can sometimes be a struggle. It is easy for us to get lost in the struggle against an uncaring church, against our unsatisfied conscience, against the body God gave us. We would do well to heed the wisdom in David’s prayer, asking God with fervent prayer to teach us in His ways. When we focus our attention on pleasing God our strife fades away. When we allow ourselves to become enamored with God’s will He makes our purpose clear, and gives us strength to walk in it.
When I think about an undivided heart, I think about putting aside my quest for wholeness, and following God’s plan. You cannot worship yourself as a woman, and God at the same time. I know how hard this is. Who we are plays such a large part in shaping our life experience - it is hard to go a day without thinking about our unique character. We need to be careful that we do not put our obsession with self ahead of God.
Once we do that we are blessed to glorify God forever, and experience His great love towards us.
If you’re reading this and feeling lost, alone and unloved, I want you to know that Jesus Christ will never leave you. He loves you so much that He endured death on the cross to allow you to have a relationship with God. If you are hurting, leave a comment, reach out. I will say a prayer for you.
Love
Crossdressing and church…
Often the hardest thing for you to do as a crossdresser to do is to reconcile crossdressing with your faith. In my previous article I wrote about crossdressing as it relates to sin. Hopefully you have started the journey down the road to accepting who you are, and learning to love God with all the might and soul of the person He (She) made you to be. Reaching that point is something to be celebrated - it is a long road to acceptance that few have undertaken.
You may be wondering though, how to come to terms with the stigma that Christians have placed on you as a transgendered person. I’ve found it helpful to ask the question Would Jesus Discriminate?. After reading this, and some of the material made available by the Metropolitan Church it should be clear that throughout history Christians have made many grave mistakes.
Christians have supported slavery, opposed the right of woman to vote and opposed interracial marriage. That is to say nothing of the brutal and violent crusades that were perpetrated in the name of God. I know that the God I worship looked on in great sadness at the action of these Christians.
If you are not ‘out’, and choose to keep your crossdressing a secret, then attending church shouldn’t pose much of a problem. For those of us who go out in public wearing woman’s clothes and living our alter ego this may pose more of a dilemma. Especially if you would like to attend church in your feminine persona.
I strongly recommend that you talk with your pastor before showing up to church in your best Sunday dress. It is possible that your pastor will support your wish to attend church dressed, or perhaps while not giving outright support may tolerate it - at least as long as it doesn’t cause a stir in the church family.
At worst, you may want to look for a church that is more open to transgendered people. The Metropolitan Church I mentioned earlier is openly welcoming of those in the transgendered community.
God bless you in your journey. May He bring you closer, lead your life with love and help you become the person you were meant to be.
They say there is no cure for crossdressing
Search the Internet for “cure crossdressing”, and you’ll find a plethora of web pages telling you that there is no cure for crossdressing. They’ll have this statement in bold, italics, capitalized, as if it were some golden truth to center your life on.
The next thing they’ll do is lambaste anyone for suggesting that it is something that needs curing (surely only diseases need curing?!). I’ll address the second point in a later post. As you can see by my previous post I don’t believe that crossdressing is ‘evil’, ‘wrong’, ’sin’, or anything of that nature. These judgments are distracting and only serve to allow one group of people to feel superior to another, and cover over flaws they perceive in themselves.
I’ll tackle the question of being ‘incurable’ first.
We have a mistaken notion that because we do not know how something is cured, that it is not possible for there to be a cure. You hear stories every week of people who have been cured from cancer without undergoing any treatment, and often just months after the doctor diagnosed them.
Hold on, isn’t cancer ‘incurable’? Or at best there is some chance that the treatment we give (chemo) could facilitate a cure (with no guarantees). How then , could these people be cured without any treatment?!
I don’t know how, but I do know that it happened.
If you are a Christian, I have another challenge for you.
Jesus healed the blind man, and he could see again.
Jesus healed the lame man, and he could walk again.
Jesus told us (John 14:12) that we would do even greater things than this if we have faith in Him.
How trivial it must be for Him to cure crossdressing.
Yet in all our ‘wisdom’ and power we prevent this cure. We have more faith in the incurable nature of crossdressing than we do in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus told us (Matt 17:20) that even faith as small as a tiny seed will allow us to move mountains.
It seems it will take much less faith than that for us to cure crossdressing.
So what can you do right now?
If you believe a cure to crossdressing is right for you (see post below):
1. Ask God to cure you
2. Believe that you are being cured
3. Picture who you will be when you are cured (don’t think ‘not a crossdresser’, bring to mind those qualities of your masculinity you’ll treasure when you’re no longer a crossdresser).
4. See yourself as this person. Be this person.
5. Give thanks to God for your new life. Receive the healing.
It may take a while for the cure to manifest itself in your life. Maybe weeks, or months. Continue picturing yourself as the person you’ll be when you are cured. Continue giving thanks to God for your new life.
Don’t keep asking to be cured, you’ve asked once, just believe that you’re receiving the cure. If you keep asking, you’re expressing doubt that you’re actually being cured.
If you need encouragement or support, please leave a comment.
My Purpose
I received my membership renewal forms for Tri-Ess yesterday. I thought I would share the comments I wrote, as I declined to renew.
After much soul searching, pain and gnashing of teeth I have realized that crossdressing was ’something I did’, not ‘who I was’. Through God’s grace I’m being healed each day, and led deeper into my true purpose in this life.
I thank Tri-Ess for their support as I found my true purpose. Even though I believe differently for my life, the grace and hope you extend to thousands of others is a priceless treasure.
My challenge to you is this - what is your true purpose in life?
Is crossdressing helping you to fulfill this purpose?
If the answer ‘yes’ to the second question comes from deep within your soul, I wish you all the best on your journey through life.
If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to the second question, I urge you to spend time finding your true purpose, and invest all your passion and energy into that. If crossdressing was not part of it, you’ll find it’s grip on you fading with time.
Please take some time to look at some of the resources I’ve linked to. They will be helpful for you, no matter where your true purpose lies.
God Bless
What does a cure look like?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and thought that it bears some clarification.
When I talk about ‘cure’, I’m not talking about SRS (sex reassignment surgery), which in some circles is regarded as a cure – you become who you were meant to be. This presupposes that who you were meant to be is someone of the opposite sex. There are many crossdressers who are happy dressing part time, and for whom SRS would ruin their lives. I also don’t mean ‘never thinks about crossdressing again’, as this is a fairly high bar for a cure, and is surely as inane as asking a dieter to never eat another donut again.
The dictionary defines cure as: ‘a means of healing or restoring to health’
I’d love your comments on this, but as a start, let’s use this as a working definition for cure:
Removing the continuous compulsion to dress in clothes of the opposite sex, and thus the act of dressing that typically follows.
