2008-02-25

The Trans-gender movement: The debate

Based on this article from Christianity Today, we have a nice little thread going on over at Candid Christian Ministries on Facebook. I'm checking to see if anyone cares if I re-post the thread here, but for now, I'll just post my initial thoughts.

I think it's a huge issue, because many people have a hard time reconciling the image of God as loving and God as just. Most people embrace the former and forget the latter, and I think that leads to a lot of confusion and anger.

I'm going to purposely be diplomatic.I think the issue with the trans-genderism is that people say, "Hey, I was born this way. How, then, can God condemn me for the way He made me?" The answer? I don't know. If you accept the hypothesis that someone is born trans-gendered--and, right or wrong, many people do--then human logic says it doesn't make sense for God to condemn a system that He created. Therefore, the conclusion must be that God is accepting of human differences, including homosexuality, trans-genderism, etc.

The counter-argument is simple: man, loved by God, was created with free will, and free will and human nature is a volatile mix. It leads to violence, it leads to deception, it leads to greed. In short, humanity+free will=sin. The answer to that is, of course, the redemption to be found in Jesus Christ, and a person either chooses to accept or reject that redemption.

Regardless of that, I think the problem is that people involved in debate on this issue are operating under a different set of hypotheses, and believe that the final answer rests on how they frame the debate. There are three suppositions here:
1) Trans-gendered is a state into which one is born
2) Trans-gendered is a state that one chooses
3) Trans-gendered is, for some, a choice and, for others, a part of their humanity
The question is this: if one of those three options is correct at the expense of the other two, what does that say about God? If supposition #1 is true, does that mean God accepts trans-gendered people as they are? If #2 is true, does that mean God doesn't accept trans-gendered people? Or is God's perspective the same regardless of how we frame the debate?

0 comments: