Hello my friends!

I hope you had a wonderful week and this finds you well.

As you might imagine, we pastors are get a lot of questions about the important topic of human sexuality, especially in recent years. A few pastors I really admire, especially Rev. Duane Anders, who I have the honor of serving with, have recently preached on this topic I am writing on today. They have been voices of wisdom in helping me gather my thoughts as I plan on preaching this issue myself. I want to invite you to think with me over this topic as well today in hopes you will find it helpful.

But first, here are some resources to consider.

-Here is a really fascinating article I have shared before about the history of translating "homosexuality" within the Bible. If anything, it is needed food for thought. Has Homosexuality always been in the Bible?​

-I'd also like to again recommend, UnClobber: Rethinking Our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality, by Colby Martin.

-This is also a very thoughtful book, called: Changing Our Mind: Definitive Edition of the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBT Christians with Response to Critics, by David Gushee.

-I also wrote on this topic in the past, emphasizing different components. In this article called, "Why Fighting About Rainbows Isn’t “Biblical” I focus on the symbol of the rainbow and why we Christians shouldn't be upset when others use it as their symbol. In a separate article called, "Hate Masquerading As Christian Love," I look at the ways the mainstream Christian response to the LGBTQ+ community has caused deep pain and harm.

Okay, onto today's content.

At The Table with Jesus and Our Transgender Siblings.

I want to begin today's content by saying, I don’t have all this figured out. Not just this topic of human sexuality, but all the complexities of this life. I don’t have all the answers. My heart as a pastor is to think seriously together with people about these things, not to tell people what to think.

My desire to think and talk about these difficult topics in the church is because when we don’t, we end up excluding and even harming others with our beliefs that result in policies and actions.

I just don’t think our beliefs as Christians should harm others. I think they should do the opposite.

Yet, we are in a world that constantly tells us, “you better know where you stand!” This can put a lot of pressure on us to “have all the answers.” I feel that pressure immensely as a faith leader and writer.

While it is good to know what we believe about certain things, contemplating and evaluating our beliefs are also very important.

So, I just don’t think this kind of pressure to 'know exactly what you believe" allows for the messy middle, the gray areas, or to ponder the complexities of such complicated topics. I also don’t think it allows for anyone to express their questions or their fears within such conversations.

Are we not all trying to figure life out?

I think allowing time to ponder and contemplate complex topics is so important, especially in how they directly impact the lives of people.

I have come to see the Bible, theology, the church, and my walk with Jesus, not as ways to “get all the answers,” but to learn how to act justice, love mercy, and walk humbly as we pursue understanding together with God. (Micah 6:8).

Christianity is a way of being and doing in the world as we work to understand our beliefs along the way.

Barbara Brown Taylor put it this way, “With all the conceptual truths in the universe at his disposal, Jesus did not give them (his disciples) something to think about together when he was gone. Instead, he gave them concrete things to do—specific ways of being together in their bodies—that would go on teaching them what they needed to know when he was no longer around to teach them himself…”do this,” he said, not believe this but do this—‘In remembrance of me."

He said this at the table. Surrounded by a diverse mix of people with equally diverse beliefs about him and the world around them.

He said, “do this” in remembrance of me. Participate in this way of self sacrificial love that I am doing for you.

An Open Table

It is my conviction and the conviction of my theological tradition (Methodism) that all are welcome at the table of the Lord.

​Our church has a banner outside that says “all means all” to convey this belief. We don’t believe that a person's sexuality, politics, economic status, or anything that makes them who they are, right here, right now, should be a barrier to worshiping, serving, and leading with Jesus. So to my LEBTQ+ siblings, let me just say to you, you are loved by God and you matter to God. You are also loved by and matter to so many of us.

The wonderful Rachel Held Evans said it powerfully this way, “The first thing the world knew about Christians was that they ate together. At the beginning of each week they gathered –rich and poor, slaves and free, Jews and Gentiles, women and men—to celebrate the day the whole world changed, to toast to resurrection.”

So, today I want look at how the table is open to all, specifically our transgender and non-binary siblings.

This is important for the church to think about, especially in states like mine (Idaho) where people are working so hard to make trans and non-binary people a political issue, even advocating excluding healthcare from them and even criminalizing medical professionals for serving them. Idaho is doing the same over reproductive healthcare as well.

This is an important topic to talk about because the church should always be the voice of clarity and advocacy, especially when fellow human beings are being used as objects of political grievance in order to stoke fear into the hearts of others for the sake of political power.

As we begin to look at this topic, here are a few brief definitions I have found helpful:

Gender: a social and cultural construct of a person’s identity, which differs from biological and physical differences.

Sex: a person's biological and physical traits.

Transgender: is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth.

*Transgender doesn’t imply a specific sexual orientation. Trans people can be gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, etc.

Gender dysphoria: the psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity.

Non-Binary: someone who does not identify as exclusively male or female.

Drag: a theatrical performance of hyper masculine or hyper feminine characteristics.

Cis-gender: a person's gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth.

As we read these definitions, we notice right away that the Bible seems to say very little about this complicated topic. You won’t find a clear cut verse about transgender or non-binary people. In fact, the conception of marriage and human sexuality is complex and nuanced throughout the Bible.

So we must ask, why have so many Christians and politicians become so condemning towards our transgender siblings?

Well there are several common arguments that use the Bible to justify this reaction.

The first one you might hear a lot is that “in the beginning, God only created two genders!” This is referring to Genesis 1:27, which says. "So God created humanity in God’s own image, in the image of God, God created them; male and female God created them.” Jesus will also quote this passage in Matthew 19. Both are often used to condemn transgender and non-binary people.

