Here’s some food for thought:
A friend recently sent me the results of research done by the insurance industry on the incidence of transgender people in the United States. Their research concludes that there are approximately 20 million transgender people in this country and that about 400,000 of those are, like me, transsexuals (the severe end of the transgender spectrum of “gender identity disorder”).
This correlates very well with the research done by Lynn Conway from the University of Michigan finding that the incidence of transsexualism is about one in every 250 people in the United States. It supports the conclusions of Dr. Roughgarden (Harvard PhD and professor at Stanford) that transsexuals are unusual (statistical outliers) but well within the statistical definition of “normal”
So why are legal protections and societal acceptance so hard to come by? Think “women”, “blacks”, “disabled” and you will realize that the majority in power never easily accepts differences. Whether it is because they don’t want to admit that “they” are “us” too (my family, your family, our family), or because they fear a dilution of power, or just because they don’t want to acknowledge the rich diversity in God’s creation really doesn’t matter. It still hurts both society and people like me.
Sadly the one organization that should be leading the way in embracing all people (“God so loved the world”) often is the last to come to acceptance as illustrated in the church’s historic reluctance to accept blacks and see women as equal to men. Praying and working for change, Julie.
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theology. Show all posts
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Monday, March 5, 2007
Rules and Relationships
The story of the Bible is one of God saving us from ourselves. It is like a Shakespearean tragedy with a twist. We are the tragically flawed, but the perfect character is the one that makes the sacrifice. The most phenomenal part about the whole thing, is that he does this to save us. More than anything God desires a relationship with us, and that we have good relationships with one another. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. It is a tragedy to see the Bible taken as "God's instruction book" and used to destroy relationships.
The first sin of mankind was giving in on a temptation to a false promise: To know good and evil; to be like God. The consequence was broken relationships with God, and lives filled with misery. Man used his newfound "wisdom" to try to judge God and his wife (don't try this at home). God gave us 10 simple rules, but we couldn't even follow those. More rules followed, and more transgressions. By the time Jesus arrives on the scene, we think we have it all figured out. Our "holiest" men, the Pharisees, tell the Son of God how it really is. Jesus breaks a number of their silly rules, and relates to people in amazing ways. Not only that, he performs miracles to bring the outcasts back in to society, and heals the relationally broken, even raising the dead.
Jesus chose the twelve brightest scribes to be his disciples, right? No. He assembled a motley crew of folks who would be with him wherever he went. 2000 years later, we have the Bible in hundreds of different languages. What reason do we have to think we can understand good and evil any better? We do have the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit is it guides us in our own lives, and helps us know right from wrong. It is also something we can share with others in community, but the Spirit doesn't tell us when others do wrong.
The tragedy of The Church is that it spends so much effort in trying to figure out good and evil, and not enough time living in relationships with real people. The rules in the Bible are there for a good reason. They're meant to help us in our relationships with one another and with God. They tell us how to relate. They are perfect. We, however, are not. If we are honest with ourselves, there are a lot of "rules" in the Bible that we don't understand. There are probably even more rules that we think we understand. Maybe it's time to let go of that temptation to know all good and evil. We have the Spirit to guide us on our way, and maybe that's enough. Maybe it's enough to know what is good and evil for me to do.
The situation with my father and Spring Arbor University is just one more example of a broken situation, a broken relationship. Can I point a finger at one side or the other and say "you've done this?" It would be only too easy to blame the serpent for all our tragic flaws. It isn't easy (is it possible?) to understand what God's divine law really says here (and only slightly easier to understand U.S. Law). What we can do is focus on doing something positive, mending our own broken relationships.
God, I pray that you would be with my parents, Spring Arbor University, and lawyers for both parties as they attempt to mediate tomorrow. Let your Holy Spirit guide the situation and work in these relationships. I pray that in the middle of this mess, You would receive the glory, and that Your will would be done. Amen.
