It is always a tragedy when anybody takes their own life, doubly so when they are so young. This week Leelah Alcorn took her own life. In her note, she mentioned various reasons for her course of actions, from not thinking she would be able to pass as female to the lack of acceptance from her family. In her suicide letter, she stated that she had come out to her mother, and her mom’s response was that “God doesn’t make mistakes.”
God doesn’t make mistakes.
Out of the whole situation, which leaves a lot to digest, this one statement has been rattling around my brain ever since the public outcry to end reparative therapy began. This statement is at the core of why so many right winged, conservative Christians are at odds with the transgender community.
There is a view amongst some Christians that being transgender is an affront to God’s design and an outward sign of rebellion. The purported argument goes if you were born male that is the way God intended you to be. Since “God doesn’t make mistakes,” living as anything other than male is an abomination worthy of scorn, admonition, isolation, or worse.
God doesn’t make mistakes.
It is not only right-wing Christians that hold onto the belief that being transgender means that there is something wrong with a person. Transgender identity has been labeled as a mental disorder, a birth defect, an abnormality and a variance. Boiling it all down, it all equals the same message: if you are transgender that must mean there is something wrong with you.
It is thinking like this that makes transgender people an outcast class of citizens. It is thinking like this that makes it okay to minimalize a transgender person and to make them the subject of ridicule and attack. The notion that transgender people are somehow defective leads to bigotry, discrimination and other forms of nastiness.
The conservative Christian argument is that God doesn’t make mistakes, and with that statement I totally agree. God doesn’t make mistakes; He is omnipotent and omnipresent; He created all things, and by His divine will all things continue to operate the way that they should. He holds the bonds of the universe together.
God doesn’t make mistakes.
It is the opinion of some conservative Christians that transgender individuals must answer for their so called “abomination.” The church does not ask anyone to answer for being born blonde-haired or brown eyed. Nor does the church ask anyone to answer for being left handed. So why do they make that a condition for the person who is born transgender to be accepted?
In fact, being transgender does not mean that I was born in the wrong body. Being transgender means that God has placed me in the body that looks like one gender while I identify as being another. It is neither right nor wrong that I am a female in a male body, as much as it is neither right nor wrong that I am six foot tall and left handed. These things just are.
It might be a hard truth for some Christians to swallow, but God in fact made people who are transsexual.
The amount of data leaves no doubt that transgender people are well aware of their situation even before the concept of sexual orientation enters the mix. When a Christian says that being transgender is a sin or an abomination, they are really trying to tell God that He made a mistake and that flies in the face of all that they say they believe. For those who question why God would make a person transgender, He has already answered them in his word.
Let’s look at Job 38:2, “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?”
Isn’t that what the church is doing? If we are honest, we should admit that we do not have the capacity to understand how or why God works. Nor should we try to speak for God when we can never have a complete understanding of how He operates. In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
It is common for people to question why and to act out of their own frame of reference. We want things to operate in ways that we understand and process. The problem is that we are not omnipotent, we do not have all knowledge, and we operate more out of assumption than we do on fact. Though I would like to understand why I was born transgender, why God would put me in one vessel instead of another, it is likely that I will never understand until I am in His presence. It is a human failing to operate under our own limited understanding and oft times that leads us astray. God made me transgender for a reason, it is when I try to fight against my own nature when I leave the path that he had laid out for me. Likewise, good meaning people want transgender people to conform to their assumption of what God intended for their lives. Since some cannot comprehend what being transgender is, they have a hard time accepting that it is ordained by God. Instead of aiding transgender people along life’s journey, some try to deter them down a path that the Lord never intended them to travel.
Since we do not understand why God made a person transgender, who are we to question?
God doesn’t make mistakes.
God made me transgender; that is the way that it is. He did not make a mistake, for it was in His plans that I am who I am. Psalm 139:13-14 still hold true:
“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.”
Author's notes: This is my debut article as a blogger. You can find the blog here http://www.believeoutloud.com/latest/god-made-me-transgender... All support is appreciated.
Comments
He doesn't make mistakes so to speak.
Please bear with me here K.T as I don't mean to offend you or anyone else and it's hard for me to put this into words what I want to say. So I apologize in advance if this comes out wrong an sounding bigoted as thats not my intention at all.
God doesn't make mistakes per say,I think he puts women who should be men an men who should be women in the wrong gender bodies for a reason so they can help fight the stereotype an help pave the way. I know that sounds harsh but it's what I PERSONALLY think. If you look back in the bible mainly the old testament it talks about the struggles people went through yes they where hard but when they conquered there struggles they felt genuinely rewarded. I'm quite sure it's not easy for folks trying to transition theres so many things that can cause stumbling or road blocks. But when they overcome them they feel there where genuinely rewarded.
