I was wondering if a transgender person get's saved, should they go back to their ordinal sex or keep deceiving what they are?
You know, some things just cannot be 'fixed' this side of eternity.
Our job as the Body of Christ is to love others well.
This is actually a discussion I recently had with my freshman-in-college-daughter. It was prompted as we were watching an airing of America's Got Talent and one of the contestants, a transgender man-to-woman (an older individual) comedian. They were actually very funny!
The discussion was how she didn't feel comfortable calling the person a 'she' when that person was born a 'he'. I asked her what the most loving thing to do *with that person's self-defined identity in mind* if the opportunity to share Christ with them arose. She didn't feel like she could compromise - the person was born a 'he'! I asked her what fruit would be borne by her 'sticking to her guns' if insisting on addressing that person as a 'he'. The interesting thing is that unless the person had revealed their transgender status, we would never have known.
We never really reached a conclusion about what she would do, though I lean toward addressing someone as they identify themselves - in their eyes that is who they are. If they were to come to Christ, I'm content with Him by His Grace and His Spirit working out their identity issues. I don't see where it says in the Bible that someone must be their original gender in order to be saved or revert back to their original gender to remain saved.
How would a local fellowship respond if that person was in a relationship with someone who is their current gender-opposite (a heterosexual relationship after a gender reassignment)? I honestly do not know. Like I said, not everything can be 'fixed' this side of eternity.
Let's throw another monkey wrench in the mix. Some babies are born with both male and female genitalia (hermaphrodites -
What does the Bible say about hermaphrodites?). For many, many years, doctors and/or parents would 'choose' which gender to 'make' those babies. More modern medicine can determine whether one is genetically male or female, so the choice can be clearer for modern parents (as many as 1 in 2000 births can present as a hermaphrodite). But what about those children whose parents chose the gender which was opposite of their child's genetic reality either out of ignorance or out of their preference for one gender over another? For example, a child who had both male and female genitalia, was genetically a female, but parents chose for baby to be surgically situated to be male, either because they just didn't know their baby's genetic reality or because they wanted a boy rather than a girl? If those types of children always 'identified' or 'felt like' they were female, it's because genetically they were! Would you condemn someone like that or tell them they should go back to their 'ordinal' sex?
Are we as the Body of Christ willing to look at the realities that some of these folks live with/have lived through? Are we willing to love them as they are, whatever that may be? Are we willing to love those who are so messed up not knowing who they are because they have been so abused and mistreated and have sought to rid themselves of their identity at their very core? Are they 'deceiving what they are' or are they so very wounded and need of healing in Christ? Will those in Christ be willing to walk that path with them - for the years or decades that healing may take for them?
Or would it be easier to just put them out of the fellowship or ignore them until they feel so unloved that they just go away?
Interesting question . . .
-JGIG