{"id":4706,"date":"2015-06-10T06:32:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T13:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/?p=4706"},"modified":"2015-06-10T09:33:38","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T16:33:38","slug":"a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Trans
Trans solidarity rally and march, Washington, DC, May 17, 2015<\/a> \/ Ted Eytan<\/a> \/ CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair<\/em><\/a> last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse. <\/p>\n

This past weekend at least nine newspapers<\/a> around the country published front-page stories profiling local transgender residents. On Monday Christianity Today<\/em> published a seven page story on \u201cUnderstanding the Transgender Phenomenon<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As stories about Jenner and other transgender people piled up in my news feed, spread across my television screen and seeped into everyday conversation with friends and coworkers, I realized that something extraordinary was happening.<\/p>\n

People were actually talking about transgender issues<\/em>. A subject previously considered taboo in many circles and the source of awkward jokes in others was now being discussed forthrightly. Honest questions were being asked, challenging issues were being brought out into the open. <\/p>\n

Of course the commentary on Jenner ran the gamut that one might expect.<\/p>\n

Conservative Christians spewed their typical vitriol:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the very reason that homosexual practice is wrong, transsexualism is all the more wrong because it is an even greater complaint against God for the way that one is made.\u201d \u2014 Robert Gagnon\u2028<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he [Jenner] most closely resembles is a mentally disordered man who is being manipulated by disingenuous\u00a0liberals and self-obsessed gay activists.\u201d\u2028 \u2014 Matt Walsh\u2028<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other Christians planted their flag in the squishy middle ground:<\/p>\n

\u201cI see value in a disability lens that sees gender dysphoria as a reflection of a fallen world in which the condition itself is not a moral choice.\u201d \u2014 Mark Yarhouse<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly God knows\u00a0why Caitlyn is transgender, and therefore, only God can judge\u00a0(a) if she\u2019s sinning or not, and (b) if she has any level of culpability in it..\u201d \u2014 \u2028Benjamin Corey<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yet others voiced their full affirmation and support:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s insane that anyone has to say this, but, again: There is no sin in being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning.\u201d \u2014 John Shore<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cShouldn\u2019t the idea of people being at peace in their own body should [sic] resonate with everyone, especially Christians?\u201d \u2014 \u2028Eliel Cruz<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though the responses have been varied, the mere fact that this topic has risen to prominence fills me with hope. Hope that these conversations will continue, hope that the discussion won\u2019t fade with Jenner\u2019s 15 minutes, and hope that truth and love will win the day.<\/p>\n

But while it\u2019s important that we unabashedly affirm our support for transgender people and eschew the half-assed duplicity of \u201clove the sinner and hate the sin,\u201d it\u2019s even more important that we listen. We need to listen and learn from trans voices, we need to hear their stories.<\/p>\n

As we fight over pronouns and debate theology and biology, real trans people are living their real lives. When we espouse grandiose generalities about the moral, spiritual, physical and sexual identities of people \u2014 transgender or otherwise \u2014 we risk losing the uniqueness of the person. Just as every person is unique, so every trans person is unique. It\u2019s time that we embrace that uniqueness and that inherent value, it\u2019s time that we listen to and embrace the trans community.<\/p>\n

To that end, I offer two starting points and one invitation:<\/p>\n

1. Spend some time with GLAAD\u2019s Transgender FAQ<\/a>. It\u2019s a wonderful collection of resources for learning about trans issues.<\/p>\n

2. Spend some time on the New York Times<\/em> mini-site, \u201cTransgender Lives: Your Stories<\/a>.\u201d Featuring a series of editorials about transgender experiences, it\u2019s an eye-opening, heart-breaking and inspiring glimpse into the lives of trans people. UC readers might be particularly interested in the story of Lisa Salizar<\/a>, who was the original designer of the UC logo.<\/p>\n

And finally, if you\u2019re a transgender person, I\u2019d love to hear from you, either in the comments below, or by submitting to this blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\"DanDan Wilkinson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dan is the Executive Editor of the Unfundamentalist Christians blog. He is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and has two cats.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1536,"featured_media":4707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,116],"tags":[203,174],"class_list":["post-4706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-issues","category-lgbt","tag-caitlyn-jenner","tag-transgender"],"yoast_head":"\nA Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse.\" \/>\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\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unfundamentalist Christians\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-10T13:32:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-10T16:33:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/361\/2015\/06\/trans.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Wilkinson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Wilkinson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/\",\"name\":\"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-10T13:32:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-10T16:33:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#\/schema\/person\/7e2df265ab827a43145a431718106977\"},\"description\":\"Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/\",\"name\":\"Unfundamentalist Christians\",\"description\":\"Above all, love\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#\/schema\/person\/7e2df265ab827a43145a431718106977\",\"name\":\"Dan Wilkinson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8860572436d7462571ba1b61acc2a37e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8860572436d7462571ba1b61acc2a37e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Wilkinson\"},\"description\":\"Dan is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and has two cats. He blogs at CoolingTwilight.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/coolingtwilight.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/author\/djwilkinson\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion","description":"Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse.","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\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion","og_description":"Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/","og_site_name":"Unfundamentalist Christians","article_published_time":"2015-06-10T13:32:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-10T16:33:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":340,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/361\/2015\/06\/trans.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dan Wilkinson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Wilkinson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/","name":"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-10T13:32:58+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-10T16:33:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#\/schema\/person\/7e2df265ab827a43145a431718106977"},"description":"Caitlyn Jenner\u2019s public transformation on the cover of Vanity Fair last week forcefully pulled the \u201cT\u201d from the end of \u201cLGBT\u201d and placed it squarely at the forefront of public discourse.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/2015\/06\/a-christian-response-to-the-transgender-discussion\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Christian Response to the Transgender Discussion"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/","name":"Unfundamentalist Christians","description":"Above all, love","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#\/schema\/person\/7e2df265ab827a43145a431718106977","name":"Dan Wilkinson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8860572436d7462571ba1b61acc2a37e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8860572436d7462571ba1b61acc2a37e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Wilkinson"},"description":"Dan is a writer, graphic designer and IT specialist. He lives in Montana, is married and has two cats. He blogs at CoolingTwilight.com.","sameAs":["http:\/\/coolingtwilight.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/author\/djwilkinson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1536"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unfundamentalistchristians\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}