As human beings, we are created in the image of God, but at times we don't fully grasp what that means. It doesn't mean we are cloned copies of God, but rather as a Methodist minister I heard once explained it, we are created in the image He envisioned for us; that means, He made us exactly as we are, and therefore we are His special creation. That being established, it is important that we understand that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14) even down to the very details of our existence - He even has a record of the number of hairs on our heads (Luke 12:7). And, as with all His creation, God affirms throughout the Creation narrative in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis that what He made was "good," and in the case of humanity, it was very good (Genesis 1:31). It also says that God made the distinctions between sexes and both were made in His image (Genesis 1:27) with all the distinctions in place from the start. One of the attributes of God is also perfection - in Himself, God is perfect, and therefore He doesn't make mistakes. However, from the start Satan sought to corrupt creation, and while that started in Genesis 3, we see it accelerated in Genesis 6 when fallen angels started messing around with nature (hence, the origin of demonic beings, as many Church Fathers taught), and in doing so Satan sought to defile God's creation to the point that it would destroy itself and thus be stripped of all hope of redemption - however, God had a plan, and that plan culminated in the coming of Jesus Christ. The "Genesis Six Experiment," as some writers call it, was an attempt to go against nature to corrupt what God had created in perfection, and it in recent years has led to the advent of pseudo-scientific movements such as eugenics and transhumanism, which are the subject of a whole other discussion. Related to it however is sexual deviancy, which God has always considered sin and unnatural. The position I take on this in regard to this whole transgender mess is this - if you think you are something else rather than who and what God created you to be, you insult God; it is heretical in that it attempts to contradict the attribute of perfection God has (in short, one who embraces that position says God makes mistakes, even if they don't believe in God personally), as well as also diminishing what it means to be a person created in His image. It also goes against basic genetics, biology, and physics - if you are created as one gender, then changing it may have disastrous consequences. That all being said, it must also be understood that people who struggle with transgender confusion may have a deeper issue that requires healing too, and it is not necessary to beat them over the head about their unnatural desires, but rather to reach out in compassion to such people and hopefully bring them to a place where they can seek healing and restoration.
Here is the thing in dealing with transgender-prone people - we must always do so in love and not in hate or derision. God still loves these people, and Jesus died for them too, and we as members of Christ's Church need to approach them with compassion. It is important to know their whole stories as well, and not jump to conclusions. Transgenderism is a disorder - it is unnatural, and isn't something that is inherent to normal human biology. However, due to the fallen state of the world we live in, the realities of human limitations - sin, sickness, and death - should lead us to reason that the manifestation of a man dressing and acting like a woman must have an underlying cause to it, and it is that cause that must be identified and addressed in a compassionate way which will lead to that person being restored to what God intended them to be. A person struggling with addictions, homosexual tendencies, or transgender confusion may have one or many reasons for this happening to them - it could be psychological, emotional, a chemical imbalance in their physiology, or even in some cases demonic oppression. It is important to understand two things though about this. First, a person struggling with an issue like this must want to address it and do something about it on their own free will. No one can be "beaten into submission" to change, and if we resort to that, it violates the personhood of the targeted individual, and that is not in line with God's plan. Second, it is also important that we get an accurate perception of what is going on - the person struggling with such an issue needs to maybe talk about it with professionals who can help them sort things out, and based on that information, it will be easier to get the "bigger picture" of what such a person is struggling with. Due to the bizarre nature of things such as homosexuality and transgenderism, many of us as Christians are often scared of what is weird to us (and, those behaviors are weird, let's face it!) and it tends to make us draw quick and uninformed judgments about such people and forget that underneath the bizarre behavior and appearances of such individuals is still a person who may be displaying a cry for help. In counseling settings, that would be called "acting out," and often self-destructive behavior of any kind has at its root something else, and that is what needs to be addressed, the root issue. Before we move on, it is also important to clear up a couple of misconceptions about the Judeo-Christian perspective on these issues.
