Morals Paper:

"Go Ask Alice" - By Harry Briley - 9/98

Background

I like Alice. S/He is consistent, compassionate, believes Jesus is Christ, and likes Pooh (as in William The Bear). Alice is a spokeperson in the Bay Area for those men and women who have changed their gender through surgical means. Alice is a transgendered male who remains married to his/her wife. S/He has been the recipient of anger and hate from two camps: conservative Californians and (Are you ready for this?) severe hostility from homosexual activists.

I discovered that Alice was not a mere inquirer but an active promoter of transgendered people. Yes, I was suckered into this one. We quickly came to the conclusion that we were on opposite theological poles on what the Bible claimed, but readily agreed that Jesus was central to faith and everyone needs Jesus in their heart. What amazed me most was Alice was the first civil person I met who argued with me without calling me names. So is the silly old bear, named Winnie, really a transgendered William?? As the rock song says .... "Go ask Alice".

Alice wrote in 9/98

Excerpted from a longer memo: "Has the Committee on Moral Concerns taken a position on transsexualism? I understand more and more Christian groups are reviewing their erroneous grouping of transsexuals into the homosexual tent because sexual orientation has nothing to do with this situation." S/he also asked if we thought s/he was going to hell. This is not as baiting as it appears here. The original context and tone was a genuine question about our theological position on transgendered people.

Three-part Answer

My answer comes in three parts, none of which will fully address your situation.

First, the homosexual community is responsible for the 'lumping' together in the public's mind. For example, the Department of Energy is sponsoring activity groups at it's premier weapons laboratory called "The Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgender Activity Group." In attending their meetings, it is clear that they consider you part of them. And so does the rest of the Department of Energy and University of California which implements the policy.

Second, the COMC does not isolate out transexuals as a class. The terrible bills that we encounter in Sacramento tend to be exclusively homosexual-behavior driven and the State legislators make no attempt to single out transgender issues. I think transgender issues are simply not on their radar screen and thus you do not see references on our web site about transgender issues.

Third, on a personal level, I believe that gender is a given as a birthright or better yet, a birth responsibility and stewardship. The COMC is composed of individual Christians who hold to traditional Christian theology. While none of the board is Roman Catholic, you will find us in agreement with the Roman church on this issue of birthright. Even within the Catholic communities, there is active encouragement for a person to come into a state of grace (make a turn around) despite how they may have cut or altered their body previously.

Transgendered Yet Traditional Christians

Your memo strongly suggests that you are in the right and the traditional church theology is in the wrong. This short response cannot possibly do this topic justice. However, as a lone voice on the net, I personally encourage you to contact transgendered people who have made the trip full circle. Their body is forever altered (neutered) but they have reestablished their male identity as a result of finding grace within Jesus Christ.

In summary, your status in regards to hell depends on what you do with Jesus at the heart level. If you are taking charge of your own life and Jesus is a sidebar, that is not being in a state of grace. If you are yielding control to Jesus and your ego is the sidebar, then Jesus is able to bring order and holiness to us beyond our wildest imagination.

This is why Jesus asked his closest inner circle of friends, "Who do men say that I am?" and then later "Now, who do you say that I am?" The implication is 'Lord' is not a trivial term and is virtually an unknown concept in our culture. Alice, consider a turn-about as a holy choice.

PostScript

As noted above, Alice did not consider the status quo unholy and that our theologies were disparate. We parted friends knowing full well that neither was going to convince the other by a volley of words and logical arguments.

And that, in a nutshell, is the limitation of our legal system and indeed all human laws. The issue of homosexual activism at the legal level rarely deals directly with the behaviors that define homosexuality but more with whether the world view held by homosexual activists should silence and overrule the traditional Christian world view. This is why we advocate our positions so earnestly in Sacramento.

Silencing of civil discourse (as I enjoyed with Alice through several memos) and punishing traditional world-view property owners and employers (including churches) is a frightening Orwellian future that we face in California. Today is a good day to pray.

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