Prime example your god bless the child series(which btw one of my favs so big thanks to you for that) look at the struggles young jenny has to go through in not only her early years then her preteen years and then finally in her late teens. But she prevailed and got through them and her reward was great and she knew of the struggle she had to go through to get those rewards. So thats why I Personally think God puts women who should be men an men who should be women in the wrong bodies. Call me crazy but thats just how I feel.
If that's the case
What about Gender queer, Agender, Bi-gender, Gender fluid? Also be careful with the "it's the struggle God gave you" argument. Conservatives will just turn it around that yes you're right, the struggle is to stay presenting as a Cisgender. Because that obviously would be hard. Trust me, I've had more than a few words with a couple of Rightwingers >.>
Also, Assigned male at birth AMAB, and Assigned female at birth AFAB, is much more inclusive and respectful for non-cisgendered peoples. I'd encourage the use of them, they give the power back to the inviduals :D
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
Nicely said!
One mistake that Christians often make is thinking that transgenderism is just an extreme form of being gay, which it is not. Another com mistake they make is that God is against anything or anyone that violates the current concept of a gender binary and that there is nothing written in the bible about trans people. However, if anyone with even a small measure of an open mind takes a look, the bible has quit a lot to say about transgender people and it all positive and supportive. The thing is that back in biblical times the word transgender didn't exist. the word used in the bible was eunuch. there is a long history of existence of eunuchs that is directly connected to the transgender people of today. The Hijra, or eunuchs of India and Pakistan are proof of this historic connection. in Matthew 19:12 Jesus describes 3 types of eunuchs. First there are eunuchs who are born eunuchs. This can only be intersex people. Second are eunuchs who are made eunuchs by man. This certainly would include the majority of transgender people. The third type of eunuch, eunuchs who choose to be eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of god, has been the topic of much debate throughout the history of the church.
In Isaiah 56:3-5 God promises a place in heaven to any eunuch who keeps the sabbath and his covenants. In Acts 8:26-40 the very first documented conversion of a non-Jew to Christianity was a eunuch. Contrary to common belief, most eunuchs were not slaves who guarded harems. Most were in fact highly educated and served as scribes and high ranking government ministers in many governments as the eunuch in the story in Acts was.
It really saddens me that that so many Christians today don't really read their bibles for themselves, but rather only cherry pick those passages which only fit into to the narrow and limited boxes that the dogma of their churches and ministers tell them to follow.
True
Not that there is anything wrong with homosexuality in either case :D
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
That statement is a challenge
That statement is a challenge. The speaker is challenging us to claim that God makes mistakes.
But still, if you want to use that to prove that being transgendered is somehow a moral failing, you are also in the unfortunate position of calling everyone with ADD, autism, asperger's, and every other challenging condition a moral failure.
If one really wants to make a theological argument, one can point out that we have lived in a fallen world ever since Adam and Eve too a bit out of the fruit.
We can even go on the attack and rebuke the bigot for looking on the outside.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
(Feel free to use any of those ideas in your blog.)
Interesting Points
Thank you for your thoughts on this matter. I have been toying with a new story around this concept for a couple of years... just can't find a good conclusion to it or it would be out there.
I have found all your points very intriguing and pretty much agree with them all on some level, as well as the clarifying thoughts in the comments.
Life is a “burden” for everyone, in one way or another. I like to think that God has saddled everyone with a burden to carry which will help to shape their characters. After all it is what we do with our challenges which make us who we are. I think that God is more interested in what we do with our burdens than with what our burdens are.
I am a very religious person and am particularly fond of Matthew 22:37-40. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
I have come to the conclusion that pretty much everyone has trouble with these two commandments and the differences we all have may be there to challenge us to prove that we either have or have not attained this state. The religious right certainly may have some issues in this area, but then again, so do a lot of us. You don’t have to agree with someone to love them and recognize their value before God and the world. And they don’t need to love you for you to love them.
Anyway, I for one appreciate the fact that some people out there love me enough to try persuade me that they are right but allow me to make my own choices without bitterness and angst when my choices don’t match up with their beliefs. I hope that we can do the same, regardless of the behavior of those that don’t understand our “burdens” or our choices.
Tiff Q
If God has Any Power In Shaping
Fetus' in the womb, then it is reasonable that how TG/TSs are made as well as other intersex conditions and cleft pallets and other wounds to the unborn are G*d's intention not any mistake.
But I find the concept that G*d is all powerful, all knowing and IS love is as hard for me to take as a statement that everything written in the bible is completely factual. Both are absolutes. I don't know why genocidal massacres occur or why the Indian Ocean tidal wave killed 250,000 people. I think that either G*d is not all powerful, (like E set up the rules of nature and might sometimes tweak things, but generally lets the laws of nature ride and doesn't interfere). Or G*d is all powerful, but doesn't care that much about people, who gets born and who dies in the womb, who gets killed in combat and who doesn't get a scratch. This is not like G*d will separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats. Instead, who dies or suffers horribly does not seem to be related to how good or bad the individual is.
