God's Pronouns are They/Them: Baptist News Global

Independent Baptist news outlet publishes an article arguing God is trans

Baptist News Global, an independent website for progressive Baptists to deconstruct their faith, published an article earlier this year headed: “God’s Pronouns are They/Them.”

It began …

God transcends gender.

That’s true in the sense that God, by his nature, transcends absolutely everything. God is also Spirit, so He’s not male or female.

Theologically speaking, God is nonbinary.

Well, no. You can’t argue that God transcends gender and then, in the next breath, argue that God’s gender is non-binary, or anything else. He either transcends gender or He doesn’t.

That means in English, God’s pronouns are they/them.

Well if God’s gender was non-binary, which it is not, then God’s pronouns would be they/them, which they are not.

God is trans

This article is only 20 words old and already it’s one of the stupidest things I have had the misfortune of reading.

I’d love to say this thought was originally mine, but that would be another cis white man commandeering someone else’s thought, my friend’s.

Literally the only thing going for the author at this point is that his main thought is not original to him.

Kevin is a nonbinary queer theologian who is spunky and smart and ambitious. They put me to shame when it comes to thoughts of the divine and spirituality; maybe it’s the master’s degree in theology.

You know, when it coms to theology, the author might want to lay off the “spunk” and focus a bit more on basic Biblical exegesis. Just a thought.

But wait. Did the author really say God transcends gender + God is non-binary + God’s pronouns are they/them + God is trans = a masters degree in theology?

Weet-Bix packets aren’t what they used to be!

The thought of God being trans — transcending gender — is provocative, important and ultimately true. We can see it all over Scripture.

God, Creator of the universe, is neither male nor female. And humans — males, females and all in between — are created in “their” image. The term “Spirit” is feminine in nature, and Scripture compares God to both a father and a mother.

Okay the “males and females and all in between” bit is absolutely nowhere in Scripture.

Genesis 1v27 says “male and female He created them”.

There is absolutely no “and all the non-binary folks in between” mentioned.

And God introduces Himself with He/Him pronouns. God is not male, but God does teach us to relate to Him as we would a male.

It’s why Jesus told the disciples to pray: “Our Father who art in heaven …”

You’d think a masters degree in theology would at least make one familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.

“Creation itself is non-binary.”

No it’s not. But go on Spunky …

Scripture speaks of God creating night and day, yet we know by observation that there are in-between times such as dawn and dusk.

Let’s roll the tape, shall we?

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.”

Sounds pretty binary to me.

Incidentally, dawn is the beginning of the day. Dusk is the beginning of night. Dawn and dusk are not metaphors for gender fluidity.

When it comes to animals, Genesis says God created creatures of land and sea, yet we know there are amphibians.

So, if I’m following the argument, Elliot Page is neither a man nor a woman because a frog can exist on both land and water. Ribbit!

And while Scripture says God created man and woman, we know 1.7% of the population are born intersex. The non-binary is all throughout creation.

We also know that 0.3 per cent of the population is born missing a limb, but that doesn’t mean one-legged people are a feature!

The very nature of God transcends a binary description too, and we are reflections of that nature. Is it any wonder that gender is expressed in various and wonderful ways?

Yeah, nah. God created them male and female. It’s binary, no matter how many frogs are sharing your lily pad.

We can again look at the biblical text to confirm this.

What do you mean “again”?

In Christ, gender is abolished

When Paul says that “in Christ there is neither male nor female” he does not mean that men and women no longer exist.

Paul means that those distinctions have nothing to do with our access to salvation. All - whether male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free - are saved by faith alone.

You would literally need to stand on your head, spinning at 200km/h in an anti-clockwise direction whilst being stung by a thousand hornets between the legs at dusk (or dawn), to conclude that Paul was extolling the virtues of transgenderism in Galatians 3.

In ancient Jewish thought, there were eight genders.

In ancient Mars thought there were 22 and a half genders and a partridge in a pear tree. So what?

In Christ’s early church, it was a eunuch who was entrusted to carry the gospel to Africa. And even Jesus says many will become eunuchs and are born eunuchs (some scholars view this as intersex)

By some scholars you man a glad bag of “spunky” activist scholars who wouldn’t know their Charles Spurgeon from their Sam Smith.

