Randy Thomas has a history of speaking about transgenders without any real knowledge of the subject. So it was only a matter of time until he showed his ignorance and lack of any real knowledge on transgender issues once again. A while ago, he was interviewed on Prime Time America along with Russell Moore, self-styled trans authority who knows almost nothing about the complexities of transgenders. Mr. Thomas was asked to explain some of the factors that can lead people into the “transgendered lifestyle.”
Quote:
Thomas: From the experiences that I had with friends who have dealt with this issue, it could be anything from a complete defensive detachment from their gender identity. There might have been significant trauma or sexual abuse where they just completely rejected their own gender for shame reasons or fear of becoming what their abuser was, maybe a little boy was strongly identifying with women because they were his only role models that exhibited strength and power and intelligence. Maybe he was indoctrinated with mysandry, which is hatred toward men. What we do know about sexuality is that it’s very complex, and there’s always a high combination of factors for why people struggle with what they struggle with.
Mr. Thomas has a propensity toward reusing the tired “sexual abuse” theory, often parroted by Exodus International as a cause of homosexuality, and expands it to include transgenders. But he failed to mention increasing evidence that in most cases transgenderism is caused by biological conditions. And since he accused transgenders last year of ignoring their genetic destiny, evidence of a genetic component to transsexuality has been found, and researchers are confident more will be discovered. With such mounting evidence of the innateness of gender identity, how ridiculous do Mr. Thomas’ claims look?
Quote:
Thomas: For transgendereds, they have to deal with what all of us have to deal with and that is, struggling to find an identity in Christ and Christ alone. With transgendereds, my friends have struggled with what it means to be male, what it means to be female, why God would create gender complimentarity, and how to embrace that gender that they were born with and to thank God for allowing them to experience that as a man or as a woman.
But an identity in Christ has nothing to do with being male or female, and transgenders already embrace the gender they have, man or woman. The only struggle they have is with their sex, and not God. If only Mr. Thomas would take the time to learn the difference between gender and sex. He shows that he is completely oblivious to what transgenders are, when he uses “transgendered,” a word which means people of gender variance, as the name of some sort of a struggle.
Quote:
Thomas: What I see in the church is a complete disconnect with people who struggle with transgendered. It’s always a cultural aspect that we’ve not really consciously adopted into our churches but it’s there. It’s this feeling of I cannot relate to you at all. And the first thing I would say to the church is that’s a lie. If you use to struggle with your identity, or your sexuality, and whatever way, you know what it means to turn to God to explain and to love you into who you truly are. And empower you to steward your life in a way into that honor him and honors everyone around you so if you know what it means to have a saviour. You can relate to this person.
Russell Moore believes a person’s gender identity is something that needs to be repented from. He hopes to impress people with his opinion by re-enforcing masculine and feminine stereotypes . He is also hoping that more transgenders will show up at churches so that they can be “saved,” even though transgenders have done nothing wrong by simply being man or woman.
Quote:
Moore: There are a number of pastors who are dealing with it right now and my only lament is that there are not more pastors dealing with this right now. Because we have large number relatively speaking of transgendered persons in our society. The only reason why more pastors are confronting the issue is that we don’t have more transgendered persons queing up in our churches asking what must I do to be saved. And that is a problem for us. My hope is that more, of these situations will take place as more of persons who are damaged and wounded in various ways come and see a need for Christ.
Instead of letting transgenders who seek God simply have a personal relationship with Christ, Mr. Moore feels there is a need for his students to aid “repentance” by focusing on the external, a person’s identity, with a change of clothes and name. He clings to the myth that a person’s gender can be “damaged” or “wounded”. And when he is asked how pastors should counsel a transgender person who comes to faith in Christ, he says:
Quote:
Moore: What he will need to do is to take the active work of repentance in all the areas that he can change, which is the case for everyone. IF you have someone who is coming to faith in Christ and he is separated from his wife. Then what you are gonna say is that repentance means let’s try to reconcile this marriage. If on the other hand, he is remarried, well now you can’t do that, you can’t go back and do that, so you move to the point where the person is. I do no think that having another reassignment surgery is what I would counsel this man to do. I will instead say to this person, let’s decrease those female hormones in a way that’s medical. safe, let’s start dressing like a man, living like a man, taking back a man’s name, and step by step, this is not going to be an overnight process, but step by step, let’s move towards, living as a man, I think that’s what necessary, not a re-mutilation of his body.
