The Christian Cross-Dresser
by Ami Lamida
Because I was raised in a very religious family, and because I have been a habitual cross-dresser from early childhood, I have invested countless hours of thought and study into the word of God about transgender issues. I am not a minister or professional theologian, but I consider myself highly educated in the subject of religion. I use only two tools to arrive at my conclusions – the King James Bible, and logic. I personally believe that there are many other sources of truth, but in the interest of simplicity, I will use only these two.
Building a foundation is necessary before you build a house, so let's start from the basics. To understand how God feels about transgender issues, we need to understand a little about God. The nature of God is a very controversial topic. I'm sure that there are countless different viewpoints on the subject. I will back up my views with scripture, but because of the often ambiguous nature of scripture, there may be other interpretations as well. Hopefully the reader can keep an open mind enough to recognize that my interpretation of scripture is not the only interpretation.
The Nature of God
To start with, we need to assume that God is a living, definable - albeit immortal - being. There are countless scriptures referring to the eternal nature of God, so I won't go into that, but our assumption does preclude notions of some amorphous, indefinable creature of spirit, which some believe Him to be. We need look no further than Genesis in order to dispel that myth. Genesis 1:26 recounts the dialog of God, presumably to His angels:
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…"
Immediately, there arises gender issues with this statement, but we will get to that in a minute. For now, let us assume that God created us to look at least somewhat like Him. Because of the variety of races and faces on the earth, we will assume only that God has the basic attributes that we do – a humanoid appearance. Continuing with Genesis 1:27, we read:
"So God created man in his own image…male and female created he them."
We have to assume from this that the heavens are not populated with asexual beings, but indeed, there must be gender identities in heaven as there are on earth. Otherwise, God might have simply created non-sexed beings and avoided a lot of the world's troubles. We might even assume that God has a sexual counterpart like humans do, though that is not necessary for our discussion.
Another important point to remember is that God is fair. Revelations 19:2 tells us:
"For true and righteous are his judgments..."
It is important to this discussion that God is not a prankster or unfair, because those born with gender issues often feel that life has been unfair to them. But the truth is that we are all judged fairly in the end. Again, in Revelations, chapter 20 verse 12:
"…and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS."
If you are familiar with the faith-not-works crowd, here is the indisputable evidence that you can't just SAY you believe in Christ and then go around hurting other people. You may be "saved" now, but you will be judged in the end. God does not put unrighteous believers above righteous non-believers. It wouldn't be just.
So, we have a just, humanoid God that understands the concept of gender. God created a world and populated it with creatures similar to Him – humans. So, knowing that male and female were created, how do we explain inter-sexuality? God did not create hermaphrodites, per se, but they do occur in human reproduction, and are not accounted for in the moral gospel as presented in scripture. Surely, an experienced God would have accounted for gender ambiguity in His gospel. To explain this challenging concept, we must understand the moral gospel.
The Moral Gospel
The most obvious example of immorality in the Bible is in the city of Sodom. To sum up the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, we find that in the city of Sodom, homosexuality abounded, and was so predominant that when a pair of male angels visited Lot, the men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house, insisting that the angels be given to them for their pleasure. They won't even accept Lot's daughters as a substitute. When Lot refuses to give up the angels, the men get violent, and but for being smiting them with blindness, the men of Sodom would have taken what they wanted by force.
After this incident, those that practice homosexual sex acts were referred to as "sodomites", and that is the derivation of the word "sodomy" that is still in use today. There is some scriptural evidence that this is not acceptable among God's chosen people. Deuteronomy 23:17 clearly states:
"There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a SODOMITE of the sons of Israel."
So it seems clear that homosexual sex is not acceptable to God. There is some logic behind this idea because rampant homosexuality could severely curtail the propagation of the human species. However, the sins of the Sodomites went much further in Biblical times than simple homosexual sex. The men of Sodom were barbaric to say the least. They took what they wanted by force. They actively sought out new partners for their pleasure. Promiscuity and rape were rampant in Sodom.
So, is practicing homosexual sex a sin? –or is it the promiscuity and rape? We might interpret the vague reference in Leviticus 20:13 to say homosexuality is the sin:
"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, they have both(?) committed an abomination..."
