Please note that I cannot speak for all people who are trans here. I think it would be much better if ya'll get to know people who identify as such.
Anyways: God made people trans. I got in trouble once for saying that. The person I was dialoguing with didn't quite understand what I meant. They thought I was trying to say that God didn't make people male and female in the beginning as we're told in Genesis. That's actually not what I was going for.
I meant it like we know that some people are intersex, and God has clearly made them, and they too are clearly still made in the image of God, despite having more ambiguous biological sex characteristics. They too have a unique purpose and reason that God in his sovereignty has put in place for being made in a way that differs from the norm.
Whether this difference is a result of natural Fallenness or is just natural human difference - like how some people are born left handed, created by God that way, and that's not at all a bad thing (even though people used to think it was) - for those whose biological sex is more visibly ambiguous, the church has greater sympathy.
Even according to the Nashville Statement which is a statement from the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CMBW) on gender and sexuality, "...those born with a physical disorder of sex development are created in the image of God and have dignity and worth equal to all other image-bearers. They are acknowledged by our Lord Jesus in his words about 'eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb.' With all others they are welcome as faithful followers of Jesus Christ and should embrace their biological sex insofar as it may be known."
Only when the problem ceases to be obviously biological and becomes the realm of the invisible, the "mental" do we go from, "...they should embrace their biological sex insofar as it may be known," to, "They must live in accordance with the way God has made them."
Here we come to the crux of it all. From one statement in Genesis (occasionally someone will cite an OT law that prohibits cross dressing), we get a whole philosophical framework about what it means to "live in accordance with how God made you".
There are a lot of philosophical arguments being constructed from Christians who talk about "the transgender movement" - whatever that is. It often goes undefined. The trans people I have met come from many different backgrounds, and their experience is not the same. Somehow, we're talking about "the transgender movement" now.
What is argued against is almost purely ideological. Some of it is ideology that not even everyone who identifies as trans agrees with. Something I've noticed for a while is how often these arguments against "the transgender movement" have little Scriptural backing. They rely almost entirely on constructing a philosophical framework, and one I'm not entirely sure is consistent with what we do find in Scripture. What theology is constructed is contradictory and is based on this idea of, "We must live in accordance with the way God made us."
"The way God made us." Whatever that means. Again - it so often goes undefined.
Despite the fact that people who identify as trans (in my experience) hardly ever describe their experience as, "I used to think that gender was essential and based on some Platonic form of maleness and femaleness and whatnot, but now I realize it's all a social construction and I feel totally free to just express whatever I want just because I can," Christians often propose a more correct ideological framework as the solution to "the problem".
This is such a tendency that I notice even the most well meaning Christians who see trans individuals experiencing legitimate suffering will propose an ideological fix. Solution: Remember, God made you with a penis. That means you're a man. God made people male and female. It's such a beautiful amazing thing that he made you a man. Remember, God made you with a vagina. That means you're a woman. Isn't that amazing?Can't you come to love the way God made you?
As though just saying, "Wow, isn't it great that you have a penis and God made you that way," is somehow a "cure".
We talk about trans individuals as though they're just a little confused. Perhaps a lesson in biology will help?
"Men have penises and women have vaginas. It's simple." If only people who are trans could just realize that!
Some Christians who are more sensitive to the issue still talk a bit as though we're merely trying to contrast with some ideology and assumes that trans individuals are just a little confused or misguided. Perhaps it's a product of bad parenting or societal rules or something.
The talk will go something like this: Sure, there are elements of gender that are constructed. Girls and boys should feel free to pursue whatever interests they want. The fact that we tell them to adhere to such rigid rules is what makes people think they're the wrong gender.
A boy enjoys painting his nails... People tell him that's not manly... If we're not careful, he might accidentally think he's a woman!
We talk about trans individuals as though, perhaps, something traumatic happened to them as though that could explain their experiences. Trauma indeed is a very influential thing.
However, suffice it to say, for as many trans individuals who have experienced physical, sexual, or psychological trauma I know many more cisgender (people whose biological sex matches their gender identity) folks such as myself who have known trauma but who are not trans.
Not everything outside of the norm is due to trauma.
We talk about trans individuals as though they're delusional and psychotic.
I can't tell you how many times I've heard this one. "Just because someone thinks they're a cat doesn't mean they can be a cat. It's cruel to tell them they can be a cat when they can't."
The comparisons to situations where someone actually believes they are a cat or something similar are very wrong.
Suffice it to say, I've worked with people suffering psychosis and delusions. Throwing anti-psychotic medications at someone who is trans will not help. They are not psychotic, delusional, or irrational. They are not suffering from some mental problem which doesn't allow them to comprehend reality correctly.
