Transgender And Christianity: A study On the Biblical Position Of Transgender.
"Religion has been used in history to discriminate against various groups of people by justifying slavery, denying women the right to vote, and persecuting religious minorities," says Jimmy Creech, executive director of Faith in America. "Today it is being used to persecute lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people."
Could we truly say the Religion is an oppressive mechanism in the hands of an oppressor in terms of civil and cultural rights? Can we be correct to view Religion as a way of life that seeks to readdress Issues to bring Redemption all Humanity and to reflect the Love of God to all Humanity regardless of their state of fallenness or uprightness.
The issue of Transgender or Gender Identity has posed enormous challenges both to Religion and Politics. Debates have ranged from Politician seeking to legalise and provide legal protection to theologian searching the normality of such positions by both Politicians and Ministers of the Gospel.
Furthermore, the church seems to be divided on the matter as evidenced by reactions from Heather Ann Clements, former head of the theology department at Azusa Pacific University (APU) in Los Angeles who argues that the Bible defends those who renounce their birth gender.
While a leading biblical expert on homosexuality said it condemns them as an "abomination." The debate still rages on and a conclusive agreement is yet to be arrived at by the church and theologian.
God views every individual as He made them. While He did not make clones, he did create males and females with certain unique sexual characteristics. He also intended for males to manifest primarily masculine characteristics, and for females to manifest primarily feminine characteristics, although both sexes reflect aspects of both the masculine and the feminine in varying degrees. Along with those traits, He has provided direction on how we are to relate to one another.
People who identify as transgender or transsexual are usually people who are born with typical male or female anatomies but feel as though they’ve been born into the “wrong body.” For example, a person who identifies as transgender or transsexual may have typical female anatomy but feel like a male and seek to become male by taking hormones or electing to have sex reassignment surgeries.
American Psychiatric Association, which declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, still classifies the condition of transgender as a disorder.
The “transgendered” label reflects a sexual identity confusion and not a true condition. God doesn’t create a person with the genitals of a male and the consciousness and heart of a female.
However, Denmark is set to become the first country to no longer define being transgender as a mental illness.Government officials said classifying transgender people as mentally ill was “stigmatising” and they had “run out of patience” with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) work on the definition. According to them they want to do away with the stigmatisation of such people and are arguing that it is not a mental disorder but a normal condition which can be common in humans.
God views every individual as He made them. While He did not make clones, he did create males and females with certain unique sexual characteristics. He also intended for males to manifest primarily masculine characteristics, and for females to manifest primarily feminine characteristics, although both sexes reflect aspects of both the masculine and the feminine in varying degrees. Along with those traits, He has provided direction on how we are to relate to one another.
People who identify as transgender or transsexual are usually people who are born with typical male or female anatomies but feel as though they’ve been born into the “wrong body.” For example, a person who identifies as transgender or transsexual may have typical female anatomy but feel like a male and seek to become male by taking hormones or electing to have sex reassignment surgeries.
American Psychiatric Association, which declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973, still classifies the condition of transgender as a disorder.
The “transgendered” label reflects a sexual identity confusion and not a true condition. God doesn’t create a person with the genitals of a male and the consciousness and heart of a female.
However, Denmark is set to become the first country to no longer define being transgender as a mental illness.Government officials said classifying transgender people as mentally ill was “stigmatising” and they had “run out of patience” with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) work on the definition. According to them they want to do away with the stigmatisation of such people and are arguing that it is not a mental disorder but a normal condition which can be common in humans.
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| Transgender And Christianity: A study On the Biblical Position Of Transgender. |
But it is not so with the traditions in the biblical narratives, Genesis 1:26, the Bible says, “And God created man in His image, in His likeness; male and female He created them . . . . and it was very good.” Maleness and femaleness are God’s choice, determined at conception. But growing into one’s masculinity or femininity and embracing it can be thwarted by very early events that prevent children from having a clear sense of their gender.
Furthermore, God had revealed His intent for their gender at birth. They had been living as the opposite sex in a false self that was tragically far from what God had intended for them, and that explained why the great pains to which they had gone to fix their brokenness didn’t bring the peace and relief they thought they would get through assuming a new identity and/or having surgery.
God views every individual as He made them. While He did not make clones, he did create males and females with certain unique sexual characteristics. He also intended for males to manifest primarily masculine characteristics, and for females to manifest primarily feminine characteristics, although both sexes reflect aspects of both the masculine and the feminine in varying degrees. Along with those traits, He has provided direction on how we are to relate to one another.
