The Church and transsexualism

[Anonymous]

Gerlinde wrote:

This is the Church of Jesus Christ, not the Catholic Church! We should know better and understand better than the Pope and his cardinals.

Ironically, the Pope and his cardinals also believe that they are the true church being led by JC.

We believe that we are the true church with exclusive claims of superiority. In making such grandiose claims, we are actually very similar to almost every other church and religion that make similar claims of superiority.

The moral of the story is that I do not expect our church to perform better than other churches. I am thankful for the areas our church does very well at and I try to gently push for improvement in area where the church does less well at. I believe the church is currently not doing well in the areas of homosexuality and transsexualism.

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

The moral of the story is that I do not expect our church to perform better than other churches.

In this I strongly (and respectfully) disagree. I expect the Church to be better than any other because it is possible and because the alternative is to be less.

Looking at this from another angle:

In my experience, status quo-ism manifests itself as a (outright or passive) refusal to be better than we are. It is a Culture of No and to me that feels indistinguishable from Hell.

[Anonymous]

NoahVail wrote:

In this I strongly (and respectfully) disagree. I expect the Church to be better than any other because it is possible and because the alternative is to be less.

Looking at this from another angle:

In my experience, status quo-ism manifests itself as a (outright or passive) refusal to be better than we are. It is a Culture of No and to me that feels indistinguishable from Hell.

Fair enough. I actually think we are not as far apart as it may seem.

I would love improvement and I do advocate for and gently agitate for improvement. I also feel that other churches have members that also lovingly advocate for and agitate for improvements.

Here is what I do not expect from my church:

1) To outperform other churches in any way due to direct divine revelation giving us the secret answers. I just do not believe that the church has such a secret weapon. In the early days of my FC, I was confused at why God would allow the church leaders to take certain actions when they clearly ended in tragedy and failure. There are lots of valid and faith promoting ways to handle that particular pretzel, but for me the answer is because God allows the leaders of our church to make decisions and even tragic mistakes (much like God allows the leaders of other churches and indeed all of us to make decisions and mistakes).

2) To change much or at all based upon my definitions of improvement and progress. The church does change but slowly and largely due (IMO) to outside societal forces. I do not have hopes of even making impactful changes at my local ward level. Part of that could be called defeatism. I just do not consider my role, mission, or passion to change the church. I love and raise my family, I work hard for my employer, I volunteer for and contribute financially to community programs that I believe in. Changing the church is a burden that I do not feel to be mine. I also consider this to be part of my strategy to stayLDS (because I have also witnessed the church not be very kind to agitators).

[Anonymous]

I’ve cut and pasted part of this from elsewhere.

We had a ward member who was a transvestite (it’s quite a complex deal with this person, so I’ll stick to this term and the male pronoun in this instance*). He came along to sacrament meetings, and some people did complain, but most people didn’t say anything. There was nothing outrageous or sexual about his dress – it wasn’t revealing, in fact it would be very modest if a woman wore it. He also sat at the back and wasn’t one of these people who craved constant attention, which you see a lot of these days. He never got a calling though. I never had a big issue with him personally, in fact we used to hang out regularly and I got to know him well. He has moved out of the country now, but I am pretty happy about how the ward handled it, even though there could still have been improvements. We still stay in touch.

On the other hand, I know other transgender people who would have no chance at fitting in my ward. One of them is a teenager who changes pronouns regularly and has a domineering and irritating father, who regularly exhibits bad manners towards others, but insists on specific concessions towards his child – both are bigoted in regards to religion. Another is a very devout and sincere Christian in another church, who is easy to get on with but she has had surgery, so that is a no-no for the LDS. Another is pretty anti-religious, but also larger than life in more ways than one – the fact she used to be a rugby player should give you an idea, she is a real mountain of a person – and she is also very vocal, and combatitive (I have never argued with her, but I have seen what happens to those who have).

Personally speaking, I don’t have an issue with people being transgender. What I do have an issue with is that like many things nowadays, it has become weaponized by Identity Politics and post-structuralism especially in terms of language. As with most things that political movement touches, they end up dividing people and make the gap wider between transgender people and the cis-majority, and attack people who are not in that group. This has become so bad *outside* the church, that I stay well away from the debate especially when trans activists and certain feminists (I’m not going to call them TERFs) lock horns.

—

* He does have gender dysphoria, but refers to himself as “he”, and wears female clothing. He does not take hormones AFAIK or had any surgery. This may change in the future, but just explaining the situation.

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