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Loving Our Transgender Kin

Avery Arden (they/them)

avery@mlp.org

Part 2: Exploring God’s good news in scripture

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GREETINGS!

Who am I?�
Who are you?

Name
Anything else you want to share, e.g. pronouns…

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MAKING THE MOST OF THIS TIME

Ask me to repeat or rephrase at any point;�hold on to content questions

Ask the questions you need in order to learn and grow towards fuller respect & solidarity

Saving deep dives for the future

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OPENING PRAYER

God of life, Word made flesh,

breathe your wisdom into us as together we explore

this collection of texts called scripture.

We seek love in verses too often wielded in hate;

We seek healing in this book

misused for so much harm.

Protect and comfort those who have been hurt.

Transform our understanding; make us bold enough

to wrestle out your Word within the words. Amen.

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Definitions: lightning round

Trans: umbrella term for anyone whose gender identity does not completely match the gender they were assigned at birth

Cisgender

Intersex: umbrella term for �those whose sex falls outside �the normative categories �of male & female

Endosex (or perisex)

the goal: to make the binary convincing

Total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female in some way: one in 100 births �Total number of people receiving surgery to “normalize” genital appearance one or two in 1,000 births

The 1 in 2,000 number is about people born with genitalia so ambiguous a specialist is called in

intersex is, as the Intersex Society of North America states, “a socially constructed category.”…Intersex isn’t a third category; it is a cluster of biological traits that reveal just how fluid gender really is.

many avoid doctors appointments, emergency rooms, etc. due to discrimination and shaming

Anti trans fear of youth being “mutilated” – that’s happening to intersex kids!

Intersex 101 vids: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyJX2xecPYsLEvO6QRTVgj_3CyFE-j8bG

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Definitions: lightning round

Trans: umbrella term for anyone whose gender identity does not completely match the gender they were assigned at birth�
Cisgender

the goal: to make the binary convincing

Total number of people whose bodies differ from standard male or female in some way: one in 100 births �Total number of people receiving surgery to “normalize” genital appearance one or two in 1,000 births

The 1 in 2,000 number is about people born with genitalia so ambiguous a specialist is called in

intersex is, as the Intersex Society of North America states, “a socially constructed category.”…Intersex isn’t a third category; it is a cluster of biological traits that reveal just how fluid gender really is.

many avoid doctors appointments, emergency rooms, etc. due to discrimination and shaming

Anti trans fear of youth being “mutilated” – that’s happening to intersex kids!

Intersex 101 vids: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyJX2xecPYsLEvO6QRTVgj_3CyFE-j8bG

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WHAT DO I MEAN BY QUEER RESONANCE?

Taking cultural context seriously

Why these readings matter

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Overview of God’s good news

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GOD WITH US — �IN OUR PAIN…

“Truly I tell you, whatsoever you did for the least of �these siblings of mine, �you did it for me.”

– Matthew 25:40

The story of scripture is the story of a God who sees, knows, makes Themself one of the oppressed

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…AND IN OUR JOY!

“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

- John 15:11

Delighting in co-creating with the Divine�
Bringing our gratitude to God

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LOOKING TO �THE FRUIT

“Do people gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”

– Matthew 7:15-20

Ultimately, trying to form a conclusive idea of “what the Bible says” about any topic is impossible – too many different authors with different perspectives. But we follow the “rule of love,” and we can use Jesus’ saying about fruit to determine what is good and what is harmful.

What fruit is borne when trans people are kept from their full potential?

What fruit comes from giving them access to care and community? – gifts for the church?

Art by Sliman Mansour

“Queer People are Wheat not Weeds”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig9ChnGoLWE&index=61&list=PLwWfCs7vnwdC1wbIAmH3_kIm0fE7oN9tE

2:30 – a conference on whether to change the rule against ordaining LGBT people and performing same-sex marriages

Comparison – attempting to legislate the LGBT people out of the UMC, the UMC was attempting to weed the Kingdom of God

Apart from that not being our job, LGBT people are not weeds, they’re wheat

3:18 How do we tell the difference between a good plant and a weed?

A weed is any plant that grows where we don’t want it to

3:50: “So when we treat queer Christians like weeds, we are essentially saying, ‘I don’t care how beautiful or hardy or useful you are, or who planted you, I don’t want you here.’ But…we don’t get to decide what’s wheat and what’s weeds.”

We can know a good or bad tree by its fruit, Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:16 and Luke 6:44. Thus, we know whether something is a deviation from God’s will based on the fruit it bears: murder bears the bad fruit of a life lost; cheating bears the bad fruit of a person or people being exploited and their dignity violated. What fruit does being LGBT bear: is it good fruit or bad fruit?

I argue wholeheartedly that it does not bear any bad fruit inherently, but rather good fruit. When a person who is naturally LGBT tries to live as a straight, cisgender person, mental illness and isolation are some of the fruits that bears. On the other hand, when an LGBT person embraces that aspect of themself, good fruits are produced: joy and hope, a deeper connection with other people and with God, and, my favorite, a challenge to expand one’s way of thinking about the world.

