• Being Christian and Transsexual: Life on Planet Mercury
    • Key Bible Verses
    • Links

ts4jc

~ Being Christian and Transsexual

ts4jc

Tag Archives: in the closet

My Sermon on 10/20/2019

27 Sunday Oct 2019

Posted by ts4jc in About Me, General Christian issues, General Transsexual issues, The Bible on transsexualism

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

1st Samuel 16:7, accepting, ally, aphron, Bible, Bible Belt, body of Christ, born again, Born Thrice, Christian, church, coming out, common interest, Community, compassion, Counselor, difference, discussion group, educate, endorsement, Facebook, family, female, fool, former name, Gender Identity, God, Gospel, group, hard soil, help, in the closet, inside, Jesus, King David, King Saul, LGBT, Lori Knight-Whitehouse, Love, Luke 11:40, Luke 8:5-8, lukewarm, Matthew 5:22, ministry, moros, New City, New Hempstead Presbyterian, open and affirming, organization, outside, parable of the sower, pastor, poverty, prayer, proclaim, put to death, reaction, rebellion, refuge, rejection, reputation, Scripture, secondary sex characteristics, sermon, sex work, share, sharing Jesus, shine the light, spouse, support, support group, test the waters, Testimony, the Lord, trans women of color, Transgender, transgender youth, Transition, unchurched, violence, vision, vulnerable, wickedness, witnessing, Worship Service

I had the privilege of delivering the worship service message at New Hempstead Presbyterian Church in New City, NY on 10/20/19. I thank the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Lori Knight-Whitehouse, for the opportunity. At the end of the text, I am posting a link to my portion of the service (the second Bible reading and my sermon, plus a great hug at the end from Pastor Lori). I chose both readings for the service: 1st Samuel 16:1-7 and Luke 11:37-44.

What Difference Does It Make?

Today’s scripture passages deal with insides and outsides of people.  In both cases, God is far more interested in the heart and mind of a person than the outer appearance.  In 1st Samuel, God notes that it is human nature to judge based on what’s outside.  It’s a lot easier to see external features and we like to keep our complicated lives as simple as possible.  When the children of Israel ignored God’s warnings and desired a human king to rule over them, He gave them an impressive physical specimen.  But tall, studly King Saul was found wanting: not only disobedient but making excuses for it.  So the Lord lets Samuel know that with this new king, the king whose lineage would lead to Jesus, God would select based on His ability to see and judge the worthiness of the one selected.  David wasn’t perfect.  But when confronted with his sin, he owned up to it and returned to being a man after God’s own heart.

The ritual of hand washing

The passage in Luke might hit closer to home.  It is not likely that anyone here will be chosen for a royal position.  But it is very likely that all of us have either judged others or have been judged based on our appearance or based on expectations.  And who among us would not have felt foolish if the person we judged negatively turned out to be Christ?  Yet Jesus goes a step further.  In condemning the Pharisees of His day, Jesus uses very strong language.  As they used to say in the movies, “Dems fighting words!”

We have to be careful here.  In Matthew 5:22, Jesus warned about calling someone a fool.  Now He calls the Pharisees fools for their hypocritical concern with the outside while neglecting their wickedness inside.  But in the Matthew passage, the Greek word translated as “fool” is “moros”.  That word carried a connotation of being godless as well as being foolish.  In Luke 11:40, the Greek word translated as “fool” is “aphron” [af-rone].  It insults the intelligence of the Pharisees, but not their piety.

About seven years ago, a woman I knew from church who I considered a friend told me that something I was doing was “foolish and evil”.  Then she added that she would pray for me.  I suppose in her mind that was supposed to cover it.  But it was clear to me she was implying that I was doing moros type foolishness.

What’s my difference?  My message today will focus on one that is very rare.  The current estimate is six tenths of a percent or six people in a random group of a thousand.  New Hempstead is much smaller than one thousand people.  But a church is not a random sample.  It is populated by people with similar beliefs and common purpose.  Two of the beliefs that connect me to New Hempstead are Christianity and social justice.

Some of you already know about my difference.  Many of you do not know and might be surprised.  Some might even be shocked.  Hopefully none of you are dismayed.  Unfortunately, a large portion of the Christian community around the world is dismayed.  To them, I am living in sin, have a reprobate mind and most likely not even saved.  And if I am saved, in their opinion at best I am terribly backslidden and in need of prayer for deliverance.

So let me introduce myself as I sometimes do when I speak before secular groups.  First, I am Christian.  That is my eternal spiritual identity.  Second, I am female.  That is my innate gender identity.  Somewhere down on the list, I am transgender.  That is my biological anatomical reality.

