So last night America and the world was treated to the “news” that Bruce Jenner is now not only a woman, but also a Republican and a Christian.
And by now there are tens and perhaps hundreds of millions of professing Christians in America and across the globe shaking their head and rolling their eyes at the news that Bruce Jenner imagines that, by mutilating his genitals, pumping hormones into his system, and wearing women’s clothes, he is now actually “a woman”. While the head shaking, eye rolling and such are understandable on many levels, many of those doing the shaking and the rolling really do not have a consistent basis upon which they can criticize Jenner. (See: Why Bruce Jenner is not “transitioning into a woman” and secular conservatism is not “transitioning into Christianity”.)
After all, he’s only doing what his emotions and feelings tell him is right.
He’s only doing what he believes God wants him to do. And how does he know what God wants him to do? By how he feels and what his emotions tell him is “right”, that’s how.
You know, just like most professing Christians
The reason we have a Western culture in which emotions and feelings rule the day this way is because the professing Christian church has led us here.
Most of the outrage coming from American “Christians” is based first on their feelings about Jenner’s “transition”.
Only when their feeling are engaged are they then willing and interested in finding and citing Scripture to support their emotion-driven worldview. If their feelings and emotions are more affirming of the standard secular way of handling other subjects – like, say, education, economics, business, patriotism, and the like – then they have little appetite, much less zeal, to seek out, much less apply, anything in Scripture on those subjects, no matter how clearly God has spoken on them in His Word. (See: Openly reject God’s First Commandment? YES! WE! CAN!)
And make no mistake: God has spoken just as clearly on those subjects as He has on the subjects of gender and sexuality. You’d just never know it from the way most “conservative Christian” churches handle truth, that’s all.
But with Bruce, it’s easy – and even fun! – to get all offended and “shocked” at “the horror” of it all, while asking idiotic questions like, “How can this be happening in America?”
A much better and not at all idiotic question to ask is: How could this not be happening in a culture driven by subjective emotions, feelings and traditions?
What did we expect?
If subjective emotions, traditions, and feelings are enough to form our views on pretty much everything but gender and sexuality, then why not gender and sexuality, too?
Really; why not!?
If God has spoken with every bit as much crystal clarity on the subjects of civil government, law, economics, business and education as he has on sexuality and gender, then why do we expect that Republican Christian woman Bruce Jenner should be any more constrained to Scripture’s definitions of sexuality than the rest of us “Christians” are willing to be constrained to God’s Word on civil government, law, economics, education or anything else?
See the problem?
Do you see how Jenner’s claim to now be a Republican Christian woman isn’t really all that crazy or wrong at all…when applying the subjective, emotion- and feelings-based standards of most modern American “Christians”?
So when Jenner says, as he did last night that, ““This is why God put me on this earth…to deal with this issue”, he is right.
He is here to do just that. He is here to show us not only what he imagines himself to have become, but to also show us what “American Christianity” has inspired him to become. (See: Beware the “Gospel in a Bottle”.)
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Hi Scott, I linked this article in my posting for Independence Day today. I've been preaching or years against emotions, feelings and decision making. They don't mix. It's all been a part of effeminizing the culture for decades. You know, Freud showed up and demons disappeared, is there a correlation?
God created male and female. He did not create gay, or transvestite, or transgender. These were caused by the downfall of mankind that began with Adam and Eve's sin, and we are paying the price for that pride, that pride that said, "I will be like God." God gave us two genders, not three or four. Mankind, in its attempt to show God it does not need Him, has brought this wickedness upon themselves….and it gets worse, and worse, and worse with time. You can call yourself whatever you want, but just as standing in a garage doesn't make you a car, having gender reassignment surgery does not change your gender and being "gay" doesn't make your sex sin right. God doesn't make mistakes. He creates us all just the way He wants us. Our confusion and rebellion and attempt to take His place is nothing but pride, and sin, and arrogance. God forgive us for letting this evil pervade our churches and even, in some forms, endorsing it! It says in Your Word that in the end times even the elect will be deceived….I pray, God, my eyes will remain open to the truth of Your Word and that my heart and life will remain dedicated and true to You. The line in the sand becomes more clear with every day, and those standing on one side or the other will become more and more clearly defined. God, precious God, give me the strength through my time with You and our relationship, to stand on the side for goodness, righteousness, holiness, and the right, so that I may not sin against you!! May my life inspire others to live a life of holiness and transparency in this world, not hiding behind fear or compromise. I love You, Lord.
