{"id":12937,"date":"2014-10-16T15:40:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T20:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/?p=12937"},"modified":"2014-10-16T15:40:12","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T20:40:12","slug":"evangelical-transphobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/","title":{"rendered":"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Jesusfacepalm\"<\/a>Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column <\/a>for The Gospel Coalition called \u201cJoan or John?\u201d about how to handle the \u201csin\u201d of transgender identity in your congregation. His column presents the made-up scenario of a transgender woman tearfully approaching a pastor to repent of her sex change. It\u2019s a textbook display of the breathtaking presumptuousness of cisgendered heterosexual males who judge people with lives they are clueless about by making false analogies with the sin in their own lives.<\/p>\n

There is nothing in the Bible which condemns transgender identity. Moore tries to make Genesis 1:27 into his proof-text. But just because God creates humans \u201cmale and female\u201d does not tell us that God does not create females who have male anatomy or people who have both male and female anatomy. Nothing in the Bible tells us that it\u2019s sinful for someone who is born anatomically male to discover that they are really female and make life changes accordingly. Moore defines his fictitious Joan character\u2019s sin in the following paragraph:<\/p>\n

God\u2019s creation is good, and he does not create generic persons but \u201cmale and female,\u201d in his own image (<\/span>Gen. 1:27<\/a>). In seeking to \u201cbecome\u201d a woman, John has established himself as a god, determining the very structure of his createdness. Part of the freedom that comes in Christ is John\u2019s recognition that he is a creature, not a god, not a machine, not a freak.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So here\u2019s how I would rewrite that paragraph to explain what Moore\u2019s sin is:<\/p>\n

God\u2019s creation is good, and he does not create generic, cookie-cutter males and females, but complex people with strange varying mixtures of masculinity and femininity, including people whose gender identities do not match their anatomy and people whose anatomy and gender identity is neither fully male nor female. In seeking to tell Joan that she\u2019s a man and not a woman, Russell has established himself as God<\/em>, reducing the mystery of Joan\u2019s createdness to a binary gender assignment. Part of the freedom that comes in Christ is for Russell to recognize that God is God and he is not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moore is right that there is no such thing as a generic human being. And that\u2019s precisely the truth that calls out his presumptuousness as a wannabe everyman. White cisgendered heterosexual men like Moore and myself have been socialized to view ourselves as the generic human beings in the world who are entitled to project our own struggles with sin onto people with very different identities, presuming that their struggles are analogous to ours instead of admitting that we don\u2019t have a clue what other people are living through. Moore says for example:<\/p>\n

I was saved from, among many other things, covetousness. Coveting seems natural to me. Not coveting is unnatural to me. Not a day goes by in which coveting isn\u2019t the easier, more natural thing for me. But I fight against covetousness because God is conforming me into the image of Christ<\/span>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since Moore didn\u2019t have the balls to openly use the word \u201clust,\u201d I\u2019ll use it. Most heterosexual evangelicals like me and Moore are fighting a lifelong battle against lust, partly because of the exquisite sex fetish\/taboo that repressive evangelical culture has swollen into us with and partly because there are legitimate, important social boundaries that men have to train ourselves to respect when it comes to our sexual appetites. Since our sexual attraction to women we aren\u2019t married to feels \u201cnatural\u201d and we have to repress this \u201cnatural urge\u201d in order to be faithful husbands, then we feel justified expecting other people to repress their \u201cnatural urges\u201d\u00a0too, whether it\u2019s their sexual orientation or gender identity.<\/p>\n

Except that these analogies are completely invalid. My experience of lust is absolutely categorically different than whatever \u201cnatural\u201d inclinations are experienced by transgender people. Just because I can slap the adjective \u201cnatural\u201d onto something doesn\u2019t mean that I\u2019m talking about the same type of thing at all. The fact is that I simply don\u2019t have a clue what it\u2019s like to be transgender. There are only two types of of beings who understand transgender identity: transgender people themselves and the God created them. Non-transgender people who try to explain transgender identity are playing God<\/em>, plain and simple. And it\u2019s infuriating to the white cis-het males who have been putting the rest of humanity under our microscopes since the time of the Enlightenment when someone has the audacity to claim that there are mysteries that we absolutely cannot explain or make analogies to.<\/p>\n

