Are Transgender People Fixing God’s Mistakes?

Stand To Reason ^ | 01/04/2022 | Alan Shlemon

[SeekAndFind]

God isn’t perfect. According to a tweet by a “transgender ally,” sometimes he makes mistakes we can fix. Listen to what she wrote:

God made you a brunette, yet you are now a blonde. God gave you bad vision, yet you fixed it with glasses. God gave you crooked teeth, yet you straightened them with braces. Trans people change the outside to match the inside just like you do. Sit down. Jesus said to.

Allegedly, God could have given you the wrong body, and fixing that mistake is just like getting glasses or braces. This thinking, however, is misguided for at least four reasons.

First, it presumes God makes mistakes. Not everything that exists was intentionally made that way by our Creator. Genesis explains that God made all things good. What Scripture also teaches, though, is that creation became tainted by sin, and God’s perfect design was broken. Babies are born with missing limbs, impaired immune systems, or Down syndrome. That’s not God’s intent, however. Humanity sinned and corrupted creation along with it. Birth defects—whether anatomical or physiological—are not God’s fault, but are ultimately the result of mankind’s sin.

Second, it wrongly compares the transgender desire to change one’s body to repairing a damaged organ. Every body part is designed to function a certain way. Eyes are meant to see, and teeth are meant to grind food. Getting glasses (or LASIK surgery), for example, is meant to restore the eyes to their original purpose, which is to see clearly.

My son, for example, was born with a droopy eyelid that impaired his ability to see. A doctor surgically “lifted” his eyelid so it wouldn’t obscure his vision and his eye could function properly. This wasn’t an attempt to “change the outside to match the inside.” It was simply a surgery to correct an eyelid deformity and restore an organ to its original design.

Transgender ideation, however, isn’t concerned with correcting a malfunctioning organ. Rather, the transgender person often wants to alter normally functioning body systems (e.g., through hormones) or amputate healthy and fully functioning sex organs.

Third, it wrongly presumes one’s internal perception is accurate. The tweet claims transgender people merely want to change their body to match how they feel inside. But why assume a person’s thinking about their body is always correct? There are many conditions where a person’s internal state doesn’t match their body and it’s their perception—not their body—that is mistaken.

Some people, for example, wrongly perceive their body to be fat even when they are thin. There is a mismatch between their mind and body, but it’s their “inside” that’s mistaken. Why automatically presume the internal perception of someone who identifies as transgender is correct? It’s possible they should alter their mind to match their body and not vice versa.

Fourth, the tweet begs the question. This is perhaps the most serious problem. Begging the question (or circular reasoning) is a logical error in which you presume something is true instead of proving it to be true. In this case, the conclusion the author wants you to believe is that it’s normal for a transgender person to change their body to match their “inside.” What evidence does she provide for such a claim? None. She offers some illustrations (correcting vision with glasses or bad teeth with braces) to describe what she means.

But illustrations are not arguments, and they don’t prove anything. Illustrations illustrate. They make an idea more clear by describing it in a different way. Her claim is that altering your sex organs to make them match how you feel inside is similar to wearing glasses or getting braces (a dubious claim indeed). Even if wearing glasses were analogous to amputating a healthy sex organ (which I don’t grant), all the author has done is provide an illustration to attempt to more clearly describe what she is talking about. But whether it’s right to cosmetically alter your body and/or sex organs to match how you feel is precisely what needs to be proven. This tweet, however, simply assumes that claim is true and provides poor analogies to illustrate it. The author does nothing to provide a reason why such a claim is true in the first place.

These four missteps in thinking are evidence that people aren’t thinking clearly about important matters. No one denies that some people experience what they perceive is a mismatch between their body and mind. Neither does anyone deny that such an experience is a serious condition. In fact, Christians recognize these people are valuable image-bearers of God who need our love, compassion, and care. Where we diverge from our secular-thinking friends (some of whom claim to be Christian) is their belief that God erred with their body, that their “inside” experience is inerrant, and that the solution lies with hormone treatment and radical cosmetic alterations.

The only hope for transgender individuals—and indeed for everyone—is not an external change, but an internal change. It’s not about a transformation of their body, but a transformation of their soul. Only the Great Physician can do that.

[Maris Crane]

Oh, thanks.

[Elsie]

Well, ‘Amy’ had a long run on Jeopardy, but it is over now.

‘She’ started life as a man, got married, decided ‘she’ wasn’t happy, mutilated ‘her’ body to give an outward appearance as a female - but...

...’she’ is STILL a man.

And ‘her’ heart is not changed for ‘she’ is now living with another FEMALE!!

[Elsie]

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

  9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
      Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape...

[Elsie]

something?

rowe v wade

[COBOL2Java]

How are those chromosome change operations coming along?

That may be next on Dr. Mengele's - er, Dr. Fauci's to-do list.

[Elsie]

these weird folk used to be found just in India

[Mark17]

Well, ‘Amy’ had a long run on Jeopardy, but it is over now.

If there is a dictionary definition of dysfunction, Amy’s picture would be there. 😀🙃

[Elsie]

Well, TOM’s high school picture is found on the bottom of the page...

https://issuu.com/cjeagles_archives/docs/cjhsar_cjhs_yb_1997/96

[alexander_busek]

As for negative effects, we would overall be even more shallow and selfish if everyone in this life was health and living without want.

Would recommend anyone who is interested to refresh their understanding by reading this Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil#%22Greater_good%22_responses

daniel1212, you seem to be promoting something resembling what Stephen Maitzen called the "Heaven Swamps Everything" theodicy, with some Irenaean theodicy ("Evil can promote spiritual growth") thrown in for good measure.

Regards,

[daniel1212]

"Skeptical theologians argue that, since no one can fully understand God's ultimate plan, no one can assume that evil actions do not have some sort of greater purpose"

Which is actually true despite the source attribution. A child does not understand the actions of his parents, which to him can seen mean and or senseless. Likewise a solidier in battle. Yet such are fallible beings, and with very finite understanding, whereas if God is the God of the Bible then "His understanding is infinite," as is His power, (Psalms 147:5) "declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done," (Isaiah 46:10)and thus can make what is objectively evil to actually be good, just and even merciful and gracious when all the aspects are known.

The only remaining quality that is critical is that of God's promise to make all work out for Good, which He has demonstrated, so much so that an entire book could be written of all how evil worked out for good just in this life, and then there is eternity. With no less an example than God sparing not His own Son but delivered him up for us all (Romans 8:32) to an unjust death by wicked hands. Thanks be to God.