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ckroboth's last blog post...Identity as Innocent Children
When you link mother to woman are you/we revealing a learned gender prejudice? Would a transgender individual consider mother to be a role rather than a gender? I'll be check back to see what the thoughts are on this one.
Ric's last blog post...Wedding Bells II
jon's last blog post...rockin the kiddie pool!!!
On a serious note, I was checked out by a transgendered once. Let me rephrase that: I was at a Safeway (grocery store) and my checker was a transgendered male-to-female. I admit to having been uneasy about it at first, but it actually shouldn't have been all-too-weird. I decided to look beyond the facade and just treated 'her' as a human being.
Iman's last blog post...Defining Success
"When you link mother to woman are you/we revealing a learned gender prejudice? Would a transgender individual consider mother to be a role rather than a gender?"
I am not sure I would say I am "gender prejudice" to believe a person born physically a woman or a man is just that. I do understand that so much more can play into the transgender's than just "he has a penis". This is some of what I am trying to understand.
In the case of this specific person though, they not only wanted to "mother" a child, but they wanted to physically birth this child as only a woman could. This tells me this specific person wants to be both man and woman. The ultimate being :)
Jon, there is no doubt in my mind that anyone, transgender or not, needs to be treated as a human, valuable and important.
Iman, I don't know this person's whole mind set, so maybe they are really happy...not sure. But I am sure there is much emotional and mental turmoil to go through a life like this, whatever that looks like.
I think your comment is interesting though...that Thomas is in his mind a man...but wants to mother his child. You can't be both....can you??
blessed1's last blog post...So far it’s been a blast…
If this is truly his intent, I have issue with it. It goes right along with this selfish, "want it all" attitude in our world. It sickens me. It also completely takes God out of the picture and puts all control :seemingly) into the hands of this person.
It is the same thought process of why so many people think they were born gay or lesbian as well. The biblical view is that God's intent for every male is to grow into masculinity, and for every female to grow into femininity. When that doesn't happen, the culture has come up with new labels to describe something new and different: transgender, transsexual. I don’t think God is affected by these new labels nor does He have to honor them: He sees the people behind the labels as His precious, broken children. The Bible tells me (Gen 1:26) that God's intent is heterosexuality, with definite boundaries between men and women in both appearance and behavior.
IMO, God views every individual as He made them. While He did not make clones, he did create males and females with certain unique sexual characteristics. He also intended for males to have primarily masculine characteristics, and for females to have primarily feminine characteristics. He has also provided direction on how we are to relate to one another. There is no prohibition regarding a slightly more "masculine" female or a slightly more "feminine" man. God views them as he does anyone else, with love and delight, and He desires that they experience all the freedom He designed them to have, within the boundaries of the sexual identity God gave to them. Even those born with genital ambiguity are expected to submit to His boundaries. I know that sounds harsh, and I may be getting off topic, but I’m not really sure how else to say it. I also realize this is a very politically incorrect perspective in a sex-saturated culture that declares sexual expression is a right for everyone. But it isn't. God wants every person, regardless of their genital or chromosomal condition, to submit his or her sexuality to Him and to glorify Him in whatever state we find ourselves. Sorry this is so long…but I’ve been following this as well, and hopefully I made some sense….
Debs's last blog post...Allow me to gush a bit….
This whole situation brings to mind the EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT F.X. television series: Black/White in which an African-American Family and a White family were put in the same house and each were made up by professional makeup artists to appear the race of the other. It was the same for the black family as it was for the white. On the outside, they appeared different, but their outlooks and cultural identities stayed the same, even if they were impacted emotionally and idealistically by their time spent as a member of the "others."
Being a man or a woman is more than just looking the part. At it's deepest core, it's genetics... period. No amount of tinkering around with your body parts will change your DNA. It's like saying that you don't want to be a human, that you want to be a cat. That's all well and good to say, but no amount of tinkering will make you a cat. Maybe all this sounds ignorant, but it all just seems so obvious. Am I just hopelessly dunder-headed or what? Please let me know.
Ben's last blog post...Revelation Song: An Exercise in Dynamics
Ben, thanks for stopping by! I saw some of that series. It was very interesting. it also made me really uncomfortable at times, which was probably good. You've hit the scientific reality of us as humans...genetics. I do understand that everyone is born with different x y configurations, but this doesn't seem to be a determining factor in the decision of some transgender's. Which again, would cause me to believe they just "want" something else.
You also hit it on the head, that no amount of "tinkering" can change the genetic fact. You and Deb have spoken to the emotional or mental issues in all this. I am leaning towards that being much more a factor than hormones in the process of a transgender person.
Maybe someone can tell me differently?
alex mclean's last blog post...Macy Update 7.7.08
I too appreciated and agreed wholeheartedly with the Guinness comment...
does this mean that i can pee on fire hydrants now? :)
James McLean's last blog post...The Whiteboard Sessions: Mark Batterson
She/He is human, regaurdless of anything else we must love him as followers of Christ. God will be his Judge, God will deal with the rest.
Side note that speaks to this situation:
We had a great sermon at Church a couple weeks ago about Judging... Watch it here. Give it a second to load. http://secc.lightcastmedia.com/console.php?u=30...
Basically we are to not Judge those who are not followers of Christ, but we are can not tolerate sin with in the followers of Christ.
ckroboth's last blog post...Identity as Innocent Children
Carl, I'll take some time tomorrow to listen through to that. I agree with you. It's hard for us to love sometimes, cause we just don't understand. that shouldn't be an excuse though.
