Thursday 28 April 2011

Seven Trans Gifts For the Church

In Trans/formations (Scm Controversies in Contexual Theology Series), Virginia Ramy Mollenkott reflects on the gifts of the three magi who brought their gifts to the infant Jesus, and recalls Nancy Wilson's thesis that they were more likely to have been women or eunuchs. (Mollenkott's own guess is that they were people who would no be called transwomen). She goes on to describe the seven spiritual gifts that modern transgendered people similarly bring to the Church today.

These are:
  • Any faith-congregation that honours the bible should also homour transgender people because both the Hebrew and Chrstian Scriptures are extraordinarily transgender friendly. The gift here is that congregations will be empowered to see the Bible with a whole new perspective.
  • Transpeople will assist congregations in transcending gender stereotypes that alienate men from women and their bodies, and poppress women and girls all over the world.
  • The transgender presence is a constant reminder of human diversity and hence of the much-needed diversity in religious language about God, the divine mystery that is beyond human imaginings and limitations.
  • Until our recent cultural blindness, transpeople were always recognized as being specially gifted at building bridges between the seen and the unseen worlds, time and eternity; and many still carry that ability
  • Transpeople have by hte circumstances of our lives been forced to become specialists in the connections between gender, sexualitym spirituality and justice, and many congregations are iun desperaate need of our assistance in making those connections.
  • Because we embody the "forgotten middle - ground" or "ambiguity", transpeople can help to heal religious addictions to certainty - addictions that are threatening the survival of our planet.
  • Transpeople incarnate the concept that jsut as all races are "one blood", all genders and sexualities are one continuun" - and that one blood and one continuumare sacred, made in the holy, divine image.
Books:
Althaus-Reid, Marcella and Isherwood, Lisa: Trans/formations
Mollenkott, Virginia: Transgender Journeys
Mollenkott, Virginia: Sensuous Spirituality

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