Tim The Enchanter's Reviews > Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say

Here is a question that I would ask a Christian person who is attempting to fulfil the commandments of Jesus and love Trans people. Do you feel you first need to determine if the issues regarding Transgenderism are "natural", "sinful" or "truthful" before you can fully love a Trans person? If so, then you are the intended audience.

I have had many open conversations with my Pastor concerning social issues and Christian response to issues. I generally consider myself "progressive" on social issues. In the early pages of this book, Preston Sprinkle position his views as somewhat progressive. It would seem the progressive view he is championing is to love Trans persons. A cursory reading of the Bible would reveal that this is greatest commandment given to all Christians. It is heartbreaking that Christians need to be directed by the author to love marginalized persons.

I wish I could say that this book was simply a call to Christians to love and serve the marginalized. Although he said that this is his main goal, there was almost no discussion about how to love the Trans community. Instead, it was theological thesis on transgender issues and argued a Biblical interpretation that biological sex overrides a person sense of gender. I am not interested in debating his conclusions which, I must note, he presents as "truth" and not opinion or interpretation. He wades into scientific research pulling out what he feels supports his positioning and rejecting that which he concludes lacks merit. He positions himself as having some level of expertise and appeals to his own authority when addressing scientific issues.

I admit that I felt gaslight by the author when I finished reading the book. He positioned himself as a proponent of love first, pivoted to making a case against the acceptance of Transgender identity and then told me that if I was accepting of Transgender identity then I was actually just perpetuating gender stereotypes which was itself sinful. He then wrapped it up by telling Christians to love.

It is hard for me to imagine many Trans persons feeling seen and loved by the contents of this book. It is a question I won't get an answer to as this book is not written to Trans persons. Although this book didn't explicitly use these words, it was steeped in the ideas of "speaking the truth in love" and "love the sinner but hate the sin". As to the "speaking the truth in love", I highly recommend "Love Matters Matters More: How Fighting to be Right Keeps of From Loving Like Jesus" by Jared Byas. He addresses this concept/scripture more eloquently than I ever will. Preston Sprinkle's approach in the book (explicitly) it that "What" we believe is usually more important than "how" we believe. I cannot disagree more. I believe that how we believe is almost always more important that what we believe.

This book is nothing more than an attempt to confirm Christians are "right" and on the side of "truth" and then, once we are satisfied that our positions is clear, we can love a from a position of truth. This only further marginalizes the "others". I have many more thoughts which I might include at a later date.