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InSearchofGrace
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In his recent encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis proclaimed among other things the following:
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SjMelnychuk
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I like the quote above!The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. Also, valuing one’s own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment. It is not a healthy attitude which would seek “to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it.
Exactly… to identify as transgender is essentially the rejection of our bodies. It is to say our feelings and emotions trump out physical bodies. I have yet to meet somebody who identifies as transgender that doesn’t have in some way or form a disconnect with their own physical bodies, this inability to see their physical body as good. There is a disconnect between their physical bodies and their emotions and psyche. It is essentially to align with today’s form of Gnosticism. The challenge for any person who identifies as transgender is to see that their physical body is just as integral but often times their feelings and emotions surrounding their physical bodies is a complex thing.
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SjMelnychuk
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If I may be so vulnerable, this is something I struggled with. I know what it’s like to “feel trapped within my own physical body and wishing I had the physical body of a boy”. I even contemplated hormonal treatment etc because identifying as a woman was a foreign concept to me. I didn’t know how to be a woman. I also had quite the misogynistic view of women. In turn, that impacted my ability to relate as a woman among other women. I was ambivalent towards women but my view of men was also not good. I felt too vulnerable in front of men. I hated men. The only way to not feel vulnerable in front of men was to become like and strive to be better then the men around me. Ironically though, it were the friendships of a few good men that God used to bring healing in my own life and the willingness to engage in friendship with women I began to learn that I really wasn’t so much different from other women. I grew up saying there wasn’t a feminine bone in my body. Femininity was a mystery to me but I could identify with the masculine. I was never one for playing with dolls or typical role playing common among little girls. I was too busy in my younger years playing with my twin brother and his friends, wrestling and playing sports etc. Things that were typically masculine I enjoyed but things that were typically feminine I FELT like I was a fish out of water.
Even today, I definitely don’t present myself as what we stereotypically view as feminine. In fact, I was recently discriminated against at work because I “wasn’t feminine enough” in other words, because I didn’t always wear makeup or have body language that is stereotypically feminine the client I worked for felt I didn’t present the “image” they wanted. I work in security. There aren’t many women in the security industry that can really look stereotypically feminine but then again, what is femininity and what does it mean to be a woman? These are questions that today our society and culture as a hard time defining. We elevate the stereotype and if we don’t meet the stereotype we view ourselves as less than, as not woman enough or not man enough. This is especially true if we’re rejected among out peers and for me, I was. I was severely bullied in school growing up.
A number of years ago I used to stand naked in front of the mirror every morning and say to myself “I am a woman created in God’s Image, I am feminine and reveal my femininity in a unique way but nevertheless, feminine, I am a woman among many different kinds of women.” I would then look at every single curve, every single shape of my body. I’d thank God for my body. One day, I woke up, and I don’t know what it was but I began to feel a connection with my body. I began to have less body issues. I’m ok with every single curve, I’m ok with my body shape. I’m not a size 0 and I’ll never be a size 0. I don’t need a man to know I am beautiful because I am beautiful. Some will see my beauty and others will not. I’m not comfortable in a dress. I won’t force myself into a dress. However, I’m comfortable around other women. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that every single bone, every single curve, is fully woman. I wouldn’t change any of it and the thought of hormonal treatment is something I’m thankful I never went through with. As a result, how God made me as a woman shines through. Big freakin deal if I am not stereotypically feminine.
Here’s the truth … I am a woman created in God’s Image. God made me woman. How I have felt or how I might feel from time to time may not be in total agreement with the truth of how God created me. To say I am not a woman despite my physical body is attempting to cancel out the differences between man and woman. It stands against us as Image Bearers of God.
That all said, this is a complicated matter. The journey I’ve just described has come only through years of counseling and therapy and being involved in some kind of support group within my faith community. I’m talking about a journey going on 20 years! And I’ve never regretted my surrendering to God my sexuality and my body to God. I have never regretted my commitment to chastity. I’ve never regretted having an openness to allowing for God to show me who He created me to be and never regretted my journey towards vulnerability and being strengthened not from a false sense of empowerment but true empowerment as a woman to be fully woman.
It’s actually more difficult for women in this journey then it is for men. The challenge with women is in the area of vulnerability to go from a pseudo-masculine self protecting mechanism that cuts the woman off from anything truly life giving or life receiving. Whereas with men, it’s about a journey from weakness to strength… from passivity to looking outward and going on an adventure or a pursuit. In some ways there are similarities and in other ways there are differences.
