Hatred, us, and religion

[Kyra553]

Snappy title and really little else I have to say. We all have or will deal with those who believe we are committing some form of damnation from their interpretation of religious law. I have personally dealt with this from my family and many friends and typically it's only one sentence in the whole book.


Maybe I was lucky and at 2am in the morning I found a simple webpage which should compel a christian to follow it. Not by religious law but by the mere reason this religion exists and for what it stands. For a christian to deny it would mean they do not stand by the pillars which they claim to worship.


If you are being targeted, restrained, hated, by this one sentence. Then please read this webpage. It provided me a world of information of what that one sentence means.


http://www.gaychristian101.com/transgender.html



I hope this helps others on their journey. I know I dealt with it when I started and I know others are sadly held back or left in limbo because of it. One that sticks in my mind is a transwoman here who started transition. But was forced to end her transition in the name of god's will and this sentence. That hurts me inside that they would believe she should spend her life in sufferage, because god never intended that and hopefully this page will help make that clear.  I wish I would of had this information when I started transition, maybe it would of helped much of the struggles.

[Angela H]

Thanks for the link Kyra! I might try linking some of the more religious members of my family to it and see if it helps them be a little more openminded about trans people.

To be honest, since I'm not a biblical scholar I never really got why religious people would have any problem with us or gay/lesbian people. Whenever I asked my family members they would just say that it's against God's will in a vague manner. 

I always just assumed that they had a kneejerk reaction to someone breaking gender boundaries and were trying to justify it with their religious beliefs. It seems to me that for religious people if something feels wrong to them that must mean that God is telling them it is wrong. My parents always told me that God communicates to us through the Spirit, by sending us feelings.

That's just my experience though, I guess every religion and every religious person is different. 

[Gertrude]

Some people confuse religion with culture and use religion to justify their cultural beliefs. The problem is they are ignorant of this and dig their heels in when confronted with data that causes cognitive dissonance. They could use CBT as much or more than we need it. Anyway, look up Mark Wingfield on ted talks. If he can get beyond it as a Baptist pastor in Texas, maybe there's hope.


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[BlueJaye]

I posted this answer on Quora to somebody who was asking whether I have ever experienced feelings of guilt or shame because of my religious affiliation.

https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-struggled-with-guilt-and-denial-of-their-gender-dysphoria-because-of-their-religious-beliefs-which-prevents-them-from-coming-out-Ive-struggled-with-this-since-childhood-and-its-hard-to-keep-battling/answer/Casey-Jones-271?share=1606e641&srid=pPLse

"Yes. I was in denial my whole life because I was afraid of what it meant if I admitted it. Especially after I became a Christian at the age of 15. In the eyes of most evangelicals, especially those I have known, being Christian and suffering from gender dysphoria is impossible. Christians don't suffer from that!

I am now 36. After almost 35 years of trying to convince myself that this will all resolve on its own and go away someday, I have finally admitted to myself, my wife, and God that it's part of who I am and it's not going away.

I have had to really reevaluate my faith in light of this. Am I still a Christian? Can I still believe the Bible and say I suffer from gender dysphoria?

I came to the conclusion that yes, I can!

I was always taught the Genesis account of creation, and still believe it with all my heart. In the beginning God made them male and female, and it was good. Everything God created was good at first, wasn't it? But we know that it's a messed up world out there now, and places in the Bible like the book of Romans backs that up. It says that all of creation groans under the curse that came by sin.



One of the big obstacles to accepting gender dysphoria as real is accepting that we can't cherry pick what aspects of creation we want to allow to be under the influence of the curse. Somehow gender and sexual development in the womb is off limits. It's too sacred somehow to think that things like gender could get screwed up even though Christians readily acknowledge a wide range of other developmental flaws that are a result of the curse.

Eunuchs are found in several places in the Bible. In ancient Jewish culture, a eunuch was an outcast because they were gender nonconforming. They were considered neither male nor female. They were not even allowed to be part of Israel or to enter the congregation or temple. Yet there are verses in the Old Testament showing that God loves eunuchs and promises a great inheritance for them in the world to come.

