the poisonous attitudes & platitudes of stoic Christianity against transgender people

[Guest Shelly1]

Attitudes & Platitudes for Transgender people
(perhaps I may make a book out of this, not sure but I’m contemplating it, wrote this over the weekend in response to people telling me that I’m full of manure, abhorrent, lost, deceived, not walking with Christ, need pastoral help, need prayer, need (insert thing here that isn’t Jesus Christ’s direct touch himself) and so on)

This is an open letter to those who are Christians (yes, I am one myself!) who “love” their transgender friends and relatives so much, they will cast them out of their life and church with trite sayings rather than walk with them in relationship.


(CAUTION: yes, triggers within)

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“God doesn’t make mistakes!”
The inference is that what God creates is always perfect. I bought into the guilt/shame of this inference for much of my life. Until I considered the story of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:7
“They realized they were naked.” They were suddenly without God’s spirit, without dwelling with God, limited by 3 dimensions, the same 3 dimensions we are limited to countless years later.

At this point we see the fall of man, flesh, and all things in this world that will pass away. We were never created to pass away as we were made in God’s image, yet sin has mucked up everything.

When trying to tell you that you’re immoral, crazy, sick, people say “God didn’t make mistakes!” Remind them that indeed He doesn’t! And that all of man is fallen after God made human kind, not just some parts of man. We all are limited to a physical death in an imperfect vessel due to Adam & Eve’s sin. At no time are we not subject to this while on this planet.

In
1-people who identify as transgender:
2-the hypothalamus glands are reversed, meaning (T for females, E for males)
3-that the receptors in the brain that digest the regular hormones (T for men, E for women) don’t,causing worsening depression with more regular hormones.

(NOTE: these 3 things always go together!)

This shows that there is a biological condition for all this, not a spiritual condition.


This explains why…


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“God has never answered my prayer to take this transgender thing away! curse You God! (I’ve heard this more than once) If you’re even there!”

God has shown me He is indeed there, even in my most desperate times. Thing is, He’s never answered my prayer to take away my transgenderism. Ever! Now that I know why God has never answered this prayer is because of the way the brain is wired…very differently in transgender individuals.

So it’s little wonder why God doesn’t answer my desperate prayers nor the desperate prayers of countless other transgender people in taking away this TG thing. Instead, He’s looking for faith in Him, not body healing. In all this, God expands His church to include such people, after all, they are people too, people who love, hurt, aren’t immoral, not sleeping around, faithful, and of course, hurting deep inside. But at looking at the church at large, there are no transponder outreach programs. Anywhere. The only ministry to trans folks is yelling Deuteronomy 22:5 at them.


Instead, the church at large tells people to conform. How are people like this supposed to conform when they are indeed different? Conform in the flesh or the spirit? Specifically and ironically, when I speak with people who hold this position they are worried that one would wear clothing from the opposite sex but aren’t concerned about the heart condition of the person who’s suffering. Then, continue to berate the point by telling the affected person they are off-base, wrong, urinating-off God above, etc.

Really? You mean God didn’t know my brain was wired this way before he made the world? Answer that question.

I’ll wait.

You mean to say Jesus didn’t know the deep, painful suffering of transgender people when he was nailed to the cross, defended into hell and rose again?

Really?

I’ll wait for you to answer this one too.


Still waiting…



The church at large is expecting people to conform to their image, not the image of God. Repeat, the church at large is expecting people to conform to their image, not the image of God. Just yell Deuteronomy 22:5 at them, they’ll change. Oh geeez.

Once someone who’s image doesn’t fit in the perceived box of Christianity, they are told they are wrong, exhibiting abhorrent behavior, manipulative, perverted, etc so they are shamed into conforming into ‘the biblical view’ they hold. Problem is, the heart of the person is completely ignored and the person suffers. Jesus doesn’t ignore the heart of the person, but Christians are quite good at doing this in the name of “loving”. Mainly by yelling Deuteronomy 22:5 at them.

Jesus said “the fields are ripe for harvest”. That means we as believers need to go them. No, we don’t wait for them to walk into our boxes of Christianity. In the fields, not all wheat will look the same, but it’s all precious to the farmer who’s looking to fill his store house full.

What the church heard Jesus say: “only harvest part of the field and leave the rest that you deem undesirable to rot”.


And yet the person suffers as they are expected to conform, not just be. All while doctrine is thrown at them. With as much caring as the Pharisees had for their people is what I’m seeing from those who are ‘enlightened’.

Jesus met people at their need, he didn’t stand in a church every week waiting for people to come to Him. No. The church at large has it backwards, we need to go out to the people and stop worrying about them being different than we understand!! STOP IT!!!