One of the trigger terms of today's society is calling something that disagrees with someone's words or actions "hate speech." Christians, because of our stand for traditional morality, are often unjustly accused of "hate speech" when we differ with the groupthink that "gay is OK" or that someone who has male "tackle" is actually a woman in a man's body. In reality we don't hate anyone, and to be honest we don't even try to dictate our convictions upon others (or at least we shouldn't), but we are stating that based on our convictions, such behavior is not morally right. Homosexual behavior has been around probably since the events in Genesis 3, and there have always been a rare number of people who have engaged in behaviors associated with it. No one is saying they can't, honestly - what the Christian would say however is that choices have consequences, and while anyone is free to do what they want how they want it, in time if that action or choice is wrong, they will have to face the consequences of their actions. That being said, no one is saying that a gay person cannot live their lives, and no true Christian would deny a gay person the right to basic human needs - a gay person can own a house, have a good-paying job, and go about their daily business, and no one disputes that. What Christians do dispute though is when certain militants among the homosexual community and their allies among other progressive/liberal sectors don't return the courtesy to us - the most recent example was the Christian baker who refused to bake a "gay wedding" cake based on his convictions. Did the baker refuse them business? No! And, if the gay couple in question just wanted a plain cake they could decorate themselves, would he have refused to sell it to them? I doubt he would have. And, if the same gay couple came in for a dozen doughnuts or chocolate chip cookies, I doubt seriously that they would have been denied service. Yet, for some reason the poor baker was deemed "hateful" and censured because he refused to make a specific item for the lesbian couple, that's all. It would be the same situation if a neo-Nazi wanted a Jewish tailor to embroider a swastika on a t-shirt, or a Black dry-cleaner was asked by the local Grand Wizard of the KKK to clean his Klucker robes - both the tailor and the dry cleaner would be in the right for refusing service in those instances. Also, if a gay baker were to be asked by a Christian couple to decorate a traditional wedding cake with the phrase "Marriage = One Man + One Woman," I am sure he would have the right to refuse that too (no traditional Christian would do this anyway though). So, if all these people have that right, then why is it only the Christian baker who is punished. A "gay marriage" being catered by a Christian baker is equivalent to a Muslim being asked to cater a pig roast for a party, in other words. And, the gay couple could have just went somewhere else instead of trying to force a private businessman to violate his convictions. It is situations like this which make the subject more a topic of discussions these days.
It is also important to keep in mind that from the Christian perspective, homosexual practice is sin, just like any other sin - Jesus died to save humanity from all sin. And, as Romans 3:23 reminds us, we have all sinned at some point and fallen short, so in that regard homosexuality is no different from other sins such as murder, adultery, or theft. What makes it - as well as transgenderism, which is closely connected to homosexuality although not the same thing - a more prominent sin is probably the fact that it is unnatural in practice - for instance, if a man runs around on his wife with the pretty young secretary at his office, it is still bad, still sinful, but at least it is normal sexual drives he is giving into, albeit perverted ones. However, homosexuality is viewed differently in that it goes against nature - two males or two females were not meant to copulate with each other, as for one thing the parts don't line up. So, as far as merit is concerned, homosexual behavior is just as sinful as anything else, but what does set it apart on another level is that it is a disordered behavior. And, so is transgenderism. That being said, let's examine these things in a little more depth.