Lois Simmons, author of this blog!

It is also my anatomical reality that most of my secondary sex characteristics, even prior to cross-gender hormones and without any visible surgeries, are female.  That doesn’t make me any more female or any more transgender than another trans woman.  It just makes me more fortunate in my ability to go through life without being hassled in public.

In other ways, I am pretty much the same person I was before I transitioned socially nearly seven years ago.  I am still good in math, I can still parallel park, I still have a good sense of direction, I still have the same crazy sense of humor, I still like sports and I still love the Lord.

It is the last item on that list that makes my remarks relevant to this congregation.  Otherwise, what I have to say might be an interesting YouTube video or Facebook post that you read and then move on.  But it is my heart for Christ, my heart for those who do not know Him and my heart for other transgender people, that fuels my remarks today.  A transgender ally could have presented most of this same message.  But it would be deceitful for me if I failed to disclose the truth about who I am and where I am coming from.

At this point, I am reminded of the parable of the sower. Luke’s Gospel records it in chapter 8, verses 5-8: A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.  And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold.  And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

hard soil

If you take one thing away from my message today, it is this: sharing Jesus with the transgender community is hard soil.  And not only has the body of Christ dropped the ball, many have kicked the ball away.  There are a number of denominations and independent churches who will turn away a transgender person, whether Christian or seeker; many others will accept them in the hopes that they can pray away the trans or expose the trans person to enough teaching … “in love”, of course … that the trans person will renounce their transgender identity.

There are grim consequences for both transgender people and the Christian Church as a result of these widespread and well-known attitudes.  For example, for many years I attended a support group in Bergen County that met in an open, accepting and affirming Evangelical Lutheran Church.  More often than not when someone contacted us about joining the group, when they heard that we met in a church, they would stop e-mailing us, or we could hear their interest wane, or they would flat out tell us that they would not come to a meeting at a church.  Whether because of personal experience or Christian church reputation, like the lyrics of a song by The Who, they do not want to be fooled again.

And unfortunately for churches like New Hempstead, even though we aren’t part of this mud puddle of bigotry, we get splashed with that same dirty reputation in the eyes of very many who identify as L, G, B, or T.  How many LGBT+ welcoming churches are seeing an influx of members of those groups?  How many of these churches are struggling to survive or are even closing their doors?  At the same time, how many LGBT+ identified people are closing their hearts to the saving knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Based on personal experience, the testimony of other trans people and mounting scientific evidence, I do not believe that someone who is truly born transgender can change that identity, whether through secular or spiritual intervention.  But that is a separate discussion.  For now taking that as a given, what is the right course for us in the Church of Jesus Christ?

I decided after years of resisting to join Facebook this summer.  Quickly I found a closed group of Transgender Christians, over 700 both strong and suffering alike.  It was a larger group than I expected to find.  There was a time that I couldn’t find another transgender Christian anywhere online.  That was one reason I started my own blog on the subject.

Edited and paraphrased to maintain privacy, these are the testimonies of some of our fellow believers and what they are going through because of their combination of identities.  Hear what your sisters and brothers in Christ are crying out.

I met with my parents for the first time since coming out to them a few weeks ago.  It is the first time they saw me presenting as female.  Our time together was pleasant, but transgender and my transition were never mentioned.  As we were parting, my mom handed me a book to read.  (The book is one of many books that supposedly use the Gospel lovingly to show transgender people the sin and error of our ways so we will repent.  Often their premise is that we are either not saved, don’t know the Bible, that we are rebelling against God, or some combination thereof.)

Post: God is good all the time.  I finally found a church here deep in the Bible Belt that accepts me as the trans woman that I am.  Reply: Great news.  There are accepting churches out there.  It isn’t always easy finding one.

When I was still presenting as a cisgender male, a cis male friend who was a member of a men’s church study group persuaded me to attend a presentation by a man who wrote an anti-transgender paper.  When I asked the presenter what he used for research material, he showed me a stack of pornographic magazines.  I never attended another men’s Bible study group again.

I was rejected by my previous church.  Yet I am encouraged by what someone in my current church told me: “You challenge us to live our faith.”

My transgender identity remained when I was saved in my mid-20’s.  It has been a constant battle to please my Lord and Savior at the same time as continuing to work towards becoming the woman I truly am.

I feel my faith ebbing away.  I don’t sense God being there for me.  Goodbye to the group.  (This person revealed that she had been molested in the past and that someone else tried recently.  She was feeling shame because she felt she may have caused it by dressing to look pretty.  With encouragement from others, so far she stayed in the group.)

