{"id":1801,"date":"2024-12-26T00:09:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T00:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2024-12-26T00:09:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T00:09:21","slug":"the-bible-is-pro-trans-anglican-campaign-group-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2024\/12\/26\/the-bible-is-pro-trans-anglican-campaign-group-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bible is pro-trans, Anglican campaign group claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Church
Changing Attitude England wants the Church of England to become one which \u2018embraces unconditionally lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people\u2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Bible is pro-transgender, according to guidance promoted by an Anglican campaign group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It claims that \u201cnot everyone in the Bible is cisgender\u201d<\/a> \u2013 their gender at birth \u2013 and says that biblical stories contain \u201csome clear queer characters\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This argument rests on the treatment of eunuchs in scripture and women taking part in apparently masculine activities in the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guidance is contained in resources hosted on the website LGBT Faith UK. A link to the document states: \u201cThe Bible affirms trans, intersex and queer people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text begins by stating: \u201cNot everyone in the Bible is cisgender. Nor is everyone in the Bible biologically or anatomically male or female.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the Bible, the clearest example of this are eunuchs, who can be seen as the biblical \u2018ancestors\u2019 of trans people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guidance states that in chapter eight of Acts, an angel is sent to instruct one of the early evangelists to go and seek an Ethiopian eunuch, who he finds reading scripture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip, the evangelist, delivers the Christian message to the eunuch, and subsequently baptises him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guidance states that this shows that the eunuch could be \u201ca full member [of the Church] without having to be totally male or totally female. God called him just as he was\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hints Samaritan woman is \u2018intersex\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The resources further claim that Jesus\u2019s<\/a> encounter with a Samaritan woman in the book of John hints that she is \u201cintersex\u201d, and also shows that Christ \u201caffirms\u201d her identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It adds that while \u201cfinding queer characters in the Bible\u201d can be difficult, \u201clooking at queer in terms of gender performance shows some clear queer characters\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The example given is the female judge Deborah, who despite being female leads the Israelites into battle, a \u201cvery male thing for a woman to do\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the same site it is stated that the Bible \u201caffirms gays and lesbians<\/a>\u201d and \u201caffirms bisexuals\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The website LGBTQ Faith UK supports the lobby group Changing Attitude. It has lobbied Church of England<\/a> bishops for \u201cradical inclusion\u201d of sexual orientations and gender identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pressure group was founded by Colin Coward, a retired Anglican priest, and wants to bring about a \u201cradical transformation of the patriarchal, heteronormative, white, western privileged culture of the Church of England\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wants the Church to become one that \u201cembraces unconditionally lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender<\/a>, intersex and queer people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group lobbied bishops extensively as the Church sought to consult on issues of sexuality and gender<\/a> as part of a process titled Living in Love and Faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was hoped that responses to this process could push bishops to adopt a new \u201cradical\u201d stance ahead of the 2023 Synod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ann Reddecliffe, the campaigner who wrote the guidance, was also a representative for Inclusive Churches. The educational charity lobbies for greater inclusion and has hundreds of churches registered with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guidance material states that it is taken from a book called LGBTQ Welcome, by Reddecliffe, and is not the official position of the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018 the Church of England said the Affirmation of Baptism service, which allows people to make a renewed declaration of their faith, should be adapted to make transgender people feel more welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year after, it said it would accept a marriage involving a transgender person if the spouses were of opposite sexes when they got married.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bible is pro-transgender, according to guidance promoted by an Anglican campaign group. It claims that \u201cnot everyone in the Bible is cisgender\u201d \u2013 their gender at birth \u2013 and says that biblical stories contain \u201csome clear queer characters\u201d. This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1802,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions\/1802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}