one of the main moral arguments the
christian church continues to use
against those who identify as
transgender
is that it is sinful to alter or deny
what god had made a person to be
accordingly this is the first argument
that queer theologian austin hartke
addresses in his pinnacle work
transforming the bible and the lives of
transgender christians
reflecting on his own gender identity
and faith throughout his life he
wrestled with the notion that god was
somehow wrong
that god made a mistake when designing
him but after
prayerful reflection and study of
scripture harkey came to realize some
valuable truths for instance he learned
from job
that sometimes things happen in the
world that just don't make any sense
he learned from philip that sometimes
you just have to say yes to god
even when you have no idea what god is
doing he learned from jesus that the
post-resurrected body can be
transformed yet still retain its scars
and he learned from abraham what it's
like to have your name
changed to reflect one's true identity
ultimately hartke came to believe that
god
created him to be a transgender person
in the world
i repeat god made him transgender
on purpose in john chapter 9
jesus and his disciples encounter a man
who was born blind
and the disciples ask whose sin his own
or his parents
was the reason he was born blind jesus
responds
neither he was born blind so that god's
works
might be revealed in him it is true
hubris to assume the blind man was a
sinner
all because he was different jesus
explains that he was born
blind in order to reveal god that's
right
not sin but sign
the man was created blind in order to
teach the world something
yet as the chapter continues that
message gets overshadowed by whether or
not it was ethical
for jesus to heal him on the sabbath
which was intended to be a day of rest
in his book harkie reminds us that god's
laws were originally intended to
organize the israelites and that god
breaks these rules
all the time this is first evident in
the very first
chapter of the bible genesis 1 god
separates day from night
yet that does not negate dusk and dawn
god separates land from sea yet marshes
remain
god is the alpha and the omega but there
are plenty of letters in between
dualism reflects a spectrum not a binary
it's not black and white it's a rainbow
and psalm 104 pays homage to this
rainbow of diversity
rejoicing in the way god creates storks
rabbits
lions and even sea monsters and has
given them each a home
in their particular environment and
within this biodiversity there are some
plants and animals that switch back and
forth between male and female
as there is evidence of homosexual and
bisexual tendencies in all kinds of
species
it's not a stretch to recognize the
existence of transgender as well
also as is the case with intersex people
not everyone in all species are born
male or female god tells job that
there's no way he'll ever understand how
creation works
so he just needs to stop questioning it
god breaks the rules all the time in the
bible
usually when demonstrating love
deuteronomy 23 commands
no one whose testicles are crushed or
whose penis is cut off
shall be admitted to the assembly of the
lord
well that's an interesting directive
from a people that perform genital
mutilation in the form of circumcision
but nevertheless by the time we get to
isaiah 56
the prophet states that those eunuchs
and foreigners who join themselves to
the lord
will be accepted in god's house of
prayer
god changed god's mind
i'm sorry i'm just laughing about that
part that says the church will accept
the outsider
a sexually marginalized person no less
yeah it doesn't really happen these days
but more on that at the end of this
lesson the eunuch who philip seeks out
in acts chapter 8 was a court official
of the queen of ethiopia eunuchs were
highly revered and trusted court
officials serving kings and queens
they were considered perfect servants
because they had no allegiance to family
and could not jeopardize the dynastic
lineage by having their own offspring
they were also able to move across
gender and social boundaries and were
often considered holy
because of their perceived ability to
access the spiritual realm
or in other words religions outside the
box
it's it's out there it's transcendent
right
so as a queer person if you're not bound
by societal restraints like
gender and sexuality it was believed
that you
also weren't bound to this earth or
material realms
that you have some sacred ability to
recognize
what most people cannot you want to know
something
i agree with that because my queerness
has enabled me to think outside the box
all the time
and that's a necessary tool for
spiritual engagement
and that's also what makes me an awesome
religion teacher
anyways back back to philip philip
overhears the eunuch reading from the
book of isaiah
and asks if they understand what they're
reading the eunuch replies
how can i unless someone guides me the
passage he's reading is from isaiah
chapter 57 in which the servant
is humiliated and denied justice the
eunuch invites philip into their chariot
and philip
interprets the passage in light of the
good news of jesus
philip helps the eunuch understand and
when they encounter water on their
journey
the eunuch wants to be baptized as a
christian
and so philip baptizes them philip then