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“God made man and woman, nothing else!” The inference is clear: accept the shame, guilt and rejection because you don’t fit into OUR correct image of God.

Yet, if you read Lisa Salazar’s book, Transparently, she dives into Matt 19:12 regarding Eunichs.

Read it!

Somehow we never hear people preach about this verse!

Instead, they yell Deuteronomy 22:5 at trans people.



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“You’re deceived!” emanates from the mouths of many who claim to know better. They haven’t lived through this life-long emotional hell. They simply do not know how to handle what is often labeled as “a demonic spirit”, “deception”, “manipulation” and so on.

If the person(s) would just see that this is a brain malfunction since the 8-16 week of gestation in the womb, these people wouldn’t be quick to cherry-pick bible verses to ‘prove’ the deception or demonic spirits. Thing is, there is no deception or demonic spirits. Little wonder when trying to pray them away, they never go away…they’re not there!!!! These alleged spirits have never been there, ever!

Instead, they yell Deuteronomy 22:5 at us


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“This behavior is abhorrent!”
“This behavior is immoral!”
“This is a reason why darkness is over the land!”

I bought into these fully for many years. Yet, once I unpacked both of these, I found this:
If something is immoral it means:
-having sex outside of marriage
—engaging in beastiality
-engaging in homosexual sexual relations
—engaging in sexual relations with family members
—engaging in lustful thoughts
—Deuteronomy 22:5

Since none of these exist in most Christian transgender people’s lives since no one is having sex with anyone else, how is aligning one’s body to what’s inside (the heart and mind) be immoral since it breaks none of the laws which define morality?

Please answer this too, I’ll wait.

Once I answered it with my lightbulb moment, it was obvious, this isn’t immoral. It’s different to be sure, but not immoral, nor abhorrent, nor the reason for the darkness over the land.


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“You’ll destroy the kids!”
Ummm, no. Poisonous negativism destroys kids, not openness, honesty and working through issues.

Putting Deuteronomy 22:5 above Jesus’ mission on the cross is the ultimate slap in the face to transgendered people. As if Christ only died for non-“freaks”. Ugggh.




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I’ve heard it said more than one occasion “you’re better off with a bullet in your head than being trans.”


Yeah, smart move for the soul that’s hurting. Both times I’ve heard this (including online testimony) both were from Christian adults.

THIS makes me sick.

As if transgender people haven’t considered suicide…


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The transgender sector of society has a suicide attempt rate of 41%. Of which, 28% meet their objective of killing themselves.

(and the church stands in their faces shaming them even more…)
“Suicide is soooo selfish!”
“You’re not going to heaven if you kill yourself!” (which is seriously ironic: as they’re willing to ‘love’ us to death as suicide seems to be OK compared to transitioning and life. REALLY!?!?!?!?!)

And the stoic church says “CONFORM OR BE CAST OUT! READ DEUTERONOMY 22:5!"

Dear church, remember we serve the God of life through Jesus Christ who died for any believer’s sins, not just YOUR sins for people who tend to think like YOU.

If you say you serve the God of life, you need to choose life consistently in your answers to the deeper issues.

Why are you not trying to help them live it rather than pushing them back into their extremely painful box where the death of suicide is an all-to-real option? Life or death. Which option do you want for your fellow transgender Christian brother or sister? Will you give them your time, or your empty platitudes?

The fields are ready for harvest. Are you willing to go help someone who you find a ‘reject’, ‘sick’, ‘perverted’ who’s in dire straits, to keep them from pulling that trigger to end it all? Or will you tell them “You’re immoral!” or other vacuous boiler plate reply in the name of “helping” or “loving” them?

As for me, I was honored recently to pray for a 20-something trans person, I felt the spirit of God come upon me and I prayed from the depths of my being for her. Yet, when I mention this to the stoic types, they said “IT’S SICK! DON’T TELL ME ABOUT THIS! HOW CAN YOU MINISTER TO SOMEONE IN SIN?” Because, you guessed it, Deuteronomy 22:5 is their reasoning.

Sigh.


Most Christians are missing out on the power of Christianity by spending so my time conforming rather than spending time being. By just being and resting in Him, God can work through us with His spirit mightily. I’m honored to serve this God, not the God of conformity that most Christians serve... who only has one verse in his bible, Deuteronomy 22:5.

Edited November 11, 2014 by Shelly1
swear words(abbreviated) changed

[Charlize]

Welcome to Laura's Shelly. You might want to make a short post in the introductions section. You views are unfortunately true in some but fortunately not all of organized Christianity.

Take a moment to read the terms and conditions found at the bottom of any page. Hope to see you around the playground.

Hugs,

Charlize

[Guest Shelly1]

Thank you Charlize. I will post to the intro section as per your recommendation.