A trans woman member of the group, who is known in her church as female and transgender, was invited to join a small group in her church.  Then she was told that they were going to address her only by her former male name because that was how God created her.  The reason given was that they would lovingly accept anyone who wanted to join their group, but they had to remain true to their understanding of God’s word.  The invitation to join the group was declined.  The leader of the group acted like she was the judged and aggrieved party.

The pastor of the church I used to attend told me that it would be better for their church if I didn’t come back after I transitioned to female. 

My pastor knows my transgender identity, but he and the church are lukewarm on transgender issues.  I attend a mega-church and the pastor has a lot of status even beyond the local community.  I want my church to take a more positive stance on transgender issues instead of ignoring their existence.  But I think my pastor is more concerned about what it will do to his reputation in the Christian community if he steps out in favor of transgender people.

I used to attend a church that claimed to be LGBT friendly.  They had members, including the pastor, who were either gay or lesbian.  But I was the only transgender person there.  Most of the people ignored me and one gay couple was downright negative towards me.  Not only did I leave that church, I am avoiding church altogether now.

I have been attending a church for a few months and things were going well in terms of acceptance as a woman.  Then I came out as transgender.  Now I’ve been told that I cannot be part of any woman’s group or do any ministry work.  (In general this points to the dilemmas all transgender people face: should we come out at all, who should we come out to and under what circumstances?)

An acquaintance told me today that I am trash for violating God’s word.  Furthermore, I and anyone transgender should be put to death if we don’t turn away from this wickedness.

One group member is currently in the closet as a pastor in a conservative denomination that does not accept transgender.  Another member in similar circumstances in the past stepped down and found a job as a chaplain so she could transition.

coming out – should I or not?

My spouse has been sacrificially supportive since I came out.  Now she feels the need to leave her church, the church I started to attend with her.  We thought we were welcome.  Now we found out that they only welcomed us hoping that we would eventually be convicted to turn away from our relationship with me being transgender.  We are continuing to attend, but no longer feel welcome and are starting to look for another church.  But that is very difficult in our area.  Also a transgender teen had been coming with her family.  Once the church’s stance became known, this family stopped coming as well. 

These are just some examples.  They confirm what I believe the Holy Spirit was laying on my heart as I was exploring transition in 2012.  The Lord laid a new ministry idea on my heart.  I call it “Born Thrice”.

In a sense, a transgender Christian who transitions is not only born again, but born three times: physical birth, spiritual birth and gender rebirth or reassignment.  To the world, in many ways I am a new person.  I have a new name and a new gender marker on my birth certificate, my passport, my driver’s license and with Social Security.  My brother for the first time has a sister.  My senior men’s honorary society at Cornell retroactively had their first female member.

Here are the aims of my proposed ministry.  Note how well they fit in with the needs expressed in a sample of unsolicited posts that were taken from the Transgender Christian Facebook Group over the past month.

  • Provide support so that transgender Christians can remain steadfast in their faith. This can include helping find a new church.
  • Help transgender Christians who became discouraged and turned away from Christ so that they will return to their first love; shine the light of Christ’s love to those who were raised in the church and proclaim that there is a place in the body of Christ for transgender people with many faithful churches now receiving them with gladness and without judgment.
  • Proclaim to the rest of the transgender community that God loves them just as they are and that there is peace and wholeness without shame in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  • Educate pastors, ruling elders and congregations that there is no conflict between Christianity and transgenderism. This can be done discreetly on behalf of a transgender Christian who would like to come out in their own church but is unsure of what the reaction will be and would like the waters tested.  It can also be done to help find a new church or for any church that wants to know more about transgender.
  • Talk with Christian family members of a transgender individual who has or plans to come out, helping the family respond with love and compassion rather than condemnation, while also showing compassion for the adjustment that the family members will be making.

Some of the transgender Christians I am meeting will become part of the pool of counselors.  But more groundwork needs to be laid.  It would help to have someone with the skill to take a vision and get an organization off the ground successfully.  Denominational support and endorsement will be helpful.  Once a ministry gets large enough, a good advisory board and a board of trustees is needed.  And prayer support is always necessary for a successful Christian organization.

How else can you make a difference?

As far as I know, no one else in the New Hempstead congregation is transgender.  But allies are always a blessing.  And if there are enough people interested, I would be willing to help lead a discussion group on transgender.  Key Bible verses and books on the topic are available as discussion starters.

