Quote from: Deborah on August 12, 2016, 08:58:48 AM
To sum up my previous thoughts,
* God is truth.
* Anything that is truth is not opposed to God.
* Anything that is opposed to truth is not of God.
* It is true that I exist. (The I here refers to the ontological reality of my mind - that is trans)
* Institutional Christianity stridently denies that I exist so is therefore opposed to truth.
* Since institutional Christianity is opposed to truth it is therefore opposed to God.
Being fully respectful of your much greater experience which I honestly hope to lean on over the next year or two to stay sane...
Could I suggest that maybe the last two aren't as absolutely true as one might conclude? Now, I am Catholic, so bias might intrude, but I do not believe that the Church or its doctrine denies that you exist. Rather, there is a conflict of language, of how belief and perception of reality are expressed. For us laity, we're fast to change both opinion and manner of speech, and vocabulary we use to construct that speech. For the Church, and in particular the Roman and Orthodox Churches, they are constrained by a slowness of response and an archaic accumulation of vocabulary that makes reconciliation of conversation impossible.
As Transgender we (I'll boldly presume to include myself) are at the very bleeding, ragged edge of this linguistic adaptation. We will have long passed on by the time the Church digests the words we use to describe ourselves; even though the intent is benign to begin with. My mind is without a doubt feminine when not broken by a very inappropriate response to the presence of T. They don't have a brain fixer device that make the brain like T; but there are plenty of meds that delete the T or prevent it from being psychologically explosive; in the process of fixing this, I will feel more consistent as a person if my body's appearance and mental feel is made more feminine. (and it would be nice if it could be completely fem, though getting from here to there may be impossible).
So, I'm not a victim, I am simply me, and eventually the Church will grasp a correct theological language to describe this, probably in a couple hundred years or so.
But you definitely exist. And exist today.
The real problem is not the institutional Church, its a belief that the Church is somehow able to move culture and local/tribal tradition. That is definitely NOT true, especially on single human lifetime scales. Culture and tribal tradition vastly overpower anything the Church (or other religious institution of other faiths) might do. Its not even a fight. And what's worse, is adherents to a tradition or cultural tenant will, and always have, wrap their cultural preference in any and every extraneous piece of religious language they can as justification, and the harder the stretch, the more intense and strident is the wrapping.
I would instead suggest the following:
* God is truth.
* Anything that is truth is not opposed to God.
* Anything that is opposed to truth is not of God.
* It is true that I exist. (The I here refers to the ontological reality of my mind - that is trans)
* Western cultural history stridently denies that I exist so is therefore opposed to truth.
* Institutional Christianity sees me, but has no words to address me.
* Western cultural history is therefore opposed to God, but the Church is too weak to aid me.
* The Church, being the Body of Christ, needs its hand to step up, and challenge that which is cruel and ungodly.
In short, we humans like to blame our leaders for our own failings. Our Western culture of violence and intimidation, hatred and bloodshed, lust and gluttony is what must be challenged and driven out from the Church, all the while offering forgiveness and a safe home to those who might repent. The Pope is not the problem. We (laity in general) are.