Thursday, January 22, 2015


  Some months ago, one of my sons asked me to comment on a video about transgendered people and give my opinion. I just ran across what I wrote, and although I don't like getting embroiled in this issue, I feel pretty good about what I wrote. 

  I'm encouraged to see good and Godly men wrestling with this confusing issue. The answers to it are still beyond me regarding Biblical direction. The part that is clear to me, as I walk the Christian life, is that sympathy and love are not removed when it comes to homosexuals, transgendered or any group of people that find themselves outside the norm. How to bless people with love is easy, how to defend my feelings and actions toward them Biblically is not so easy. When I try and understand the issue I am harassed with what seems to be a natural revulsion to the sexual acts themselves. I recoil when I see two men kiss and the thought of another man's hairy leg rubbing against mine also causes me to recoil. Is that cultural? Is it a "natural" emotion? I don't know, the only thing I do know is I cannot allow those feelings to produce in me a dislike for those that desire it. These feelings of sympathy are stoked by the hatred I see displayed by some and that is so clear it needs no description or defense. Hate is hate and it cannot reside in the breast of a Christian in my opinion. How to completely justify that position scripturally is somewhat more difficult and I must leave it to wiser men than I. 
How others take their stand is beyond my influence, but to be sure, I will not allow them to infect me with bigoted mindsets. 
  When I watched that video of the little transgendered girl I had no confusion about how I felt towards her - delighted, charmed, affectionate and drawn to her. Now, as she migrates through adolescence and is faced with human sexuality, and desire and fulfillment; that will be a confusing stage for her in our culture as it is now. And maybe it will always be one of those extreme cases that beg for answers. But my behavior towards her or others is clear to me and not confusing at all.

  I thought his points about exclusion and offering no option for gays was his strongest point. There must always be a place for everyone where they can grow and thrive in acceptance, in security and love. Currently the places of refuge are few and far between, this would not be so with Christ in my opinion because I care and feel compassion and I know that is from God. 
So, fight the good fight and if you err on the side of compassion I think it will be eternally easier to live with. 
I wish I had better answers and his essay is certainly written in a Christ like spirit which far surpasses the best of opposing arguments I've heard, at least in spirit. 

I cannot dismiss the many times I saw men in Teen Challenge that were so overcome by nearly every form of evil, that lived lives so inconsistent with scripture, that bowed before Christ's altar one week and the altar of total depravity the next, I left with no hope only to see Christ draw them back, unfailingly, continually and some, became true men of God and are serving Him faithfully today. Will they relapse? one said to me, "life is a series of relapses." Maybe that's so, but there is no relapse in the compassion of Christ, not that I've seen in my 40 plus years as a Christian.   

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