Dealing specifically with transgenderism, as mentioned above it is an outward fruit that has a deeper root, and in order to remedy the fruit, the root must be treated. As Ryan Anderson notes in his book When Harry Became Sally (New York: Encounter Books, 2018) on page 196, in a conceptual sense gender identity is unlike race or true gender in that it is not an objective and verifiable trait, but is rather expressly subjective. Transgender activity is expressed in action rather than biology, and those actions are subject to moral evaluation. Also, unlike discrimination based on race, ethnicity, etc., there is nothing akin in the transgender movement to the type of discriminations faced by, say, Blacks with the oppressive "Jim Crow" laws in our nation, or the way that Jews were treated by Hitler in Nazi Germany or the genocide of Armenians in 1915 by the Ottoman Turks. People who identify as transgender can vote, hold jobs, etc., but in some situations, their inappropriate behavior has been addressed. The same holds true in regard to homosexuals too - homosexuals are not discriminated against in regard to their basic human rights, nor should they be, but at the same time flaunting homosexual behavior in a public place is inappropriate just as the same heterosexual behavior is - a couple fawning all over each other in public is not proper decorum no matter who you are. And, that is the root issue here. It goes back to a disorder that John Horvat notes on page 17 of his book Return to Order (York, PA: York Press, 2013) which he calls "frenetic intemperance," which he further defines as constituting two things:
1. The intention of throwing off legitimate restraints
2. The gratification of disordered passions
These two traits are endemic to our contemporary society, and when it comes to those who seek to subjectively redefine their identity, there are a few examples I want to share of how ludicrous this can be.
Rachel Dolezal
We are going to start mildly, as today not only is sexual identity now a subjective concept, but you also have people changing their race at whim too. Although the most high-profile example of this is the Congresswoman Elizabeth Warren now saying she is a "Cherokee Indian," (which earned a lot of derision, including nicknames such as "Fauxahontas" or "Jokahontas"), the most publicized example happened a couple of years back when a young White girl decided to identify as Black, and it caused a major controversy. Rachel Dolezal (b. 1977) is a native of Washington State who is naturally a blonde-haired, blue-eyed blonde of Czech/Scandinavian/German heritage who, due to her parents adopting and raising some Black children, decided to identify as Black herself. She says "she was born White but identifies as Black," which in a sane normal person's mind makes no sense. She even went as far as to join the NAACP and also teach African-American studies at a university, but this all came crashing down in 2015 when for the first time in her life she at least admitted that she was "born White," and that of course led to her dismissal from both the NAACP and the university she taught at. In recent months, she is back in the news again for welfare fraud and some other controversies, and she potentially could serve up to 15 years in the slammer for that. (taken from https:en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rachel_Dolezal&oldid=854121008 - accessed 8/8/2018).
Much like the more bizarre transgender individuals who subjectively redefine their gender, Dolezal is guilty of the same heresy by denying who God created her to be and instead she labors in a delusional fantasy world that she is a different race - this does violence not only to her own family, but also to the Black community.
Rodrigo Alves, the "Human Ken Doll"
The next individual of interest is not specifically transgender, but represents what it is to say "God makes mistakes" and thus he too embodies that heresy. Brazilian-born Rodrigo Alves is popularly known as "the human Ken Doll," due to the fact he has spent thousands of dollars in surgery to alter his appearance to look "perfect." A recent surgery he underwent even entailed the extraction of four of his ribs in order to give him a more flatter abdominal shape. At the core of Alves's obsessions there obviously lurks a bigger problem, that being something inherently psychological or emotional. And, to be honest, he is actually starting to look more like the Joker on the old Batman series, and he is now so plastic in appearance that he not only looks artificial, but even creepy. Some recent articles I have read about this individual suggests he has now declared himself transgender as well, and is now seeking to be a "Barbie" instead of a "Ken." Any way you look at it though, the whole thing is bizarre when it comes to an individual like this, and hopefully he comes to his senses before it's too late - in his case, these extensive procedures could even cost him his life.
"Stefonknee" Wolscht
One of the oddest and most recent examples of transgenderism is embodied in the above individual, who is a 52-year-old man who now identifies as a 6-year-old girl. What is tragic about this individual is the sheer selfishness he embodies, as he abandoned his wife and several children of his own to "be herself." The sheer subjectivism of this individual defies logic, as the idea of frenetic intemperance is embodied in this "Stefonknee" person. I first heard of this person from a Mark Dice video I watched recently, and then another commentator, Steven Crowder, also did a segment on this person. The oddness of this individual is that not only is "Stefonknee" transgender as well as "age-fluid," but this person also identifies as homosexual himself. "Stefonknee" would almost be like a bad Mel Brooks comedy if it wasn't tragically real, and this individual has even been "adopted" by friends and in his mind he doesn't want to age - he says he'll be perpetually 7-years-old. The adoptive "parents" of this person also have a granddaughter, and they let this individual play with her - that constitutes a possibility for child abuse right there. Also, despite identifying as a seven-year-old, "Stefonknee" seems to have an affinity for kissing burly bikers as well as even working a job as a snow plow operator. There are many, many questions that emerge from this entire situation, and Crowder in his segment addresses those more at length on his podcast at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjC3zBKgL3M.