And Jesus had something interesting to say about eunuchs. Not only did he acknowledge that there are people born that way, and even that some are forced by others to become eunuchs (slaves were frequently turned into eunuchs in ancient cultures) but he said that some people choose to become eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Why would that be? It's certainly not a requirement for entry. I believe that he was talking about people like myself who find the burden of their biological sex so great that the depression and anxiety prevents them from being effective for His Kingdom. Whether it is a cisgender person who feels overly burdened by biological sex drive, or a transgender person who feels overwhelmed by gender dysphoria.

Jesus told us that "the flesh profits nothing". And also that at the resurrection our bodies will be like the angels, which are genderless. Male and female genders were created for this world and procreation, but will be done away with in the age to come. The apostle Paul said that since the age to come is nearly upon us we are better of to not burden ourselves with procreative roles like marriage but rather focus on the age to come and serving God.

With this in view, I have accepted that gender dysphoria is real, it is a valid experience of many people, including Christians like myself.

I want to leave with one more remark. Premature death due to suicide or substance abuse are the biggest dangers facing transgender people. The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that "Anyone who is among the living has hope - even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!". People who suffer from gender dysphoria are viewed as dogs, especially by Christians. But I would rather be a live dog who is eager to love and serve Jesus, than a stately lion who is dead inside and on its way to hell.

I hope I can challenge transgender people to consider that the Lord Jesus loves them and calls them to salvation, the same Lord who many claim finds you to be an abomination. I also hope I can challenge the viewpoints of those who claim gender dysphoria and being transgender are damnable abominations."

[BlueJaye]

Another answer I provided regarding "cross dressing".
https://www.quora.com/Biblically-what-makes-being-born-with-gender-dysphoria-a-sin-like-homosexuality-and-not-a-mental-physical-issue-like-depression-or-cancer/answer/Casey-Jones-271?share=5f3253cf&srid=pPLse

To understand God's prohibition against cross dressing in the Old Testament law, you need to understand the religious practices of the land of Canaan at that time. The worship of those gods required followers to take on the roles of both male and female and worship the male and female generative powers of those gods. This is why there were the phallic Ashera poles and such. The worshippers cross dressed to worship sexual aspects of their gods.

The Hebrew God is neither male nor female, and though He is generally designated with masculine pronouns and attributes, He does not possess a penis or vagina or any of the sexual attributes of humans. And it is blasphemous to worship Him in those ways.

[BlueJaye]

Another of my answers to a hater who claims transgender people are an abomination to God.
https://www.quora.com/Why-does-God-allow-LGBT-abominations/answer/Casey-Jones-271?share=174428ac&srid=pPLse

[Chloe]

Eunuchs are found in several places in the Bible. In ancient Jewish culture, a eunuch was an outcast because they were gender nonconforming.

Not so sure about above Jewish attitude but in other cultures they had a very specific purpose . . .

Middle English eunuk, from Latin eunuchus, from Greek eunouchos, from eunē bed + echein to have, have charge of

or, more precisely, To GUARD -> Eunuchs were often trusted government workers employed by the ruling elite ( ie:Kings, Emperors ) that stood between them and the "religious types"/overall slave/working classes that otherwise was seen as a THREAT to their rule.

A "political class" all their own but because they had no heirs we're not considered to have any 'dynastic pretensions' and/or cause any blood-line "interference".

[BlueJaye]

Not so sure about above Jewish attitude but in other cultures they had a very specific purpose . . .

or, more precisely, To GUARD -> Eunuchs were often trusted government workers employed by the ruling elite ( ie:Kings, Emperors ) that stood between them and the "religious types"/overall slave/working classes that otherwise was seen as a THREAT to their rule.

A "political class" all their own but because they had no heirs we're not considered to have any 'dynastic pretensions' and/or cause any blood-line "interference".

I understand all of that, but they were viewed as gender non-conforming and were not allowed to be part of any worship activities. See Deuteronomy 23:1 as reference for what I am talking about. Which is why I brought it up. The political handiness of using eunuchs for certain government functions is separate from the religious exclusion based on them being castrated and considered neither male nor female.

The reason the English word comes from a root that means to guard, is that eunuchs were incapable of certain things. They couldn't have children. They couldn't impregnate women. They, in many cases, were not capable of raping women, and had a sex drive diminished to the point where it was highly unlikely that they would even if they could. This is why the term eunuch was applied to them, because it was the place in society where they were valued.