Moore says, \u201cTo baptize one created a man as \u2018my sister in Christ\u2019 (whatever the baptismal formula used) isn\u2019t doing justice to a God who speaks the truth.\u201d That presumes that God cannot create a woman with male anatomy or a person with non-binary anatomy. What if God has in fact created a woman whom you\u2019re choosing to call a man? What\u2019s at stake for Moore is not truth itself, but a truth that he has complete dominion over<\/em>. Truth that is between transgender people themselves and God is unacceptable to Moore. Because he wants to be God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moore refers in his piece to eunuchs<\/em>, \u00a0an ancient term for people whose bodies were outside the gender binary. He defines a eunuch as \u201csomeone wounded physically by his past sin but awaiting wholeness in the resurrection from the dead.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>That goes completely against what Isaiah and Jesus both say about eunuchs.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 56:3-5 says, \u201cL<\/span>et no eunuch\u00a0complain, \u2018I am only a dry tree.\u2019\u00a0For this is what the\u00a0Lord<\/span>\u00a0says: \u2018To the eunuchs\u00a0who keep my Sabbaths,\u00a0who choose what pleases me\u00a0and hold fast to my covenant\u2014\u00a0to them I will give within my temple and its walls\u00a0a memorial\u00a0and a name\u00a0better than sons and daughters;\u00a0I will give them an everlasting name\u00a0that will endure forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus says in Matthew 19:12, \u201cThere are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others\u2014and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Isaiah and Jesus seem to be saying that eunuchs are actually elite<\/em> within the kingdom of God; they certainly don\u2019t define eunuchs pejoratively as people who are \u201cwounded physically by past sin.\u201d I know that I have encountered a deep wisdom and gentleness among the non-binary-gendered people that I\u2019ve met. I can\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like to go through the experiences they\u2019ve gone through. But I do suspect that I have much to learn from them about how to be a human being with a body and how to let God love me and my body both.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column for The Gospel Coalition called \u201cJoan or John?\u201d about how to handle the \u201csin\u201d of transgender identity in your congregation. His column presents the made-up scenario of a transgender woman tearfully approaching a pastor to repent of her sex change. It\u2019s a textbook display of the breathtaking presumptuousness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1934,"featured_media":12938,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,23],"tags":[3048,3051,893,1037,1050,1116,1339,1588,1776,3050,2452,3052,3049,2783,3053],"class_list":["post-12937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture_","category-theology","tag-cis-het","tag-cisgender","tag-evangelical","tag-genderqueer","tag-genesis-127","tag-gospel-coalition","tag-isaiah-56","tag-lgbt","tag-matthew-1912","tag-queer","tag-russell-moore","tag-tgc","tag-trans","tag-transgender","tag-transphobia"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column for The Gospel Coalition called "Joan or John?" about how to handle the "sin" of transgender identity in your\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column for The Gospel Coalition called "Joan or John?" about how to handle the "sin" of transgender identity in your\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mercy Not Sacrifice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-16T20:40:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/447\/2014\/10\/Jesusfacepalm.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"405\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Morgan Guyton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Morgan Guyton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/\",\"name\":\"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-16T20:40:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-16T20:40:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d\"},\"description\":\"Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column for The Gospel Coalition called \\\"Joan or John?\\\" about how to handle the \\\"sin\\\" of transgender identity in your\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/\",\"name\":\"Mercy Not Sacrifice\",\"description\":\"The blog of Morgan Guyton\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d\",\"name\":\"Morgan Guyton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Morgan Guyton\"},\"description\":\"I\u2019m the director of the NOLA Wesley Foundation, which is the United Methodist campus ministry at Tulane and Loyola University in New Orleans, LA. My first book How Jesus Saves the World from Us: 12 Antidotes To Toxic Christianity was released by Westminister John Knox in 2016.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/author\/mguyton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender","description":"Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column for The Gospel Coalition called \"Joan or John?\" about how to handle the \"sin\" of transgender identity in your","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender","og_description":"Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column for The Gospel Coalition called \"Joan or John?\" about how to handle the \"sin\" of transgender identity in your","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/","og_site_name":"Mercy Not Sacrifice","article_published_time":"2014-10-16T20:40:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":405,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/447\/2014\/10\/Jesusfacepalm.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Morgan Guyton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Morgan Guyton","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/","name":"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-16T20:40:12+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-16T20:40:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d"},"description":"Last week, Russell Moore wrote a column for The Gospel Coalition called \"Joan or John?\" about how to handle the \"sin\" of transgender identity in your","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/2014\/10\/16\/evangelical-transphobia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When cis-het men play God: evangelical transphobia and the idolatry of gender"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/","name":"Mercy Not Sacrifice","description":"The blog of Morgan Guyton","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/32bff953b247bf1885d0323f969d801d","name":"Morgan Guyton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccc7edabc6e70bd443d33eab0f05ce8d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Morgan Guyton"},"description":"I\u2019m the director of the NOLA Wesley Foundation, which is the United Methodist campus ministry at Tulane and Loyola University in New Orleans, LA. My first book How Jesus Saves the World from Us: 12 Antidotes To Toxic Christianity was released by Westminister John Knox in 2016.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/author\/mguyton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1934"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mercynotsacrifice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}