The first sin of mankind was giving in on a temptation to a false promise: To know good and evil; to be like God. The consequence was broken relationships with God, and lives filled with misery. Man used his newfound "wisdom" to try to judge God and his wife (don't try this at home). God gave us 10 simple rules, but we couldn't even follow those. More rules followed, and more transgressions. By the time Jesus arrives on the scene, we think we have it all figured out. Our "holiest" men, the Pharisees, tell the Son of God how it really is. Jesus breaks a number of their silly rules, and relates to people in amazing ways. Not only that, he performs miracles to bring the outcasts back in to society, and heals the relationally broken, even raising the dead.
Jesus chose the twelve brightest scribes to be his disciples, right? No. He assembled a motley crew of folks who would be with him wherever he went. 2000 years later, we have the Bible in hundreds of different languages. What reason do we have to think we can understand good and evil any better? We do have the Holy Spirit. The wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit is it guides us in our own lives, and helps us know right from wrong. It is also something we can share with others in community, but the Spirit doesn't tell us when others do wrong.
The tragedy of The Church is that it spends so much effort in trying to figure out good and evil, and not enough time living in relationships with real people. The rules in the Bible are there for a good reason. They're meant to help us in our relationships with one another and with God. They tell us how to relate. They are perfect. We, however, are not. If we are honest with ourselves, there are a lot of "rules" in the Bible that we don't understand. There are probably even more rules that we think we understand. Maybe it's time to let go of that temptation to know all good and evil. We have the Spirit to guide us on our way, and maybe that's enough. Maybe it's enough to know what is good and evil for me to do.
The situation with my father and Spring Arbor University is just one more example of a broken situation, a broken relationship. Can I point a finger at one side or the other and say "you've done this?" It would be only too easy to blame the serpent for all our tragic flaws. It isn't easy (is it possible?) to understand what God's divine law really says here (and only slightly easier to understand U.S. Law). What we can do is focus on doing something positive, mending our own broken relationships.
God, I pray that you would be with my parents, Spring Arbor University, and lawyers for both parties as they attempt to mediate tomorrow. Let your Holy Spirit guide the situation and work in these relationships. I pray that in the middle of this mess, You would receive the glory, and that Your will would be done. Amen.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
What Gender or Sex is God?
As the media coverage lessens, I wanted to focus a little bit more on some issues of theology as it relates to transgenderedness. I'll look at some of the issues that surround the topic, and as much as possible present all the ways the verse might be interpreted, not just those that would support one side over the other. If you have a verse or issue you'd like me to look at, leave it in the comments section and I'll try to get to it.
I thought I'd start with the question "What Gender or Sex is God?" The question is relevant as we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27); called to be transformed into the likeness of His Son (Romans 8:29); and are being transformed into an image of His glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). First off, it is possible that Genesis 1:27 tells us nothing about God, as we do not know to what degree we are made in His image. We could be made in his image in terms of character, but not in our sexual or "engendered" natures of male and female. I would have some real problems accepting this view, as verse 27 itself refers specifically to male and female forms. Also, some specific verses (like 1 Corinthians 11:7) seem to draw a specific connection between sex and the image of God (although I'll be the first to admit that verse is difficult to interpret).
Excluding the possibility that our sexual natures are something not related to the image of God, we are left with two interpretations. The first (I'll call it the "Traditional" interpretation) is that God is masculine. The second possibility is that God transcends descriptions of sex and gender. The first interpretation is better supported if the Hebrew "Adam" in Genesis 1:27 is translated as "man" not as "mankind" (different translations treat this word differently). This interpretation would consider man as made in the image of a masculine God, and woman made in the image of man (not as an image of God in her own right). This also seems to be the line of logic suggested in 1 Corinthians 11. Of course, if you take this viewpoint on scripture, a number of dictums naturally come with it, such as male headship in the church. Based on the very few female clergy in the Free Methodist Church, this may very well be the position they take. Of course, then the question of "what does it mean to make ourselves transform or conform to the image of God?" becomes quite problematic. Are women supposed to be more like men to better reflect the image of God? I have heard nobody who suggests such a thing, but it seems to follow from the above logic. That is unless of course, you mean that women are supposed to be like God only in character and are doomed to inhabit a body which is not made in God's image.