Bee Love Slater, a transgender woman of color, was burned to death in this car on 9/4/19

Other ministry opportunities are likely to arise.  The transgender population, particularly transgender women of color, tend to be underemployed and living in poverty.  Some turn to sex work as their answer and this makes them very vulnerable to physical violence.  [But all transgender people are at a higher risk to be victims of physical violence.]  There are also times when transgender identified young people need safe places to obtain education or even refuge from their immediate family.

And I challenge you today to consider your own common interest community.  Maybe it is music or pet lovers or senior citizens or gardening or crafts.  Maybe it is your profession or the sports team you root for or centered on the activities of your children or grandchildren.  Are you shining the light of Christ in your communities?  Do people know that you are Christian?  Or would they be surprised to find out?  Maybe you’d like to share what Jesus has done in your life but you aren’t sure how.  Pastor Lori and I have ideas on that subject and would love to share them with you.

Lord, I pray that those who have heard this message will apply it to their life according to Your will.  And I pray that whether it is through Born Thrice or other instruments of Your choosing, that you will help many transgender people abide in Your grace, peace, joy and love. Amen

Where are the Victims?

28 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by ts4jc in About Me, General Christian issues, General Transsexual issues

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Adolf Hitler, anti-transgender laws, Arkansas, assault, biased studies, Brynn Tannehill, Charlize Veritas, Christianity, Deuteronomy 19, disfigurement, false accusations, Family Research Council, fringe of society, Huff Post, humor, in the closet, injustice, innocence, Jacie Leopold, James Dobson, lies, marginalized, Martin Niemöller, military officer, misreprentation, Nazism, parental support, Paul McHugh, pilot, research study, scientist, South Dakota, stock broker, stories, successful transition, tax preparer, Transgender, transgender children, U of Washington, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Navy, violence, vulnerable, Wall Street, writer

I am no longer a stock broker, but I am still part of the financial world as a professional tax preparer.  Since this is my busy season and the Lord has been blessing me with an unusually large group of new clients (with complicated tax situations) early in the season, I am relying on two guest contributors to flesh out my postings.  But I will still be the one who ties them together.

Having been a stock broker for 20 years, I heard many of the stories and sayings of Wall Street.  One of those stories is about a man who had recently attained considerable wealth.  He went to Wall Street to meet with the most prestigious financial planners to choose which one would manage his wealth.  At one of these meetings, held high above the city’s financial district, the planner brought the wealthy man to one of the large windows in the conference room overlooking the river.  Thinking it would impress his prospective client, he made a grand gesture towards certain boats on the water’s edge and said, “Those are the brokers’ yachts!”

The wealthy man had a different idea of what was important.  “Where are the investors’ yachts?” he wanted to know.

The two stories I am sharing look at two major ways that transgender people are attacked in the United States (and in many parts of the world).  The first talks about physical attacks of violence that injure, disfigure and sometimes murder the victim.  The hateful perpetrators of this violence use fists, blunt objects, knives, guns, and a variety of other methods to carry out their attacks.

The second story talks about legislative acts of violence that makes it easier for perpetrators of physical violence to target transgender people.  They might even encourage them.  These laws are proposed (and now passed in South Dakota) in the name of Christian morality and defense of straw man victims.  Sadly, this puts Christianity in a bad light, putting a selfish interest (prejudice) ahead of concern for the wellbeing of innocent people who are put into clear and present danger on a regular and ongoing basis.

Both stories from a lofty perspective point out some of the victims of violence against transgender people.  Like the prospective client in our Wall Street tale, we wonder, where are the victims of violence done by transgender people?  Indeed, where are victims of violence done by people pretending to be transgender?

JacieSummary of the first story: For Jacie Leopold, a trans woman in the latter stages of physical transition, the night of her company’s Christmas party in 2014 was the night that the lights went out in Arkansas. Since then, a phalanx of backwoods Southern judges, lawyers and police officers have denied her justice. She has no job and no car, but the medical bills don’t go away.

With thinly veiled irony, Charlize Veritas, a trans woman and the author of the following Huff Post piece, comments that Jacie is “very lucky”. This sort of thing still happens all too frequently, and sometimes it leads to the victim’s death. Even so, there is a loud chorus of voices blaming the victim.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlize-veritas/the-dangers-of-being-transgender—-the-attack-on-jacie-leopold_b_9173816.html

Summary of the second story:  Before I talk about the story, I will say a few words about the author.  Among Brynn Tannehill’s many accomplishments, she graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and then earned a master’s degree in operations research from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology; served her country as a Naval Officer for nearly 17 years, much of that time as a pilot, flying over 450 combat missions and over 700 hours on non-combat missions; has continued to serve her country as a senior defense analyst and technical scientist for private firms; came out as a trans woman; writes brilliant articles highlighting transgender issues in our society of who we are and what we face.