Good to be here. Thank you Ashley!

[Guest]

Good to see ya here Shelly! Hope to have a lot more interaction.

God bless

Ashley

[Guest Shelly1]

Thank you! I guess one of my first posts was quite lengthy.

Going to make it even longer...

Lisa Salazar sums up the efforts of Christian transgender folks very well in her article on Rachel Evans' site. I did all 10, I'm sure most of you did the same. Yet, we come up empty handed, without a miracle. Thing is, I believe God doesn't give us a miracle so we can be a light to a different community...a community that is mocked, scoffed, shunned, told to conform by the standard box churches overall. Outside the box Christianity means an outside the box solution from God!

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/ask-a-transgender-christian-response

...I spiritualized my struggle in the following ways:

1.

this was an attack on my person from Satan

2.

this was my thorn in the flesh

3.

this was a spiritual battle and I needed to put on the armor of God

4.

I needed to retrain my mind

5.

I needed to die to myself daily, moment by moment

6.

I had to plead the blood of Christ

7.

I needed to lay my struggles at the foot of the Cross

8.

I needed to memorize Scripture

9.

I needed to have faith

10.

I needed to pray without ceasing

Pretty admirable attempts, wouldn’t you agree? The problem was the secret struggle never went away. The tension was always there and I simply felt like a hypocrite, a failure, and completely defeated. In retrospect, the way I dealt with it was by learning to act “normal.”

[Guest LizMarie]

The Dalai Lama once remarked if his religion and science disagreed that his religion would have to adapt, not science. Sadly, radical right wing fundamentalist evangelical zealots don't think that way.

As I've noted to others before, a very kind and very gentle pastor once told me that transgender people are placed on this earth as a test. Not a test of the trans person themselves, but of those around the trans person. And that same pastor told me that he was very sad to admit that the "body of Christ" was failing this particular test very badly.

[VickySGV]

My branch of Christianity is not into Biblical literality, and has thus been able to adapt to the point that Trans* people are welcome and included at ALL levels of the Church as very worthy members of Christ's Body. Human reason based on Prayerful Discernment is a very real part of our belief chain, and I feel the welcome, and am involved in it. This reason is triggered by our daily lives and occupations, with only an occasional "non binding" reflection on the Writings as to how life has been as we search for what life is to become. It is a discernment based on listening to God in our current life, hearing and acting even if it is uncomfortable, and if our discomfort is great enough we can get busy doing God's work to relieve it, which may happen far more often than finding ourselves as the comfortable Pharisee who praised the Lord the he was not as other men.

Much of what I see today in the way of negativity toward Trans* people stems from what I am beginning to see as a latter day Heresy that is preventing the Church from adapting to our world and to the Revelations that are made known to us in study and love of our world and its peoples.

The grandchildren of a friend of mine "KNOW" that God wrote not only the Bible, but every text that gives enlightenment toward creation and love for life. To those children, even Darwin's writings, and Stephen Hawkings' works in physics, and countless others stand with holy scriptures on equal footing and reverence. We are talking about young teens here, but as I say, they KNOW these things, we need a whole world full of such.

[Guest Jennifer T]

Hello Shelly. I sense a lot of anger here. I'm sorry that it appears the church has been hard on you. None of us are perfect, and those who claim Christ are no less human than anyone else. One of my particular issues with a lot of folks who quote scripture is what I see as a failure to utilize that scripture as it was intended. What most people fail to recognize when quoting ANY of the Law of Moses is that that Law was a result of a covenant between God and Israel. He would be their God and protect them and they would become a priesthood to show the nations of the world what the perfection and holiness of God was like. AND Israel failed to keep the law. The reality is that none of us can keep God's laws. This is why Grace exists . This is why Christ came, wrapped himself in flesh and bore the Law to perfection, so that we could meet God through Him, not through the Law. Though the Law we know death. Through Christ we know life.

Life, Shelly.

I was not born a Jew. The Law was never intended for me. And I cannot keep it. But through the Law; and the Nation of Israel, the man Jesus Christ was born to Bring All Nations to Him. And when this age ends, to reconcile all and to restore all. Life eternal, life through Him; not death through the Law.

But let me caution one thing here. Many people like to throw the "judge not" scripture out against those who identify with Christ and cast aspersions when they don't agree. But in doing so, the same judgement is being meted. And that is for none of us to do at this time.

Christ will deal with all of us. All of us. Let us recognize, even in points of conflict, the Christ in whose image we are all made.

Peace this day.

[Guest Shelly1]

As I've noted to others before, a very kind and very gentle pastor once told me that transgender people are placed on this earth as a test. Not a test of the trans person themselves, but of those around the trans person. And that same pastor told me that he was very sad to admit that the "body of Christ" was failing this particular test very badly.

