‘To be trans is to enter a sacred journey of becoming whole’

[tabbycatstripy]

This isn’t a quotation from India Willoughby. It’s from a letter signed by senior religious leaders, including Rowan Williams, ex Archbishop of Canterbury, to Boris Johnson, urging him to ban trans conversion therapy.

I’m not a member of the CoE, but I don’t think I’m unreasonable in thinking they are going outside their religious remit. If I attended their church I would be seriously questioning whether these people shared my religious faith, and whether they had lost their ability to lead me in faith.

Be trans, don’t be trans. I don’t mind. But I don’t think it has anything to do with Christianity and see nothing in any Christian thought that would regard being trans as ‘sacred’ (obviously being kind etc is a Christian way to live your life - that’s different to calling being trans ‘sacred’).

All a bit odd.

It does seem to be a bit odd to keep repeating the old God gets it wrong sometimes mantra. However, bishops and archbishops are well known for digging into politics.

They’re really stepping it up here. People who believe what the Church of England has taught for hundreds of years have every right to feel lost by their church’s hijacking of ‘sacred’ to describe this nebulous concept.

And I’m not sure God - if there’s a god - is going to agree with these guys that he ‘gets it wrong sometimes’.

tabby I think you misgendered God there.

What a ridiculous statement to make.

There is nothing sacred about thinking you are something you are not, never have been & never can be.

God seems more easygoing by the day. It’ll be fine.

Just more Beeeee Kiiiiind.

The church loves to put people in their place - especially women

Is there a link?

It’s on Paul Brand’s Twitter (ITV).

So we were right then when we referred to trans as a new "sacred caste"!

What the hell is going on here? I just ... well, what is this all about? Really? Because I feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle now.

This all really feels like some sort of bizarre proxy war. It's attempting to re-engineer all manner of basic understandings by piggy-backing on the existence of 4000 transgender individuals with GRCs: many of whom did not ask for any of this shit.

Or is the establishment just hell bent on committing some sort of collective suicide? Because the more this goes on, the more they seem to be so adrift from reality, that it begs the question of why we are putting up with them all in the first place.

I think we were. It might help explain why some religious foundations are pushing this ideology: it’s a recruitment tool.

Recruitment, Torunette. Ageing Christian population, young people believing in a new social ideology. Why not harness it to the older ideology, and target all the most gullible people in society? If it keeps the church coffers full, I suspect some of them would call anything sacred.

Well, Iran is very into it. And the religious community-dwelling mother of a well-known American celebrity trans child.

Further patriarchal institutions massing against the "monstrous regiment"

The utterly blatant homophobia here when you consider the number of young lesbians and gay boys who then announce a trans identity.

Homophobia right there in plain sight.

I really feel quite ill about it.

Horrifying.

@Redshoeblueshoe

The church loves to put people in their place - especially women

This.

One patriarchal faith/religion weighs into the argument in support of another. Plus it gets to polish its wokey badge at the same time.

How do Russian soldiers know who to Rape Justin?

Sorry, just seen it was Rowan Williams, not Justin Welby.

I am intrigued by the theology here and will read the statement. I was brought up Church of England and when I was a believer would have said that Jesus Christ makes us whole, not our own actions. I was Protestant enough to think that anything I did myself was probably sinful.

Though - ah! Faith not works? Believe you are a particular sex and it will be?

I think it’s gendered souls married to a bit of old-fashioned homophobia. If a person comes to the church all confused by their homosexual feelings, they can be told they are ‘really’ the opposite sex because ‘souls’, and once properly settled down with a nice person of the new ‘opposite’ sex, everyone’s happy, nobody is sinful, and the happy couple can make a big donation.

But first you have to believe people can be trapped in the wrong body.

Sorry I'm not on twitter so can't find it but I am rather bemused that RW seems to be keen to rewrite centuries of Christian theology...

I'm certainly not going to take on Rowan Williams as a theologian! But am interested to see how he constructs this.

Well he has always been rather an odd man, and it doesn't follow Christian Biblical teachings at all.