Why Do I Not Give Personal Details?
The nature of what I do, who I want to reach makes it a little complicated at this point in time. Primarily because a big part of what I feel called to do is help provide a way for what would be called “conservative evangelical” churches to be able to open up their hearts for Christians who are transgender. Well – I GO to a church like this and I LOVE it. My Pastor knows who I am and he knows my heart. At the same time, he has a large church to shepherd and navigate through these difficult waters. This is NOT an easy job. My heart goes out to him. I’m sure there are many who not knowing me would have an issue with me being a member of the church.
Christians who are transgender will find me easily enough online if they’re looking for help. But I have friends on Facebook from my church who don’t know about my history. To talk about it there would be potentially lighting the fuse to have something blow up at my church. That’s not what I want and that’s not what my Pastor wants nor needs. So I keep a very distinct “firewall” between what I post here and what my friends see on Facebook. There are those in the LGBT community who would try to intimidate the church into changing. That’s not love and that’s not Christ. I DO believe that the conservative evangelical church can not only welcome but embrace their transgender brothers and sisters in time, but to try to force it displays a total lack of understanding and concern for the very brothers and sisters they are trying to reach.
Having God’s truth filtered via a millennia of personal beliefs from the minds of humans can take a while to change. Christians have learned over time (beyond what the Bible says) that what makes us uncomfortable must be a sin. Well, the Bible doesn’t care about our personal discomfort. A change within the Church may not happen in my generation or during my lifetime, but I do believe that there will come a time when the Church will be faced with the fact that there is no Biblical reason to think someone who is transgender has no place in the family of God.
IF the time ever comes (within my own circle), then one day I’ll be very open about what church I go to. My life, what God has called me to do is a work in progress. You are seeing it unfold as you read this. For now, both my Pastor and I have to figure all this out. This is new for both of us. He has his ministry and so do I. While he works on his I will work on mine. We love each other and appreciate each other – and neither one of us wants to make life difficult for the other. It’s a learning process and we’re both going through it.
In the mean time, let’s praise God for being God. He loves EACH of us and wants only the best for us. Our job is to love each other no matter how we feel – we’ll figure out the rest as we go.