The second position is that God transcends gender. If you are asking why I don't include the possibility that God is strictly feminine, it is simply that it goes against too much of what you find in Scripture to really be supported ("Our Father, who art in heaven . . . " etc.). Oddly enough, 1 Corinthians 11, which I said above seems to take the logic of the first position, also contains things which might support the second (Hey, I warned you it is hard to interpret). 1 Corinthians 11 describes God as the originator of all things, in the same way that man "originates" from (is born of) a woman. God certainly has many attributes that we might call more feminine that masculine, such as compassion and grace. If you take this view, conforming or transforming to the image of God is something that people may pursue with their whole being, whether masculine or feminine, male or female.
I'm sure some stumble over the fact that Genesis 1:27 says God created them "male and female" and that anywhere "in between" is anathema. To that, I'd say, this was a verse referring to before the fall, and now we have very hard to dispute middle grounds, like true hemaphrodism. I don't know anyone who would claim that Christ didn't die for hemaphrodites, though I'm sure there are some extremists out there. If transgenderism, is "hemaphrodism of the brain" can we not accept it at the worst as a result of the fall? At best, it might be an expression of the image of God.
I thought I'd start with the question "What Gender or Sex is God?" The question is relevant as we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27); called to be transformed into the likeness of His Son (Romans 8:29); and are being transformed into an image of His glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). First off, it is possible that Genesis 1:27 tells us nothing about God, as we do not know to what degree we are made in His image. We could be made in his image in terms of character, but not in our sexual or "engendered" natures of male and female. I would have some real problems accepting this view, as verse 27 itself refers specifically to male and female forms. Also, some specific verses (like 1 Corinthians 11:7) seem to draw a specific connection between sex and the image of God (although I'll be the first to admit that verse is difficult to interpret).
Excluding the possibility that our sexual natures are something not related to the image of God, we are left with two interpretations. The first (I'll call it the "Traditional" interpretation) is that God is masculine. The second possibility is that God transcends descriptions of sex and gender. The first interpretation is better supported if the Hebrew "Adam" in Genesis 1:27 is translated as "man" not as "mankind" (different translations treat this word differently). This interpretation would consider man as made in the image of a masculine God, and woman made in the image of man (not as an image of God in her own right). This also seems to be the line of logic suggested in 1 Corinthians 11. Of course, if you take this viewpoint on scripture, a number of dictums naturally come with it, such as male headship in the church. Based on the very few female clergy in the Free Methodist Church, this may very well be the position they take. Of course, then the question of "what does it mean to make ourselves transform or conform to the image of God?" becomes quite problematic. Are women supposed to be more like men to better reflect the image of God? I have heard nobody who suggests such a thing, but it seems to follow from the above logic. That is unless of course, you mean that women are supposed to be like God only in character and are doomed to inhabit a body which is not made in God's image.
The second position is that God transcends gender. If you are asking why I don't include the possibility that God is strictly feminine, it is simply that it goes against too much of what you find in Scripture to really be supported ("Our Father, who art in heaven . . . " etc.). Oddly enough, 1 Corinthians 11, which I said above seems to take the logic of the first position, also contains things which might support the second (Hey, I warned you it is hard to interpret). 1 Corinthians 11 describes God as the originator of all things, in the same way that man "originates" from (is born of) a woman. God certainly has many attributes that we might call more feminine that masculine, such as compassion and grace. If you take this view, conforming or transforming to the image of God is something that people may pursue with their whole being, whether masculine or feminine, male or female.
I'm sure some stumble over the fact that Genesis 1:27 says God created them "male and female" and that anywhere "in between" is anathema. To that, I'd say, this was a verse referring to before the fall, and now we have very hard to dispute middle grounds, like true hemaphrodism. I don't know anyone who would claim that Christ didn't die for hemaphrodites, though I'm sure there are some extremists out there. If transgenderism, is "hemaphrodism of the brain" can we not accept it at the worst as a result of the fall? At best, it might be an expression of the image of God.
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