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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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What sort of precedents?

Christianity doesn't exactly address the question of playing sports between the sexes. That makes it a poor fit for freedom-of-religion. It's not establishing one religion over another, either. I'd assume it fails to harm any particular religion, and that there are secular sports teams making similar protests.

Playing coed sports isn’t a religious issue. But by playing with a boy saying he is a girl does bring up religious issues. Then by playing with him/her they are defacto recognizing transgender. Which is mocking god who created man and women as distinct.

Playing a coed game is no problem.

In that case (assuming the existence of God) he also created men who wanted to be women and vice versa, and prople who would support them. Essentially God is mocking Himself, so i am not sure thats a productive line of reasoning.

I mean your allowed to just say your atheist etc. but Christian’s have a literal creation story. Which I am sure your well aware of. God didn’t create half men half women.

God didn’t create half men half women.

I am an atheist but that doesn't stop me being able to comment on the logic here. If men and women were created in God's image and God is omniscient and omnipotent then trans men and women are creations of God. They would not exist unless He wanted them to. He could have chosen there to be no trans people or gay people or non-believers etc. The seeds of being trans were contained within the image of God. Now we don't know why that is the case (God works in mysterious ways and so on, maybe created as a test, or to prove a point or some other ineffable reason) but it is the logical outcome of the Christian creation story.

Sin exists. Because some exists doesn’t mean it was made in the image of god. The whole origional sin thing.

I mean you were an obvious atheist. I don’t think you are replying in good faith or lack an understanding of religion.

Think this is simple. Trans people go to hell unless they repent. It’s not something in gods image but a perversion.

Think this is simple. Trans people go to hell unless they repent. It’s not something in gods image but a perversion.

What particular kind of soteriology do you subscribe to here? Do you believe any Christian goes to hell for any unrepented-for sins, or do you just think that being openly trans is a mortal sin that destines one for Hell if one does not repent (as opposed to a venial sin that does not)?

I'm curious how you think being created in God's image relates to sex. What does it mean for a female human to be made in the image of a masculine God? I know that the Holy Spirit is grammatically feminine in Hebrew (though neuter in Greek), and there are a few feminine metaphors for God peppered throughout the Bible, but isn't God usually a "He"?

God didn’t create half men half women.

Sure, but isn't it a Christian belief that many of the natural "evils" of the world are a result of original sin, without being themselves sinful? Just because there was no cancer in Eden, doesn't mean that a person getting cancer is sinful.

Why you do you think that medically and socially transitioning as a trans person is more like theft than cancer?

And how do you square all of this with the many references to eunuchs and their place in society in the Old and New Testament? It seems like it is fully possible for a eunuch to be a faithful follower of Christ, and wouldn't trans people arguably belong to that category?

I think by my statement I assume it’s in the mortal sin category. If done surgically. It’s desecrating your body so you can’t reproduce. No idea if you just play dress up probably lower or not at all.

Didn't Jesus encourage people to maim themselves if their body parts were causing them to sin? I know every Christian except Origen and the Skoptsy ignored the literal meaning of those words, but if Jesus is pro gouging your own eyes out, why would he be anti genital mutilation? Especially when his chosen people were expected to lop off a part of their anatomy to prove they were part of a covenant with God?

I also feel like you didn't address the eunuch idea. Eunuchs existed and were common in the past. There are certainly Old Testament references forbidding the use of castrated animals in sacrifices, preventing castrated sons of Aaron from serving as priests, and castrated Jews from entering the temple, but the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 seems to imply this is not a prohibition that applies to Christians.

If making yourself infertile is such a big taboo, why is castration never explicitly forbidden anywhere in the Bible?

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