The problem stems from the reality they are all too well aware of: that their body appears one way, but their brain is acting and feeling differently. This mismatch can cause a lot of psychological distress and depression.
No matter what you believe, both Christians and "the secular world" advocate a change to bring things back to alignment.
So why do Christians place more weight on the more visible aspects of biology?
How is changing the mind or brain somehow "better", more moral, more "in accordance with the way God made you", less damaging, etc than changing the more visible aspects of the body?
I have people I love dearly and closely in my life who are trans. How is changing whatever is going on in the mind/brain somehow less damaging than changing the body? Given that this is not some choice or the product of "immoral ideology"?
Wrong ideology isn't what causes a seven year old to try to cut off their penis with scissors.
Nor is it what causes an adult who has been going through their life feeling like something is wrong to make the decision to transition that will cause their friends and family to leave them.
God made people male and female, yes.
The funny thing to me is that those who identify as trans aren't necessarily saying, "No," to that. Just like the of existence of those who are intersex doesn't erase the fact that the majority of the population has unambiguous sexual characteristics, the existence of people who are trans doesn't negate this fact either.
Why do we not give trans individuals the same freedom as intersex individuals: to let them live in accordance to their gender insofar as it may be known?
Living in Accordance with the Way God Made Us: a Misapplied and Misunderstood Principle
Here I want to engage with the way those who are non-affirming tend to think of biblical and philosophical principles and how they apply to those who are trans. I will try to summarize and display this way of thinking in a way that hopefully matches up with how people legitimately talk about the situation, or is at least conducive to the ability to dialogue well about this.
Principle: It is good and right to live in accordance with the way God has made us.
It makes sense that those who profess Christ hold to this principle. It is right. It is a biblical one. However, what is meant when we say, "It's good to live in accordance with how God has made us," often goes undefined. However, if we do not define it, then we do not know what would constitute "rebelling" against God or somehow living in some way that goes "against" how he has made us.
How did we come to get this principle anyways? What does it mean?
There's themes in the Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament, of being content with the lot God has given you - even if that means living in exile. In Jeremiah, a good example of this that my husband reminded me of is found in chapter 29. God tells the Israelites:
"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." - Jeremiah 29:7 (NIV).
God is the one who has carried Israel into exile. Even then, God wants them to trust in him and be content with this place he has taken them - and more than merely be content, he wants them to work for the good of not just themselves but the whole city around them.
In Ecclesiastes, though we are told that so much of life is like chasing after the wind or grasping smoke, still, it is good for a person to eat, drink, and find satisfaction in one's work, and that this is a good gift from God (Ecclesiastes 3:13).
Again we see this idea of being satisfied with what one is given from God.
In the New Testament, we get the NT writers time and again urging the Church to live, giving glory to God in the context of one's present circumstances and using everything one has been given to God and for his good will and purposes.
Paul in Romans instructs those who have been given gifts by God to use them as living sacrifices to God.
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship... We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully." - Romans 12:1, 6-7 (NIV).
Here we see this theme again of using what God has given us for good.
This necessitates not throwing those good gifts away, but owning them and using them for God's glory.
This draws us to a related principle.
Principle: The things that make us who we are and are a part of our identity that God has given us are things we are to use to God's glory.
Gender is assumed to be one of those things that is more a core part of our identity, than, say, our hair color or the clothes we wear. I'm going to assume that is true here.
This is why so many Christians on the more conservative side of things dislikes any narrative that makes gender seem unimportant or like something you can just easily change or toss aside.
One of the things that is concerning to some Christians about "the trans movement" is we have a bunch of people made in the image of God who have been given amazing gifts from God that are core to who they are as a person.
They've been given a healthy body with a vagina and breasts or a penis, and as someone who has those things, they have these unique gifts that we assume are to be used for a certain God-given purpose and certainly for good.
And they are seen as just... throwing those things away.
Let's try and look at this in another more way to tease out all the principles at play here.
I was sitting outside by a fire with my husband when I was talking to him about these things, trying to verbalize how I saw people speaking about these things. He also was joining in with his own thoughts and helping me clarify. Then he told me this story...
The Wealthy Young Man
Say there is a rich young man. He has been born to parents who have been blessed with wealth. They use this wealth to provide the best of everything they can for their child. They give him the best nurturing foods, the nicest best clothing, the very best education their money can afford. They have saved up for him an inheritance that would enable him to live out the rest of his life comfortably without having to work if he uses it wisely.
