Ridiculous

Have you ever read an article that is so ridiculous you must stop and mentally prepare an argument against it, even though you may never have to use it?

That happened to me this morning. The publication, the Kansas Reflector, is, in my assessment, a liberal-leaning newspaper. That is important because even though I’m not a liberal-leaning person, I occasionally read their material to understand their side, which usually differs from mine.

The article was titled “God made trans people,” and it centered around a New York organization that has bought billboard space that, according to the article, is in a more populated part of Kansas (I’m assuming the Kansas City area) to advertise this message with a link to their website.  The organization is trying to sway public opinion to force the Kansas Legislature to change the recently passed legislation prohibiting trans people from using a different gender on their driver’s license from what was noted at their birth and the prohibition of using a bathroom not aligned with their birth gender.

Instead of spending the rest of this devotion arguing for or against that position, I thought I’d share a remembrance from a Kansas history class I took several years ago. We were learning about the ramp-up to the Civil War. 

As part of this section, we read news articles from around the country on slavery. One of the articles, published in the South, took a verse from the Old Testament and twisted it to argue that slavery was commanded by God.  I remember being so in shock that when I got home, I found the verse and drafted an email to the professor arguing that the article writer took the passage out of context and, therefore, misused it.

“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return to the possession of his fathers. For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him ruthlessly but shall fear your God. As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.” - Leviticus 25:39-46 ESV

That is the point with the billboards also. Did God create people who believe they are trans? Absolutely! Using that argument, you could also say that God created pedophiles and mass murderers. However, God didn’t create any of these. Sin twisted his holy creation, man, into beings that pursue sinful activities. This is no different than my own sins. Thank God no one is putting a billboard up advertising my sins!

“So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” - Romans 8:12-17

Regarding trans activities, I believe the Bible is clear.

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” - Romans 1:24-27