My Life as Transgender and Christian

[Confused1]

I know there are people from all walks of life here including various religions, Agnostics and Athiests. I am not trying to force anyone to believe as I do, or want to offend anyone. This is just the story of what I have experienced in my life and my experiences with becoming a Christian to realizing I am transgender. I’m 65 years old.

At a very young age I found myself wanting to be like my little sister. I was raised as Catholic and attended Catholic grade school. At around age 8 or 9 I found a neighbor in a pool of blood from suicide. I had nightmares for quite awhile and took pills for quite some time after. We moved the summer after grade school and I went to a public high school.

During puberty I experienced what I now believe was gender dysphoria. It was not in anyone’s vocabulary back then and I had no one I could ask. I struggled for quite some time with it. I was pretty much asexual. One of my uncles made fun of me as a teenager for NOT chasing skirts like his sons did. At 18, someone gave me a book written by Hal Lindsey in 1963. It blew up my world.

The book was about bible prophecy. I got my dad’s Catholic bible and realized it said what Hal Lindsey said it said. I soon left the church because I realized they were not telling me the truth and I concentrated on other things. I did wonder what the truth was.

I received an Associates degree in Electronics and got a job at a very small company that supplied Whirlpool. I quickly moved up to shift supervisor and worked nights. I had a couple of what I called Holy Rollers that worked under me. They talked me into going to their church and watch a movie that was a precursor to the Left Behind movies. Other people I worked with knew that I was searching for meaning in my life and got me to visit their churches also. All the while I didn’t fit anywhere. I tried partying with some other people. I was always trying to find a way to fit in.

One of the people I worked with set me up on a date with his sister. It was on again, off again, on again. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I wondered if I was bi sexual because I started having all kinds of things going through my mind, but not really comfortable with any of it.

One night after partying I lost control of my pickup. I was sliding sideways toward the side of a bridge with the front end hanging down in the ditch. I can’t explain how, but it was like something pushed my pickup up out of the ditch and lined it back up on the road. I did nothing to cause it, and at the time was left amazed.

I was heading toward depression. Nothing made me feel good, not the drinking or the religious people. One night just before I turned 25, I was in the office at work with no one around. I started praying to God for answers. I offered myself and the rest of my life to Jesus to do with whatever He wanted. I told Him if He wanted to take control and make me His robot, I was willing. Jeremiah 29:13 says “those who earnestly seek Him with all their heart will find Him” I got saved that night and walked from darkness to light. I went from depression to joy. I finally understood what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3. I was saved by Grace through faith as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9. I did NOT get saved in a church nor was I told what to say.

When I opened a bible again to try to figure out what had happened to me it seemed to come alive to me. It all started to make sense.

 

Very soon after this I got back together with my one and only girl friend. I prayed to God for direction. I then asked her to marry me.

During one of my previous parties with the drinking friends I had a bad experience at trying to have sex with someone else when we were both a little drunk. This experience caused me to marry my wife with no expectations for sex. I don’t think many guys think that way. I felt that if what I experienced the first time was what it was like, I didn’t need it.  I just wanted companionship and LOVE.

I talked to a priest from the Church I had previously attended. I asked him to marry us in order to make my Catholic family happy. I became uncomfortable with the things the Priest was telling me, so I talked to a coworker and he got his preacher to marry us. It was a United Church of Christ.

My wife was afraid of sex because of things her family told her growing up. Since I didn’t think I wanted it either, we did without for awhile. Seem abnormal? When we finally became intimate and I felt the closeness for two becoming one, I let the male hormones take over. Not sure if I experienced it like the normal male, but WOW! We ended up with two beautiful children.

I bought seven different versions of the bible because I couldn’t figure why there were so many religions. I studied and compared them to the point my wife was getting upset over the amount of time I spent doing it. Somehow I managed to get her saved as well. I realized the bibles all said the same thing. Different churches were either leaving out things or only talking about things they considered important, like I experienced in the Roman Catholic Church, but to a lesser degree.

I am by nature an introvert. For awhile I was afraid to talk to anybody about what I had experienced. One of my coworkers gave me a cassette tape that had an old song on it called “Sorry I never knew you.” Hearing it made me get beyond the shyness and made me want to tell everyone. I didn’t realize it at the time, but most people around me had already noticed something had changed me before I said anything to them.

