Tags
Benjamin L Corey, birth defects, brain, Brain Gender, Christian theology, Creation, Differences of Sex Development, Dr. Megan DeFranza, eunuch, Fall of mankind, Formerly Fundie, Genesis 1:27, God, goodness, Intersex, Jesus, Matthew 19:12, Melissa Hines, Old Testament, sexual organ, The Salvation Army, Transgender, Transsexual
The past two days have been full of ups and downs. On the down side, I got my monthly maintenance bill from the new management company that has just been hired for my apartment building. It took me over two years of dealing with lawyers and assistants, foul ups by Citicorp Mortgage or my County Clerk office in recording my mortgage payoff, and foot dragging by the former management company to get my new stock certificate and even longer to get the name changed on my monthly bill. My first bill from the new management company somehow has my old name on it again.
Another minor annoyance happened with I bought something at Staples today. I am supposed to get a discount as a perk from the company that I purchase my tax software from. There was no discount. So I have to look into that on Monday.
On the plus side, I received a call this afternoon from one of my clients. He had built my previous computer for me, the one whose power supply died at the end of April. When he built it back in July 2011, he was able to take my existing computer at that time and make a virtual hard drive of it because there was some old tax software and a few other programs that would not run on Windows 7. Today he had time to move the virtual hard drive to my new computer. In some cases, I will find ways to get the data from the VHD. In other cases, I will just use the programs until I am forced to upgrade to a newer version of Windows and can no longer use them.
I also received an interesting e-mail from the woman at the Salvation Army who invited me to start attending church at the corps nearest to me. As part of an online course she is taking from a Christian college, her instructor posted a link to a blog post entitled “If God Only Made Male & Female, What About Intersex?” It appears on “Formerly Fundie: The Official Blog of Benjamin L. Corey.”
Corey admits that while he has wanted to post a blog on this subject, he is not an expert in this area. So he interviews Dr. Megan DeFranza who is an expert.
Much of the post echoes things that I have already posted (even if I do not qualify yet as an expert). I do agree with Dr. DeFranza that those who are born with mixed sex characteristics are not proof of the fall into sin. On the other hand, I do maintain that once sin and corruption entered into the world, so did birth defects. What is important to remember is that a sexual organ or gender related birth defect is no more sinful than any other birth defect.
I was generally pleased with how the connection was made between Intersex and Transgender within the constraints of a short blog post and interview. It is correct to recognize that not all Intersex individuals are Transgender. But mindful that the brain is also an organ of the body, I make note of growing evidence that many transgender individuals are also Intersex.
What intrigued me most about the post and the interview with Dr. DeFranza is that she gives a historical account of how Judaism in the Old Testament era, Jesus and early Christianity dealt with Intersex individuals. She compares part of Jesus’ statement about eunuchs in Matthew 19 to the way that Jews had special laws for those who were born with characteristics of both male and female.
So here I had just written that I needed to do more study on Matthew 19 and nine days later, God lays at least some of that in my lap. God is good all the time and all the time God is good: for that is the nature of God.
Rather than rehash Corey’s entire blog post, here is a link to it:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/formerlyfundie/if-god-only-made-male-female-what-about-intersex/
There are also links to Dr. DeFranza’s book and her blog at the end of Corey’s blog post.
For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. – Matthew 19:12
God bless,
Lois
