A Healthy View on The Transgender Christian Conversation

efore Jesus was crucified between two criminals, he had an intimate meeting with his twelve followers.  In this meeting, he took the time to contextualize what it meant for them to do life in the “new covenant.”  By washing their feet, Jesus lowered himself to the mere level of a paid servant, thus making humility and love the greatest signs of the new covenant. 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34,34)

Jesus implored his disciples to live a life of love.  This love was to be made manifest in such a way that bystanders would directly know where the love came from, God.  For 1 John 4:8 says, “God is love.”  Since God is the author of love, the disciples would be identified this love and extend it to all of those in need. 

Today, as Christians, we take this command by Jesus and apply it to our lives, but only to a certain point.  On a broad level, we will love those around us only until a point that seems reasonable to us.  As soon as love becomes unreasonable, we shove them aside.  

When discussing this matter to one's heart, one should always consider a few pivotal questions:

• When others look at your life, do they see love? 
• Said in a deeper way, when others look at your life, are they compelled to love like you?  
  

The transgender community presents the Christian community with a great invitation to take hold of the Father’s heart and to love.  Through this love, we extend an invitation to the transgender into the Father’s heart.  Regardless of how we feel or think on a certain topic, one thing is clear. The lines of truth can only be found on the path of servanthood and love.  

As Christians, we partake in the work of Jesus in redeeming the entire world through God’s love and restoring the original design and purpose of humanity.  That is, to walk in fellowship with their creator.  Through this fellowship, divine purpose and freedom of identity are made manifest.  

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The Christian - Transgender Dilemma 

The invitation to love the transgender community should be embodied by every believer.  However, this conversation seems to get hijacked by various social media platforms and mainstream media.  As Christians, the call to love never should be in direct conflict with truth.  No compromises should be made when it comes to ones relationship with God, society, and most importantly, truth.  After all, it is not one’s beliefs or thoughts on a certain subject that brings in freedom, it is only the truth (see John 8:31-32). 

When Christians are allowed to express their viewpoint on the transgender, it should only be done out of love.  Saying this, many times in my own experience, when this viewpoint is expressed in relation to truth, mainstream conversation hijacks the conversation and makes it into something that it is not, an attack on the person behind the transgender.

Many Christians are afraid to say that they do not support transgenderism because in doing so automatically are labeled a transphobic.  This is disheartening.  Christians can not agree with the idealogy of trangerism, while at the same time support, love, and serve them.

Biblical Argument for Sexual Orientation 

In the Bible, God created gender identity by naming them male and female.  By doing this, God perfectly designed for humans their specific identity and purpose.  

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Through these unique orientations, males and females were together designed to glorify God by beholding His very image.  This statement of the image was not to be taken literally, meaning man and woman did not look like God.  Instead, this was to be interpreted as an identity statement on their biological sex.  Meaning, man and woman identify themselves in the way they were created by God.  This is the crucial objective claim for the identity of humanity, mandated by God Himself. 

This objective claim into the sexual orientation of both males and females is something Christians must stand for, all the while not alienating the transgender community.  Although this is a difficult tight rope to walk across, it is not impossible and must be accomplished.  

The objectivity of this claim by God results in an amazing resolution.  That was He created was “good.” 

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good..” (Genesis 1:31)

Again, this is an objective claim that God is making on humanity.  Mainly, that all He created was good.  Thus, the orientations of males and females were designed by God through His objective goodness.  These unique designs were uniquely given by God to reflect the very nature of God through His likeness.  Meaning, the very essence of God’s goodness is woven into the nature of each sexual orientation.  Outside the lines of these orientations lies the opportunity for His goodness to be corrupted by subjective reasoning and emotionalism. 

The Advancement of Christian Transgender Conversation 

This is were the transgender argument comes into full light. Most of the transgender Christian conversation never advances beyond pure subjective thought and reasoning. A transgender feels bullied because a Christian does not accept their idealogy on the inclusion of transgender. Likewise, the Christian feels that if they stand for trangerism they are standing against the way God designed humanity.

What transgender people fail to realize in the Christian viewpoint, is that just because they are disagreeing with their sexual orientation idealogy, they are not denying their humanity.  They are simply saying that they are not the sex they are proclaiming to be in light of the clear objective biological evidence.