This rant is in no way meant to tell anyone that their religious beliefs are right or wrong. Its purpose is to make you think and look at things from another perspective. This post is directly related to the TG community and religion.
A little about my background... I was raised Catholic and then Lutheran as a child. As a teenager I was a youth leader at my church, so I have some insight on how some religious people interpret their teachings and the inner workings of a church.
Now that I have that out of the way, I wanted to write on this topic because it is one that we often face as members of the transgendered community. I subscribe to a number of blogs, news feeds, etc. that are written by transgendered individuals, friends and family of transgendered, professionals, etc. Every once in a while the topic of religious beliefs comes up in these articles. Some are written to tell us how wrong what we do/are is.. how it is a "sin against God", etc. Others try to justify who we are with respect to their religious beliefs.
There are many ways to approach the topic but many resort to quoting Bible passages on one side of the argument or the other. I find it rather interesting that some people will quote a single passage from a section of the bible as justification of their stance on the subject. Whenever someone does this I pull one of the Bibles off of my bookshelf (I own several versions) and do a little research on my own. One thing that I make sure to do is to read the sections before and after the quoted passage to get a sense of the true context. I find it amazing how some will take a quote completely put of context.
Another thing that I find amazing is that people will read a book written thousands of years ago and try to apply to 21st century life. I am sure that when these words were written they were very valid with respect to society at the time. In many cases the "laws" were much needed and extremely valid. The one thing that many seem to not think of is whether or not these laws are still valid in modern society. It's like the laws here in the US. They were written for a reason but over time have been amended, repealed, reinforced as it made sense over time. All laws exist for a reason, but the thing we should ask ourselves is "does this reason still exist".
Another thing that many seem to do is try and take these words and take them literally. They were written thousands of years ago and in some cases translated through many languages. In some cases the original texts are long lost. Sometimes things get lost in translation. An example is the debate over did Jesus walk "in" the water or "on" the water. It depends on how you translate the words. I have read the same passages in several different translations of the Bible (in my case, King James, NIV, Good News) and all 3 versions say something totally different. In some cases the passages are almost contradictory. Which is the correct version then?
In some places in the Bible it states that crossdressing is against God. <Deuteronomy 22:5 -
This is a favored passage by some who believe what we do is a sin. However, if you read the entire chapter it gets much more interesting. Why do they not also quote this passage: <Deuteronomy 22:30 A man shall not take his father's wife, nor discover his father's skirt.>A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone who does this.>
And another question that these passages brings up is who determines what is or is not men's or women's clothing? Some could argue that a woman wearing pants is wearing mens clothing. Others can argue that a skirt is mens clothing, after all a kilt is really a skirt by another name. Who is right and who is wrong then?
It's really all about how you interpret what you read. How much of these thousands of years old writings is hearsay, mis-interpretation, or outright fiction? We probably will never know. What was going on in society at the time that these words were written? I am sure that there was a very real and valid reason for someone taking the time to put pen to paper. But, taken out of context (and time), do these words still hold any real meaning? These are questions that we should keep in mind when reading religious texts. Many of our modern religions are based on the idea that the written words are fact, and in many cases un-disputable fact.
Here are some ideas that I have run across relating to this subject: Some of the anti-crossdressing passages were written to keep men from dressing up as women and sneaking in to harems for sexual reasons while the men were at war. Others may have been written to keep women from dressing as men to go to war themselves. There are perks and privileges as well as draw backs to either gender presentation depending on the situation and time period. What was there to stop one or the other from being taken advantage of? I believe that many of these "laws" were written to keep some individuals from using a presentation of the opposite gender for some immoral or illegal activities. Somewhere, sometime there was a very real problem that needed to be brought under control for the greater good of the society.
Whether these "laws" were passed down from "God" or merely a good politician is not the point of this rant. The point is that they were written down and probably were valid at the time they were written. But are they still valid? This is the part about modern religion that just doesn't make much sense to me. Some people would tell me that because "it says so in the Bible" what I am doing is wrong and I should not be doing it. But are they in fact wrong in their interpretation of what they read? In many cases I often wonder if the individual has even taken the time to actually read what they are quoting, or are they merely repeating their recollection of what someone else read and interpreted?
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