Some
Christians slam the door in the face of transgenders. Apparently, Pope Francis
compared transgenders to nuclear weapons because they do not recognize God’s order
of creation [1].
“Transgender”
is an umbrella term for a man who considers himself a woman or a woman who
thinks of herself as a man. They consider themselves as trapped in a wrong body.
Former
Olympic champion and pop celebrity Bruce Jenner, a man by birth, recently underwent
sex reassignment to become a woman. Some Christian leaders deemed this gender
transition as a sin against God. Some ultra-conservatives even hustle transgenders
to hell.
Intriguingly,
the Bible is silent about transgenders. There is not a single reference that deems
transgenderism as sinful.
Why do some
Christians consider transgenderism as sinful?
God assigns our gender during our creation
(cf. Genesis 1:27). Since our genders are assigned by our creator, any sex
change endeavor is a violation against God’s creational intent.
God’s design of mankind as male and female
is consistently attacked by Satan. People with gender confusions succumb
towards sex reassignment. Satan causes this gender confusion and the popular
western culture endorses it, “We see the
profound tension between God’s design and Satan’s attacks on this design. The
Lord created man and woman and gives them specific roles to play for His glory;
Satan targets man and woman and induces them to upend God’s design. God orders
and structures; Satan tears down. God brings life; Satan destroys it. These
tragic patterns are as old as the earth. They are not new, but they do morph
with the times. Western culture is making good on this rebellion. It denies the
distinctness of divine creation; it tears down the uniqueness of the sexes; and
it rebels against the lordship of Jesus Christ. The wisdom and design of God is
rejected, and the Word of God, in sum, is reviled”[2].
When we
succumb to Satan’s schemes, we sin against God.
God does not make mistakes.
Transgenders often develop “gender dysphoria” - a form of depression, during
which they accuse God in anger and frustration for having trapped them in a
wrong body. Dissatisfied transgenders ask, “how can I be a man yet feel like a
woman?”
Some consider
man’s feelings as a cause of this problem than his body, “Traditionally, if a man felt like a woman yet inhabited a male body,
his feelings, not his body, were viewed as the problem. They were considered
something to be resisted, modified if possible, and contrary to what was”
[3].
Consider a similar
instance where a person may feel worthless. A feeling of being worthless is not
a valid thought because all mankind are made in the image of God. Hence every
man and woman is precious in God’s sight. If we are precious in God’s sight, we
cannot consider ourselves worthless.
In both
instances, our feeling is deceptive. God, a perfect being, cannot and would not
commit mistakes. It is man who makes mistakes. Therefore, man’s negative thought
that he/she is trapped in a wrong body ought to be dealt with and changed.
Sex change does not provide satisfaction to
transgenders. Let us, for a moment, assume the legitimacy of transgenders’ negative
emotion - that they are indeed trapped in a wrong body. If transgenders are
legitimate in their anger and frustration of being trapped in a wrong body,
then a sex reassignment should offer them peace and satisfaction, isn’t
it?
On the
contrary, in many instances, sex reassignment failed to provide transgenders
with the peace and satisfaction that they so desired for before sex
reassignment. A study of 324 sex-reassigned persons (191 male-to-females, 133
female-to-males) in 2003 concluded that “Persons
with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for
mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity [diseased state] than
the general population. Our findings suggest that sex reassignment, although
alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism”[4].
If sex
reassignment does not alleviate the pain of transgenders, then their frustration,
anger and negative emotion of being trapped in a wrong body is invalid.
Can we endorse
or justify transgenderism since Bible remains explicitly silent on this subject?
Any act
that violates God is a sin even if Bible is silent about that very act. Consider
pornography as a case in point.
Pornography
cannot be justified because of a lack of direct reference to pornography as a sin
in Bible. But various passages in the Bible implicitly deems pornography as
sinful (e.g. Matthew 5:27-28; 1 Corinthians 6:18; Colossians 3:5).
In the same
manner, the consideration that transgenderism is a sinful act is indeed
credible, for transgenderism violates God’s creational intent.
Would
practicing transgenders go to hell?
By virtue
of our repentance and belief in Christ, we are washed clean of all our sins by
the blood of our crucified and risen Savior. Hence, transgenders, who consider themselves
as sinful humans but washed clean by the blood of the Savior through their faith in Christ, will not go to
hell.
But if a
transgender considers the act of sex reassignment as not sinful, then there is
a certain danger, for there is sufficient evidence that transgenderism violates
God’s creational intent.
However, I
believe that it is not for us to determine who goes to hell especially when the
Bible is silent on that very matter.
How then should
a repented transgender live?
Consider a
man, who underwent a sex reassignment surgery to become a woman. If this person
genuinely repented, he would live as a man and not as a woman i.e. he would
live in his birth-gender.
How should
Christians respond to transgenders?
Love them unconditionally.
This is essential. Insults and ridicule should be avoided.
If a transgender
considers the act of sex reassignment as not sinful, then we ought to graciously
point them towards reality. The reality is that transgenderism violates God’s
creational intent, hence it is sinful. Any sinful act would be forgiven upon repentance.
How should
Christians respond to transgenders considering sex reassignment?
Explain why
transgenderism is a sin against God. Inform them that sex reassignment does not
actually change a person’s gender, for their birth gender DNA remains
absolutely intact, despite the sex change surgery.
Sex
reassignment may make one feel like a man or a woman but in reality they are
not that gender into which they have surgically transitioned into, “The only thing the surgeon can change is
the medical record, birth records and the perception that a change took place
on the operating table. A DNA test would prove no sex change took place. Sex
change regret may come years later when you understand the surgery did not make
you a female or change your DNA gender/sex” [5].
Significantly,
depression in the individual before the sex change surgery could remain intact
after the surgery. Moreover, their actual gender does not change with the
surgery for their birth DNA remains absolute. Therefore, transgenders ought to
look to Christ for their inner healing. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can set us
free.
Endnotes:
Websites referenced here were last accessed on 30th November
2015.
Please read this article for more valuable information on
Transgenderism:
http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-transgenderism
[1] http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/pope-francis-transgender-people-are-like-nuclear-weapons/news-story/82ac600853b4bc8647843bdc211bdb51
[2]
https://answersingenesis.org/family/gender/transgender-identity-wishing-away-gods-design/
[3] http://www.equip.org/article/the-transsexual-dilemma/
[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21364939
[5] http://www.sexchangeregret.com/Things-Ive-Learned
No comments:
Post a Comment