First of all, let me say that bullying of any kind, for any reason, is inexcusable. It’s ugly. It’s hateful. No one should have to live in fear of being attacked just for being “different.” Sadly, bullying is nothing new. And it isn’t only directed at trans and non-binary youth.
Nearly 60 years have passed, but I well remember being bullied, both inside and outside of school, for no other reason than I was one of the smaller kids in my class. Unfortunately, the “strong” will always try to dominate the “weak” or “different,” often to hide behind their own insecurities. As I said, such behavior is completely unacceptable, anytime, anyplace. On that I think we can all agree.
On March 7, a guest opinion (“Haunted by non-binary teens’ stories of bullying”) states that all humans were created in the image of God (based on Genesis 1:27), and that “God’s existence does not conform to binary definitions of gender.”
The author, a local pastor, goes on to say that “God is beyond — dare I say trans — gender.”
I looked up the Scripture passage in question, and it reads as follows (from the New Living Translation): “So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.” Genesis 5:1-2 repeats the same theme: “This is the history of the descendants of Adam. When God created people, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them ‘human.’”
Lest one be tempted to dismiss these statements as being the narrow-minded rants of some transphobic old men from the distant past, Jesus himself, speaking to the religious elite of his day, said: “Haven’t you read the Scriptures? They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’” (Matthew 19:4).
So it appears that there are indeed “binary definitions of gender,” according to both the Old Testament and New Testament. God himself may not conform to them, as the writer pointed out, but it seems clear that He is the one who created them.
The fact that “He created them male and female” is indeed a reflection of His own image.
We need to be careful that we don’t attempt to make God conform to our image, whatever we imagine that to be. In any case, no matter what you may believe about gender and the origins thereof, let the words of Jesus, whose death and resurrection we will soon be observing, be our credo: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, “Hate has no home here.”
Paul Cheshire lives in Riegelsville.
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