When I started talking to the people I worked with, something would always break down whenever I brought up Jesus, and there wasn’t a maintenance man on my shift. I was the one who always had to go fix it. I have a knack with electrical, mechanical, pneumatics, and hydraulics. It became obvious to everyone that every time I mentioned Jesus, something immediately broke down that I had to go fix.

In time, my company wanted to open another plant in an Arkansas town to supply another Whirlpool plant there. They recognized I was able to fix almost anything and get the most production of anybody there from the equipment and the people. They asked me to manage the new satellite plant, so we moved there. At that time I had 2 very small children.

In time we grew the business. We soon out produced the corporate plant on several different parts. After about 11 years at the Arkansas plant and shortly before they moved my plant to Mexico to follow Whirlpool’s move, I took a job at another company to stay in Arkansas.

Not long after that I happened to watch a SyFy movie about a future time where you could pick changes you wanted done to your body. You could walk into a machine and a couple hours later you came out with those modifications.

In the movie a married woman decided she wanted to try being a man. She snuck out and did it. When her husband realized what she had done he was furious. By the end of the movie love won over and the man entered the machine to become the wife. I immediately had another bout with dysphoria. I couldn’t get it out of my mind for quite some time. I realized I wanted to trade places with my wife! I finally choked it down and moved on. I didn’t know what I was experiencing or why, but I continued to believe it was from finding my dead neighbor as a youngster. I figured it had put some kind of strange glitch in my thinking.

About 5 to 6 years ago I started reconnecting with the people from the corporate plant I got saved at through Facebook. Several of them told me that what they saw happen to me and what I told them had changed their lives. Sometimes seeds that get planted take a little while to grow. Many were saved and two of them had become preachers. There are a lot of things about life I still don’t understand, but I know in my heart there is a God that loves us, even though some churchgoers don’t.

A lot of people that call themselves Christian don’t really understand what Christian means anymore than they understand what a transgender is. Sadly some that truly are Christians also behave the same way. Many on this forum have been hurt by them. I also know that not all bigots are Christians. There are bigots from other religions as well as Atheist bigots. Bigots can come in all colors and from all backgrounds. It doesn’t make the bible any less true, or mean that God loves us less. I have also come to understand more about what the bible calls Eunuchs. It talks about three kinds of Eunuchs. I think one of those might explain some of us.
 

I first heard the term transgender a few years ago, but the way it was described, I knew that it was not who I was. It seemed to mean someone that had wild sexual urges and fantasies that changed who they were. You needed to stay away from them and definitely not let your children near them.

I have struggled for most of my life with the thoughts I had that seemed to conflict with my faith. While reading a thread written by someone on another forum not long ago, I actually found out what transgender means and realized I am one. That person does not claim to be Christian, but seems to be every bit as moral as I am.

I live completely isolated in a very conservative area. There is a gay person in the family and I have worked side by side with some of them. I had never met anyone I knew to be transgender in person until just recently thru another website.

Not long ago, I tried to correct someone I have known for over 4 decades about a comment he made about transgenders and he started to get angry. I did my best to back away. Nobody deserves that type behavior.

I would take a bullet for my wife and children and don’t want to upset the life I now have. Please don’t take that wrong. I know some are being eaten alive with dysphoria and have trouble avoiding full time. Mine is just more like background noise. I am working toward Zero Depth vaginoplasty, but it is for me and no one else. I have a medical condition that could be improved or even resolved by the surgery as well as better fit who I am.

A few weeks ago I gathered up some information about studies done comparing cisgender and transgender brains and some things another transgender Christian wrote, along with a description of the Zero Depth vaginoplasty. With the consent of my wife, I spent 3 hours alone with my Pastor in a very conservative non denominational Pentecostal leaning church in the Bible belt. (I am a Board member of the church, run the audio visual for the music, and known for my knowledge of the bible) I have actually helped the Pastor himself learn more about the Bible. Before I was done, I admitted I was transgender.

I was not kicked out of the church. Quite the opposite. I thought it might go this way, but I was a little scared. We have had several conversations since. The Pastor finally seems to get it. Not all Christians are bigots, especially if they can just understand who we are. They also need to realize what Galatians actually says about the law and Grace. They do NOT co-exist. One scripture used a lot is Deuteronomy 22:5. The way to answer that is have them read verse 22:11. I know many of you have had quite the opposite experience and nobody deserves that! I have been horrified at some of the stories I have heard on other forums.

Jesus loves you as much as me!