The title of her article plays on Protestant Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous quote that succinctly describes how failure to defend others from unfair attack led to Adolf Hitler’s rise to absolute power in Nazi Germany where no German citizen could stand against him and be safe.  Brynn brings to light a systematic plan advanced by the Family Research Council that targets members of the transgender community to make us less than second class citizens.  As a backlash against the recent advances that help us to live as freely as any other citizen enjoys, it would eventually lead to such a hostile environment that would either force us into the dark underbelly of society or keep us cowering in the closet.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007392

(Brynn knows something about music, too.  Just as I alluded to Vicki Lawrence’s “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”, she quotes a phrase from Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”.)

Brynn also gives special attention to the targeting of transgender children at the forefront of this attack strategy.  If there is any group that highlights the innocence of transgender identity, it is these precious and courageous children who are daring to step out at a time of life when most of us feared to tread.  The FRC and others who support this plan know that these children are the most vulnerable part of the transgender community.  If they can effectively drive this generation of transgender children back underground, who knows how many generations it will be before the transgender community can once again emerge from the Dark Ages.

I need not rewrite Brynn’s article for her.  She does a magnificent job on her own:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/and-then-they-came-for-tr_b_9258678.html

As a Christian, I am deeply saddened by the central role played by the Family Research Council in attacking the transgender community.  I can remember many articles of sound advice from their organization, mostly from the pen of Dr. James Dobson.  (I make no claims as to whether it would be different if Dobson were still at the helm of this ministry.)  It’s almost like another close Christian friend turned against me, as some did when I came out.

But there is also good news tonight.  I have one more link to share.  But rather than a story (I said that there were only two), this is a report about a research study out of the University of Washington that was released Friday (2/26).  The study suggests that parental support is a major factor in the success of a child’s transition.  In other words, it is not the gender issue that leads to problems; it is the lack of support.

The researchers honestly admit that more studies are needed to test for other reasons for the findings.  But while their methodology was somewhat different, the study’s finding are consistent with an Ontario study of a few years ago with a much larger data base of trans youth age 16-24.  I referred to this study in my blog post of 1/6/16, “A Dream Deferred … or Worse”.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-02-transgender-children-identities-positive-mental.html

As these findings mount, they are poking huge holes in the failed arguments of doctors like Paul McHugh who base their beliefs on their own prejudices, biased studies of their own commission and disingenuous reporting of other studies which arrived at vastly different conclusions (while failing to acknowledge those conclusions).  Hopefully these accurate studies are coffin nails that can finally put these failed beliefs to rest and bury them where they belong.

Meanwhile, those Christians (and others who take their authority from scripture) who lie about transgender people would do well to consider the Old Testament penalty for falsely accusing someone.  It is the negative counterpart to the New Testament teaching that with the measure by which you forgive, so shall you be forgiven.

If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. – Deuteronomy 19:16-19

God bless,

Lois

Pages

  • Being Christian and Transsexual: Life on Planet Mercury
    • Key Bible Verses
    • Links

Recent Posts

  • My Sermon on 10/20/2019 October 27, 2019
  • Salute to Misfile (and all my favorite comic strips) October 5, 2019
  • Death of a School – But Not Its Spirit – Part 3 September 13, 2019
  • Death of a School – But Not Its Spirit – Part 2 September 9, 2019
  • Death of a School – But Not Its Spirit (Part 1) September 7, 2019
  • Non-Christians, Baby Christians, Discipleship and Moderation July 27, 2019
  • Scapegoats May 28, 2018
  • And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part VIII February 17, 2018
  • And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part VII February 11, 2018
  • And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part VI January 3, 2018
  • And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part V December 26, 2017
  • Lois Simmons: Evangelical Transgender Woman December 8, 2017
  • Tribute to Vin Scully – Part V November 30, 2017
  • And Now For Something Completely Different … – Part IV November 28, 2017
  • Tribute to Vin Scully – Part IV November 23, 2017

Categories

  • About Me
  • General Christian issues
  • General Transsexual issues
  • Just for Fun
  • Living Female
  • The Bible on transsexualism
  • Uncategorized

Archives

  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • July 2017
  • February 2017
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013

Recent Comments

ts4jc on My Sermon on 10/20/2019
Taylor Baxter on My Sermon on 10/20/2019
ts4jc on My Sermon on 10/20/2019
ts4jc on My Sermon on 10/20/2019
miriamtf on My Sermon on 10/20/2019

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy