User:FuzzyCatPotato/The Biblical position on transgenderism

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For it is so written in

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The Bible never mentions transgenderism explicitly. However, what references that the Bible has are often cited in fundamentalist transphobia as well as in support from liberal Christian interpretations.

Contents

[edit] It's an abomination!

[edit] God made males and females.

The Bible often mentions that God made humans "male and female". For example:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 1:27
Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Genesis 5:2
But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
Mark 10:6
And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Mark 19:4-5

Furthermore, the Bible often mentions that males and females were made for each other. (Or, apparently, that females were made for males.) For example:

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him[.] .... And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Genesis 2:18-22
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11:11

Some Christians interpret this as meaning that God wants males and females to act as he made them. As Focus on the Family states:[1]

Focus on the Family is dedicated to defending the inherent honor, dignity, value and equality of the two sexes as created in God's image – intentionally male and female – each bringing unique and complementary qualities to sexuality and relationships. .... We affirm God's design for the two sexes – male and female – and sexuality as between one man and one woman.

As Robert Gagnon states:[2]

The writers of Scripture viewed any attempts at overriding one's birth-sex as abhorrent, a sacrilege aginst the structures of maleness or femaleness created by God[.]

And as Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance summarizes:[3]

In the rigidly stratified society of the ancient Hebrews, changing one's appearance to that opposite to their genetic sex would be considered an abomination. It would destabilize society, as females became males and vice-versa; as the oppressed became the oppressors, and vice-versa. Similarly, among religious and social conservatives today, if women are allowed to transition to men, then the social order would be disrupted as some of the transsexual men would seek positions of greater authority in the church and family. The natural order of gender -- that they feel has been established by God -- would be upset.

[edit] God hates effeminate males.

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate ["μαλακοι" (malakoi)], nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."
1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Whether or not this verse attacks male transsexualism depends on the definition of the word If "malakoi" means "effeminate males", as appears reasonable, then it appears clear that God hates males who attempt to become more feminine. By Biblical standards, a male who considers his/her true identity to be female would certainly be included, especially if he/she attempts to enact his/her female identity through "feminine" clothing and actions.

Robert Gagnon argues that malakoi refers to homosexuals and males that attempted to become effeminate:[4]

The word 'malakoi' and its Latin equivalent 'molles' (and their cognates) were often employed in antiquity in a restrictive sense; namely, to refer to adult males who were biologically and/or psychologically disposed to desire penetration by men and who actively feminized their appearance and manner as a means to attracting such partners.

In response, GayChristian101 remarks:[5]

Clement of Alexandria, AD 150-215, a Christian preacher, gives us insight ... into how early Christians viewed colorful clothing, effeminacy and makeup. .... In New Testament times, malakoi or effeminacy equated with harlotry and shrine prostitution and often described a heterosexual, vainly obsessed with appearance. .... Thus, Clement’s use of the malakos word group agrees with the Biblical witness of the Old Testament and with Jesus’ use of malakos in the New Testament. “[W]hat are we to imagine ought to be said of love of ornament, and dyeing of wool, and variety of colours, and fastidiousness about gems, and exquisite working of gold, and still more, of artificial hair and wreathed curls; and furthermore, of staining the eyes, and plucking out hairs, and painting with rouge and white lead, and dyeing of the hair, and the wicked arts that are employed in such deceptions... I admire that ancient city of the Lacedaemonians which permitted harlots alone to wear flowered clothes, and ornaments of gold, interdicting respectable women from love of ornament, and allowing courtesans alone to deck themselves. [Courtesans were high priced female prostitutes, mistresses for rich men]. On the other hand, the archons [male rulers] of the Athenians, who affected a polished mode of life, forgetting their manhood, wore tunics reaching to the feet, and had on the crobulus - a kind of knot of the hair - adorned with a fastening of gold grasshoppers, to show their origin from the soil, forsooth, in the ostentation of licentiousness. Now rivalry of these archons extended also to the other Ionians, whom Homer, to show their effeminancy, calls "Long-robed... For if the female sex, on account of their weakness, desire more, we ought to blame the habit of that evil training, by which often men reared up in bad habits become more effeminate than women... they [women] may be permitted to use softer clothes, provided they put out of the way fabrics foolishly thin, and of curious texture in weaving; bidding farewell to embroidery of gold and Indian silks and elaborate Bombyces [silks]... For these superfluous and diaphanous materials are the proof of a weak mind, covering as they do the shame of the body with a slender veil. For luxurious clothing, which cannot conceal the shape of the body, is no more a covering. For such clothing, falling close to the body, takes its form more easily, and adhering as it were to the flesh, receives its shape, and marks out the woman's figure, so that the whole make of the body is visible to spectators, though not seeing the body itself." Clement, The Instructor, Book II, Chapter 11, On Clothing. “decoration makes women courtesans [prostitutes], and men effeminate and adulterers... they become effeminate, cutting their hair in an ungentlemanlike and meretricious way [meretricius is Latin, indicating a prostitute who attracts attention in a vulgar manner], clothed in fine and transparent garments, chewing mastich, smelling of perfume. What can one say on seeing them? Like one who judges people by their foreheads [Jeremiah 3:3 - “thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed,” Jeremiah 6:15, 8:12, Revelation 17:5], he will divine them to be adulterers and effeminate, addicted to both kinds of venery, haters of hair, destitute of hair, detesting the bloom of manliness [facial hair and body hair], and adorning their locks like women... those who take out hair by pitch-plasters, shave, and pluck out hairs from these womanish creatures... Such are those addicted to base passions, whose whole body is made smooth... But for those who are men to shave and smooth themselves, how ignoble! As for dyeing of hair, and anointing of grey locks, and dyeing them yellow, these are practices of abandoned effeminates; and their feminine combing of themselves is a thing to be let alone.” Clement, The Instructor, Book III, Chapters 2-3, On Drinking & On Costly Vessels.