As soon as he is able, he cuts off ties with his parents. All that they ever gave him, he casts aside. The expensive education he has been given he will not use. He does touch a penny of his inheritance. He throws away all his fancy clothes and the job his education could have given him for an entry-level job and secondhand clothes. Anything that could ever associate him as a wealthy man or as having ties with his parents, he throws away or cuts off.
He lives the rest of his life as though he had never been born in a wealthy family or having been given all that he had.
Looking at this story, it just seems inconceivable that someone who was given so much would go so far as not only not using what he had been given, but actively throwing it away and living in a way that seemed to subvert it.
We might call it rebellious, even.
This is a way in which I believe non-affirming Christians often conceptualize the situation of trans individuals.
Part of what seems so reprehensible is that God has given someone something that is a core part of their identity - and they just seem to be throwing it off. And for what?
My question is whether this is truly an accurate conceptualization.
If someone truly was casting something aside willy-nilly, we could see how it wouldn't be good.
But what if we don't have all of the details?
All of what has been said so far assumes, "God made this person male/female, and that's a good thing."
What if trans individuals, though, are much more like those who are intersex? As in, God created them in such a way that their sex truly is more "ambiguous" to our eyes because of traits we associate with sex - it's just less visibly so?
Often we're assuming this person is merely choosing for no reason to cast something off that is good. But what if there is something that is just not right? Certainly before the Fall, everything was all good. The world I'm familiar with, though, is not so nice and clean and easy.
To be extra clear, I do not want to imply that I think those who identify as trans are somehow inherently wrong in some deep way. There are some people who talk like that, and it's not true. If you identify as trans and are reading this, I'm so very sorry for that.
I'm saying the fact that there is this discordance between the more visible body and the mind and how this can cause suffering is not good. No one should have to live like that. I've seen and known the suffering of those who are forced to live with that dissonance and discordance, who are told they must do this because this is what it means to "live in accordance with how God has made them" (once again, undefined by those who use the phrase), and I've seen the destruction and suffering that comes of it.
It is this fact that makes me think that people who are trans should have the ability and autonomy to live in a way that glorifies God, living according to their gender insofar as they know it. And I think they're the number one experts on that matter. Not me.
Who am I to look at someone and say, "I know the plans God has for you. I know what calling he has for your life. You're born with a penis, so live like it."
Whatever it means to live like someone who is born with a penis.
We never tell other Christians how to live with the resources God has given them, except broadly. We do not shame the person who is born with a strong arm for not going into construction work, as if that were the only way to glorify God.
Why do we tell this to people who are trans?
I pray that God would grant us humility as we seek to understand our trans brothers and sisters in Christ.
Created Trans: Soli Deo Gloria
Some people are born in a way that differs from the majority of people. Those who are autistic, for example (I'm not using person-first language here because after talking to those in the autistic community, I realize this is the preferred way of referring to them). They too are made in the image of God.
Their brain is wired differently than those around them, and they can use their unique gifts for God's glory.
Those who are born with ambiguous sexual characteristics. They too are made in the image of God. And they too have been given unique gifts which they can use for God's glory.
Same to those who identify as trans. I've met many people who identify as trans who are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Far from a spirit of "rebellion", I see people deeply committed to using all that they are, all of how God has made them, for good.
Regardless of our stance on this matter, I hope the Church as a whole can get away from talking about this as "the transgender movement" or "transgenderism" to remember we are speaking of people with real faces and personalities and lives.
Another question to consider is this:
What is the conservative Christian church going to do about the many sincere LGBT+ followers of Christ who are longing for a place to worship? What of affirming allies?
It feels so wrong to me that I have a church home and am able to be a member at my PCA church. What of my trans brother or sister? Do they always have to feel like their mere presence is a ticking political bomb? Must they always worry about whether or not they will come under church discipline and get cast out of the church while I get to remain?
The Nashville Statement which was published in 2017 would say there is no place for either LGBT+ Christians or their allies. It states: "WE AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism and that such approval constitutes essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.
WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which other faithful Christians should agree to disagree." - statement X.
Is this true? Are LGBT+ brothers and sisters in Christ and affirming allies "departing from Christian faithfulness"? Because... we're wrong (for the record, we might not be wrong)? Because we think something is permissible which others say is not? Because the thing we think is permissible is somehow very extra serious?
Is God's grace not for us, his children?
What of the gospel? Is Christ not a sure enough foundation?
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!"
To Be Continued...
I realized over the course of writing this that to really delve into the theological matters pertaining to gender and sexuality, I need to address what I have come to see as Aristotelian philosophy concerning nature that in my opinion has permeated the church.
So stay tuned as I hope to dialogue in the future about Aristotelian philosophy and complementarian theology.