Then, if this wasn't bizarre enough, there are people who now identify as animals - sex-fetishists are saying they are puppies, ponies, and other such stuff, and there are many others who are trying to alter their appearances to "become" tigers, dragons, etc. I won't get into a lot of those, as to be honest some of this stuff is just too hard to stomach. Again, noting John Horvath, these are glaring examples of frenetic intemperance, and at the core of it is selfishness, subjectivism, and a basic denial of fact in favor of how one "feels." It started with the Fall in Genesis 3, where man decided to have a lust to "become God," and it began to formulate further in the Enlightenment when people like Descartes started proclaiming "I think, therefore I am." The problem with transgenderism is selfish subjectivism, and it is thoroughly Cartesian in that if one is biologically a man but thinks they are a six-year-old girl, a "Ken Doll," or a tiger, then one really is. It is also an embodiment of Aleister Crowley's credo, "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law," which is in contradiction to what Jesus taught in the Our Father when He instructed us to pray to the Father, "Thy will be done," which the great theologian Romano Guardini defines as the "gateway petition" to the entire prayer. This subjectivism, which underlies all segments of this LGBTQ movement, violates what is called the common good, which late Brazilian philosopher Plinio Correa de Oliviera in his seminal book Revolution and Counter-Revolution (Spring Grove, PA: American Society for the Preservation of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993) addresses when he says on page 77 that "the Revolution constantly turns against a whole legacy of Christian institutions, customs, doctrines, and ways of being, feeling and thinking that we received from our forefathers and that are not yet completely abolished." The recent postmodernist (and rabidly anti-Christian) trends in LGBTQ rights, "political correctness," and related phenomena embody this characteristic of a revolution, and also the violent aspect of it is embodied in the thuggery of Antifa and other terrorist groups. And, it does it insidiously - first, take prayer out of public life, especially schools (which happened in 1963), and then define what personhood is and dictate the value of it (Roe v. Wade and the legalization of abortion in 1973), and as a steady diet of bad worldview devoid of absolutes and standards is fed to schoolchildren and others, then a redefinition of standard institutions will be implemented (legalization of "gay marriage" in 2015). People call this stuff "progressivism," but in reality it is making society regress, and many innocent people will pay the price for it. It didn't appear out of a vacuum either, as forces have been at work to alter this for at least 500 years, from the Enlightenment-era influences of people like Descartes, Spinoza, and Machiavelli, to the "scientific revolution" of Darwin, Galton, and Malthus, to the engineers of sexual revisionism such as Margaret Sanger, Alfred Kinsey, Simone de Beavior, and ultimately to an all-out embrace of the "culture of death" by activist Supreme Court judges as well as the Peter Singers and Jack Kevorkians among us. Many believe that society as we know it is beyond redemption, and perhaps it is, but at the same time we must remember that ultimately God is in control of all things, and as "all things work together for good" for those who follow Him, it is also written at the end of his Revelation to us (Scripture) that He wins. This hope is what we should hold to as Catholic Christians, and we can enact a renewal of a "culture of life" and return to Godly order at the grassroots level. With all the talk of "safe spaces" these days, there is a certain logic in the concept in that good, godly, and traditionally-minded households and churches are the "safe spaces" for the life-affirming culture of life, and it is up to us to be the beacons in the darkness that envelopes our decadent society in order to bring about change on a positive basis. If we do our part then, redemption is possible. Let's just pray we do before it's too late.