The Bible is not so explicit in prohibiting the practise and in crafting a doctrine about transgender. However,there are passages that seems to point to displeasure with transgender people.
The first one we will look at is on cross-dressing is called an “abomination” to God in Deut 22:5. Paul includes “soft men” (malakoi) in the offender list in 1 Cor 6:9-10, which in context designates men who attempt to become women (through dress, mannerisms, makeup, and sometimes castration), often to attract male sex partners. The fact that Paul includes such persons among those who “shall not inherit the kingdom of God” suggests that acting on a desire to become the opposite sex can in fact affect one’s redemption
It is imperative to note that Gender is God's idea. Genesis 1:27 says: "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
My gender is part of my created identity; it is God's plan for my life. It is not fluid or changeable. It is fixed. Just as a dog cannot be changed into a cat or a fish into a bird, a man cannot be changed into a woman, or vice versa, because gender is a fundamental aspect of creation
In simple terms God revealed His intent for their gender at birth. They had been living as the opposite sex in a false self that was tragically far from what God had intended for them, and that explained why the great pains to which they had gone to fix their brokenness didn’t bring the peace and relief they thought they would get through assuming a new identity and/or having surgery.
Author Walt Heyer had a sex change operation in the 1980s and lived as a woman for eight years, but he later realised that he had made a mistake. He now has a website,sexchangeregret.com, where he writes: "Eventually, I gathered the courage to admit that the surgery had fixed nothing—it only masked and exacerbated deeper psychological problems." Heyer points out that studies performed on 500 transsexuals proved that surgeries and hormone therapy did not cure these people of their confusion.
Taking cognisance of the environment we are living, where individuals have sexual expressions rights. An individual can chose to be what one desires to be, call it democracy or civil rights it must be made clear that there are tendencies and behaviours that contradict the core values and norms of the existing of a people and that negate and regulate the very truth that establishes a nation and constitute our Humanity.
In simple terms God revealed His intent for their gender at birth. They had been living as the opposite sex in a false self that was tragically far from what God had intended for them, and that explained why the great pains to which they had gone to fix their brokenness didn’t bring the peace and relief they thought they would get through assuming a new identity and/or having surgery.
Author Walt Heyer had a sex change operation in the 1980s and lived as a woman for eight years, but he later realised that he had made a mistake. He now has a website,sexchangeregret.com, where he writes: "Eventually, I gathered the courage to admit that the surgery had fixed nothing—it only masked and exacerbated deeper psychological problems." Heyer points out that studies performed on 500 transsexuals proved that surgeries and hormone therapy did not cure these people of their confusion.
Taking cognisance of the environment we are living, where individuals have sexual expressions rights. An individual can chose to be what one desires to be, call it democracy or civil rights it must be made clear that there are tendencies and behaviours that contradict the core values and norms of the existing of a people and that negate and regulate the very truth that establishes a nation and constitute our Humanity.
Thus for harmony and preservation of our humanness and purpose for living "Desires must be brought into alignment with biblical teachings, but it will be inconvenient and distressful"
The church's role is to truly bring the Gospel of love to the community and to reach out to the world rejected with the Love of God and with the Gospel of Grace. Even Paul the Apostle is on record when he went to the Greek city of Corinth and preached to people from all kinds of sinful backgrounds, and many of them embraced faith in Jesus.
The church's role is to truly bring the Gospel of love to the community and to reach out to the world rejected with the Love of God and with the Gospel of Grace. Even Paul the Apostle is on record when he went to the Greek city of Corinth and preached to people from all kinds of sinful backgrounds, and many of them embraced faith in Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Paul mentions fornicators (unmarried people having sex with each other), adulterers, idolaters, homosexuals and "effeminate" men—that is, men who dressed as women to engage in prostitution. Yet Paul says these people were set free from these sinful lifestyles after they believed in Christ.
The church is not there to condemn but to show the undying love of God to a dying world. Jesus did not come to judge the world but He came to save it. The primary mission of the church is to bring that salvation message even by emulating its leader and the head of the body of Christ in coming not to judge the world but to save it.
The church is not there to condemn but to show the undying love of God to a dying world. Jesus did not come to judge the world but He came to save it. The primary mission of the church is to bring that salvation message even by emulating its leader and the head of the body of Christ in coming not to judge the world but to save it.
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