They will point to the creation narrative as “God’s design” for gender binary (and marriage as well) and say that anything different from that design is a sin.

To respond to this, I want to remind us of the beauty of the Genesis creation account.

All through Genesis 1 and 2, we are shown God creating and it is communicated by using binaries. Dark and light, heaven and earth, land and sea, fish and birds, animals and humanity, male and female. What this is trying to convey to us primarily is that God created all things. God created all these binaries and everything in between.

For example, God gave us sunrise and sunset, but God didn't just give us sunrise and sunset. We also have dusk, dawn, midday, and all the gradients of light and darkness in between.

Yes, God created birds of the air and fish of the sea, but God also created penguins that swim in the ocean rather than fly and fish that can take flight out of the ocean.

Our creation isn’t just made up of strict binary realities, but a vast array of beauty in between those binaries as well, and God created it all.

Couldn't the same be true for humanity?

In all my travels over the world, from Africa, to Southeast Asia, to Europe, and more, one of the most stark realities to me was that different cultures and religions define gender very differently. What it meant to be a “man” in Rwanda was so much different then what it meant to be a “man” in Cambodia.

I also discovered growing up in American Evangelicalism that the kind of boy I was and man I became didn’t fit in the social and religious constructs of Evangelical Christianity. You can read all about this here. Suffice to say, this had a really traumatizing impact on me for a very long time.

It is important to understand that while the Bible says “male and female,” what those contracts meant in ancient Israel may or may not be anywhere close to what we in 21st century America might think. Let alone how these constructs are defined by others, and everything in between, in the diversity of our world.

Yet scripture confesses about this huge, beautiful diversity is that “God saw everything that he made and it was supremely good.” -Genesis 1:31

This includes all the diversity of humanity.

Another design argument that is most often used against trans people is also from the creation perspective. It goes something like, “God created you one way, so to change what God created is a sin.”

What I find interesting about this argument is how it misses a particular text that is so often used by Christians to justify changing, manipulating, and using the earth any way humanity would like to.

That text is Genesis 1:28 says, "God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

All through church history, theologians have seen this as God creating humanity in God’s own image to be co-creators and partners in caring for and ruling over creation.

What is more, this argument neglects that we change our bodies all the time. Countless boys are circumcised just days after birth. Countless people have cosmetic surgery, laser eye surgery, hip replacements, and the list goes on. Is this messing with "God’s design?”

Here again, we must walk away from strict binary thinking and be reminded of the diversity in between as well.

This is where it is important to consider the role of eunuchs in scripture. I wrote a bit more extensively about them in here. So I’ll just say that in the world of the Bible, eunuchs were simultaneously considered by the ancient world to be both a man and non-man. They were seen as being in between a man and a woman, not fitting at all into their cultural constructs of masculinity or femininity. A eunuch was considered an in-between person, not a full person.

Even according to Deuteronomic law, eunuchs were to be seen as unclean and were forbidden to even worship in the temple because of their gender and sexual identity. “If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 23:1).

Yet something incredible happens later on.

God speaking through the prophet Isaiah says this, “And let no eunuch say, “I am only a dry tree.” For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.” (Isaiah 56:3-5)

Did you catch that? God will give them a name that is “better than sons and daughters.” God acknowledges their differences as eunuchs and accepts them as they are, giving them a name better than sons or daughters.

Jesus even acknowledges this complexity of human sexuality when talking about marriage in Matthew 19:12. He says, “For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”

Now just like we can’t find an exact parallel to a transgender person from the 21st century in the Bible, we also can’t see an exact parallel of a 1st century eunuch from the Bible in our culture today. Yet, what we do see is that one’s gender and sexual identity, as we see in the eunuch, is not a barrier in God’s eyes from being fully included. This point is driven home for Christian in the New Testament with the baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch into the church in Acts 8:26-40.

God created all of humanity in God’s own image.

Now, there are many other arguments, some using the Old Testament or New Testament passages about sexual immorality, but here again, sex and gender are different. Gender identity is different than sex and sexual practice, so those arguments really don’t hold water.

From my readings of scripture, I simply don’t see any justification for the hostility and aggression we are seeing towards our transgender and non binary siblings. In fact, I see compassion and inclusion called for by scripture.

Our response to our trans siblings matters, because it impacts their lives. The NIH reports that 82% of transgender people have considered killing themselves. When it comes to teens nearly 50% have attempted suicide. How does this not break our hearts? How is hostile legalism at all helpful?

If you are in a moment where you are considering hurting your self, please call 9-8-8 the Crisis and Suicide hotline. Please stay with us.

So I want to end as I started. I don’t have all the answers. I really don’t think any of us do.

What we do know is that human sexuality is going through a revolutionary period and public conversation. It is okay to not have all the answers and it is okay to have questions and doubts. I know I have so many questions myself. Like questions regarding metaphysical views of the body and soul in relation to gender and sexual identity. I wonder about the relationship between medical technology, self acceptance, and Christian theology. I wonder--and stress over--how I'm going to talk to my son about human sexuality in a wise way, especially when he starts asking his own questions when he's older.

I have so many questions.

Yet, even in the midst of not understanding fully, I believe God is calling us to rush to compassion and humility, not hostility and legalism. Even when we don't understand fully, we can love fully.

“Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.” -John Wesley

Now I'd like to hear from you.

How do you resonate with what I have written here? Did you find it helpful at all? How have you been navigating this topic yourself? I would love to hear your thoughts!

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Thank you all for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every week.

I deeply appreciate you all,

Ben

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