[VickySGV]

Trans people are slowly but steadily beginning to show our religions the true gifts we can bring to them in our changed lives.  For any God to love us, we must first love ourselves in complete honesty.

[Confused1]

5 hours ago, VickySGV said:

Trans people are slowly but steadily beginning to show our religions the true gifts we can bring to them in our changed lives.

 

Hi Vicky,

 

Both sides can gain from this. We have much to offer as do they. The problem is that many have no clue who we really are and don't want to know. Most don't even know what the Bible actually says. If I hadn't known this Pastor over 35 years I may not have been able to reach him. I knew him a long time before he started preaching.

 

I have met several transgenders that have basically been run out of their church, some even beat up because of something that doesn't fit their version of "reality" I think if we don't educate them, no one will. At the same time it can be a dangerous thing to try. ymmv

 

Hugs,

Mike

[Susan R]

On 8/29/2020 at 8:29 PM, Confused1 said:

This is just the story of what I have experienced in my life and my experiences with becoming a Christian to realizing I am transgender.

I very much enjoyed reading your expanded life story. I knew bits and pieces but it was nice to see it all laid out chronologically here. You and I have had many similar life events and experiences starting with being raised in a Catholic family, almost dying in a car accident in my youth, developing severe gender dysphoria at puberty, reading Hal Lindsey’s “Late Great Planet Earth” making me realize the importance of bible prophesy, and then becoming a Christian through the grace of Jesus. And of course I can’t forget about meeting you online on a transgender forum...what are the odds? ?

 

20 hours ago, Confused1 said:

If I hadn't known this Pastor over 35 years I may not have been able to reach him. I knew him a long time before he started preaching.

 

I have met several transgenders that have basically been run out of their church

I’m know my wife has mentioned her previous church to you. I used to attend her conservative Pentecostal church periodically when she was teaching or speaking. I also attended her bible study on occasion. I wanted so much to fit in but I thought I was too different and would have to hide too much of my past if I ever became close to anyone in the church. After coming out to my wife she eventually came out to her church. She felt there might be a small chance they would let me attend services. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The pastors took some time to think about our situation. They decided She was welcome to continue to lead and attend services but I was not allowed to come. Needless to say, she kindly bowed out and we found another church that would accept us both as we are.  I do have to add that My wife was recently told that I would be allowed to attend services but we are not returning because during the conversation the pastor asked how I looked and presented. Tolerance is NOT acceptance so we are not interested in worshiping with them.

 

I am so glad that your situation with your church proved to be so different. I wish I had a pastor like yours who can see you for you and not be so concerned about the trivial or at least try to understand with empathy. Jesus didn’t  look at anyone in need and walk by because they didn’t fit the description of what was acceptable by society. He did quite the opposite.

 

Thank again for sharing your story. I am really glad you’re  here.

 

My Best,

Susan R?

 

[KayC]

On 8/30/2020 at 12:29 PM, Confused1 said:

This is just the story of what I have experienced in my life and my experiences with becoming a Christian to realizing I am transgender.

Thank you for sharing your life story and powerful journey.  This can be so beneficial to others here who have to struggle with religious and social intolerance, and your example of how one can overcome those obstacles.

Bigotry (and other base characteristics) and Faith are both powerful functions of the human condition.  To use Faith as the foundation of compassion and acceptance of others (and yourself) establishes the orbit of happiness and peace (for oneself and society). 

I am happy you have launched yourself into that orbit❣️

[Confused1]

On 8/31/2020 at 11:49 AM, Susan R said:

I very much enjoyed reading your expanded life story. I knew bits and pieces but it was nice to see it all laid out chronologically here.  I can’t forget about meeting you online on a transgender forum...what are the odds? ?

 

I am so glad that your situation with your church proved to be so different. I wish I had a pastor like yours who can see you for you and not be so concerned about the trivial or at least try to understand with empathy.

 

Thank again for sharing your story. I am really glad you’re  here.

 

My Best,

Susan R?

 

 

Hi Susan,

 

Thanks for your kind words. We do have many similar things in our past. It just took me a lot longer to realize it.

 

You have an amazing wife! She has helped me make sense of what was going on in my head the last few months when I could not! She and one other person I have mentioned to her helped me immensely in what to say to my Pastor.

 

I am glad to be here as well!

 

13 hours ago, KayC said:

Thank you for sharing your life story and powerful journey.  This can be so beneficial to others here who have to struggle with religious and social intolerance, and your example of how one can overcome those obstacles.

