It’s taken me a while to find a way to articulate what I felt was the issue with many people who have difficulty accepting people who are transgender.

There are a couple of memes that on occasion pop up in my Facebook feed that others have shared. These are my friends who are sharing it so I tend not to take it personal or that they are thinking of me when they share it, but I KNOW that they have been used by others as a (I was about to use the phrase “passive-aggressive”, but there is nothing passive about it) means of communicating one’s displeasure with someone who is transgender.

One of them is “You have become blind when you see nothing wrong with something God has called sin.”

Another is a quote from Booker T. Washington: “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.”

For many Christians, once you come to Christ that means you’re now obligated to follow a certain set of rules

The false premise with both of these when it comes to people who are transgender is the ASSUMPTION that it is a willful, disobedient choice to oppose God’s will, the way you were “meant” to be—and a total denial that for reasons not fully understood that it could be how someone was knitted together in the womb.

For some people it seems so obvious they can’t believe that not everybody sees it—“God created them male and female” (Gen 1:27) and so anything that doesn’t line up to the perfection of God’s creation in the garden MUST be against God’s will, i.e. sin and therefore giving people the right to disapprove and to say so.

For others, they make the uninformed (but common) mistake of thinking being transgender has anything to do with homosexuality, which the Bible seems to address in a few places, and because of that misconception God is therefore against it (I won’t go into the many ways those verses may be misinterpreted, that’s not my expertise).

And then there are those who just don’t like it (I think this is the bucket my own family falls into). They really aren’t interested in whether or not it’s right or wrong according to the Bible, and they don’t want to have the discussion because that puts them at risk, especially as Christians, of having to agree that God doesn’t disapprove of people who are transgender—and since they are creeped out by people who are transgender they want to be okay keeping their distance. They choose ignorance to justify their rejection of others.

The common thread in all three scenarios?
“You’re breaking the rules.”

They may think being transgender is breaking God’s rules, or they may simply feel like their own personal rule of “it’s just somehow wrong” is being violated, but it’s breaking a rule that for whatever reason, they’re not going to put up with it.

My point is that it’s not about following the rules, it’s about following Christ

For many Christians, once you come to Christ that means you’re now obligated to follow a certain set of rules. We start with the Ten Commandments, what “thou shalt” and what “thou shalt not” do. The hard core rule followers will then turn to Leviticus and Deuteronomy to correct people who are out of bounds. The Old Testament is full of rules for people to pick and choose from. And a lot of people then spend the rest of their lives making sure they and those around them are following the “rules”. Like going to church every Sunday, staying away from cigarettes and alcohol, for some women we’re expected to wear a skirt or dress to church, for some we’re never allowed to ever wear pants. And the list goes on and on and on of what you’re supposed to do or not do, because THAT is what defines a Christian in their view and may even define salvation to them.

But when we take the Old Testament and (as my pastor says) “bring it through the cross” into the New Testament we get a different perspective. Now before you think I’ve gone off the deep-end, I’m not saying the rules no longer apply. What I AM saying is that when you do what Jesus told us to do, all the “rules” take care of themselves (well, we’re human, they mostly do).

Jesus told us that He and the Father were one, that He was God in the flesh. The Jewish leaders understood this and is the reason they wanted to stone Him right then and there (John 10:29-31). In John 13:34-35 Jesus says “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That last verse inspired a Catholic priest to write in the 60’s what is now a hymn “They’ll Know We Are Christians” (we even sang it in at my Baptist church youth group back then).

So in just knowing/doing those two things, believing Christ is also God and that we are to love one another, there’s not a single commandment of the ten you would want to break. Job done. Jesus told his disciples that very thing in Matthew 22:37-40 when they asked Him what was the greatest commandment… ““Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.””

We ALL have a lot of “work” to do in working out our salvation

My point is that it’s not about following the rules, it’s about following Christ. And what Jesus wanted us all to do more than anything else, was to love one another.

And that doesn’t justify calling someone a sinner, telling them they are headed for hell because you’re “doing it in love”. If you’re not aware of the harm your words can have on someone, then you’re not doing it out of love, you’re doing it out of a sense of being right and telling someone that they are wrong—because we all love thinking that God is on OUR side. So what if that person commits suicide because of the guilt and condemnation you’ve put on them? At least you feel you were right, and I’m sure you feel sorry for the person. But hey, you weren’t wrong, right? THAT’S the kind of rule-following that brings a life to an end, that kind of rule-following is NOT of God nor is it in any way part of His plan.

Even if you can’t find a way to agree with someone’s walk with Christ, you would do well to heed the words of Paul in his epistle to the Philippians. In chapter 2 verses 12-13 he writes: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

That phrase “work out your own salvation” is what each of us is doing on a daily basis. How Christ’s presence in our lives is presented in who we are, what we do, how we act, and how we treat one another. We ALL have a lot of “work” to do in working out our salvation, people who are transgender have their own work PLUS the added burden of being told by at times some not-so-well-meaning Christians that it’s change or hell, that God hates them.

I frequently hear from people who are transgender who love the Lord as much or more than most Christians, yet the barrage of words of condemnation from people around them make it so hard for them to grow, to have community with other believers that otherwise they have so much in common with. It’s crushing them. They feel alone, unloved, and without value to others or the Lord.

So rules are fine. Don’t speed. Eat your vegetables. Don’t shoplift. Pick up after your dog if it poops on the sidewalk, tell your kids to not speak with strangers. But please, don’t let rules, especially rules that are iffy at best and that tear others down be a part of your expression of Christ, because they aren’t a part of Jesus.

-Blessings

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