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Christianity Today, February, 2008 |

The Transgender Moment

Evangelicals hope to respond with both moral authority and biblical compassion to gender identity disorder.

John W. Kennedy | posted 2/12/2008 08:40AM

John Nemecek struggled with gender confusion from early childhood. Marrying at age 21 didn't change that confusion. Neither did raising three sons—all of whom are themselves now happily married. ...

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Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 25, 2008 6:05 AM

Charlie Ray: “There is zero evidence proving that either homosexuality or the transgender condition are biologically or genetically predetermine.” On what basic can you credibly make that remark? Have you investigated this? Assuming you made your remark in “good faith,” then I can answer your question: you have NOT investigated this. I have, and while the current state of our knowledge about HS and TG (which should not be lumped together, BTW), is that biology (nature) and personal experience (nurture) both have a role. No one understands this well, and it is just as much a mistake to say that this is Sin (with no other qualification), than it is to say that such people have No Responsibility (with no moral qualification). Yes, HS and TG ultimately boil down to our fallen selves and fallen world, but just telling such people to “stop sinning” is no more helpful than telling an alcoholic to “stop drinking" (to use a over-simple example). Please educate yourself before commenting.

Charlie Ray

Posted: February 24, 2008 6:23 AM

I'm saddened that people have been duped by the propaganda of the liberal left. There is zero evidence proving that either homosexuality or the transgender condition are biologically or genetically predetermined. The short of is that psychological disorders are a result of the sinful human nature. Rebellion is merely a symptom of a deeper malady. It's called total depravity. Sin has so corrupted the human nature that no area of the human nature is left untainted, including the ability to properly reason. I find the rational basis for the so-called transgender condition to utterly and completely absurd.

Shawn

Posted: February 23, 2008 4:41 PM

man or women doesnt decide there gender God does if you cant deal with it and try to change Gods plan then you are in fact fighting against Gods will. So i say pray not do what we as sinful man seems to be right .I have tatoos from before i accepted Christ that i had done because I thought it was going to make me into what i wanted to be what a bunch of hog wash God says our body is our temple time to treat it like so

Hening

Posted: February 23, 2008 8:45 AM


These people need our prayers in order to be lead out of temptation. These are tragic circumstances, and trying to rearrange the rest of creation around ones sexual desires (internal/external) is folly.

Another who is Transgender and Christian

Posted: February 22, 2008 6:16 PM

I am transgender. I sit next to you at church. I have a husband. I have an adopted child who looks just like me. You could never pick me out of a crowd. I'm a high school teacher, and a member of the PTA. I was married in the church, and I have been a member for many years. I transitioned when I was young, so much of my early life seems a distant memory. My family completely accepts who I am. My relationship with God is one of peace, and I know that he loves me. I believe that the reality of being transgendered has been distorted by the media. Most of the people that you see on television revel in the attention, and their motives need to be seriously questioned. Jesus taught us that we should love one another, not condemn each other. If you remember he said, " Let him without sin cast the first stone." Is condemning and judging another a sin? I believe so. Is telling someone they aren't worthy of God's love a sin? I think so.

Rick	Posted: February 20, 2008 11:54 AM

Dalymar, would you give the same advice to parents of a child born with a congenital heart defect? Cystic Fibrosis? Spinae Bifida? If "God does not make mistakes" means that people are always, without exception, born exactly the way that they are supposed to remain, why on earth are people born with such hideous defects? Should they remain that way? This is the logical conclusion of your argument. As to blaspheming the Spirit, even the Lord Jesus, in the text you are referring to, did not dare to accuse his hearers of such a thing (though he certainly had the right to do so). Yet you freely condemn this person of such a hideous charge? Maybe you are woefully ignorant of what you are referring to (please tell me you wept for the "condemned" as you wrote that), but your accusations may be closer to that sin than her mishearing of the Spirit's voice. These comments are fundamentalism at its worst. People opining without mercy about soul-crushing issues of unimaginable complexity

Anna	Posted: February 19, 2008 10:49 PM

We all have our sin/addiction. The whole idea of God and Jesus is that we so concentrate on God and Jesus that we abstain from sin/addiction. Yes, its hard to put aside sin/addiction but since many of us do it everyday of our lives, others can do it. I don't expect Church not to expect me to abstain and to put my mind on Jesus. If I demand the Church allow me to keep on doing my sin/addiction than I and they are not true Christians and not a true Church. Jesus said go and sin no more. Hey its hard but you need to demand that psychiatrists and counselors help you fulfill your wish to sin no more, not to accept the sin so you can keep "enjoying it". Accepting the sin keeps you in it and what you deep down really want to do is get away from the sin. Jesus knows that. That's what the psychiatrists and counselors need to get and for some reason they don't come from this angle these days. Acceptance and keep doing it is in, getting out or abstaining from the sin is out. No effort, no joy.

