saved:
I am posing a question that in today's world that is certainly possible and even more it is very probable to happen. Lets say that a couple join the church and are married. They have a family and attend for several years and become a loved part of the church. Even to yourself. They both are very active and teach at the church as well as carry out other duties. The person who is the wife is transgender, she has had the sex change, but no one knows except her/his husband. She/he had the sex change several years before she made a profession in Christ. Now she/he is serving the Lord the best way she knows how. However as many times happens the truth come to light to the church about her/his sex change. How should this be handled by the leadership? Should they both be allowed to continue to carry on as if all is normal or should there be some changes made and what?
Donald Baker:
--- Quote from: saved on July 28, 2010, 01:28:38 PM ---I am posing a question that in today's world that is certainly possible and even more it is very probable to happen. Lets say that a couple join the church and are married. They have a family and attend for several years and become a loved part of the church. Even to yourself. They both are very active and teach at the church as well as carry out other duties. The person who is the wife is transgender, she has had the sex change, but no one knows except her/his husband. She/he had the sex change several years before she made a profession in Christ. Now she/he is serving the Lord the best way she knows how. However as many times happens the truth come to light to the church about her/his sex change. How should this be handled by the leadership? Should they both be allowed to continue to carry on as if all is normal or should there be some changes made and what?
--- End quote ---
They carry on as if nothing happened. Is it uncomfortably weird? Yeah, but God can work around it, and so can we. ;D
Donald Baker:
By the way, welcome back Saved! :)
skiguy:
Hi saved, it should be treated the way any other past sin is:
"But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1Cor 6:11)
Donald Baker:
Jesus said if a part of your body offends you, to cut it off. I reckon that could be applied to one's gender. If your gender offends you, and now that we have a medical means of remedying that, then I guess it's the same approach. Now I understand that if God created you as a man, but you prefer to be a woman, then you are going against what God has established as the potter. It is not right for the clay to tell the potter what type of vessel it should be. I get that too. However, in the greater scheme of things, God is primarily interested in the soul over the body. The body is a shell and will be discarded at death. Is changing gender a sin? If it's for the purpose of making a homosexual impulse "technically legal" then yes. If it is because one is genuinely offended with being a man (or woman) then it's not sin necessarily, but internal confusion that needs sorting out....and God may not like it, but He can be patient and work around it as He does with all things. I get the feeling though that most who do this do so because they have lusts they want to fulfill, and see this as a get out of jail free card. Again, why would God turn away a couple who seek Him just because they are social misfits? Did he not seek after Mary Magdalene? Was she not a harlot? Did she not understand forgiveness more having been persecuted for her "oddness" than those who were "normal?" I can see a transgender being even more desirous of God's forgiveness living in a world where one's identity is so confused to begin with.