“Transness” is not only the nature of God; it also is ours. It is written into the very text Christians are somehow invoking today to block transgender individuals from basic human rights.

Transgenderism is absolutely not written into the Biblical text and non-binary as a gender category is absolutely not endorsed.

As for blocking transgender individuals from basic human rights. What?!?!

This religious zealotry intends not just to block these children of God but to cause harm.

If you’re harmed by biology, I can’t help you.

As of today, there are nearly 500 anti-trans bills up for votes across the United States …

You say anti-trans, I say pro-women.

… in 2022, more than 20% of far-right demonstrations were anti-trans in nature

I say pro-women and children, you say anti-trans.

You say far-right, I say normal people.

… and in 2021, there were 50 trans fatalities 50 trans fatalities as a result of violence, all while anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has been on the rise for three consecutive years.

Fifty trans people killed in incidents of violence does not mean 50 people were killed because they were trans anymore than the author would agree that cross-dressing they/them shooter Kimbrady Carriker slaughtered five people on July 4 because he was non-binary.

It’s not a coincidence that hateful rhetoric perpetuates and empowers hateful behavior. Actions begin with words. Words begin with thoughts, and thoughts begin with beliefs.

Except that biology is only “hateful rhetoric” to people who are angry at reality.

Our theology has consequences, and those consequences are lives. Lives that have transformed me. It was a trans woman who first taught me the vast discrepancies between being a man and a woman. It was a trans man who taught me we are continually and beautifully always becoming. And it was a nonbinary person who taught me God is trans. All these people deeply love God and are committed to following Them when the Church has done nothing but hurt and try to destroy them.

It’s a little hard to believe the author’s claim that the “church” tried to “destroy” his friends when the author also claims that merely stating biological facts is to cause “harm”.

It’s not hard to believe the author was tutored by trans activists.

What is bewildering to me is that Jesus, who continually took in the marginalized, often is invoked to persecute the very people he would have protected.

Jesus isn’t invoked to persecute people, He is invoked to know what’s true and what is not true. Truth is not persecution, unless you are determined to live a lie.

Where is this bigotry endorsed in Scripture? Where are the words of Christ that say, “Love thy neighbor but hate thy trans child”? Where did he say, “I am the way, the truth and the life, everyone comes to the Father except those with their/them pronouns”?

When you decide that biology is bigotry, and that truth is persecution, you really become quite stupid.

Instead, Jesus listens to the outcast and calls those whom society hated as the most faithful.

It’s true Jesus spent time with the outcasts, but you might want to keep in mind that Jesus didn’t become more like the ‘outcasts’, the outcasts became more like Him.

He says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are you when people falsely say all kinds of evil against you.”

A man cannot become a woman. A woman cannot become a man.

If that’s “all kinds of evil”then you’re not poor in spirit, you’re deficient in intellect.

Jesus would stand with transgender individuals, and many who are leaving the church understand that. It’s why more than 25% of those leaving the church are leaving because the church refuses to stand with and love LGBTQ people.

‘Standing with’ and ‘agreeing with’ are two completely different things.

Jesus stood with the woman caught in adultery and told her “go and sin no more”.

People who leave the church over its commitment to a Biblical view on gender and human sexuality don’t leave the church in solidarity with Jesus’ love, they leave the church in opposition to Jesus’ clear teaching.

To my trans siblings who are experiencing so much hate from those who are called to love, I say you are blessed. You are blessed because you are poor of spiritual nourishment, because the church has barred its gates to you. You are blessed because you have mourned and mourned and mourned as you have been cast out and aside. You are blessed because you’ve been called horrific things without any evidence to support the fear and hate mongering. You are blessed. By a transcendent, transgender God who sees you and understands you and who was killed by the religious leaders of the time.

Ah yes, the crowd yelled: “Crucify they/them! Crucify they/them!”

Jesus was crucified for being transgendered. Of course! If only the Jewish leaders had been more inclusive of gender diverse individuals, Jesus would never have needed to die.

He would have led a Pride parade before growing old hosting Drag Queen Torah Time for kids at local synagogues.

You are not alone. I stand with you because I know Jesus would stand with you too. I hope and pray the church will repent and do the same. 

It’s an amazing thing when a Baptist newsletter (an independent one, I should stress) publishes an article calling on the church to repent of its commitment to Biblical truth.

We live in crazy times.