Kristen's last blog post..."The Shack"
Also, my opinion is the same as Kristen's....it's NOT a man that was pregnant. It was woman. It annoyed me that they blew it up like some amazing medical feat....that a MAN was pregnant.
Also, I feel very sorry for the baby. Think about what this little girl is going to have to wrap her brain around when she is older. That her "daddy" was her "mommy" and that she didn't grow in her mommy's belly but her daddy's belly instead. I mean GEEZE that confuses even me and I've followd this story from the beginning.
Like you B, I don't like the idea that this person wants to be a man, but ALSO wants to fulfill what God created him/her/he/she to do in the first place. You can't have it both ways.
It's very sad. And like it was stated before....the emotional aspect to this is HUGE. HUGE.
Brandy's last blog post...Pictures!!
Christian's last blog post...God Hates You
Brandy, I am curious, since this person was taking male hormones, if that will have any affect on the baby? Could a "man's" physical make up be damaging to child birth?
C, Guinness helps produce breast milk? That's actually quite interesting :)
Michelle's last blog post...A Simple Vacation
Michelle's last blog post...A Simple Vacation
This is what Paul had to say to the church in Corinth... http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%2...
Here is his conclusion....
1 Cor5:12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."[b]
This goes for every person who is part of Christ's church who are living in any type of sin, not just sexual sin.
In other words if they claim to be followers of Christ they should know there actions are sin and repent from it.
But, I would have to agree with Carl here on the standards of church. The definition of church needs to be established as well. Many churches are both evangelistic in nature as well as more discipleship focused. that isn't the discussion here necessarily, but I see people in different roles on both those environments.
"The Church" is the body of believers. not a building or services or programs. "The Church" is held to a standard and to be a part of it, we are to be held accountable byt God's Word.
Brandy's last blog post...Pictures!!
While Thomas was on Oprah, he said that he's having to receive MORE meds to keep his body from rejecting the pregnancy because of all the male hormone he had taken (he stopped taking them while pregnant).
He also claimed that after the show they would be moving their business (t-shirt designs) out of Bend into Portland which they believed would be more accepting.
Mandy's last blog post...Writers Blog (ck)
This is a hypothetical..
Much like Mandy said we use drugs to cover and mask pain...
Maybe something horrific happened to her(this person is female no matter the drugs or surgeries) when she was younger that she was made to feel guilty for. This made her start to resent her femininity. In her hurt and anger, she saw sexual reassignment as a way to mask her anger and hurt towards her true female identity.
ckroboth's last blog post...Identity as Innocent Children
Mandy,
"He also claimed that after the show they would be moving their business (t-shirt designs) out of Bend into Portland which they believed would be more accepting."
"We have become dependant on suppressing feelings & emotions, rather than experiencing."
Whatever pain this person is going through, they are doing everything to run from it and suppress it. Very good thoughts Mandy. Definitely things we all need to think about.
Carl, I believe very strongly that in this situation, this to some extent has taken place. It is either a terrible past or a huge arrogance, that has led this person to make these decisions.
ckroboth's last blog post...Identity as Innocent Children
darla's last blog post...Walking Partners
This person was not born with confused genitalia, if that is the question, Brent. This was something she/he chose later. I was glad to see Carl's response. After finding out and discussing the situation for more clarification, he decided to leave the church knowing our biblical stand (1 Cor. 5). We let him know if he ever wanted to talk further we would never turn him away. It was one of the most confusing situations we've ever come across. Even now, years later, it tears at my heart and I cannot give many details - I feel it would be a betrayal of sorts.
Michelle's last blog post...A Simple Vacation
Let me clarify something as well. I think the process of dealing with this person would have been different if they were born into this situation verses making the decision down the road. But, I think the outcome may have been the same though.
Michelle's last blog post...A Simple Vacation
Ok...two...and why won't the discussion show up in my comments in my dashboard?
Michelle's last blog post...A Simple Vacation
It may not be showing up for the same reason you aren't seeing this discussion in your dashboard. I am self hosted now and not a part of wordpress anymore. So, this blog won't show up on the wordpress dashboard. also, your wordpress avatar won't work over here.
You can do 2 things to change that...
#1 Sign up with gravatar.com it stores your avatar with your email address, so every time you sing in somewhere to leave a comment, your avatar will show up no matter what the site is.
#2 Make sure you select the box next to "Notify me of followup comments via e-mail"underneath the comment box. This will send an email to you whenever someone responds to the post, so you can foloow along.
hope that helps.
Now...
I think as times keep changing, the church will be faced with new questions and tough decisions. I was reading Dan Kimball's blog the other day and someone had asked hi this question,
I think I know how I would answer, but I am pretty certain the church didn't have to think thing like this through 20 years ago.
as ties continue to change, I think the church will have to address many things it never has before. I thought
I think the question asked at Dan Kimball's blog is bogus. Not to be too hard nosed :roll: but the first century church did have this situation in Corinth. Nothing new under the sun, right? Sure, maybe not 20 years ago, but around 2000 years ago homosexuality was quite prevalent in the Roman empire.
I think most of our questions can be answered scripturally.
Michelle's last blog post...A Simple Vacation
Michelle's last blog post...Boot Camp
Mandy's last blog post...You thought what?
Mandy's last blog post...You thought what?