Who’s in Charge of the Stonings at Your Church?

May 4, 2019May 4, 2019
by Laurie Suzanne Scott

A popular verse in the Bible used as a weapon against people in the church who are transgender is Deuteronomy 22:5 “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” (NIV) Another is Genesis 1:27 “…male and female He created them”.

I struggle when people call being transgender a sin, as I’m not aware of any other condition one is born with that today is considered a sin.

If from that someone is going to extrapolate that a person can’t be born transgender, but rather it’s a choice of willful disobedience toward the Lord, I have a few questions for them…

Just how tall is the parapet around the roof of your home? (Deut. 22:8)
Have you thrown away all your clothes made of blended materials (Deut. 22:11)
If you have a daughter who is married, do you have your proof that she was a virgin ready in case her husband accuses her of not being a virgin when they married? (Deut. 22:17)
When someone at your church is unfaithful to their spouse, who is in charge of putting the offender and the person they slept with to death? (Deut. 22:22)
If a virgin at your church is raped by someone, which of the pastors at your church performs the marriage ceremony (after the man pays the father in silver first of course). (Deut. 22:28)
If a member of your church works on Sunday, who puts them to death? (Exodus 35:2) Is it the same person who puts the cheating spouse to death or does a separate committee handle this?
Leviticus 25:44 says I can own slaves as long as they are not from my country. If I allow them to earn their freedom, will they have to go back to their country? (1 Corinthians 7:21)
Who’s in charge of killing the child that curses at their parents? (Exodus 21:17)
Who’s in charge of slaughtering the young bull at the front of the church doors if your pastor unintentionally sins? (Leviticus 4:3)
Do your Elders and Deacons at your church know how to slaughter the male goat at church when they sin? (Leviticus 4:22)
And since we know that all have sinned, when was the last time you slaughtered a female goat after you unintentionally sinned? Leviticus 4:27)
Where can I find the current value of selling a daughter into slavery? (Exodus 21:7)
If I bring bread and meat to church unexpectedly on a Sunday, can I lock the doors once everyone is inside to prevent them from leaving until nothing is left over? (Leviticus 7:11-15)
Who’s inspects the men at your church to make sure they haven’t trimmed their sideburns or beard improperly? (Leviticus 19:27)
I know many football players of all ages and levels adhere to the teachings in the Bible, but most of them don’t wear gloves and touch the ball with their bare hands, has your pastor preached against this practice recently? (Leviticus 11:8)
For that matter, have you eliminated pulled pork, ham and most of all, bacon from your diet? (same verse)
I’ve heard that homosexuality is an “abomination”, but so is shrimp scampi, lobster and clam chowder. (Leviticus 11:10) Do I really have to give up my favorite foods?
Is there a women’s group at your church that makes head coverings for all the women of the church, or is each woman expected to supply their own? (1 Corinthians 11:5)
Who at your church is responsible to stop a woman from praying if her head isn’t covered, or can just anyone stop her? (1 Corinthians 11:13)
And if she speaks at all during church, do you remove her from the room or just tell her to be quiet? (1 Corinthians 14:34)

When we run out of reasons to condemn, that leaves room for compassion, and love—something Jesus displayed an endless supply of.

Granted, I know some (hopefully all) of the above may seem a bit silly, but those verses are in the very same Bible (and in some cases the same book and chapter) as the verse used to condemn Christians who are transgender. What makes these verses of so little importance that we completely ignore them, or we rationalize them saying it was a “cultural thing” or “that was Old Testament Law we don’t have to follow”, yet with unwavering assuredness take literally the one verse to place judgement on someone we consider to be sinning?

I struggle when people call being transgender a sin, as I’m not aware of any other condition one is born with that today is considered a sin. At one time, people born left-handed were considered to be sinning just by being left-handed, but for the most part the Church has grown past what would now be considered a foolish notion, even though we still don’t know why some people are naturally left-handed.

I also know that there are many Christians who would consider being transgender a sin, without any real scriptural reference to support it (which is understandable because there isn’t). It just seems weird, must be something like homosexuality, and that word is in the Bible and therefore must be a sin, right? Some grasp at “God created them male and female” and then extrapolate from that since we were created as male and female, that the perfection in which God first created man and woman must still exist to this day—which any Christian understands is not the case, we don’t live in perfection any longer, yet somehow that slice of perfection must have remained to this day.

When we run out of reasons to condemn, that leaves room for compassion, and love—something Jesus displayed an endless supply of.

You may very well be wrong when it comes to telling people who are transgender that they are sinning by being so, but you’ll NEVER be wrong if you show compassion and love toward them, and leave the rest up to the Lord.

– Blessings

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