God Is Transgender

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christian-piatt/god-is-transgender_b_7717840.html?utm_hp_ref=transgender

The Huffington Post/by Christian Piatt     o7/02/2015

" I had a text discussion this morning with two of my theological colleagues, and one asked if we felt the "cosmic Christ," was necessarily male or female. This also led to our understanding of the Holy Spirit, and ultimately to how we understood God. And it was then that I came to a realization about my theology:

God is Transgender"

Interesting. By their description, not only is God trans, but also non-binary 

Wow, that's a very interesting point of view. I have some people to show it to, hehehe.

A few years ago I read another analysis, not so literal, that concluded that god is actually a trans woman. It was based on how the god from the old testament punished, killed, hated, scared, treated the people of Israel like a father and generally had what are considered male attributes, while the god from the new testament is feminine, motherly, loving, caring, forgiving, etc.

Now, other religions do consider god as a masculine/feminine duality as part of their canon.

And here, I thought Eve was the original transsexual...

I love this! And it made sense immediately. If God is all things then God must be occasionally either binary, both, neither and all the other gender variations. I do feel, and have felt as I moved toward transition, that becoming my true self was a way to reconnect with my sense of the divine. Transition has been in many ways a spiritual revelation.

This made my day, thanks for posting it stephaniec!

no problem, why do you think God made the rainbow

Ok, I am just throwing this out there, that article is claiming in the bible (Which one, King James, other?) that God is referred to as a woman at least 13 times. Yet, doesn't bother to list the places in said bible where it says this? It is true neutral (we, they etc.) are used but still, it doesn't list it in the article which is very odd. People need proof you know and I asked a friend of mine whose read multiple bibles and lives in EU as to whether or not this is the case. He seemed to think it didn't. Now granted, he might not have read the original Hebrew translation, I don't know. I'm trying to reach out to someone else who might know but at this time, this is highly questionable HOWEVER! I would like to just say if this is true and I wouldn't doubt it, then God is more accurately known as a gender bender if (s)he is changing genders physically/appearance wise. There is another term that's used to describe a being with both male and female parts that's hardly used these days and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called but it's a very old word, ancient I think.

update: (please excuse double post though it has been 4 days already)

I've spoken with 2 people I know, one lives in EU, the other knows the Hebrew language because that's their native language and he reads their Hebrew bible. If you've read the article in the OP post then just know, it's a load of crap. They don't know a thing about Hebrew language according to the person whose native language is Hebrew. According to him, they never use female pronouns in the Hebrew bible and it's always gender inclusive, in fact, he says the only time they do use male form is in the verb but even then there is no female verb that is referring to God.

So there you have it. Take what you will of that and while it's true I myself don't know Hebrew nor have I read the Hebrew bible, at the same time I got 2 people who I trust telling me that article is wrong in many ways. Add into the fact the poster of the article didn't bother to list actual references of where those 13 times God was "supposedly" referred to as a female and that further shots the credibility of the article. 

I figured it was a load of crap before i even read it. Thank you for clearing that up.

I shared this with my Mom who is a feminist and a lay preacher and elder in the Presbyterian church. I believe she went to Princeton seminary and studied Greek and Hebrew there. She was blasé about the whole idea, suggesting to me it is old hat.

interesting read and a different point of view! 

*
Please view this week's (15 Aug 15) episode of PBS 'Religion and Ethics Newsweekly' (check your local listings or go to PBS.org).

They include an extended segment about transgender in Christian churches. They interview people who are trans and people who are ordained ministers who welcome trans into their church.

If an anti-trans Christian wants to view the issue with an open mind, at least this is a start.  Doubtfull any hard-core anti- would consider watching let alone coming away with a renewed perspective.

*

God is a Girl!

Gendering God, trans or not, makes no sense from a religious viewpoint.
God is, by necessity, supragender.

Quote from: cathyrains on September 07, 2015, 12:56:32 PM
Gendering God, trans or not, makes no sense from a religious viewpoint.
God is, by necessity, supragender.

To quote Joyce: "In the name of Anna the allmaziful, the everliving, bringer of plurabilities. Haloed be her eve, her singtime sung, her rill be run, unhemmed as it is uneven. Her untitled mamafesta memorialising the mosthighest has gone by many names at disjointed times...."

