TRANS SPIRIT FLOURISHING
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healing and hope

following Jesus' example

One of the most surprising aspects of negative Christian responses to transgender people is the failure to see and celebrate the healing and hope we find as we grow in personal and social acceptance.  We can even be told simply to accept our lot and to grin and bear our pain and suffering, as if change is impossible or only possible beyond death.  How extraordinarily opposite to biblical faith, especially the life and teaching of Jesus!  For Jesus was not only  active as a healer but his healings were typically those of the outcast and signs of hope and new possibility for our world as a whole.  His life was an expression of God's shalom - of healing hope and wholeness - which may indeed never be complete in this life but which most certainly breaks in to transform us here and now. Seeking healing and justice for transgender people is thus an out-flowing of the Gospel and an imperative of contemporary discipleship.  It is both true to a living biblical faith and to the best of contemporary medicine and human understanding.

when healing is not healing

Of course there are Christians and others who take a negative or critical approach who claim to practice healing for us.  The worst kinds of these are so-called 'conversion' or 'deliverance' ministries which not only fail but do serious harm and (as the Church of England recently affirmed - July 2017 General Synod) need to be prohibited.  Other approaches, such as praying or counselling for us as 'sick', or 'disordered', can be slightly less intrusive but also quite detrimental to spiritual health and well-being.  More benign on the surface are  approaches such as that taken by Mark Yarhouse (in whose case, there is some understanding out of his experience as a pyschologist, but distorted  by his a priori theological preconceptions).  These represent welcome signs of some growing acceptance of lived realities and the ability of more conservative Christians to reflect and change.  Yet, whilst undoubtedly more informed and less judgemental, these still fall short in not treating transgender people with the full dignity and value we have in God's eyes.  The large mainstream clinical literature and protocols about trans people are still largely ignored, except to be rejected.  It can thus be really depressing, and worse, when transgender experience and decades of the best of reason and science are not greeted properly. Instead, it would be delightful if more and more people could share in the joy which the gift of wholeness of being brings.


Some further reflections:

Jesus would be present - a Catholic priest writes about how Christian faith, following Jesus, calls Christians to support
A Review of Understanding Gender Dysphoria by Mark Yarhouse - by Beth Malena (Evangelicals for Social Action)
A Review of Mark Yarhouse's Understanding Gender Dysphoria - by Austen Harke (Transgender and Christian)

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  • Home
  • About
    • about this site
    • about the author
    • about transgender
  • Blog
  • Theology
    • Genesis and Creation
    • Freedom and Order
    • Gnosticism and heresy
    • Healing and Hope
    • Resurrection and the Body
    • sharing in New Creation
  • Scriptures
    • Christian love & identity
    • gender variant people in scripture
    • crossdressing
    • marriage and family
    • suffering and transformation
    • all one in Christ Jesus
  • Spirituality
    • Kaleidoscope people
    • trans experiences and reflections
    • spiritual practices
    • seeking justice and shalom
    • trans history
    • pioneer priests & inspirations
  • Resources
    • Trans Awareness Week 2020
    • Australian Trans Christian Stories
    • information & support
    • affirming religious groups
    • prayers & worship
    • trans affirmation in many faiths
    • online video clips
    • further reading
  • Contact