Trans

In today's society, where traditional sexual identity roles have blurred a bit, I find it harder and harder to tell if people are male or female. This is not something I say lightly, since for much of my life people have had the same issues with me. At best I'm stocky and muscular, at worst a roundish, asexual blob, I have a deep alto or tenor voice, depending on what's going on (I'm a contralto voice, but can sing as low as baritone, which I've practiced since there is often a lack of men in the choir), and I am fond of my New England preppie school days, which means you can often find me in button-down Oxford shirts and khakis. Even when I put on skirts, I'm not a real girly-girl. As a kid, I liked playing cowboys and Indians, climbing trees as well as having tea parties and playing with my Barbies. I never felt the urge to marry, settle down, or have kids. There's a lot about my nature, appearance, and manner that could be considered "macho," which I've always taken as a compliment. Call me butch and I'll either punch you or just have my feelings hurt, but yeah, I'm a little macho.

So it may be a bit hypocritical of me to say that transsexuals have always evoked a visceral response from me. I've always thought, "but it's not right. You can't change your gender. Those people have issues."

And it may be true that transexuals or transgendered people have issues. It may be that their issue is sexual in nature. The root "trans" means "beyond" or "across," and perhaps transsexuals have moved beyond our traditional definitions of sex and sexuality. It occurs to me that once people move beyond the roles of sex and sexuality, which are limitations imposed by a physical body, that they can also move beyond the realm of the physical and more towards the realm of the spiritual.

I started this conversation in my head when I was thinking about my affiliation with my church. Born and bred in the CME tradition, I'm pretty sure I'm through with the African American church tradition. I'm not through with Jesus, mind you -- I just need to move beyond the box the Church puts Jesus into and move closer to Him, through deeper and more complete exploration into and contemplation of God's Word, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures and as revealed in the life of Jesus Christ. If we believe that the Word is alive and active, then we must be willing for more to be revealed to us. I don't believe the African American church tradition is ready for more revelation. I believe our interest is in continuing business as usual. We don't have money left for ministry after we've finished paying it all to the travel agents, hotels, and restaurants involved in our never-ending stream of meetings. And it's not like there's ever any progress made at these meetings -- it's not like there's any change. Our church has simply become a false idol, existing to give lip service to God, but not being able to Worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

Just as transsexuals have moved beyond traditional definitions of sexuality, so must our church move beyond traditional definitions of religiousity. We have to move closer to God and move beyond this rut we're in.....