Throwing Stones

 

Tennessee lawmakers recently passed a law banning all gender affirming care for minors, as well as a ban restricting performances in public by Drag performers.   These lawmakers are leading the country in pushing fear and hatred of others under the guise of “Christianity” and what they consider to be God’s natural order.    https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/02/tennessee-governor-bill-lee-signs-anti-trans-bill-drag-restrictions-into-law/69937336007/

 I am sure that if you talked to any of them, they would claim that we should all be “how God made us,” and that “God doesn’t make mistakes.”   I have been hearing this all my life.  I’m not here to argue that God makes mistakes.   In fact, I’d offer the opposite, but I know for sure that humans do.  

 The naïve, simplistic belief that we are all born “male” or “female,” is, both scientifically and biblically invalid.    Matthew 9:12 speaks of Eunuchs who were “born that way,” which has to at least confuse the issue for those who take every word of the Bible as infallible.  

 Factually, there are many babies born with “ambiguous genitalia.”    Medical studies have found that an average of 1 in 5000 births in which sex-chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical.   Throughout history there have been mentions of “hermaphrodites,” which are now more commonly called “Intersex.”   

 So, from a “God doesn’t make mistakes” standpoint, and considering how often Jeremiah 1:5 is used by Pro-Life advocates (“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”), this raises some interesting questions and implications. 

 I think what confuses me, is that those who base their entire faith and life on the belief that God doesn’t make mistakes and created us all and knows all and is in control of everything; then why would they be so fearful of those who are not the same as them?   Why would they have such hatred for another creation of God?

 I’m sure their argument is that there is a difference between an obvious physiological condition and what they consider to be a “choice” someone makes to be a different gender.    This, to me, ignores the miraculous uniqueness that was given to each human being.   Even “identical twins” are not completely identical.  There are not just minute physical differences, but the most important differences (as in all of us) are in the personality:  reasoning, ethics and feelings.   Who we are cannot be seen, and none of us can know exactly what it feels like to be another person.  

Biblically, there is a clear delineation between our bodies, and our “souls.”   The “soul,” or consciousness, is what makes us who we are, not our body.    Our body is just a vessel, a tool.  It provides a transport system to get us from one place to another.  It can cause us to feel pain, pleasure, exhaustion, hot, cold, or ill.    Even more than the physical connection, our relation to our body can make us feel attractive and confident or ugly, awkward and embarrassed.   

 Throughout my life, I have attended many funerals, and even more church services.    I cannot count the times I heard the message, basically a promise, that once we die and move on (presumably to Heaven), we would leave our “broken” human bodies and have a new “heavenly” body.    That implies that our earthy bodies are imperfect.  It is separate from our “soul,” and will be left behind.

 But no matter what happens to our body, or what it specifically looks like (this physical manifestation that we sometimes abuse and overfeed and don’t take care of) …what is most important is that we are who we are.   And we are all different.

 The mind is the most unique and interesting aspect of any human being.    How can we possibly say that every person has to think, feel and be the same way (or fall into two specific gender roles)?     Just within the United States, we can’t agree on religion, politics, humor, food, music, movies, cars, trucks, guns, clothing, sports, best places to live, and much more.   Each and every one of us is spectacularly different.

 How arrogant, shallow, and ignorant it is to say that another person could not feel different than the body they were born with or have to love a certain gender.  And how horribly cruel to demand that someone who has made the overwhelmingly difficult decision to admit who they are and how they feel is just “confused” or faking it.    Can you imagine the courage it takes to come out as LGBTQ, knowing the level of hatred and condemnation within our society?   Can you imagine having to choose being who you are when that means your family may shun you?   These are not easy choices.  These are not the choices of people who are confused or experimenting.  

 If you want to be afraid of someone who identifies as LGTBQ, I feel sad for you because you might be missing out on a relationship that could enrich your life.    You don’t have to agree with them.    You do not have to understand them.   You can try to ignore them and live in your comfy sheltered life of perceived perfection.    But don’t say you’re a Christian when you aren’t showing the Love of Christ to everyone.   Don’t say you’re a Christian if you oppose others living their lives and making choices that don’t affect you.   Don’t say you’re a Christian if you don’t stand up for the marginalized.  

 If you want to be afraid of something, imagine standing judgment before God and being told, “Why did you hate and hurt so many of my creations?   They were just how I made them.”