Are We Blessed?

To continue today’s theme on religious, there was an opinion yesterday in the Bangor Daily News
Rev. Marvin M. Ellison asking are trans-people blessed.

Thank God for transgender persons and their families, who exemplify the amazing beauty of the divine creation in all its complexity and rich diversity.

It is a blessing to share community with our transgender sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and fathers and mothers and to work alongside them to assure that each and every person, including each and every transgender person, has what they need and deserve: respect and a secure sense of personal dignity and worth, a fair share of resources, a life without fear, and the freedom to live in the world as one’s authentic self.

One thing that we often forget, not all religions have the same beliefs; we tend to lump all Christians together, all Jews together, and all Muslims together. However, in reality all the religions of the world have different sects within each religion with their own unique set of beliefs. Some sects are more tolerant, the Episcopal are more tolerant than Baptist, the Reform Jews are more tolerant than Orthodox Jews ad so on with the other religions.

The news media tends to blow religions out of proportion. When I read a the Hartford Courant when the Supreme Court ruled on DOMA the article interviewed LGBT activists and they interviewed an ultra-conservative religious organization; however, nothing was written from more moderate religious organizations. The article creates the us against them attitude, it created the impression that all religions are against LGBT rights.

The author in the opinion in the Bangor Daily News goes on to write,

As a Christian ethicist, I have often reminded seminarians and myself that it is wise, in the midst of social change, to slow down and avoid “premature clarity,” or what might be called rush to judgment. Before giving any kind of ethical evaluation, we ought to take the time to understand as fully as possible the reality before us, in this instance transgenderism. The best way to gain understanding is to listen to and learn from transgender persons.
[…]
Extending a respectful, hospitable welcome to transgender people and their families is fully in keeping with Jesus’ mandate to love thy neighbor. Standing within the prophetic tradition of his community, Jesus called for a new moral order constructed on the basis of biblical justice or the principle of right relatedness.

We hear “nature doesn’t make mistakes” from many conservative religious leaders and I agree because I am not a mistake. I believe that there was a purpose that there are gays, lesbians, bi and trans-people and it is what Rev. Ellison said, “keeping with Jesus’ mandate to love thy neighbor.” If we are all the same there it would be very easy to “love thy neighbor” but with diversity there is discrimination and it takes work to “love thy neighbor.” It takes work to love the black kid with a hoody walking through your neighborhood. It takes work to love a person in a wheelchair and it takes work to love a trans-person.