I See The Light!

When I was growing up religion was open and accepting of all, you thought of those “Fire and Brimstone” preachers only in movies. But something happened “Fire and Brimstone” are making a comeback… you are going to hell if you don’t follow my word (And many times it is not the Bible but rather the preacher who words they follow.) but more are saying enough!

Some Conservative Christians Are Stepping Away From the Gender Wars
Far from the shouting, Christian therapists, writers, parents and their trans children are trying to create a space within conservative circles to acknowledge differences in how people experience gender.
The New York Times
By Ruth Graham
May 17, 2024

Andrew and Debbie James are evangelical Christians. Born in England, the couple moved to Denver years ago and raised their children there. Mrs. James had a profound religious conversion experience early in parenthood, and their large nondenominational church quickly became the focal point of their lives. They used to say that if the doors were open, they were there.

“We always joked that we had this perfect little scenario,” Mrs. James said. “We had our boy, then we had our girl, and they were two years apart and they were just perfect.” They were strict parents — too strict, they say in hindsight, with the goal to “shield them from absolutely everything.”
But then their child came out as trans...
It went badly. They initially refused to use their daughter’s chosen name, Lilia, and Mrs. James could barely be in the same room with her when she was wearing a skirt. Then a pastor at the church encouraged them to kick their daughter out of their home.

“This must be biblical advice,” she recalled thinking. “This must be what we’re supposed to do.”
But they stopped and thought and thought about it, read the Bible for guidance.
“If you’re afraid of change, that’s what trans people now represent,” he said.

[…]

In the most intimate cases, Christians are steering through agonizing, unfamiliar conflicts between their families and their God, or as some put it, between love and truth.

These are the same Christians who see themselves under attack from the left because the left is for change and the right is entrenched in the old ways.

HEHEHEHEHREHTR

Deal with it!

Vowed Hermit Comes Out as Transgender with Support of Bishop Stowe
New Ways Ministry
By Robert Shine
May 20, 2024

In what is perhaps an historical first, a diocesan hermit has come out as transgender, and has done so with the support of his local bishop. The hermit’s hope is to expand what gender-diverse Catholics understand to be possible for them in the church.

On Pentecost Sunday, Brother Christian Matson publicly announced he was trans.  His bishop is Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., of Lexington Kentucky, who as been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ people.  According to Religion News Service (RNS):

“Matson, who is also a Benedictine oblate, believes he is the first openly transgender person in his position in the Catholic Church. It is a difficult claim to confirm — even Stowe told RNS he did not know for sure if Matson is the first — but Matson’s status is at least highly unusual, and comes at time when church officials are grappling with how to address transgender Catholics.

This year, Matson decided to come out as trans, with Bishop Stowe’s support, because of the harsh anti-trans climate in both the Catholic Church and U.S. society. Pentecost was the day he was first baptized, and it is a celebration of preaching God’s love to all people. One particular experience cemented the decision to discose his gender identity. According to RNS, the hermit encountered a trans youth whose Catholic parents had rejected them, and the two prayed together. After this, Matson explained:

“‘I can’t stand by and let this false and, at times, culpably ignorant understanding of what it means to be transgender continue to hurt people,’ he said. ‘If I don’t say anything and allow the church to continue to make decisions based on incorrect information, then I’m not serving the church.’ . . .

“‘I’m Catholic,’ he said. ‘I became Catholic after I transitioned because of the Catholic understanding — the sacramental understanding — of the body, of creation, of the desirability of the visible unity of the church, and primarily because of the Eucharist.’

“At the very least, Matson said, he hopes going public will spark dialogue about his fellow transgender Catholics, a discussion he believes can enhance unity among the body of believers.

“‘You’ve got to deal with us, because God has called us into this church,’ he said. ‘It’s not your church to kick us out of — this is God’s church, and God has called us and engrafted us into it.'”

I wonder if he was trans feminine would it have had a different outcome?