***A quote from a celebrated modern theologian, Rachel Held Evans: “If same-sex relationships are really sinful, then why do they so often produce good fruit—loving families, open homes, self-sacrifice, commitment, faithfulness, joy? And if conservative Christians are really right in their response to same-sex relationships, then why does that response often produce bad fruit—secrets, shame, depression, loneliness, broken families, and fear?”***

poles of good and bad? another binary!!

we all live in the in-between

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Blessed from the Beginning

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A primary passage used against trans folk…

So God created man�in His own image; �in the image of God �He created him; �male and female �He created them. ��- Genesis 1:27, NKJV

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NOT A BINARY “AND”

In Hebrew poetry, “___ and ___” phrases can name the two extremes of a larger list.�

God creates day and night, and…�
God creates sea and dry land, and…�
God creates plants and animals, and…

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THE FIRST HUMAN: �GENDERLESS OR GENDERFULL

Then LIVING God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.��- Genesis 2:7

ha-adam, not ha-ish

Then LIVING God formed the human from the dust of the ground, and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life; �and the human became a living being.��- Genesis 2:7

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DISCUSSION

How does reading the first human as genderless or “genderfull” impact the story for you?�
Do the Creation stories teach us anything about God’s gender?

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Our transfigured, transformative God

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A TRANS-FORMATIVE INCARNATION

God beyond gender is assigned male at birth

Broken gender norms�
Found family over nuclear family

In 1983, Edward Kessel published an article titled "A Proposed Biological Interpretation of the Virgin Birth" wherein he argued that Mary's pregnancy was a parthenogenetic one: being conceived from an embryo without a sperm, Jesus must share the sex chromosomes of that embryo -- presumably XX (2). However, we know that Jesus was assigned male at birth and had a penis (Luke 2:21 notes that he was circumcised on his 8th day).

If Jesus had XX chromosomes but the phenotype that his and our cultures associate with maleness (a penis, the onset of facial hair and lowering of the voice at puberty, etc.), then he would have been intersex, of the "XX male syndrome" variety.

Jennifer Anne Cox is careful to stress that Jesus does not have to be intersex "in order to give credence or value to" intersex persons (3); they are worthy persons made in the image of God regardless, as we all are.

Jesus, as one Person in the triune God, is divine – that pure divinity grafted itself to humanity, becoming 100% human while remaining 100% divine – and this divine being, genderless, is assigned male at birth!! God who is genderless is assigned male – that makes Jesus trans.

Moreover, just like eunuchs, Jesus did not fit into his society’s expectations for men – he did not settle down with a wife and have kids; rather he walked around homeless with a bunch of other men and even challenged natural family structures by asking questions like “who is my mother and who are my brothers?” and declaring that one must leave family behind to follow him.

Jesus names himself a mother hen

God / Jesus is also trans because God identifies with the oppressed so intimately that God becomes one of them:

http://hackingchristianity.net/2013/12/jesus-was-black-because-he-was-a-jew.html

Many theologians of marginalized groups, particularly liberation theologians, see God as being so much on the side of the oppressed that God is one of them.

-- In Black theology, God is Black.

-- In the theology of the disabled community, God is disabled. See the book The Disabled God by Nancy Eiseland

-- In Dalit theology, the theology of the “untouchables” of India, God is a dalit. Jesus was a dalit. See this article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qavXqY7mBJVZBwWr2dfZbko4b8YpTNAg/view?usp=sharing

-- In queer theology, God is queer.

Austen vid: What are God’s pronouns? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZgU3GaReLk&index=33&list=PLwWfCs7vnwdC1wbIAmH3_kIm0fE7oN9tE

God is queer:

Hosea 11:9 – “I am God and not a man” -- http://a-queer-seminarian.tumblr.com/post/150797676193/gods-refusal-to-be-gendered-in-hosea-119

God is the ultimate binary breaker, as we discussed earlier with Isaiah 11; and also in breaking the binaries between Creator and Created, between Life and Death, between Oppressor and Oppressed, between Rich and Poor…

queerlychristian.tumblr.com/tagged/god_beyond_gender

In my view the cries of the poor and the oppressed are the cries of God. That means that not only God hears those cries or that God has implanted those cries in the hearts of those who cannot bear injustice, but that God becomes the poor and the oppressed and the downtrodden.

– Allan Boesak, “Walking Humbly with God in a Scandalous World”

https://youtu.be/zZ0jseC9d4Y

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The sacred longing to be known

[…Jesus] asked his disciples,�“Who do people say that the Son of Humanity is?” �And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” �Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, �the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, �Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not �revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

– Matthew 16:13-17

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Jesus rewards Peter with a new name & role�
…But Peter doesn’t fully understand what Messiah means to Jesus�
Last thought: Jesus commands his disciples to “tell no one”

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Stigmatized scars, sacred signs

- by Swedish photographer Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin (2017)

Jesus rises with a body still marked by wounds — why doesn’t he miracle them away?

