Religion
Related: About this forum"God Don't Make No Mistakes": Common Sense, Faith-Based Celebration of Gender Minorities
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-adam-ackley-phd/god-dont-make-no-mistakes_b_5474732.htmlH. Adam Ackley, Ph.D.
University professor, author, ordained minister
Posted: 06/10/2014 3:22 pm EDT Updated: 06/10/2014 3:59 pm EDT Print Article
The upcoming proposal to ban recognition of transgender (including intersex) identities by the Southern Baptist Convention, though put forth by a college professor of ethics, is neither well-educated in its understanding of the complex biology of gender nor ethical. Those of us who are transgender or intersex are frequently and falsely accused -- merely by our very existence as ourselves -- of implying that God has made a mistake regarding our gender. Such bullying often drives my transgender and intersex brothers and sisters not into "gender conformity" but simply into atheism or isolation from other "believers." It is also based not only on faulty science (many of us have verifiable medical conditions that make our gender more complex that that of the majority) but worse on flawed theology. As a Christian pastor, theologian and university professor myself (who is intersex but not allowed to live that way openly until recent changes in medical and psychiatric diagnosis and treatment for people like me), I want to correct this all too common misunderstanding of theology of gender.
Trans* people are not "God's mistake"! Although other forms of human diversity may also wrongly lead to oppression by the privileged majority (differences of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, nationality, physical ability, sexual orientation, and religion), they often don't seem to cause the moral / theological outrage that gender diverse people do as if their very existence blasphemes against God. Yet to be born outside the gender binary really isn't any different than being born with any other form of diversity. To explain to others that we are transgender doesn't inherently suggest that God made any sort of mistake in creating us as transgender. Even if we seek medical treatment to help us overcome gender dysphoria (which in many ways is a reaction to others' expectation that we conform to heteronormative, binary gender norms of masculinity and femininity), we are no more suggesting that God made a mistake in creating us than anyone else who undergoes medical treatment for a medical condition. For example, most religious people wouldn't think of forcing those born with a cleft palate that required surgical correction to defend their existence theologically, as if their very existence on the planet is some kind of blasphemous allegation of God's incompetence. Yet the religious routinely attack those of us who are transgender not only on the basis of gender but as heretics, which many of us find even more painful.
Some people are clearly ambiguous, and that is no oxymoron. Rather "clearly ambiguous" can be an accurate description of some of us who are trans*, enough to make the point without ignoring the great diversity of trans* identities or forcing all to disclose their private medical histories (as Janet Mock, LaVerne Cox, and others so rightly remind us is inappropriate to expect) that transgender identities, whatever their origins, are real. The experiences of those of us who are ambiguously gendered share of medical malpractice and being socially outcast raise significant questions regarding the mistreatment of all transgender people. Why, for example, as has been argued at the expense of my career and ability to support my children, is seen as more "natural" to force an intersex man to take female hormones from puberty through middle age to feminize him, even when doing so renders him chronically suicidally depressed beyond any ability of medicine or therapy to ameliorate? It frightens me for the sake of the Church and my transgender human family that literally not one Christian has ever questioned the feminizing medical treatments that delayed my natural male puberty until middle age as a moral or theological issue. Transphobia clearly has nothing to do with whether or not one takes sex hormones, as if merely taking estrogen or testosterone implies God lacks control over one's body and made a mistake in allowing one to age naturally or to function for reproduction. (I am fairly certain some middle-aged Christian cisgender men may supplement their testosterone for various reasons and that cisgender middle-aged Christian women may take hormone replacement therapies or use hormone-based birth control methods.)
I for one am certainly not implying that God made a mistake in creating me when I acknowledge that although I looked female as an infant externally, my particular transgender configuration is such that I developed physical qualities of both genders at puberty and required treatment with high doses of female hormones for thirty-five years to function passably as if I were a cisgender female, and that my physical ambiguity reasserted itself when I was allowed by recent changes in medical and psychiatric diagnostic and treatment standards to live as myself, male. Without hormone treatment, I am ambiguous, complex, androgynous, and understand myself to be male. In faith, I believe that God made me that way, fearfully, wonderfully, and with unconditionally and infinitely loving purpose, and I have no regrets about it. What I do regret is other people's transphobia -- an indescribable, incomprehensible hatred and fear of what they don't understand of God's glorious creative imagination when it comes to creating us gendered: The many expressions of gender and sexuality that we find in human beings occur in all species. Diversity in creation is Godly, and to deny it is to question the power of the Holy Spirit --which Jesus once taught was the only unforgivable sin (Matt. 12:31-32).
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cleanhippie
(19,705 posts)ox·y·mo·ron
noun \ˌäk-sē-ˈmȯr-ˌän\
: a combination of words that have opposite or very different meanings
trotsky
(49,533 posts)However, it is only that - a personal interpretation.
Other believers have their own interpretations, and opinions on what the bible says and what their god thinks. And unfortunately, they are just as valid.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)Being transgendered isn't a sin. Being an atheist is.
Got it.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)I didn't even bother looking it up. Good to know there's still no place for us.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)FTR, here's the verse you cite.