Bigotry (and other base characteristics) and Faith are both powerful functions of the human condition.  To use Faith as the foundation of compassion and acceptance of others (and yourself) establishes the orbit of happiness and peace (for oneself and society). 

I am happy you have launched yourself into that orbit❣️

 

Hi Kay,

 

We all have stories we can help each other with. I have learned so much about myself in the last few months by reading about and talking to others. I have talked with some whose stories of intolerance almost make me cry. Actually, I did for one of them. Much of the world considers us Lepers, or less, yet don't even know who we really are! It is a shame, but we seem to be the only ones who can educate them. That can be dangerous for some. This is NOT what Jesus intended!

 

Hugs,

Mike

[KayC]

7 hours ago, Confused1 said:

It is a shame, but we seem to be the only ones who can educate them. That can be dangerous for some. This is NOT what Jesus intended!

Hi Mike.  Yes!  you are correct on all three points❣️

[VickySGV]

 

1 hour ago, gina-nicole-t said:

I just don't believe that I have to attend any organized religion to worship them. 

 

The Maronist Christian philosopher poet Ravindranath Tagore put it into just a couple of lines for us --

 

While God waits for God's temple to be built of love
   Men bring stones!

 

 

 

[Confused1]

4 hours ago, gina-nicole-t said:

@VickySGV Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I don't doubt God loves me that wasn't the intention of my post. I just have serious doubts about organized religion, and if (and you may have, and it's not any of my business if you did) suffer abuse at the hands of your parents who then went to Church putting on a false face to everyone their, you may have doubts like me also. If as the end of your post says you consider me a half armed adversary that's cool too. I know that there is a lot about religion I don't know, and probably refuse to listen to because of what happened to me. Maybe one day I will start attending services again. 

Regards, 

Gina 

 

Hi Gina,

 

I totally understand where you are coming from and a lot of people have been put through the wringer by people claiming to be Christian. I live in an area where even the progressive churches would probably be unreceptive to us, so I started working to win over my own church. I have a long history with these people and they respect my bible knowledge.

 

It is not only the church that feels this way about us, but a good deal of the cis-world. Jesus did not do what many Christians are doing. He walked amongst and talked to the people the Jewish congregations considered ungodly and lepers.

 

Vicky stated this well in her first comment:

On 8/30/2020 at 10:49 AM, VickySGV said:

Trans people are slowly but steadily beginning to show our religions the true gifts we can bring to them in our changed lives.  For any God to love us, we must first love ourselves in complete honesty.

 

The scripture you may be looking for is Hebrews 10:25 "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

 

I brought this scripture up to my Pastor and asked him what if you aren't welcome? It hit home. I do not suggest trying to do this if it is unsafe.

 

Hugs,

Mike

[VickySGV]

@gina-nicole-t My quote from Tagore there actually illustrates the point I hear in your post.  I am much more spiritual than religious.  The symbol in that couplet was that your spiritual relation to people and to a deity is more important that a building or even a specific group of people and yet people try to confine their beliefs to a particular structure of theology and physical structure of a church.  My practice of my spirituality is  to respect and honor the dignity of EVERY human being however I meet them or find them.  I do not demand that they be inside any set of stone walls.  The "stone walls" do not have to be stone, they may be paper pages in a book of scripture or worship that are used to isolate one group of people from another.  I was not arguing with you, I was attempting to validate your feelings and outlook. Sadly, too many people bring rocks to throw at each other to do harm.

[Ivy]

I spent most of my life in churches of one sort or another.  I was raised in a conservative Lutheran church, and even went to a church affiliated elementary school.  While I did question things in my teens and early 20's, after marrying and starting a family, had a "conversion" experience, and was back in a conservative church.  Over the years we moved between a number of churches, sometimes due to a move, other times to church splits. (which is another painful subject) Despite what some people (my ex) believe, I was not faking it.  I truly believed that the Bible was the authoritative "word of God", and the Holy Spirit was in us.  So I felt obligated to conform my perceived reality into a "biblical" framework.  It gets hard sometimes trying to make science fit into a 144hr creation, for example.  (I do realize that all christians aren't trying to do this but… the ones I was with did.)  You were expected to believe the Bible over your own eyes.