There are very few other scriptures that specifically target homosexuality as a sin. Whenever sodomy is mentioned in scripture it is generally accompanied by promiscuity and rape. In all the scriptures I've searched, the sin of sodomy went deeper than intimate brotherly love. In fact, there are myriad references to the value of brotherly love (Romans 12:10, 1 Thes. 4:9, and Hebrews 13:1, to name a few). So perhaps homosexuality isn't really the abominable sin it is interpreted to be. Homosexuality in and of itself is only marginally mentioned in scripture. The true sin appears to be promiscuity and rape. For that, there is abounding evidence.
-Exodus 20:14 – "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
-Deuteronomy 22:25 – "But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die."
-Matthew 5:28 – "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
-Corinthians 6:18 – "Flee fornication…He that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."
-Etc.
There is one clear reference to cross-dressing in the Bible:
Deuteronomy 22:5 – "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God."
However, in the same chapter, many trivial and irrelevant laws are also espoused:
-22:8 – "When thou buildest a new house, then shalt thou make a battlement for thy roof…"
-22:10 – "Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together."
-22:11 – "Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen together."
-Etc.
So if we categorize this law on transvestitism among the other laws in this chapter, the law is inconsequential. After all, if we condemn all transvestites based on this chapter, we also need to condemn all those without battlements on their houses and those who wear wool blend garments.
What Isn't Covered
Still, we have no Biblical reference when it comes to gender challenged individuals. If a person is born with both sexual organs, how is that person supposed to determine a sexual orientation that is morally acceptable to God? If a person is born male, but has the spirit of a female, how can that person decide which gender is the morally appropriate opposite? That leaves transgender issues miserably uncertain when it comes to the gospel as set forth in the Bible. Do we decide for ourselves and hope the decision we make is acceptable before God? Is this fair? What is the transgender individual to do?
What We Must Do
When faced with a difficult choice and no clear direction, we make the choice as best we can, and focus instead on areas where there is clear direction. In the New Testament, Christ taught a more positive message than what is taught in the Old Testament and there are more do's than don'ts. Some of these do's are:
- love God (Matthew 22:37)
- love your neighbor (Matthew 22:39)
- be humble (Matthew 6:1)
- be charitable (Luke 3:11)
- be forgiving (Matthew 18:35)
- treat others with respect (Luke 6:31)
- follow Christ (Luke 9:23)
The Christian Cross-dresser
It has always been my belief that a Christian is a person who follows Christ's teachings, regardless of differences in doctrinal beliefs. The professors of religion who claim to be Christian based solely on a set of beliefs or a series of observances yet proudly practice intolerance are themselves mired in sin and are bound for hell. If there was one thing Christ taught us, it was tolerance for others, regardless of their differences.
Christ's perfect example of tolerance can be found in John 8:3-11. This is the story of a woman found to be adulterous. Yes, adultery is one of the sins for which the Old Testament prescription was death in most cases. The scribes and Pharisees, seeking to test Christ's devotion to Mosaic Law, brought the unfaithful woman to Christ and told him that the law prescribed stoning the woman to death. Christ set a supreme example of tolerance, when he said in verse 7:
"…He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
When the woman's accusers wandered off, none of them wishing to make such an outrageous claim, Christ told her in verse 11:
"…Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."
So Christ imparted a law of mercy that supercedes the older law of justice – condemn no one, be tolerant, and leave the judgment to God. There is no good reason for a Christian to treat anyone else badly.
Go Thy Way
The adulterous woman in the New Testament wasn't condemned, but she was told to "sin no more". So it is important to avoid sin whenever possible. We all have a pretty good idea of what sin is. I can't even begin to enumerate all the ways to commit sin, but most sins can all be put under the heading "things that cause others pain or suffering". This includes actions that inflict emotional as well as physical suffering. In a word, be "nice".
Summary
So "go thy way": be yourself, be faithful, be helpful, be kind, be respectful, be humble, be generous, and be loving. If you do all these things you are a Christian because you are following the teachings of Christ, and you will be rewarded for your good works in heaven.
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© 2003 by Ami Lamida. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.