I was hoping for some Biblical commentary. Jesus talks about some people who alter their genitals/gonads in order to change their legal sex from male to eunuch for the sake of the Kingdom. Given that, and the blessings God offers to faithful eunuchs (Isaiah 56) and barren women (Isaiah 54), I don't see a blanket condemnation of Jenner's behavior.
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
~ 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." ~ Romans 1:18-27
Thank you, Scott , for the verses, but I don't think they apply.
What you may have missed is that a male-to-female transsexual changes sex in the eyes of God's law. One wouldn't accuse a woman of being effeminate.
A woman with the complete form of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome would have female-typical genitals but testes in her abdomen rather than ovaries and uterus. Although she's biologically intersex, the Bible would consider her a barren woman–female and free to marry.
A person with a severe form of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia might be born with masculine, but ambiguous genitals. Even though they might have XX chromosomes, ovaries, and a uterus, the Bible would classify them as a eunuch.
A male who is surgically altered to become a eunuch changes legal sex in the eyes of God's law. (See Deut 23:1) The rules change.
Biological sex is a complex set of parameters. The Bible maps biological sex into male, female, and eunuch, largely based on genital shape. And legal sex follows changes in genital shape, at least for the eunuch.
Now, I agree that none of this may be meant to apply to a transsexual. But to issue a blanket condemnation goes a bit too far. Especially considering that Jesus says that some males choose to (via surgical changes) become eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom. (Matthew 19:12)
If a male-to-female transsexual has changed with sex in the eyes of God's law, then they wouldn't be considered effeminate. Nor would they be homosexual for being attracted to men.
Oh, those passages (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Romans 1:18-27) most certainly apply here, Lianne, and to propose that Deuteronomy 23:1 advocates the position that "a male who is surgically altered to become a eunuch changes legal sex in the eyes of God's law" is just the sort of nonsensical, linguistically laughable "interpretation" of Scripture that one might expect to come in conjunction with an attempted defense of the biblically indefensible.
(Here's the verse in question for those who are wondering: “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD.")
Your approach validates Romans 1 on even more levels that I had originally intended, as you are here demonstrating the kind of desperate Scripture denial/distortion that goes hand in hand with the "debased mind" described in Romans 1:28:
"And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done."
Name calling is neither helpful nor just. I'm not denying nor distorting Scripture.
“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD."
The meaning is fairly plain. A eunuch isn't allowed in the assembly. Since a male is, this establishes a legal distinction between a male and a eunuch.
If a male has his testicles crushed or his male organ cut off, he's no longer allowed in the assembly.
So how is it desperate or debased to point out that male and eunuch aren't the same legal category? And that such a category is based on sexual characteristics (i.e. gonads/genitals)?
How do you interpret this passage?
I didn't call anyone any names. I critiqued your very-worthy-of-critique approach to/abuse of Scripture.
You proposed that Deuteronomy 23:1 advocates the position that "a male who is surgically altered to become a eunuch changes legal sex in the eyes of God's law". That spin on the passage is linguistically absurd. The meaning of the text as actually written in context clearly has *nothing* to do with someone "changing their legal sex in the eyes of God's law".
Pointing out the absurdity of perverting the Word of God in such a manner as to try to prop up a concept that you are trying to impose upon Scripture – rather than derive from Scripture – is the obligation of all Christians who encounter the willful perversion of the Word of God. The true love of one for God and people in rebellion against Him should motivate all true, supernaturally saved New Creatures in Christ to confront and correct such serious error, thus preserving the coherence and clarity of the Gospel command to repent, believe and be saved from the soon coming wrath of God upon all unrepentant rebels.
What a bunch of B___ S___!!!