 

We got involved with some "Messianic Jews" and I studied Torah for a bit.  It was kinda the same sort of thing.  I also began to look into the origins of the New Testament and found that the same people who forbid Sabbath worship, were the ones that chose the NT cannon.  I looked into some of the Christian writings that were not included - some of them are pretty off the wall.  Anyway, my view of the authority of scripture changed somewhat.

 

While all this was going on I was beginning to admit that a lot of "girl stuff" did have an appeal to me.  I like rom-coms, and Jane Austin is one of my favorite authors.  But I avoided anything LGBTQ-like with a passion.  After all, it is an abomination, right?

 

After the kids were grown my marriage broke up.  I was till going to a mens' group at a local church, but finally admitted that I had little in common with these people - including the "guy thing".  Since I no longer felt compelled not to, I cracked the door to my closet opened and took a peek.  Just as an experiment, I got a skirt (which was a struggle in itself) and when I put it on, things fell into place for me.  I was finally free.

 

I don't consider myself a Christian now.  But I'm not an atheist.  My concept of "god" has certainly changed though.  I know a lot of nice Christians, and I don't have any ill-will toward them.  

 

Sorry if this got a bit long.  It took awhile to write.  It is a difficult subject for me.

[VickySGV]

4 hours ago, gina-nicole-t said:

I truly apologize. When all you have ever know in your life when it comes to religion is a basic argument that "our religion is right and everyone else is wrong" sound familiar?

 

I actually heard that up there in the post I first responded to and sadly know too well where it comes from.  I spent many years with those same feelings, believe it or not.  I am out and fully accepted in my regional and, yes, national church today and am included in its LGBTQ leadership corps as a lay person, but I am aware that others have much different needs and I respect the dignity of each and all of them who seek self knowledge and self fulfillment. If another person is kind, open to friendship as their personal nature allows and is willing to be of service to others as best they can, that is millions of times better than any formal religion to me.  By the way, another quote from my source up there is hopefully more understandable:

From the solemn gloom of the Temple,
Children rush out to joyfully play in the dust

God watches the children, and ignores the priest.

 

My brain became a sponge for this type comment during my dark night as well and they come up at the best/worst times to both myself and a few antagonists who are too stuffy for me. I am one of the kids out there getting dirty.

 

[Ivy]

3 hours ago, VickySGV said:

From the solemn gloom of the Temple,
Children rush out to joyfully play in the dust

God watches the children, and ignores the priest.

I like this

[VickySGV]

@gina-nicole-t❤️?  Yes, the film was about a terrible time.  My father had been the victim of a teenage molestation by a friend of his best friend's brother, and he had been blamed for what happened.  My dad could not understand that his double rape (the physical acts and then the reaction by the adults involved) was not about Gay sex but about male dominance that has been around since even before the first few pages of Old Testament time.  It was not the other boy loving him, it was the other boy putting him down.  I could not really address my Trans to him ever, and it was not until he died that Vicky could become authentic.  The fear and misinformation, other people longing for dominance to combat that fear that keep them from loving and accepting wonderful people are an ongoing challenge that cannot be ignored or covered up with old theology in order for Trans and the LGB to be fully welcomed.  

[VickySGV]

❤️❤️

[Ivy]

@gina-nicole-t Wow, this must have been awful.  

[Aggie1]

@gina-nicole-t "now that I am in the process of my gender transition I have a community that I could never have hoped for in my wildest dreams that supports me and everyone else"

 

I'm blown away by the love on this forum! I recognize now how hard it's been for me to see and accept the truth when I've been filtering everything through a mask. If I'm not being my authentic self, how can I really love unconditionally, not that this attainable for any of us, but it's even more difficult when the true self has been choked off. Love then becomes conditional on the other person's acceptance of my perception of the rules. If God's love is unconditional, then it takes a lot of Chutzpah to set boundaries on it. 

 

The really cool part is the total forgiveness of God when the blinders come off.  The offense on my part has been being silent when hurtful things were said by others - silence is consent in any debate. The challenge is how to say what needs to be said in a loving way, not by using the shaming tactics or implied shame, but leading others to accept themselves the same way that I'm learning how to do that. I'd be interested in hearing others' thoughts on how to approach this. 

 

[Confused1]

Agnes, I'm glad to see you came here. I will send you a message. It will show up in the envelop at the top of your screen.

 

Hugs,

Mike

[SheenaT]

On 8/29/2020 at 8:29 PM, Confused1 said:

I know there are people from all walks of life here including various religions, Agnostics and Athiests. I am not trying to force anyone to believe as I do, or want to offend anyone. This is just the story of what I have experienced in my life and my experiences with becoming a Christian to realizing I am transgender. I’m 65 years old.