leaves and the eunuch goes on their way
full of joy note that we never learn
the eunuch's name the gender the race
the class or even the religion
but just their desire to be baptized
and included in matthew 19 when talking
about divorce
jesus says that for some it is better
for a man
not to take a wife and affirmed the
existence of eunuchs
as positive examples to follow jesus
replied
not everyone can accept this word but
only those to whom it has been given
for there are eunuchs who are 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
the one who can't accept this should
accept it
eunuchs that have been made so by others
or choose to live like a eunuch require
no further explanation
it's the ones who were born that way
that intrigues the scholars
some have suggested that jesus is
actually referring to homosexuality or
maybe even intersexuality
or some broad category of people who
from their birth
have not fit in to the predominant
expectations of gender and identity
as a matter of fact the word eunuch was
once used as a derogatory epithet
applied to jesus and his company for
their renunciation of their masculinity
here jesus could be reclaiming that word
eunuch
in the way the lgbt community has done
so with the word queer
and note that unlike the blind the
leprous
the hemorrhaging or even the dead there
was no reference to
healing here a eunuch was
not someone that needed to be fixed in
order to reintegrate
into society instead the eunuch is held
up
as a model to follow to suggest
a man go be like a eunuch would probably
have been just as shocking
as when jesus commanded that the
neighbor go be like that samaritan
again god breaks the rules all the time
once damned now the model
the desire for god's kingdom can
sometimes lead to an identity
that falls outside the binary when it
comes to people who are different from
you
focus on the love not the judgments
some queer theologians have suggested
that prophet daniel who is described as
having an
eternal youth may have been turned into
a eunuch
when i first started doing research for
this course i came across prophet
nehemiah
who admittedly i knew nothing about but
it turns out they may have been a eunuch
as well as they were once a persian
king's cup bearer
making one a eunuch in ancient society
included much more than just castration
but were identified by their dress
mannerisms and even the food that they
ate
daniel chapter 1 indicated that the king
of babylon set
out to make daniel and his three friends
eunuchs rabbinic tradition
validates this claim recognizing the
isaiah passage
as justification for the allowance of
eunuchs to participate
in temple worship today the catholic
church
reinforces a male and female binary
rejecting transgender and non-binary
expressions
as strictly sociological constructs to
support this claim it appeals to a
binary biology based in xx and xy
chromosome distribution
children are born either female or male
and claims that intersex or transgender
persons are false
expressions of sociological gender
ideologies
but medicine and psychology
contradict these claims in 2017 the
american medical association stated that
gender is incompletely understood as a
binary selection
this is important to know because pope
john paul ii in the 80s and 90s called
for an intense dialogue between
faith and science further for over a
millennium
catholic canon law regarded intersex
people as
valid and existing as hermaphrodites to
be regarded in tracks on marriage and
ordination
as female or male depending upon
predominant characteristics
even saint augustine who you know i got
a love hate relationship going on with
acknowledged the existence of intersex
people and pushed the readers to welcome
these rare individuals
to the human family as deliberately
fashioned by god
and contributing to the overall beauty
of creation
now again i don't claim to be an expert
on being transgender
but what i know from religion is that
revelation
is always a process take the trinity for
example as explained by theologian saint
gregory of nancy anzus
the old testament proclaimed the father
clearly
but the son more obscurely the new
testament revealed the sun
and gave us a glimpse of the divinity of
the spirit
now the spirit dwells among us and
grants us a clearer vision of himself
it was not prudent when the divinity of
the father had not yet been confessed
to proclaim the son openly and when the
divinity of the son was not yet admitted
to add the holy spirit as an extra
burden
to speak somewhat daringly by advancing
and progressing from
glory to glory the light of the trinity
will
shine in ever more brilliant rays
in short the revelation of the persons
of the trinity was gradual
and progressive and god continues to
reveal god's self throughout creation
for creation is a process conception is
a process
and perhaps sexual and gender
identity are too if the sin
associated with being transgender has
anything to do with surgically
altering what god has made you to be
what makes a nose job morally acceptable
or even a kidney transplant what
defines a person chromosomes
genetics genitalia
or is it their soul
throughout the bible god changes names
to reflect a new identity
god doesn't change their identity though
that new name simply recognizes the
identity
that god has always known
so call them by their name