Matthew 12:31-32
New International Version (NIV)
31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)okasha
(11,573 posts)qualifies as "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit." On the other hand,"atheists are all going to hell" DOES attempt to limit its power and denies the good in a fairly large class of people who are also, in theist belief, creations of a divine power.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)If someone tells me I am going to hell, it means nothing to me. They don't know. Their book doesn't know. It's just their belief, which I don't share.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)...and regardless of how I feel about the accuracy of the Bible, I say with confidence that anyone who promulgates this slanderous notion is an odious shitheel... especially when they themselves are trying to shuffle their own behavior out from under the toxic umbrella of "sin".
cbayer
(146,218 posts)and agree that those that say it are odious shitheels.
But this article really isn't about that
.. unless someone wants to make it about that.
Do you object to the aim of the article in general? Specifically, do you object to making the case that transgendered people can and should be defended from a religious point of view?
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)My objection is in that the author threw twenty-five million people under the bus to make his argument. It's poor form, no matter how you cut it, and just because I support the author in his general aim I nevertheless to reserve the right to call him out if he acts like a dick.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I don't read it as throwing anyone under the bus and the passage speaks specifically about blasphemy not disbelief. But if that is not how you read it, I can understand why you would react this way.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)discussion of the moment.
I am incapable of showing reverence toward things I don't perceive as existing. The simple statement 'I don't believe your god exists' can qualify.
And that sucks, because blasphemy is a very real, very punishable crime in some nations.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Is it not enough to look at another person and see, that they are in fact, a human being?
How hard is that?
If faith floats your boat, neat-o, but I have apparently no expertise in judging whether or not the material you cited in the OP can possibly convince any individual believer that also happens to think less of a LGBT person. My estimate would be 'no', not effective, because my observation thus far is, that people read whatever they want to into those texts. If they want to find a justification for their bigotry in it, they will.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)such as those believers are "odious shit heels".
I want to make sure I understand what you all want in terms of propriety.
Odious shitheels in, fairy tales out. Got it.
okasha
(11,573 posts)who don't believe in a god to whom it does matter. Some of themare regular posters here.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)infringe on the rights of non-believers.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)Did it matter when he did his shtick?
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)We're talking about a Biblical verse that, for 2,000 years or so, has been used to cast the atheist as the bogeyman in the closet looking to lure your children into eternal damnation. The role this passage and it's corresponding passage in Luke have played in the social and political ostracism of atheists in the Christian world cannot be diminished.
I don't accept the authenticity of the Bible, nor do I particularly care that this is a Biblical verse. What matters is that this verse is reflective of a nascent, pervasive opinion that has manifestly affected the social acceptance atheists in this country.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)or that it has been used against atheists, but I would challenge anyone who took that position.
However, I've never expressed that opinion or seen it expressed by anyone on this site.
Things are changing when it comes to atheism and I am hopeful that the change will continue. Things are changing when it comes to transgendered people and I am hopeful that that change will continue as well.
I don't think a win for one means a loss for the other. Quite the contrary.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)The author made himself fairly clear in his interpretation of its meaning:
cbayer
(146,218 posts)perspective.
It is not intended to stand up for non-believers, though others have done that.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)If anyone causes one of these little onesthose who believe in meto stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell."
Good thing I don't believe in any of that shit.
Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)If something you were born with causes you to stumble, remove it, change it, make it so that part of you no longer prevents you from attaining spiritual wholeness. Would be a far better passage to use than one that condemns non-believers.
rug
(82,333 posts)Blasphemy against the Spirit is believing that there is a sin so great that God cannot or will not forgive it.
That requires belief in God. Duh.
okasha
(11,573 posts)So many of them like to think they're committing blasphemy, like PZ. Telling them they're not is like....like....taking away their Easter Bunny.
rug
(82,333 posts)Adolescent stunts are far from blasphemy.
okasha
(11,573 posts)was exactly what it was.
Response to rug (Reply #9)
okasha This message was self-deleted by its author.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,160 posts)because they know you are unforgivable.
okasha
(11,573 posts)See rug's post. You'll just get the cops on your doorstep instead.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,160 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1742).
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Somewhere there's a fish missing his bicycle.
okasha
(11,573 posts)the writer's discussing attitudes toward trangendered and intersex persons in a religious context.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)I don't get it.
It's like inventing a problem, to take credit for inventing the solution to the problem you invented.
It's this hard:
"See that person over there? That's a human being. Treat them like you would like to be treated"
Not hard.
okasha
(11,573 posts)Or do you think that fundamentalists don't really harbor bigotry toward LGBT persons?
Or do you just think that if a problem isn't your problem, it doesn't exist? So much for all your claims to advocacy on behalf of LGBT's. Your credibility on that one just went straight down the drain.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)The problem exists, but it is invented by fundamentalists.
I think I already answered your question in post 30.
These people see what they want to see in religious texts. If they want to see bigotry (edit: or want to see justification thereof), they see it. OP content isn't going to change their minds.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)"Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, deity, view, or in the doctrines or teachings of a religion. It can also be defined as belief that is not based on proof,[1] as well as confidence based on some degree of warrant.[2][3] The word faith is often used as a synonym for hope,[4] trust,[5] or belief." (wiki)
These seem inimical terms.
Response to okasha (Reply #34)
AtheistCrusader This message was self-deleted by its author.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)It's a beaut! I'm wondering if I can get more of those online.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)I'll ignore the assumption that any god made anything. Given that assumption, these gods have made plenty of fucked up shit. From evolutionary dead ends to obvious design flaws to horrible defects product quality is frequently lacking, as it would be in a "design and manufacturing process" that operates as outlined by that Darwin fellow rather than by some supernatural guidance.