I asked about the usual verses rolled out to claim transgender people are "broken" and need prayed for, but must turn away from their chosen path...
Her reply..
Hi Sarah, The Deuteronomy verses come out of the Jewish scriptures, that form part of the Torah/Law. Some Christians argue that as we are in Christ, we are not subject to the law. Jesus himself appeared to flout certain aspects of the law, particularly laws about healing on the Sabbath etc. Jesus ia also said to have fulfilled the law and the need for the law in becoming the Paschal offering, once and for all sin. Certainly today, many women wear what would traditionally be deemed men's clothing and vice versa in different cultures around the world. The other flip side to that is all of the codes about not eating shellfish, not wearing clothes of mixed fibres etc all of many Christians do, which are all part of the same codes. These verses are often cherry picked without looking at the whole picture. Isaiah talks about eunuchs being brought into the kin-dom of God, which covers the crushed testicles or no penis issue. You alao have to remember that when the scriptures were written, there was no concept of LGBT identity. Your identity came through your perceived gender, based on outside physical appearance only, who your father was and what tribe you belonged to. We now know that one person can have combinations of male and female dna in one body, so what does that mean for usually held positions of what constitutes gender? What woukd ut mean for Biblical writers to have had that knowledge? Jesus talks about eunuchs positively and Philip one of the disciples baptised a eunuch. We believe Christians are welcomed into the family/kin-dom of God via baptism.
In Romans, Paul talks a lot about being pure as Christians, many were getting involved in temple prostitution relating to fertility rites involving other Gods in the various Roman temples and Paul was talking against this. Pauls letter are peoblematic also. It is well known that Romans in particular, has been tampered with and had bits added to it. We also know that out of the 13 letters attributed to him, Paul only actually wrote about half of them but Romans and 1 Corinthians are among those he is believed to have written. The overarching theme is one of not engaging in anything that would separate you from Christ. Our bodies are temples but Jesus himself said if your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. This ia why I said these issues are complex and the Bible often does not have clear cut answers to these things but there are positives to be found. I hope this helps at least a little and I am happy to answer anything further,