As much as I respect his consistency in believing that divorce and remarrying is wrong, what has “divorce”, an action between one or two parties, got to do with a person’s innate gender identity? Transgender experiences are far more complicated than Mr. Moore’s assertion of “living like a man” or woman. He makes a grave error in judgment when he confuses male and female stereotypes with clothes and how a person should be addressed. He exposes his ignorance when he reduces male and female to stereotypes about clothes and how a person should be addressed. It may be that he really does not know anything about gender, which he insists on calling a “lifestyle”.
All of these misunderstandings and opinions, lacking any basic knowledge, are tiresome for transgenders to hear, as most of us already have to struggle – not with faith or identities as Mr. Moore implied, but with a society that is oblivious to what gender is. And to attempt to turn the church into another place of prejudice and imposition of “change” is demeaning for those who already knew from the start their gender identity and are believers in Christianity.
Randy Thomas and Russell Moore represent transgenders’ greatest violators. Hiding behind the “love” of Christ, they have demonized transgenders in this broadcast by saying repeating tired myths and insisting that our lives should be run as they see fit. Repentance has always meant a 180-degree turn from sin; but simply existing as a being with biologically rooted gender variations, some with intense distress and needing to live out their true gender, hardly constitutes sin. I believe both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Moore seriously need to reevaluate their misguided opinions which continue to reduce transgenderism to nothing but a choice of labels and clothing.
Meanwhile, in the UK, a transsexual woman has won the right to transfer to a woman’s prison.
TRiG.
Great article, excellent points, but a small critique: almost no trans person would refer to themselves as “a transgender,” using the term as a noun. Well-intentioned as it likely is, given this site’s nature, that phrasing comes off as dehumanizing and highlights an unfamiliarity with trans people discussing trans issues. Additionally, given the volatility of words like “transgender” or “transsexual” even within the community, it’s generally regarded as appropriate to simply say “trans.”
I can’t imagine a gay man being thrilled to get referred to simply as “a gay.” It’s really roughly the same.
Thomas and Moore couldn’t possibly have any trans friends, or gay friends for that matter.
They do give their game away as ignorant by that word “lifestyle’ which sets MY teeth to grind.
And then of course there is the oft repeated word “struggle”.
They are certain of struggle with being gay, or trans. Struggling with coming to Jesus, and struggling with performing as a ‘good’ heterosexual or non trans person would.
Yuki, thank you for your very intelligent and generous analysis.
This is why I listen to YOU, and appreciate that you give the benefit of your experience.
I wouldn’t listen to guys like Thomas and Moore, precisely because they aren’t you.
And I think any smart person who cared to learn about a certain subject, would go to the source, not the abstract of it.
How come they NEVER talk about struggling with bigotry, unfounded myths and defamation and of course, fear of outright physical threat and violence?
Why don’t they consider for a second that the CAUSE of the struggle isn’t as much internal, but the primal forces of unfair perceptions and dehumanization?
Hugs sister!
Please send me an email and tell me how you’ve been!
@ Aliem: Yuki is a non-native English speaker. She is from Malaysia. Of course, Randy Thomas and Russell Moore are native English speakers. Their problem is willful ignorance.
You know, I have been Pagan for 13 years, and I may have forgotten a few things from the “sword-sharpening drills” to teach us kids the Bible in Sunday School. But I really don’t remember any passages where Jesus asked people to pretend they are experts in a subject they really don’t know about or to spend their time working to make others’ lives harder in His name’s sake.
Someone ought to tell Russell Moore about the trans women who have fought with honor in the military, risen to high executive positions, driven racecars, etc. These people looked to all the world like very successful men, in suits and everything, but they ultimately came to the conclusion that what they really needed was to be honest about their female identities and get the treatments to match their bodies to their spirits. I shake my head at his notion that what trans women really need is to throw away their makeup and change their clothes. It’s a common notion, but that doesn’t make it right. It certainly doesn’t help transsexual people.
Then again, if Moore and Thomas and so many others were more inclined to do things like study, research, and listen to others before trying to “help” them, there would be no need for this site, would there?