In itself, God is an abstract principle. Principles like that aren't gendered and literary personfications and hypostases aren't literally descriptive of God. She is unknowable. But there are elements in the way God is perceived through many cultures, that are considered feminine. In Judaism there's the Shekhinah, in christianity Maria, in Hinduism the Shakhti, in Buddhism there is the perfection of wisdom (the prajna paramita), which is considered female, and so on. Two texts I can really recommend on the feminine principle in religion are:

Dakini's warm breath; the feminine principle in tibetan Buddhism by Judith Simmer-Brown and Gershom Scholem's essay Shekhinah; the feminine element in divinity, that can be found in his "Mystical shape of the godhead".

Quote from: Naomi71 on September 08, 2015, 03:40:32 AM

In itself, God is an abstract principle. Principles like that aren't gendered and literary personfications and hypostases aren't literally descriptive of God. She is unknowable. But there are elements in the way God is perceived through many cultures, that are considered feminine. In Judaism there's the Shekhinah, in christianity Maria, in Hinduism the Shakhti, in Buddhism there is the perfection of wisdom (the prajna paramita), which is considered female, and so on. Two texts I can really recommend on the feminine principle in religion are:

Dakini's warm breath; the feminine principle in tibetan Buddhism by Judith Simmer-Brown and Gershom Scholem's essay Shekhinah; the feminine element in divinity, that can be found in his "Mystical shape of the godhead".

To cite instances of "God as the divine feminine" in various religions* is cherrypicking to the extent that you might as well be creating your own "abstract God principle". Monotheistic religions see God as the divine creator. Gender and sex do not precede or define the creator. Put simply: God created the sexes, humans created gender. You can choose to perceive God as if viewing through a gendered Urim and Thummim but the divine remains necessarily supragender.

*I'll discount any references to Buddhism since it is nontheistic. Likewise any polytheistic religions are irrelevant to the topic of "God is transgender" which refers to a singular God. 

Quote from: cathyrains on September 08, 2015, 11:17:25 AM
To cite instances of "God as the divine feminine" in various religions* is cherrypicking to the extent that you might as well be creating your own "abstract God principle". Monotheistic religions see God as the divine creator. Gender and sex do not precede or define the creator. Put simply: God created the sexes, humans created gender. You can choose to perceive God as if viewing through a gendered Urim and Thummim but the divine remains necessarily supragender.

*I'll discount any references to Buddhism since it is nontheistic. Likewise any polytheistic religions are irrelevant to the topic of "God is transgender" which refers to a singular God.

Aren't you misreading me? I don't actually think we disagree. That's why I stated that "God" is an abstract, nongendered principle (instead of a person) and yes, I was cherrypicking. Not to "prove" that God is a Girl, but to point to some feminine elements of divinity. What's wrong with that? And btw, that Buddhism is nontheistic, doesn't mean it doesn't have have a concept of divinity and elements in that often have feminine personifications: the Prajna Paramita, Tara, the Dakini,or  Vajrayogini, to mention just a few.

To my mind it's not wrong at all to have a personal concept of the deity, that is feminine. In Judaism there' a difference between the personal concept someone can have of "God" and the abstract, universal concept. The one is called "Adonai", the other is the unspeakable "IHVH". to some Adonai is male, to others female.

Quotecherrypicking to the extent that you might as well be creating your own "abstract God principle

Yes, everybody necessarily has hir own concept of God, which is limited by that person's predispositions. And yes, the abstract principle is also a man made concept. A word.

For me the basic text is "God created mankind in their image - male and female".  Except that I would interpret it to include intersex and all the other variants.

Faith is a very personal issue and I had lost mine while I was living a lie but regained it when I started living authentically as myself.

I asked the minister of the church I now belong to if she would rebaptise me as I'm a different person with a different name.  She said our denomination doesn't do rebaptism, then she found a service for "renewal of vows" and used that.  It was rebaptism in all but name.

@Mary XYX

That piece could also be read as each human, or some kind of proto-human containing both male and female elements. "Mankind" wouldn't be the proper translation of "Ha'adam" either. This reading especially makes sense, if you realize that a little further on in Genesis, that female element (his rib) is taken out of Adam.

From http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2027/No.%201/The%20Man-Woman.pdf

"The key to decoding this mystery is to be found in Rashi, the Biblical commentator par excellence, who generally anchors the Biblical text in its plain meaning. Rashi explains: (tThey were created shenai partzufim (of two faces, androgynous) in the original creation; and only later did God divide them." In other words, ha-adam, the first human being is a unique creation; both male and female, simultaneously."