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Other comments �or questions?

- art by Ale, the-dance-of-Italy on tumblr

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Called to Draw the Circle Ever Wider

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BIBLICAL EUNUCHS

Foreign powers would castrate people to hold specific roles�
Enslaved, but with status

What differences are there between ancient eunuchs and modern-day �trans people? �What about similarities?

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FROM REJECTION…

“No one whose testicles are crushed or �whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to �the assembly of �LIVING GOD.”�

- Deuteronomy 23:1

Then in the 500s BCE, something changes things…

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…TO RADICAL WELCOME

Do not let the eunuch say,� “I am just a dry tree.”�For thus says LIVING GOD:

To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,� who choose the things that please me� and hold fast my covenant,�I will give, in my house and within my walls,� a monument and a name� better than sons and daughters;�I will give them an everlasting name� that shall not be cut off.

- Isaiah 56:3b-5

What is God’s message to eunuchs here? �
What challenges does this text hold for faith communities?

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A CULTIVATED �COMPASSION

“Perhaps because of painful experiences �in life, [eunuchs] empathize with �‘the other’ alongside them in the text; �they relate to the vulnerable…”

– Peterson Toscano

Ebed Melech, Jeremiah 38

eunuchs in the ancient world found themselves in many of the same kinds of in-between spaces that transgender people often experience today. …They lived in limbo between genders, caught somewhere on the social ladder a few rungs below men and a couple of steps above women…” - Austen Hartke

"As non-procreative males who did not experience puberty, they stood out. In a world where it seemed everyone was part of a family unit, they were single. In a world where there were clear divisions between male and female, they were neither or they were both." -- https://petersontoscano.com/seeing-eunuchs-in-the-bible/

Allowed in most women-only spaces

Afforded some but not all male privileges

Hartke Vid: “Eunuchs, Prophets, and Coming Home”

-- similarities between eunuchs and trans people starts about 1 min 15 secs in

-- reading and describing Deuteronomy 23:1 starts 3 minutes in

-- reading and describing Isaiah 56:1-5 starts about 3:45 in

-- God bringing them back into the community – 5 minutes

https://youtu.be/VHI6Y1IxlYM

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Any comments or questions?

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Back to Jesus: �reclaiming eunuch

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Jesus reclaims eunuch

“There are eunuchs who have been eunuchs from birth. �And there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs �by others. �And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of heaven. �Those who can accept it should accept it.” � �– Matthew 19:12

“It is widely believed by scholars that Jesus himself had been derisively called a eunuch…”

- Victoria Kolakowski (1997)

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Victoria Kolakowski:

“…Jesus took that derogatory slang word �thrown at him and proudly claimed it �as part of his own identity.

This is exactly what modem activists �have done with the word Queer.

Jesus’ saying here was an �‘in-your-face’ comeback, and it was so �shockingly powerful that his followers remembered it and later wrote it down. �We need to proudly acknowledge this and �inform our fundamentalist Christian detractors that Jesus was ‘Queer’ in his society’s eyes and that �he claimed us to be his family.”

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EMBRACING NONCONFORMITY

Mary’s yes makes her an outcast�
Out in Scripture: “This is a story of Mary consenting to enter into a disreputable condition, trusting that despite all appearances she is entering into holiness.”�
How might trans people relate to such a yes? Where are you called to make a similar yes?

Austen Video: “When we should choose the rougher path”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nnNG04Ph9k&list=PLwWfCs7vnwdC1wbIAmH3_kIm0fE7oN9tE&index=39

From the vid:

Mary chooses to become an outsider because she recognizes that in God’s crazy mixed-up kingdom the insiders are the outsiders. …And that, my friends, is incredibly good news for us – for everybody, but I think maybe especially for people who have experienced an othering or harassment for who they are and who they choose to be.

I’ve talked to lots of trans people who have talked about their experience discerning their gender and how they felt that God was with them and that God was calling them to a more authentic and honest and true life out in the open and that when they said yes to that, they felt free. That’s definitely the way things worked out in my case.

And yet so often when we as trans people say yes to an authentic and real and honest life with our community members we’re told that they’re not ready for it yet or that we’re too out there or that we just don’t fit in anymore. Sometimes we can feel like we’ve become a sort of pariah in our community and we start to question ourselves and to question whether maybe we shouldn’t have said yes to so much change.

But in that moment when you’re questioning your yes, I hope you remember Mary.

I hope you remember how she looked at this terrifying angelic being and said, ‘Here I am.’ I hope you remember how Gabriel told her that nothing is possible with God and something inside her said Yes, this is true.

I hope you remember that even when it seems like you could lose everything by saying yes there might actually be more to gain by saying “Lord, let it be with me according to your word.”

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ALWAYS MORE�TO LEARN!

https://tinyurl.com/e2fnsk92

avery@mlp.org

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Any last comments or questions?

Thus far: Basic 101; Scripture��Next week: Practical actions!