{"id":12195,"date":"2019-05-18T23:04:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T03:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12195"},"modified":"2019-05-18T23:12:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T03:12:26","slug":"transcending-what-does-the-bible-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=12195","title":{"rendered":"Transcending: What Does the Bible Say?"},"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>, about the church and LGBTQ people, beginning with transgender people.<\/p>\n

The Situation<\/a><\/em> told why this is personal for me.<\/p>\n

Creation<\/a><\/em> looked at what the Bible says about gender and how what transgender people say about themselves matches that.<\/p>\n

The Science<\/a><\/em> looked at the considerable scientific research that also matches both what the Bible says and what transgender people say about themselves.<\/p>\n

Self-Definition<\/a><\/em> looks at why we should believe people when they tell us who they are.<\/p>\n

Today I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to look at what the Bible says about transgender people. Short answer: Nothing.<\/p>\n

But there are verses that might seem to apply. In the Old Testament, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Deuteronomy 22:5 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n

A woman must not wear men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothing, nor a man wear women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are two reasons I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this applies. In the first place, Christians are not under the Law. I wear long pants almost every day, and no one in my church has ever said that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sinful.<\/p>\n

In the second place, transgender people say they are the gender they transition into. Transgender women are women. So they should wear women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clothes.<\/p>\n

Another verse from the Law that has been mentioned is Deuteronomy 23:1. I think you can see if I continue on with the next two verses that nobody thinks the criteria listed here can keep anyone from Christ.<\/p>\n

No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.<\/p>\n

No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.<\/p>\n

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead, in the New Testament, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Galatians 3:26-28 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Based on that, gender is no barrier to coming to Christ.<\/p>\n

Austen Hartke, a transgender pastor who wrote the book Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians<\/a><\/em>, points out that the nearest thing to transgender people in the Bible are eunuchs. They, too, were in an in-between space, not really fitting neatly into either male or female.<\/p>\n

Austen speaks at length on the passage Isaiah 56:3-7, which says:<\/p>\n

Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nAnd let no eunuch complain,
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am only a dry tree.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nFor this is what the Lord says:
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
\nwho choose what pleases me
\nand hold fast to my covenant \u00e2\u20ac\u201c
\nto them I will give within my temple and its walls
\na memorial and a name
\nbetter than sons and daughters;
\nI will give them an everlasting name
\nthat will endure forever.
\nAnd foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
\nto minister to him,
\nto love the name of the Lord,
\nand to be his servants,
\nall who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
\nand who hold fast to my covenant \u00e2\u20ac\u201c
\nthese I will bring to my holy mountain
\nand give them joy in my house of prayer.
\nTheir burnt offerings and sacrifices
\nwill be accepted on my altar;
\nfor my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus even speaks well of eunuchs in Matthew 19:11-12, certainly not excluding them.<\/p>\n

And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the important story of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll quote a section from Austen Hartke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book:<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve talked about eunuchs already, and how they existed outside of the accepted gender roles and expectations of their time, but the eunuch we meet in Acts 8 was outside the norm in other ways as well. For instance, he was from Ethiopia \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a place that was considered \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the ends of the earth\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in that day and was a military threat to the Roman Empire. As an Ethiopian he was probably Black \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not necessarily in the way we understand Black identity today, especially in the United States, where our concept of Blackness is seen through the lens of American slavery \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but he was certainly different from the people that Philip was used to.<\/p>\n

The second thing that marked the Ethiopian eunuch as an outsider was his status as not-quite-Jewish and not-quite-Gentile. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made clear in the text that he was not born Jewish, but the story never calls him a Gentile either. Additionally, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the baptism of the clearly categorized Gentile Cornelius in Acts 10 that begins the conversation about Gentile inclusion in the early church. The eunuch may have been what the Bible calls \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a God-fearer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which essentially means a person who ascribed to the beliefs of the Jewish people despite not having been born among them. This placed him in between or outside of the established categories when it came to the Jew\/Gentile binary of the times. If the eunuch hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already been excluded from temple worship because of his status as a eunuch (since the welcome in Isaiah 56 was never implemented), he would have been kept out of the inner sanctums because he was neither a Jew by birth nor a full convert.<\/p>\n

Lastly, despite being put in a place of authority, the eunuch must have been either a slave or a freed former slave, since it would have been unusual for a free person to be castrated. This means that the eunuch of Acts 8, whose name we never learn, was outside the boundaries of gender, race, class, and religion \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a quadruple threat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When the Ethiopian eunuch asks to be baptized, Philip doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even debate. Austen Hartke finishes that chapter with these words:<\/p>\n

In a way, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is a story about two conversions. The eunuch may be the one who gets baptized, but Philip is the person who has to change his metric for who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in and who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s out. Even though this story is two thousand years old, a third conversion is still taking place: will the church eventually realize that when God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love overpowers all human distincitions, nothing can prevent us from full inclusion?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, those are all reasons why it is in the Christian tradition to include the outsider, but let me repeat this point:<\/p>\n

There is NOTHING in the New Testament that forbids a person changing the sex of their body, whether through hormones or surgery. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already talked about why I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think the Creation story warrants a prohibition against gender affirmative therapy. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to use that to include hormone therapy and\/or gender confirmation surgery.) In fact, I was talking with a leader in my church about how there is nothing whatsoever in the New Testament against gender-affirmative therapy, and he admitted, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We extrapolated.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But Jesus did not encourage extrapolating to develop new rules. In fact, I believe that is exactly the sin of the Pharisees that Jesus blasted them for in Matthew 23:4 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

The idea that gender-affirmative therapy dishonors God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s design is a made-up rule. It is nowhere found in Scripture, and it is completely contrary to the spirit of Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 words in John 13:34 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Or Matthew 7:1 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do not judge, or you too will be judged.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Or Paul\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s words in Romans 14:4 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who are you to judge someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall, and they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Someone may argue, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we need to be discerning!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Indeed, Jesus said in Matthew 7:16-17, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Transgender people have high rates of attempted suicide, 37%, according to the 2015 World Transgender Survey.<\/a> However, for transgender people whose families were unsupportive, the rate of attempted suicide jumps to 54%. Refusing to support transgender people yields a fruit of death.<\/p>\n

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