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.
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Tags: Christian crossdresser, crosdresser, crossdreser, crossdressed, transgender religion, transvestite
February 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Okay, CT has this whole long article quoting both anti-LGBT and pro-LGBT people who assert the Bible has nothing to say about transgender people and they never once mention eunuchs? The whole story of Esther would fall apart if it were not for the surgically altered gender variant eunuchs. But beyond eunuchs, there are plenty of other individuals that good Biblical exegesis reveals as gender variant.
Ah, there is work to be done to help Christians read this Bible they think they know so well. Not only are there trans folks in the Bible, but they serve as the most important people in some of the most important stories in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.
Thanks for your post!
February 13th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Thanks for jumping on this so quickly, Vanessa. The one good thing that might come from CT’s sadly predictable article is the broader conversation it will generate in evangelical culture. Your voice is one of the first in that conversation!
November 4th, 2008 at 9:53 am
From a Christian perspective are trans gendered people ever going to be accepted? I don’t think so. I have been struggling with this issue off and on for years and I have studied it extensively over the past two years. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The whole book of First John gives us a really good indication as to what a saved person looks like versus the unsaved. 1 cor 6:9-11 is brutally honest about how things are in Gods economy. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. What the heck am I as a crossdresser supposed to do with this verse? Either in Greek or English it says the same thing. Any who fall into these categories are screwed and we all as human beings fall into these categories. We are born in sin period. We are fallen people born to fallen parents living in a fallen world. I was born to alcoholic parents and through nature or nurture was given an effeminate heart. I lied to myself about my condition and over compensated to the extreme to all the world I was a mans man, but in my heart i was half and half. I drank and fornicated treating women like dogs and became the very thing I hated. Now at forty five by the grace of God through faith in Christ I am no longer any of those, but now the struggle with my feminine side enters the fray. Can i present myself to the world as a woman and not be in sin? Once again if I do this I become a liar and will not inherit the kingdom. I repented of alcoholism and it left me I repented of blasphemy(using God’s name as a cussword} and I only occaisionally slip up. The honesty thing is getting tough because if I deny that these feelings exist then I lie to protect my name and if I go with them i lie to the world about my gender. God is sovereign and does not make mistakes. I was given a penis for a reason. I was given my psyche for a reason. He in his mercy has seen fit to save me through the death and resurection of His son Jesus. The point of this rambling tirade is this: If I as an individual am so conflicted about this then how can the church and it’s people not be conflicted about this. For my own salvation I have chosen to err on the side of caution. I will not crossdress publically or privately because I do not want to grieve God by my actions. This life is short. Christ specifically says if you love me keep my commandments. Obedience is God’s love language. It is my personal conviction that if I deny myself and take up my cross daily then better things lie ahead. We as Christians Should put what God wants ahead of our own desires. We should then place the needs of others ahead of ourselves. Lastly our own wants and needs come into play. What has bothered me about most of the posts in the Christian section of this blog is that it is all about me. How can I make God fit into what I want? You can’t He created you and He decides the rules. Practicing GLBT’s may find acceptance in churches where the word of God isn’t being preached, but they will never find acceptance where it is. It is not the people who are intolerant of these things it is simply that God’s word is extremely plain about it. Repentant GLBT’s will find acceptance and help with the struggle. Food for thought. I was born with a predisposition to be a drunk. Science has found a genetic link to alcoholism. Since I was born that way does it mean I should have the rights and privileges under the law to act however I want, even to the point of redefining tolerance in our society to mean everyone must validate my drunkeness or be guilty of a hate crime? No that is preposterous. Yet the GLBT’s want everyone to validate them. Reality says it’s not going to happen. We are tolerated that is for the most part allowed to chose how we live. Just because I was born with the desire to act like a girl does not give me the right to inflict it on those who are uncomfortable with it. For this life I have been given a role to play. That role is male. I may not like it but if I am going to honor the One who created me I must accept it and know in heaven I may be female, or Heaven will be so amazing that none of this matters. As a man who has struggled with this issue for forty years I am not unsypathetic. I love all of you and understand that all of us have struggled with this. God’s word says what it says and we obey or disregard it. Love in Christ Bill
April 8th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Transsexualism is not a sin. Here are my reasons:
In OT law we do not follow most of the 613 laws laid out by moses and the early rabbi’s. If we did follow the transvestite rule women cannot wear pants. Not to mention clothing is subject to culture. Secondly I am Bi Polar, God did not make me have it, it is a result of sin in the world. There are hermaphrodites of the body, why not the mind? To assume God makes people with mistakes like downsyndrome is blasphemous. Sin is always an issue of the heart therefore if a transwoman marries a man it is not homosexuality because neither are marrying the same sex in spirit. God understands. Though genetically yes they are both male Sin is an issue of the heart. Look at what Jesus said about sin. I rest my case. And as a transwoman I hate how christians are judging me, some of my closest friends for beginning the process of hrt