At a very young age I found myself wanting to be like my little sister. I was raised as Catholic and attended Catholic grade school. At around age 8 or 9 I found a neighbor in a pool of blood from suicide. I had nightmares for quite awhile and took pills for quite some time after. We moved the summer after grade school and I went to a public high school.

During puberty I experienced what I now believe was gender dysphoria. It was not in anyone’s vocabulary back then and I had no one I could ask. I struggled for quite some time with it. I was pretty much asexual. One of my uncles made fun of me as a teenager for NOT chasing skirts like his sons did. At 18, someone gave me a book written by Hal Lindsey in 1963. It blew up my world.

The book was about bible prophecy. I got my dad’s Catholic bible and realized it said what Hal Lindsey said it said. I soon left the church because I realized they were not telling me the truth and I concentrated on other things. I did wonder what the truth was.

I received an Associates degree in Electronics and got a job at a very small company that supplied Whirlpool. I quickly moved up to shift supervisor and worked nights. I had a couple of what I called Holy Rollers that worked under me. They talked me into going to their church and watch a movie that was a precursor to the Left Behind movies. Other people I worked with knew that I was searching for meaning in my life and got me to visit their churches also. All the while I didn’t fit anywhere. I tried partying with some other people. I was always trying to find a way to fit in.

One of the people I worked with set me up on a date with his sister. It was on again, off again, on again. I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I wondered if I was bi sexual because I started having all kinds of things going through my mind, but not really comfortable with any of it.

One night after partying I lost control of my pickup. I was sliding sideways toward the side of a bridge with the front end hanging down in the ditch. I can’t explain how, but it was like something pushed my pickup up out of the ditch and lined it back up on the road. I did nothing to cause it, and at the time was left amazed.

I was heading toward depression. Nothing made me feel good, not the drinking or the religious people. One night just before I turned 25, I was in the office at work with no one around. I started praying to God for answers. I offered myself and the rest of my life to Jesus to do with whatever He wanted. I told Him if He wanted to take control and make me His robot, I was willing. Jeremiah 29:13 says “those who earnestly seek Him with all their heart will find Him” I got saved that night and walked from darkness to light. I went from depression to joy. I finally understood what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3. I was saved by Grace through faith as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9. I did NOT get saved in a church nor was I told what to say.

When I opened a bible again to try to figure out what had happened to me it seemed to come alive to me. It all started to make sense.

 

 

 

Very soon after this I got back together with my one and only girl friend. I prayed to God for direction. I then asked her to marry me.

During one of my previous parties with the drinking friends I had a bad experience at trying to have sex with someone else when we were both a little drunk. This experience caused me to marry my wife with no expectations for sex. I don’t think many guys think that way. I felt that if what I experienced the first time was what it was like, I didn’t need it.  I just wanted companionship and LOVE.

I talked to a priest from the Church I had previously attended. I asked him to marry us in order to make my Catholic family happy. I became uncomfortable with the things the Priest was telling me, so I talked to a coworker and he got his preacher to marry us. It was a United Church of Christ.

My wife was afraid of sex because of things her family told her growing up. Since I didn’t think I wanted it either, we did without for awhile. Seem abnormal? When we finally became intimate and I felt the closeness for two becoming one, I let the male hormones take over. Not sure if I experienced it like the normal male, but WOW! We ended up with two beautiful children.

I bought seven different versions of the bible because I couldn’t figure why there were so many religions. I studied and compared them to the point my wife was getting upset over the amount of time I spent doing it. Somehow I managed to get her saved as well. I realized the bibles all said the same thing. Different churches were either leaving out things or only talking about things they considered important, like I experienced in the Roman Catholic Church, but to a lesser degree.

I am by nature an introvert. For awhile I was afraid to talk to anybody about what I had experienced. One of my coworkers gave me a cassette tape that had an old song on it called “Sorry I never knew you.” Hearing it made me get beyond the shyness and made me want to tell everyone. I didn’t realize it at the time, but most people around me had already noticed something had changed me before I said anything to them.

When I started talking to the people I worked with, something would always break down whenever I brought up Jesus, and there wasn’t a maintenance man on my shift. I was the one who always had to go fix it. I have a knack with electrical, mechanical, pneumatics, and hydraulics. It became obvious to everyone that every time I mentioned Jesus, something immediately broke down that I had to go fix.

In time, my company wanted to open another plant in an Arkansas town to supply another Whirlpool plant there. They recognized I was able to fix almost anything and get the most production of anybody there from the equipment and the people. They asked me to manage the new satellite plant, so we moved there. At that time I had 2 very small children.

In time we grew the business. We soon out produced the corporate plant on several different parts. After about 11 years at the Arkansas plant and shortly before they moved my plant to Mexico to follow Whirlpool’s move, I took a job at another company to stay in Arkansas.

Not long after that I happened to watch a SyFy movie about a future time where you could pick changes you wanted done to your body. You could walk into a machine and a couple hours later you came out with those modifications.

In the movie a married woman decided she wanted to try being a man. She snuck out and did it. When her husband realized what she had done he was furious. By the end of the movie love won over and the man entered the machine to become the wife. I immediately had another bout with dysphoria. I couldn’t get it out of my mind for quite some time. I realized I wanted to trade places with my wife! I finally choked it down and moved on. I didn’t know what I was experiencing or why, but I continued to believe it was from finding my dead neighbor as a youngster. I figured it had put some kind of strange glitch in my thinking.

About 5 to 6 years ago I started reconnecting with the people from the corporate plant I got saved at through Facebook. Several of them told me that what they saw happen to me and what I told them had changed their lives. Sometimes seeds that get planted take a little while to grow. Many were saved and two of them had become preachers. There are a lot of things about life I still don’t understand, but I know in my heart there is a God that loves us, even though some churchgoers don’t.

 

A lot of people that call themselves Christian don’t really understand what Christian means anymore than they understand what a transgender is. Sadly some that truly are Christians also behave the same way. Many on this forum have been hurt by them. I also know that not all bigots are Christians. There are bigots from other religions as well as Atheist bigots. Bigots can come in all colors and from all backgrounds. It doesn’t make the bible any less true, or mean that God loves us less. I have also come to understand more about what the bible calls Eunuchs. It talks about three kinds of Eunuchs. I think one of those might explain some of us.
 

I first heard the term transgender a few years ago, but the way it was described, I knew that it was not who I was. It seemed to mean someone that had wild sexual urges and fantasies that changed who they were. You needed to stay away from them and definitely not let your children near them.

I have struggled for most of my life with the thoughts I had that seemed to conflict with my faith. While reading a thread written by someone on another forum not long ago, I actually found out what transgender means and realized I am one. That person does not claim to be Christian, but seems to be every bit as moral as I am.

I live completely isolated in a very conservative area. There is a gay person in the family and I have worked side by side with some of them. I had never met anyone I knew to be transgender in person until just recently thru another website.

 

Not long ago, I tried to correct someone I have known for over 4 decades about a comment he made about transgenders and he started to get angry. I did my best to back away. Nobody deserves that type behavior.

I would take a bullet for my wife and children and don’t want to upset the life I now have. Please don’t take that wrong. I know some are being eaten alive with dysphoria and have trouble avoiding full time. Mine is just more like background noise. I am working toward Zero Depth vaginoplasty, but it is for me and no one else. I have a medical condition that could be improved or even resolved by the surgery as well as better fit who I am.

A few weeks ago I gathered up some information about studies done comparing cisgender and transgender brains and some things another transgender Christian wrote, along with a description of the Zero Depth vaginoplasty. With the consent of my wife, I spent 3 hours alone with my Pastor in a very conservative non denominational Pentecostal leaning church in the Bible belt. (I am a Board member of the church, run the audio visual for the music, and known for my knowledge of the bible) I have actually helped the Pastor himself learn more about the Bible. Before I was done, I admitted I was transgender.

I was not kicked out of the church. Quite the opposite. I thought it might go this way, but I was a little scared. We have had several conversations since. The Pastor finally seems to get it. Not all Christians are bigots, especially if they can just understand who we are. They also need to realize what Galatians actually says about the law and Grace. They do NOT co-exist. One scripture used a lot is Deuteronomy 22:5. The way to answer that is have them read verse 22:11. I know many of you have had quite the opposite experience and nobody deserves that! I have been horrified at some of the stories I have heard on other forums.

Jesus loves you as much as me!

 

I was raised Baptist. I struggle constantly with being trans and Christian. As a result of life choices I feel trapped and unable to truly be myself.?