A rabbi wrote a book about this subject called 'Why bad things happen to good people'; I think there was a conclusion that G*d was not all powerful, but I don't remember details.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Renee
You have hit the main question that has been burdening people for a very long time. In fact, the book of Job attempts to answer that question.
In my half a century on this Earth, I have come up with a few points.
The first is that, ever since Adam and Eve took a bite of the fruit, we have been living in a fallen world. God may be able to make everything perfect for us again, but he hasn't done it -- yet.
Another point is that he is bending over backwards to allow us our free will.
He could make everything perfect by controlling everything -- including us.
But, he isn't looking for slaves. He is looking for companions. He built this universe, and he wants to share it with the children that he has breathed his life into -- children with free will, not puppets.
Thirdly, the time we spend on Earth is minuscule.
They used to swat a baby in the behind just after birth. That's a heck of a way to start life. Still, the pain is brief compared to the life that is ahead of this little human. Similarly, our hundred or so years on Earth is pretty tiny compared to eternity.
Still, when I saw the picture of that little girl that was dying of hunger -- the one with the vulture waiting -- I couldn't help but ask God. "WHY?"
The thought that came through my mind is, "She's in my arms."
So, that little kid that I felt so much pity for is right now in better shape than any of us.
The fact that we can't see beyond the veil shapes our thoughts and attitudes more than we know.
Actually, there's a quite
Actually, there's a quite short and succinct reply to these idiots.
Birth defects.
Either God doesn't want those corrected either, or God has plans that include letting humans change their bodies in ways that depend on what the people involved think is right.
Maybe some of those changes are a sin. But since He didn't tell us one way or the other, we'll have to make up our own minds.
For extra "fun", ask these idiots about intersex people. That makes it pretty obvious that the gender and sex binaries are a purely human invention.
Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks
I think the misconception is more fundamental then that.
Ignoring the topic of Transgender to start off.
Does God make mistakes?
This falls in to a debate of "free will", "predestiny", "the test of life" & "Gods hidden plans". The basic argument, premise presented by the use of statement "God Doesn't Make Mistakes" is the assumption that all natural occurrence (like the way we are born) are individually predestined and decided upon by God. I will not debate that point here, but will assume it as given for the rest of this argument.
The next assumption is that this means that this means we(humans) should not change or "fix" such occurrences, that this is the way God made it and it is wrong to change it.
Now back to question of transgendered. The problem is that people apply the above assumptions unevenly and to fit their own prejudices. People are born with many different "overall medical & physical conditions" (using this phrase in the most general way(eye color thru malformations etc.)) Some basic things are almost completely ignored in our modern world, No one things anything of changing your hair color, no one say "But God made you brown hair it is a sin to change it!". Very few object to fixing a cleft palate or many other disfiguring or debilitating conditions. yet at the same time many people use these arguments to say it is wrong to change or fix someones gender(at least if there is no physical ambiguity)*.
* Strangely the do not fix attitude is not always applied by the same people to making an intersexed individual one physical gender or the other.(note: this can be a whole other topic)
Why does this apply to gender and not other "in born" conditions whether obvious at birth or not? Is it a sin to fix a "cleft palate"(a popular example), a "heart defect", or many other problems some only cosmetic others health issues. If this standard is applied it should apply evenly to all changes made to Gods creation, from "hair color" through "heart conditions" and everything in between or off to the side. If it is however part of Gods plan that we can change such things to make our lives better then that also should be applied evenly. To apply it to some things but not others is simply hypocritical and catering to their own prejudices.
The basic argument is invalid unless it is applied evenly.
And therefore actually a meaningless statement by most who use it.
For those few who would say we should change nothing I would still disagree.
(But that also is a whole other topic)
Personally, I believe God meant us overcome what we can the best that we can in our lives with whatever we can, yet accepting what we can not, whether He/She predestined our individual tests or not. It is not for other to say "your are Not Allowed"!
Follow your heart!
~Hypatia >i< ..:::
PS. Please forgive my possible over use of brackets and quotes etc. for emphasis.
Seems to Me...
…that your nay-sayers would have little difficulty explaining that the decision to change sex falls into a fundamental category different from the other items you mentioned. The Bible, after all, says "male and female He created them…" (Gen. 1.27) -- nothing there about "brown and blond-haired" or "with and without a cleft palate." Further, SRS would interfere with the directive to all God's creatures to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen. 1.22), in a way that hair color or physical deformity doesn't.
(Intersex, as you note, would be a whole different issue.)
Eric
But...
... Those are different arguments, not that they don't have more then one. Then again I suppose they wont mind mixing their arguments. And a straight logical attack against the one statement would mean anything to them anyway.
I seem to remember something about not staining your finger tips.
"Down with nail polish"
The Bible says a lot of things.
People seem to pick and choose at times.
>i<