Thank you for sharing this again, I’ve never heard it before. A fantastic summation.

[Guest Shelly1]

from http://www.ukapologetics.net/whiteforharvest.html, a good one page long read.

John 4:35

'...Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!'

Matt 9:37-38

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

So when the laborers for the harvest show up as transgender, they are not allowed to participate in gathering of souls for heaven??

If transgender people are so ‘sinful’ as the rigid-thinkers believe, why are THEY not out in the field trying to reach all the ‘singful’ and ‘perverted’ trans people? Makes no sense.

[Guest MaryGennaeAngelina]

I quit church a long time ago. You touched on one of the reasons. Churches are not about doing what is right, they are about doing what people want. I am Goth, and I've been yelled at by street preachers telling me I'm headed for hell. I have pointed out to them that biblical teachings contradict hell, among other things. All they do is get out of the conversation. I don't believe anymore, I live each day and am not worried about some after life. I see everything in nature be born, live then die. I fail to see humans being any different.

[Guest Shelly1]

Deut 23:1 A person may squeeze hard or cut off the sex parts of a man. The man with the physical damage cannot go to the *LORD’s house.

When I was 11yo, I had an accident on my bike, a 1-speed bike. A tree root was sticking out of the ground, the bike instantly stopped. Kinetic energy (the bad E, not the good E ) took over and slammed my midsection into that dreadful “L” shaped bracket (which we all know, should NEVER be on a boy’s bike). I was in severe pain for a few days as my left testacle was heavily bruised.

Even to this day, when the nerves flare up, it’s 8 out of 10 on the pain scale as those damaged nerves and lower portion of that testacle remind me of that painful day all over again. It doesn’t flare up every day or even every few weeks, but still it does, it’s not fun. Yes, it makes my eyes water when it happens.

I forgot to tell my urologist of this before my vas surgery years ago. Yeah, when I yiped, he freaked. I can laugh about it now, but a decade ago, that was excrutiating.

All this is said to bring the point home from Deut 23:1—since I am damaged in the reproductive area, I am not allowed in any church because "The man with the physical damage cannot go to the LORD’s house."

Now, if the institutional church actually followed Deuterononmy’s laws, I would have never been allowed in church, ever.

If thee Lord’s decrees need to be followed, all of them, why does the box/institutional church pick & choose which laws from Deuteronomy to administer and which ones to ignore?

[Guest Jennifer T]

Shelly , again, Deuteronomy was not written for you to follow. It was not written for the Church to follow. It was given as a covenant to the nation of Israel for a very specific purpose. You cannot follow it to the letter, no matter how hard you might try.

You sound angry at some people or an institution that professes Christ. If you have issue with the Gospel, or understanding what was written, why and for whom, I suggest taking it up with the Author and seeking some good study; theological study.

There are always going to be people and groups who don't like you. Your choice is to focus on that and become bitter OR focus on the good things in life and help your fellow man. And when you're confused seek answers with all your heart and all your mind.

[Guest Shelly1]

Jennifer, I agree with you, there is some anger in the mix. Some disappointment, some disillusionment and some hope that this can change as well.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought “the Old Testament can’t be all discarded, after all, it was writtinen for good reasons.”. Finding Deut 23:1 proved to me beyond a shadow of any doubts that I am completely riding on His grace, nothing less, and am on the right track.

I asked God to show me many mile posts along this road, this is a big sign for me. I can rest and relax in the fact I have faith in Him, and that is all that matters

Hopefully others will find this OT references and thus the refutations in NT grace valuable.

In all openness, I feel a weight has just been lifted regarding my CD’ing days that essentially ended in the mid-90’s. Wow, freeing indeed!!
HAPPY DANCE!!!

Ashley, let’s go shopping!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

Ashley, let’s go shopping!!!!!!!!

Wooooooo!!!!!!!! I hear Dressbarn is having a sweater sale!

God bless

Ashley

[Guest Jennifer T]

Sorry, not tying to confuse you. And if you've found something to hold onto, then please do so!

The law is not intended to be discarded. And that isn't what I'm trying to do. Jesus stated that all of the law was summed up in this - love God with all that you are and love your brother as yourself. This is the basis for all the Law.

The Old Testament gives us a glimpse into our beginnings, the fall of man, the holiness and righteousness of a perfect God, His judgements, the birth of a priesthood nation and the promise of a Hope. The New Testament shows us our end, the redemption of man , the fulfillment of all the judgements and righteousness of God, the inclusion of all nations into God's priesthood and the fulfillment of the promise - Grace; Jesus Christ.

It's an amazing picture, Shelly..