Sandra Stewart provides an alternate interpretation:[6]

Malakoi ... literally means “[s]oft”. It has also been stated that it ... had the meaning of “[c]atamite”, which means a “boy prostitute”, or “a boy who has sex with men”, or “the passive partner in a male Homosexual relationship.” The word [m]alakoi did NOT have these “catamite” meanings in Greek. Universally the term meant “soft” or “weak”. .... Another reasonable way of thinking about the usage of “[m]alakoi” here is that it means soft in a moral sense. .... If “[m]alakoi” here does have the sense of morally soft then it would be built on the usage of Jesus who ... used the word to contrast John the Baptist with those destitute rich who did not measure up to his righteousness [in] Mat[thew] 11:8 and Luke[ ]7:25. ... [T]he KJV translation of “[m]alakoi” into “effeminate” may actually be due to ... the fact that in the 16th through the 18th Centuries the term “effeminate” did not mean what it means to us today. Then the term was applied to a class of men who were notorious womanizers, flamboyantly [h]eterosexual. .... These men were so interested in seducing women that they disdained the world of men to live in the world of women. .... Thus we can see how to the KJV translators the word “effeminate” might have seemed to them an appropriate term for the idea of the morally soft and weak.

Furthermore, the Bible sometimes uses the word "μαλακος" (malakos), or the singular of malakoi, to refer to soft clothing:

But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment [μαλακος]? behold, they that wear soft clothing [μαλακος] are in kings' houses.
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment [μαλακος]? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.

[edit] God hates crossdressers.

"The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God."
Deuteronomy 22:5

Apparently God hates males in traditionally female clothing and females in traditionally male clothing. Considering that most females have worn jeans, jackets, and other traditionally male clothing, most females are apparently doomed. Though wearing clothing of the opposite sex is by no means exclusive to transgender persons, this verse would seem to exclude transvestism.

However, Sandra Stewart provides an alternate translation:[6]

Never cause or force a warriors Weapon to be used by a woman or weak person; neither dress warriors armor on a woman or weak person for to YAHVEH, GOD of HOST, disgusting is such that do So.

This translation would seem only to prevent females from being soldiers and thus include transgender persons. However, this translation cannot be said whatsoever to be authoritative or mainstream.

[edit] God hates long-haired males and short-haired females.

Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
1 Corinthians 11:14-15

Apparently God hates long-haired males and short-haired females. Though both of these hairstyles are by no means limited to transgender persons, this would seem to preclude attempting females from becoming short-haired males (or skinheads) or males becoming long-haired females or (hippies). This would also seem to make God hate most depictions of Jesus Christ.

[edit] God hates desecration of the body.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1 Corinthians 3:16

Further, God seems to hate the destruction of the male reproductive parts:

He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 23:1

Apparently the body is a temple of God. If one considers male-to-female or female-to-male surgery to be a "defilement" of the body, as God apparently sees the destruction of the male reproductive parts to be, then the Bible hates transsexuals, especially male-to-female transsexuals.

[edit] It's fine!

[edit] God likes eunuchs (and all Christians).

The Bible likes eunuchs. For example:

For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
Isaiah 56:3
For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.
Matthew 19:12

This appears to support the general principle that God likes all good Christians. For example:

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Galatians 3:22
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
John 7:24
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28

This would seem to suggest that the Bible doesn't care about gender or gender identity, but belief in the Messiah, obedience to God, and all that jazz.

[edit] God designed transgendered individuals.

The Bible often mentions that God designed the future of future humans when they were in the womb:

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Psalms 139:13-16
As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
Ecclesiastes 11:5

As Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance summarizes:[7]

This is a psalm of praise to God who wonderfully and marvelously formed the writer as a fetus in their mother's womb. One's genetic gender is determined at conception; many researchers believe that the brain's gender identity is determined during gestation. This psalm thus appears to be confirmation that a transgender person/transsexual is exactly what God had in mind. Their Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is specifically designed, natural, and not an accident. Thus, it could be argued from this verse that persons with GID should be honored and accepted as equal to cisgendered persons.

[edit] Summary

It's not clear whether the Bible cares about transgenderism. Likely, believers will choose whichever verses they wish to believe in in order to affirm their beliefs.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

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