Was watching a TV show last night and it got me thinking about a particular topic that I wanted to ask your thoughts on. It is pretty contentious so I understand if you refrain from commenting!
Questionn – What might God expect of trans-gender people? (Read on to better understand my question.)
Let me explain why I ask this. I was watching Eli Stone last night and one of the story lines running through the show was of a church pastor suing his church for ‘wrongful dismissal’…because HE had been a SHE when first hired, but had a sex change. The general thought presented throughout the show is that this is a prejudice that should not exist. Now, I doubt the writers of the show were trying to tackle this from a Christian perspective, but it opens up many, MANY questions.
I don’t myself really want to talk about whether trans-gender people should be pastors or not, that is a whole new level of deep and contentious thought. But what it got me thinking is, if a trans-gender person comes to Christ… what do they do? Would they be expected to do anything?
To explain this I need to give an illustration. It is ‘general’ (but not total) consensus that homosexuality and faith don’t mix. This isn’t to say that homosexuals cannot be saved, but that generally they would either have to decide to remain celibate OR look for heterosexual relationships only. I admit this isn’t what all streams of christian faith espouse, but it would have to be the main response. Though this is tough…it is entirely possible and you hear many stories of this happening.
So, what about trans-gender? The issues associated here aren’t so much sexuality (though they come into it) but also just about the person’s sex. Would it be expected of them that they go back to living ‘as God created them’ or would it be ok for them to continue living as their new sex? Does God HAVE an expectation here?
I don’t know if we can actually answer this because it would require constructing a box. Some streams of faith believe creating boxes is pivotal and some believe creating boxes is limiting God and the freedom he desires for us. But what about you? How would you approach the situation if a trans-gender person began attending your church? What is your theology, or your churches theology, or just your thoughts on this?
You see…I actually find it very hard to answer this very question. The ‘inner Pharisee’(thanks for that Hamo!) in me has me asking ‘Why are you even asking this question, of COURSE it would be expected that they live as God made them’. But then…this answer just doesn’t sit quite right. I am stuck between the tension of black and white land vs grey land.
Hmmm, this topic is challenging my mind greatly. Any thoughts from the blogosphere?
Wow! Crazy thought… I’ve always heard that good evangelism is messy, because when people like this get saved, what do you do? Personally though, I think they should reverse the sex change or remain celibate. Here’s why: If the trans-gendered person remained the new sex, they would be having relations with the opposite sex which is the trans-gender’s original. Because the trans-gender is not living the way God made them, God would see this as homosexual relations in light that the trans-gender would be having relations with their original and same sex. I would recommend they go back and fight the feelings of wanting to be the opposite sex. This is a sin they are born with like one could be born with lustful or prideful tendencies.
Sy Rogers was very close to having a sex change when he came to know Christ. (http://www.syrogers.com) He may have some resources that help with the issue.
I know it may sound like the easy option but maybe it would simply be a matter of helping such a person grow to know Christ more and more so that the Holy Spirit could direct them to the best course of action.
can i encourage you to reframe what you think to be the “majority” response to issues like homosexuality and christianity as being what a majority of people within the church world that you have brought up in may teach and believe.
The reason i say this Middo is that until i started to research what other arms of the church family believe about the same issue I thought it was a majority view too. However there are countless theologians and preachers and lay people, who after serious and careful consideration of the biblical text have come to the opposite conclusion as this “majority view”.
my concern is that I have discovered that something that i have assumed to be a pillar of “truth” for my entire church life, is based on very few verses and those verses are actually incredibly contested amongst bible scholars and theologians as meaning very different things.
Funny thing is, I’ve been more than happy to change my position on other “pillars” such as tithing, which were supposedly based on multiple layers of scriptural bedrock. So if i can move on tithing it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that I can move on issues of sexuality. My view is – let people be faithful to who they were created to be. If that means getting a sex change then let it be. If it means people committing to a long term, faithful same-sex relationship, then let it be – and if it means any of these people fulfilling a vocational call to ministry – then why would we want to stand in the way of a person’s vocation?
Funny thing is, as I continue to (re)inspect some of these pillars, the more i’m coming to understand they are constructed to protect a way of life we have come to need to be true – and that’s ok, as long as we recognise that these rules are often more about us feeling ok about ourselves and our way of life, than actually being True. But that’s just my take on things at this point of the journey.
I don’t see that transgender people are necessarily homosexual if they get an operation. Biological mutations DO occur, maybe they really were meant to be other than how they were born. Like a hermaphrodite, what if parents choose wrong? We don’t require brain transplants for retarded people.
Still, from people I know, the ones who believe they were meant to be the opposite sex have been so horribly abused that it’s a protective mechanism. I would never suggest that they have a SECOND operation, that’s just too much physical trauma to a body.
Gender setters – when doctors play God
Jill Stark May 31, 2009 SMH
Two former patients of Australia’s controversial sex-change clinic say misdiagnosis and wrongful surgery destroyed their lives….
http://www.smh.com.au/national/gender-setters-when-doctors-play-god-20090530-br14.html?page=-1
Capernaum Had No Gay Pride Parades
Topic: Sex and Culture Doug Wilson
When God is pleased to grant reformation and revival in our time, this will mean that our churches will begin to fill up with cleansed and forgiven sodomites.
It will be at that time that a difference will be seen between the righteousness of the Christian faith, and the “intolerance of faggotry” by hetero-worldly men.
http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=6609