{"id":12106,"date":"2019-05-08T00:16:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T04:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12106"},"modified":"2019-05-08T00:40:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T04:40:50","slug":"transcending-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12106","title":{"rendered":"Transcending: Creation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m writing a blog series: Transcending: They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll Know Us by Our Love<\/a><\/em>. In this series, I will look at some reasons Christian churches should welcome, affirm, and embrace transgender people.<\/p>\n

In my first post, I looked at why this is personal for me<\/a>. In this second post, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to start right in on one of the only reasons I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard as to why transgender people should not change their bodies.<\/p>\n

When Christians attempt to use the Bible to condemn transgender people or accuse them of dishonoring God, they usually go to the account of creation in Genesis, or the places where that account is quoted in the New Testament. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very clear that God created mankind male and female.<\/p>\n

The trouble with using that against transgender people is that the passage never says how male and female are defined. And we are told that everyone is made in the image of God.<\/p>\n

When a baby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s born, the doctor looks at their external genitals and announces which one the baby fits. But what about intersex people? What if the doctor can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell? Or what about people whose external organs fit one gender but whose internal organs fit the other? (This does happen.) What about people whose genitals do not match their chromosomes? What about people who have chromosomes different from XY or XX, XXY for example? Are those people made in the image of God?<\/p>\n

In the book Transforming<\/a><\/em>, by Austen Hartke, a transgender pastor, he reminds us that God created day and night \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and He also created twilight. God created land and sea, and He also created marshes.<\/p>\n

God created Adam and Eve male and female. But that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean He has never created intersex people and transgender people. All are in the image of God.<\/p>\n

Many who use the Creation story to condemn transgender people say that yes, they can get treatment, but nothing that changes their gender.<\/p>\n

However, according to transgender people, they are not changing<\/em> their gender, they are making their appearance and their body match their true gender. The current term for surgery to do this is Gender Confirmation Surgery. They are not changing God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s design but revealing it.<\/p>\n

You might say that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong to make any changes to the body God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given you. But this is weak since most churches don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t condemn other bodily changes. What about cochlear implants? Coloring your hair? Straightening your teeth? Breast reduction surgery for women?<\/p>\n

In fact, if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dishonoring to God to change the body He gave you, why did He command that Jewish men be circumcised?<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand why a prohibition against changing God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creation would apply to transgender people but not to anything else.<\/p>\n

In fact, transgender people take gender \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s creation of mankind as male and female \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more seriously than anyone. So seriously that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re willing to upend their lives and go through painful surgery and hormone therapy to get it right.<\/p>\n

In my next post, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s look at some current scientific studies on gender that turns out to back up what transgender people are saying.<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a>