Generally these people want to be ignorant. Confront them with real evidence, and they will stick both fingers in their ears and start chanting “male and female he made them … male and female he made them …”
It’s sad, but they really don’t want to deal with reality – it’s far easier to keep their happy little fantasies that they have all the answers.
Actually, I decided to use “transgender” after some consideration to what is means to a lot of people. The conflicts and arguments that usually arise from the usage of any term always would be deemed sensitive, dehumanizing etc. Personally, I prefer to just be addressed as a woman, and nothing else. But every trans women and trans men would have different journeys. Some would wish to claim their own terms because it relates to their convictions.
The word “transgender” is used here based on the FAQ from the APA. Of course, some of us would not agree with how we are defined there, but I have to consider that a lot of people who wish to know more about transgenders would not start with “trans”. And I believe not many wish to have people think “trans” means “transvestite”. That is why it would be best to just use the full word “transgender”. It is neutral and sensitive enough, and describces the experiences of most people who are non-gender conforming. Of course, we may continue to discuss or even argue on this, but it will just be a neverending topic. Thanks.
I never understood why they even put transexuality in the same category as homosexuality. Even from their own logic that doesn’t make sense, since the Bible says nothing negative about transgenderism, and indeed seems to have several positive things to be deduced about transgenderism, depending on how one interprets the scriptures surrounding the whole “eunuch” thing *(I realize transgenderism and eunuchs are not the same thing, but many people have deduced a pro-transgender biblical bias from these passages).
Yuki:
You’ve often been in my prayers, and I’ve enjoyed your facebook postings.
I agree with the other poster that you article was kind and generous, and you exercised good restraint allowing the words of Randy and Russell to be posted in context. Nicely done.
The trans-anything journey is complex, and often very individualistic. My own journey included a great deal of ‘struggle’, only to accept that my Lord Jesus would not rescue me via a ‘miracle healing’, and that my ‘struggle’ had only resulted in severe non-functionality.
I live as a woman, and now can function fully for my Lord Jesus. ‘His yoke is easy and his burden is light’.
Much love in Christ always and unconditionally; Caryn
I believe Aliem was not referrring to the use of “transgender” which virtually all trans people use but to “a transgender” and “transgenders” which the APA and very few trans people use. Simply, “transgender” is a adjective so correct usage is “I am a transgender person” or “I am transgender” or “I embrace my transgenderism.” As transgender myself, it’s not offensive as much confusing and grates on my sense of grammar. Thomas’ usage is absolutely abhorrent! “people who struggle with transgendered.”
Exodus stopped even claiming to deal with transgenderism for several years, but self-consistencey is a weakness of theirs.
Transgender people who try to transition back into the gender assigned at birth have the same prolem as ex-gays – you cannot change your essence by choice. I’ve spent a lot of time tracking down and examing people who re-transition as a moral decision and the results are rarely good, often disastrous. They typically end up like Marrissa Dainton and eventually, after years of interpersonal and emotional agony and needlessly spending a small fortune, go back to live as the gender they identify with. In fact, I have yet to find a single, verifiable transexual who had fully transitioned, changed their mind saying, “As a Christian, I shouldn’t do this,” and now lives in their birth gender. Trans folk who never transition, like ex-gays, have not reached healing and ended their gender dysphoric feelings but can only repress their feelings.
The Bible says nothing negative about transgenderism. The Bible features a number of transgender characters, all of them positive without need of repentance. For instance, one of the first converts to Christianity, Qinaqis, was a eunuch (a male considered neither man nor woman who carried out special womanly functions) and St Philip never refers to him as a man or implies his gender needs to change. Or take Jesus. If we Christians believe God is neither male nor female, man nor woman, and Jesus was the full and perfect manifestation of God into human form, then Jesus must also have perfectly balanced female and male and man and woman. We do see this in the life of Jesus who often violated the ideas about what it meant to be a man (eg, hanging out with them alone and exercising many stereotypical feminine traits like gentleness and empathy). And we simply do not know Jesus’ sex as Mary was not schooled in intersex conditions and Jesus post-Resurrection body transcended physical boundaries. Christians are called to conform to Christ, to be Christ. St Paul summed it up well “Because as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. . . there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3.27-28).
It’s safe to believe that right does not think hermaphradites exist either!
Vegasguy, please use “intersex” instead of “hermphradite” which is considered offensive and misleading to intersex people.