Ephilei

Posted: February 19, 2008 4:57 PM

Wow, this article is awful! There are so many factual errors. If anyone cares, I nitpicked thru them all - http://ephilei.blogspot.com CT is usually so credible. What happened here? Someone needed to fact check this before publishing. The Church (most of us) are making the mistake that God does create every single person as totally XX female or XY male. That's not true! There's XXY, XO, XXXY, XY+XX, XXs with pensises and XYs with vaginas. Why does the Church ignore this sexual minority? What's an XY with a vagina supposed to do? What about those with a vagina and (partial) penis? Seriously? The only way to address all people is to accept that God doesn't make everyone male OR female, God makes some of us male AND female. Like me. That means actually rethinking about gender, not just spouting out Christian tradition as this article suggests. There are transgender people in Scripture (eunuchs, to start). Jesus screwed tradition when tradition screwed minorities. The Church should too

Shel	Posted: February 19, 2008 1:19 PM

The challenge for evangelicals is to not try to change everyone they don't agree with or understand! This article attempts to appear deep, but it quite shallow and biased. If marriage between one man and one woman is the biblical "norm" how is Abraham's fathering a child by a concubine and other sexual/family variations in the Bible explained? Since transsexuals are not specifically mentioned in scripture how is their "sinfulness" determined? What is the natural/God's order? Is surgery to remove cancer sinful? Is it sinful to reconstruct faces that have been burned? Many would say no but still call Gender confirming surgery sinful. It would be wise if we remembered that we are ALL sinful in many ways and that it is by God's mercy alone we are redeemed.

Gwynedd

Posted: February 19, 2008 8:20 AM

I am delighted that I read this article. After half a century of believing that I should have been born with a female body because God gave me that soul, in spite of having a male body, I realize I was wrong. God never makes mistakes. Yes, this is absolutely true. Christians must immediately close all hospitals, make the medical profession illegal, and not attempt to change anything God has done. According to this theology, it is sin to repair the cleft palates of babies, treat spinal bifida and a heinous sin to separate conjoined twins. God never makes mistakes. In truth I believe God does not make mistakes, but the true Christian realizes that Satan is the lord of the physical world and much suffering and many deformities occur in a creation that could have been perfect before it became fallen and ruined through sin. My God sent the Jesus who healed the blind, the diseased and the lame. And I praise Him that He walks with me.

Stellewriter

Posted: February 18, 2008 6:20 PM

Every ten minutes a child is born ambiguous, 1/2500, in which the doctor cannot determine the sex, or gender. As a conservative Christian, parent, transitioned, and "Transsexual", I can understand the many concerns some may have. However, this is truly not a binary world, at least not after the fall of Adam & Eve. These children who are Intersex and Transsexual; are born into a life of not male or female. Likewise in similar fashion the Transsexual is identified with a Bioneurological congenital condition; they too are locked into something not quite so clearly defined as male, or female. The best they can do is live as close to what we seem to believe we are. That may preclude the wants, and often ignorant and bigoted beliefs of others. In what case do we ignore this issue and abandon the children who now cannot hide? How can anyone continue in hate and prejudice so as to deny simple equality and justice? We are not so rightly divided man and woman, nor are all of the issues

eryl	Posted: February 18, 2008 3:18 PM

I sympathize with anyone suffering from GID or for that matter, homosexuality, anger at God for not providing an outlet for normal sex outside of marriage. Just because you have psychologists and psychiatrist agreeing with deviant lifestyles and sexual urges doesn't make it right. The Word of God is our standard of right and wrong. I see a parallel between proper treatment for Mental Illness, where you can get some weird solutions to your thoughts and feeling (for example: go hug a tree) and where you can get Biblically based counceling and medications for treatment. But the individual has to make the choice to either go God's way or the way of the world. We in the church need to treat those with sexual identity problems with genuine love, which doesn't include mutilating the body God gave you. He saw each of us as we were made in our Mother's womb. Jesus told us to love God and our neighbor, not to tell God He made a big mistake in creating me the way he did.

Shauna

Posted: February 18, 2008 12:20 PM

I believe with every essence of my being that the Almighty created me as transsexual. To deny that is to deny the Hand that created me. I won't do that. My church has welcomed and accepted me with open arms, and I continue my ministry as cantor and musician. Nowhere in the 4 Gospels does Jesus condem the LGBT community - and that is the only Scripture that really matters. When the Second Comming happens, the Master won't appear at the Vatican nor in Jerusalem. Neither will he appear in Mecca, Hill Cummorah or any other religious center. He will appear among the homeless. He will be with the poor of Calcutta. He will be serving hot meals in soup kitchens. He will be giving strength to the child that has been thrown out because he is gay. He will be holding the hand of someone dying of AIDS. And He will be with us as we are beaten to death in a hate crime - with the last thing we hear screamed at us being various curses and scriptural quotes - and welcome us home.

Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 17, 2008 1:27 PM

...concluded: I am very disappointed that some transgendered people have taken their issue into the political realm, trying to force people to accommodate them. Transgenderism is NOT normal, and transsexualism is even more rare (1/30,000 persons, last I read). I AM transgendered, and it’s a relatively private issue for me – I would never dream of forcing myself on society (and I’ve resolved it as described in my earlier posts). Yet some transgendered have become political in reaction to the leper-like treatment received from societies that are at least (nominally) Christian. Too many true Christians assume that God can’t love the transgendered because of the assumed equivalence to homosexuality, and miss the point that the only people God rejects are those who reject Him. Even if we think transgenderism/transsexuality is sinful, we should love the sinner while hating the sin. (That indicts a great many of the comments I've read here.)

Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 17, 2008 1:27 PM

...continued: I sense it all boils down to this issue (for Christians): God made man in His image; male and female He created them (Gen. 1:27) On the one hand some think this is such a foundational distinction that God would NEVER allow there to be any confusion, and to suggest otherwise is to make God fallible (which He isn’t). The other view is that as important as the distinctions between the sexes are, they are every bit as subject to the fall of man and the curse of creation as everything else. And while God intends things to continue as He created them, He allows the curse to warp them. (Why, I don’t fully understand, but neither do any of you fellow readers, Biblical clichés not withstanding.) I’m convinced that the Biblical and empirical evidence favor the later view. Continued...

Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 17, 2008 1:27 PM

...continued: That there are transgendered people is a fact that neither trivializing nor spiritualizing will deny. It is also a fact the Bible does not address the issue directly, which means it’s a gray area. There is a little biblical evidence to suggest that God doesn’t want us playing games with gender distinctions (Duet. 22:5, 1 Cor. 11:14) (transvestite?); there is also evidence to suggest that people who go further, for non-trivial reasons, are no more worthy of demonization than anyone else (Mt. 19:12, Acts 8:34-39) (transgender/transsexual?). The vastly larger degree to which the Bible speaks of homosexuality underscores this point. As an important aside, notice how Jesus acknowledges that some eunuchs are BORN that way, and He does not condemn the fact that some are MADE that way either: the concept of the eunuch is the closest that the Bible comes to addressing the transgendered. Continued...

Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 17, 2008 1:26 PM

Clint Frank, certainly scriptural authority is paramount. However, there is a lot more going on in life than is spelled-out in the Bible. God gives us principles, some clear commands, and many real-life examples. The Bible is our “user manual” if you will. However, it makes no claim to being a book on how EVERYTHING works (including humans) or the reasons for everything. It contains the information we need to be reconciled to God and to live God-pleasing lives. Clint, while your general principle is sound, you have not even attempted to show us where medical information is contradicting the Bible in this case. This is as close as the Bible approaches the transgender topic (though not without a degree of tenderness): Mt. 19:12, Acts 8:34-39. I think there is quite a bit of sinfully-expressed anger on both side of this issue. The majority side anger seems to come from fear, ignorance, and resentment; the transgender anger from being misunderstood and grossly vilified. continued...

Clint Frank

Posted: February 17, 2008 6:50 AM

Gender Identity Disorder? As Christians we are to use the Word of God as our final authority NOT A MEDICAL WEBSITE. Since what point in time did God place women in mens bodies ? and visa vera WHERE DOES THIS LINE UP WITH SCRIPTURE ??? The root of this problem is rejection of who they are in their chidhood years. And they need deliverance from it ! Jesus came to SET THE CAPTIVES FREE!!!. The reason people are conforming to worldly thinking is because the most of the church "has a form a godliness but DENIES GODS POWER !!!" they deny healing and deliverance , so people a decieved by the enemy through their feelings. Once you FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE HURT YOU and encounter YOUR HEAVENLY FATHERS LOVE all confusion WILL be GONE !!!

Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 16, 2008 11:44 AM

Kari, sorry for all my misspellings; I do my best proofreading after I hit send! The reason I wrote to you about belief, faith and intimate tie to the concept of trust, is because It’s so easy for people, and especially people like us to have difficulty trusting others, and more importantly, trusting God. He has set before us many tests all of which boil down to this: will we trust God even when everything in the whole world, even our desires, even our identity, even our sexual identity tells us NO! How can we love God? It is through trust, and EVERYTHING ELSE will flow from this trust: every fault, blemish, sin that we have will eventually be rooted-out and cast away from us as we trust His Spirit to work in our lives. How will He do this? He will us His Word, the Bible; He will use His people, the Church; He will use unbelievers and our circumstances. Our work is to LET HIM work in us -- THAT, is the active trust He desires of all of us -- hard as it can be, I've seen it work in me!

Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 16, 2008 11:21 AM

...continued: Dear Kari, He loves you as much as He loves me or anyone one else. You and I, and a relatively few others in the world struggle down this particular path; it’s a lonely path that no one understands well, and most loathe. Yet we too are His adopted children if we believe God has sent Jesus to reconcile us to Himself, even through His death on the cross. It will not be long for any of use (for our lives are truly like the grass that fades) before we meet Him; He will correct all that is wrong; He knows us into our deepest being. We who live in inner struggles such as ours have a special understanding of this. I expect to meet you soon Kari, and it will be glorious! (1 John 3:2-3) "Father, please be with those of us who walk this path, to bring use close to You in a way that pleases and honors You. You have shown us there is a place in Your heart and kingdom for the enuch (Matt 19:12), and we want be what you created us to be, though that may not be clear to us now. Amen!"

Brett Blatchley

Posted: February 16, 2008 11:12 AM

Kari, God requires one thing of us only: believe in the one He sent (that is Jesus). What it is to believe? Certainly it is to know, but it is much more; belief, faith, is active trust. (If you believe a chair will hold your weight, you will trust your body enough to sit in it – THAT’S the kind of belief/faith that God is talking about). There are many scriptures that support this, and I’ve starred the ones my spirit senses you need to here: John 6:28-29****, John 1:12-13, 12:44-45, 14:11-12, 20:31, Acts 8:37-39***, 16:31, 19:4, Rom 4:21-24, Rom 6:8-9***, Rom 10:8-13***, 1 Thes 4:14- 18***, Heb 11-12***, I John 3:23 ***, 5:13-14***. continued...

kari	Posted: February 16, 2008 2:39 AM

I must comment, I have dealt with this issue my whole life, I don't believe in homosexuality. I am male, but have never functioned well as a male, I have and do feel female. I am attracted to women, which has always made me search my faith. I like the comment that God doesn't make mistakes. Wisdom comes from God, I believe that homosexuality, and transgender like many other things, such as infants dying shortly after birth, hair lips, born diseased, or born attached to another person, missing limbs are all caused from sin. We are born into sin, he that overcomes will inherit all things... back to myself, I've been alone for years, I was cheated on constantly, women have found me unmanly, needy, too soft, the list goes on and on. God doesn't make mistakes, but sometimes we need to repair things that sin has created. It's a constant fight, and the guilt, and does God hate me, and God I wish I was a woman. I have children, I love and I am afraid, and I love God, and I feel alone.

Janice

Posted: February 15, 2008 3:27 PM

God doesn't make mistakes. I grew up thinking that I was a man in a woman's body. However, most of my rejection of my identity was because I was rejected as a female by my brothers and father. I was overweight growing up and they teased me unmercifully about my weight. So when adolescence hit, I became as masculine as I could in hopes to find acceptance. But deep down I knew that what I was doing was wrong. It wasn't until I was an adult in my 30's that I realized my deep rooted rebellion against God and that I had to allow forgiveness to flow to my family. I also had to speak the Word of God that I am fearfully and wonderfully made and to make the choice to live as the woman He created me to be. As a I prayed for Him to unite my heart to fear His name, I found that He was helping me to do just that. Ten years later, my feminine personality has emerged, and I have such a peace knowing that my outside person now matches my inside person.

t	Posted: February 15, 2008 2:08 PM


no SIN, vERONICA, THEY ARE CONFUSED AND NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT SIDE GOD WANTS THEM ON. MALE OR FEMALE.

charles

Posted: February 15, 2008 12:32 PM

there is alot of people living this double life, I was one of them- a pastor, called of God into a holiness ministry. The late Decease Jack Frost always said, a need that is not makes one ill, but a need met makes one well. I believe in inner healing through the power of the cross of Christ, for years I fought with transgender feelings in my life, all I wanted was to be normal wheater a man or a women,I wanted peace, I was classified transgender by doctors and counselors, my life was torn I had a wounderful wife and family, what was I going to do? I would soon be 50, well Father God made a way I don't have enough words left in this box to share all, But there is hope with the love of Christ and the power to recognize where the need was not met in are life and what was the result of it, God can bring healing not only to me but also my wife. I have learn to walk in God's true love I have been free for 5 wounderful years, Transgender people please don't just go by your feelings seek God

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