Christian Theology and Intersex

[Betsy]

I hope I gave that a descriptive and accurate title :confused6

This is from my email this morning:

I am currently studying for a PhD in Theology, and my topic examines how intersex conditions help to question the heterosexual, gender-dichotomous norms naturalized in traditional Christian theology.

I am especially keen to make contact with people who have experience of living with an intersex condition in a church or religious setting, and I would like to correspond with Fr. Spencer St. John if he would be willing.

Would you please pass on my contact details to him and ask him to contact me if he would be willing to correspond with me?

Thank you very much.

Yours faithfully,

Susannah Cornwall


If interested, please contact Susannah directly at s.m.cornwall@<hidden>. She doesn't note it but you should know she is a PhD student at Exter University in the UK.

[Lou]

It is people who have made things complicated, according to scripture there are only three catagories of people on the planet, The natural person, the spiritual person and the carnal christian, all of humanity fits into one of these three catagories, the most miserable being the carnal christian who gets whacked from both extreems and never total about anything.

Hope the email got through, will find Lambert Dolphin to be both interesting and balanced, compassion being genuine with no games to play, has fought all the battles and plowed through the barriers to be stronger than he started as well as more humble and sensetive to the pain of other people, something that gets lost in causes and movements.

Will post one of his letters in event the email program fouls up on me again.
==============
Dear Lou,

I am 70, have never married, and have been a Christian 40 years now. I understand the various reasons why some men and men do not marry in the usual sense, or perhaps live with serious handicaps related to gender identity and sexuality. I have met a few individuals born with ambiguous genitalia and I certainly have come to believe that many such persons suffer terribly in society as they grow up.

The passage you quoted (Jesus drew it from Isaiah) assures "eunuchs" that they can have a greater inheritance than ordinary "sons and daughters."

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely separate me from his people"; and let not the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." For thus says the LORD: "To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56:3-5)

We all come into this world as fallen, mortal creatures because of the sin of Adam and Eve. This "original sin " takes different forms in each of us. Sometimes it is an emotional or psychological handicap which predisposes a person towards a certain from of behavior such as alcoholism, violence, crime, sexual perversions, and so on.

There are also physical and genetic defects which are most unfortunate because society fails to deal compassionately with such individuals.

This is not how Jesus receives us! He embraced the lepers, received prostitutes, welcomed tax-collectors, adulterers, and loathsome criminals such as the thief on the cross. In the long run the people to feel sorry for are the rich, successful and famous in this world who will never see heaven at all!

Physically/genetically handicapped men and women are more likely to see their need for the Lord and more likely to cling to Him. This means that in heaven a great reward awaits them. They will each also arrive in heaven as whole persons.

Our upbringing and social conditioning can make it very difficult for some people to discover their true core gender and adapt and be at home with who they really are in Christ. The Christian community certainly ought to show compassion and understanding towards any individual whose
their sexual identity and role (for whatever reason). I am not aware of any special Christian support groups, but they may well exist. There are of course good support groups for men and women coming out of a homosexual background.

I have several articles on my web page about sexual wholeness in Christ, but I am not expert in this field by any means.

"The body is dead because of sin, but your spirits are alive because of righteousness..." (Rom 8). ALL of us live in physical bodies which are not yet redeemed. A wonderful new and perfect body is already waiting for each of us in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1-5)

Thanks for writing!

Sincerely,

Lambert Dolphin
lambert@<hidden>
http://ldolphin.org/