God is Love

She is a God of creation;  a nurturing God who cares deeply for Her children.  She is accepting and forgiving.  She is sharing and generous.  Her Love is unconditional.

If we are filled with Love, we can become like Her.

Love a dominant theme throughout the Holy Scriptures:  A Loving God created humanity.  ...In Her image to establish a unique bond between Creator and created.  Life on Earth is an endless series of opportunities to help and provide service.   

The Bible is the story of relationships.  God is a God of communities.  Throughout history God has invited communities to become Her Chosen People:  to inform them of Her Love; to ask them to accept a personal relationship.   And all relationships are founded on empathy, joining together in a common cause, celebration of each other's victories, and healing each other's wounds.

The Divine Essence takes part in any Loving act.  Whenever comfort and peace are extended, God is there.  Heaven is established on Earth through the spread of joy.  The Gospel is Good News.

On the other hand the Divine is diminished in any destructive act;  any act that hurts, causes pain or despair, that spreads sorrow or hopelessness.  Every time opportunity is closed.  Every person who's turned away.

By their fruits ye shall know them.

The litmus test of every choice is whether the happiness and quality of life of others will increase as a result.

The Gospel that's supposed to be spread is, Love one another.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

--Matthew 22: 37-40

Gender in the Bible
There's bitter irony that the theologians are actually quite right.  ...Not in sponsoring oppression, but in their statements about Gender:  Gender IS permanent, God-given and unchangeable.

The problem is biology, not Gender.  A Transsexual's BIOLOGY doesn't match their permanent, God-given and unchangeable Gender.  

Gender is personality.  It's a deep innate awareness that a person is Female or Male (Gender Identity).  ...It's  special gifts that the Lord has bestowed on Women and Men.  For example the natural female impulse to have empathy;  to nurture & protect.  Or the natural male impulse to confront & solve problems.  Gender defines the kind of relationship a person has with the Lord.

What role does BIOLOGY play in all this?  Well, none at all, if you think about it.  Do women become men after a hysterectomy?  Do men suddenly like pink and collect dolls after a nasty motorcycle accident?

And of course that's the point the theologians have been making all along:  surgery & hormones can't make a gender-male into a gender-female.  And it's true.  Biology does NOT determine or affect Gender Identity or Gender (personality).

Transsexuals have been oppressed, expelled and excluded for almost two centuries because of a misunderstanding.  Transsexuals needed to correct their BIOLOGY (sex), while theologians thought they wanted to change their GENDER (innate personality).

When an infant is born, the midwife looks between the legs and announces "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!"  

What's actually happening?  The midwife's announcement is a comment about genital anatomy-biology;  the SEX of the child.  She has not the least idea about the newborn's innermost soul, their personality, their GENDER.

At birth--even during fetal development--Biology does NOT determine or affect Gender Identity or Gender (personality).

So later on in life, when transsexuals want to follow their innate, permanent, God-given Gender, well-meaning theologians mistakenly order them to follow their biology instead.  This is known as a Wrong-gender Role.  It's a social role that's inappropriate for a person with their Gender.

Is there any evidence that biology ever determines Gender?

So let's turn to the Bible, which says:

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment:  for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

Deuteronomy 22:5 is about clothes;  about Gender-roles and Gender-expression.   The Lord forbids Wrong-gender Expression.  Deuteronomy 22:5 commands transsexuals to transition into Right-gender Expression at the first opportunity, with the full support and assistance of the religious establishment.


Sexual Orientation in the Bible

The Bible is a study of relationships.  The relationship between God and humanity;  between the Lord and her chosen people;  and the relationships people form between each other.

Interestingly virtually all of the great Biblical inter-personal relationships are between people with the same sex: David & Jonathan, Jesus & the 12 apostles, Jesus & John the beloved, Saul of Tarsus & Luke, Ruth & Naomi, Mary & Martha.  These couples lived together, worked together, shared sorrows, and had deep intimate & loyal relationships.

True, the Bible also tells of some rocky same-sex relationships:  Cain & Abel, Jacob & Esau, Joseph & his brothers, David & Saul, Peter & Saul of Tarsus, Sarah & Hagar.

And then there are disastrous opposite-sex relationships:  Samson & Delilah, David & Bathsheba,  Ahab & Jezebel.