Even today, I definitely don’t present myself as what we stereotypically view as feminine. In fact, I was recently discriminated against at work because I “wasn’t feminine enough” in other words, because I didn’t always wear makeup or have body language that is stereotypically feminine the client I worked for felt I didn’t present the “image” they wanted. I work in security. There aren’t many women in the security industry that can really look stereotypically feminine but then again, what is femininity and what does it mean to be a woman? These are questions that today our society and culture as a hard time defining. We elevate the stereotype and if we don’t meet the stereotype we view ourselves as less than, as not woman enough or not man enough. This is especially true if we’re rejected among out peers and for me, I was. I was severely bullied in school growing up.
A number of years ago I used to stand naked in front of the mirror every morning and say to myself “I am a woman created in God’s Image, I am feminine and reveal my femininity in a unique way but nevertheless, feminine, I am a woman among many different kinds of women.” I would then look at every single curve, every single shape of my body. I’d thank God for my body. One day, I woke up, and I don’t know what it was but I began to feel a connection with my body. I began to have less body issues. I’m ok with every single curve, I’m ok with my body shape. I’m not a size 0 and I’ll never be a size 0. I don’t need a man to know I am beautiful because I am beautiful. Some will see my beauty and others will not. I’m not comfortable in a dress. I won’t force myself into a dress. However, I’m comfortable around other women. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that every single bone, every single curve, is fully woman. I wouldn’t change any of it and the thought of hormonal treatment is something I’m thankful I never went through with. As a result, how God made me as a woman shines through. Big freakin deal if I am not stereotypically feminine.
Here’s the truth … I am a woman created in God’s Image. God made me woman. How I have felt or how I might feel from time to time may not be in total agreement with the truth of how God created me. To say I am not a woman despite my physical body is attempting to cancel out the differences between man and woman. It stands against us as Image Bearers of God.
That all said, this is a complicated matter. The journey I’ve just described has come only through years of counseling and therapy and being involved in some kind of support group within my faith community. I’m talking about a journey going on 20 years! And I’ve never regretted my surrendering to God my sexuality and my body to God. I have never regretted my commitment to chastity. I’ve never regretted having an openness to allowing for God to show me who He created me to be and never regretted my journey towards vulnerability and being strengthened not from a false sense of empowerment but true empowerment as a woman to be fully woman.
It’s actually more difficult for women in this journey then it is for men. The challenge with women is in the area of vulnerability to go from a pseudo-masculine self protecting mechanism that cuts the woman off from anything truly life giving or life receiving. Whereas with men, it’s about a journey from weakness to strength… from passivity to looking outward and going on an adventure or a pursuit. In some ways there are similarities and in other ways there are differences.
S
SjMelnychuk
Guest
IS IT A SIN TO IDENTIFY AS TRANSGENDER… the questions to ask…
Why remain in a lie or partial truth?
Do our feelings and emotions trump the physical or is there legitimacy within our physical nature?
If there is legitimacy within our physical nature then to reject our physical body is to reject the legitimacy of our physical nature. We cannot separate our physical nature from our spiritual nature, the two are one of the whole of our being.
If there is legitimacy to our physical nature then we cannot reject our body. To say we’re transgender is to reject our body. I don’t identify as Transgender because to me it’s not a question as to whether or not it’s a sin but rather a question of what is true. It’s the same thing really if I were to identify as a lesbian or bisexual … I could technically use all these terms to identify myself as but the truth is, God created me as a woman. I am a woman created in God’s Image. Feelings and emotions fluctuate. Our emotions can be rather fickle. One thing that never changes is that we’re created in God’s Image, male and female. To align with anything else is to mask who God created us to be.
Why remain in a lie or partial truth?
Do our feelings and emotions trump the physical or is there legitimacy within our physical nature?
If there is legitimacy within our physical nature then to reject our physical body is to reject the legitimacy of our physical nature. We cannot separate our physical nature from our spiritual nature, the two are one of the whole of our being.
If there is legitimacy to our physical nature then we cannot reject our body. To say we’re transgender is to reject our body. I don’t identify as Transgender because to me it’s not a question as to whether or not it’s a sin but rather a question of what is true. It’s the same thing really if I were to identify as a lesbian or bisexual … I could technically use all these terms to identify myself as but the truth is, God created me as a woman. I am a woman created in God’s Image. Feelings and emotions fluctuate. Our emotions can be rather fickle. One thing that never changes is that we’re created in God’s Image, male and female. To align with anything else is to mask who God created us to be.
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