Some people claim that my living as a woman is blasphemous. I have wrestled long and hard to come to some peace with the Holy Father and the Holy Son with regards to my existence. It was They who has taught me peace and acceptance within myself and of myself.
What religion am I? I was baptized at the age of ten months in the Presbyterian Church. However, I accept neither my baptism nor my belonging to the Presbyterian Church, but I conduct myself as I believe the Our Lord the Christ Jesus would have me behave.
Why do I not accept my baptism? I hold to the belief that baptism is one’s acceptance of the teachings of the Our Lord the Christ Jesus and choosing the path of right over wrong. At the tender age of ten months, I would not have known right from wrong and I definitely would not have known His teachings. Throughout my life, I have chosen the path that I believed was righteousness and I have studied the Holy Bible to learn his teachings.
Why do I not accept the Presbyterian Church? It is not the Presbyterian Church that I have trouble with. I have chosen to seek the Our Lord the Christ Jesus, independently of any church. Our Holy Father and the Holy Son have subtly guided me. Their guidance being easily recognised at times as Their works. Their guidance has never been towards any particular church. I have opened my head and my heart to the Holy Father and Son, and they have cared for me and guided me.
Some people claim: "The Holy Bible states that one should not wear the clothes of the opposite sex."
I have had problems with the above statement. People make the claim that the Holy Bible makes such a claim. However, when asked to show the passage within the Holy Bible, few can point to the actual passage. Truth must be sought and this I have done to calm my concerns. I shall now present my interpretation of the Holy Bible on this matter and of history.
The passage that people try to use to condemn me comes from the Fifth Book of Moses - Deuteronomy. The particular passage is Chapter 22, Verse 5, which is part of the Covenant of Abraham, also known to Christians as the Promise. The verse is interpreted differently in the various versions of the Holy Bible. I use the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, and in this version the verse is stated as:
5 A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.
Without considering the context of the verse and without considering the teachings of the apostles, I would have a serious problem with this verse. However, the teachings within the Holy Bible cannot be taken out of context, or used independently. I shall now list the points that I have considered to reconcile my life with His word.
1.
Where in the Holy Bible is there a definition of a man or a
woman? What is the defining criterion of what is a man and what is a
woman?
At the start of the First Book of Moses - Genesis, we meet Adam and Eve plus we see that Adam is a man and that Eve is a woman. However, the text does not define the exact criterion for why Adam is a man and why Eve is a woman. Adam is a cisgendered male. Eve is a cisgendered female.
Is Adam a man because he is physically male? Is Adam a man because he is psychologically a masculine person? Is Eve a woman because she physically female? Is Eve a woman because she is psychologically a feminine person? The Holy Bible does not clarify explicitly what criterion determines whether one is a man or a woman.
In the case of the cisgendered, there is no question. A cisgendered male is a man. He is physically male and has a masculine gender. A cisgendered female is similarly a woman. These two forms present no problems.
However, for the transgendered male or female, the Holy Bible does not state how the determination of manhood or womanhood is to be made. A transgendered male is physically male but psychologically female. Is this person a man or a woman?
My answer to this issue is that the transgendered male is a woman. Why? Throughout the Holy Bible, the concern is for the salvation of the soul, not for the salvation of the body. Our Lord the Christ Jesus mentions that if a body part offends us, then we would be better to cast off that part rather than condemn the soul to eternal damnation. Thus, the soul becomes the defining criterion for each of us. The gender is a property of the soul. The body is merely a "house" for the soul. The body is not the soul.
As a transgendered male (male-to-female transsexual), my psychology is female. Thus, my soul is that of a woman. Thus, by the verse above, I must not wear what pertains to a man. I must don the garments of a woman. In general, a transsexual must, by the verse, wear the clothes of the sex opposite to that transsexual’s physical sex, since the soul is also of the sex opposite to the transsexual’s physical sex.
2.
I hold myself as a Christian. (That is why I have taken the
first name Kristina. My first name signifies my beliefs.) The teachings
of the Apostles guide me. I now turn to Paul the Apostle for the following
discussion. In particular, I turn to the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to
the Galatians.
In this Epistle, Paul the Apostle details the reasons why the Promise (the Covenant of Abraham), from which the Deuteronomy verse above has been taken, is no longer applicable. (I will not reproduce the text of the epistle here but ask that you review a copy of the Holy Bible.) The essence of the teachings here is that the Promise was given to guide the followers until Our Lord the Christ Jesus arrives, then the teachings of Our Lord the Christ Jesus replace the Promise. Paul the Apostle clearly states that the Promise has been replaced by the coming of Our Lord the Christ Jesus.
I draw your attention to Chapter 3, Verses 24 and 25:
24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Thus, whether one is cisgendered or transgendered no longer matters with regards to the Deuteronomy verse above. The verse is not applicable to those who have faith in Our Lord the Christ Jesus. One may dress in the garments of either sex.
3.
Next, I draw your attention to Acts, Chapter 13, Verse 39:
39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
The Promise is part of the law of Moses. Thus, if the Promise had remained in effect for Christians, we would be justified by our belief in Our Lord the Christ Jesus.
A similar passage appears in Acts, Chapter 10, Verses 42 and 43:
42 "And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead,
43 "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remissions of sins."
4.
How does the present-day text differ from the original text?
This I cannot state with the certainty but have been told that the original
version of the Deuteronomy verse is:
5 A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man so as to enter the temple, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment so as to enter the women’s tent, for all who do so are an abomination to the Lord your God.
One can see that what was once an enforcement of moral standards, complying with the old Judaic laws, has been rewritten into an anti-cross-dressing law. Women were not permitted entry into the temple. Also, to prevent the sexual rites that some pagan sects, who were being absorbed into the Jewish religion, men were being kept from the women’s tents.
This version of the text is radically different from the anti-cross-dressing sentiment of the present translations. The original text was enforcing religious laws, whereas the modern text can be used to enforce non-religious beliefs.
5.
John 10:9
9 "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."
6.
If I have failed to convince you and if you wish to enforce
the present text, then I will insist that you comply with the
other portions of the Promise.
8 When you build a new house, then you shall make a
parapet for your roof, that you may not bring bloodguiltiness on
your house if anyone falls from it.
9 You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest
the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your
vineyard be defiled.
11 You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and
linen mixed together.
12 You shall make tassels on the four corners of the clothing with
which cover yourself.
There are other requirements of the Promise, which I have not copied here. If one wishes to apply any portion of the Promise, then one must apply the entire Promise.
An excellent dissertation by Rabbi Tilsen, who is far more learned than I.
God created Adam in his likeness. Then God took a rib from Adam and fashioned the rib into Eve. Thus,
Eve was the first human ever to have undergone a sex change. If a sex change was okay with our Holy Father, why
do people criticize transsexuals for having sex changes?
Matthew 7:1-2
1 Judge not, that you be not judged.
2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Last Updated: 22 March 2009 (site moved to new server)
