Mandy Mitchell

At the beginning of this series, we observed some of the key claims of Complementarianism, along with the assertion of one of its major proponents that the whole system falls apart without a stable, binary model of sex and gender.

We’ve been exploring the feasibility of creating such a model while remaining grounded in our current understanding of biology. In the earlier posts, we evaluated chromosomes and gonads, and found that they have too much ambiguity for the purposes of a system like…

In the first post of this series, we established that chromosomal configurations are insufficient to serve as the basis for an unambiguous, binary definition of “biological sex”. However, the proponents of these models may still be able to point us in interesting directions:

Even when abnormalities occur in chromosomes, they still comprise some combination of Xs and Ys. The reproductive possibilities for intersex persons seems to align with the chromosomes. Male reproductive capacity comes only from those who have Y chromosomes. Female reproductive capacity comes only from those who have no Y chromosome. Is this not reflective of the dimorphic paradigm of Scripture?

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Almost two weeks ago, protests started over the murder of George Floyd and quickly expanded into a national discussion/protest/riot about racism and police brutality in America.

As frequently happens during national protests, there have been incidents of violence, vandalism, and looting, which bring up the same old questions about whether the presence of these activities impacts the validity of the protests.

Although many others have already discussed this issue at length (and probably more…

In August 2017, an organization called The Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood published a document called the “Nashville Statement”, which makes declarations on a number of issues related to gender and sexuality.

One of its Articles introduces the term “biological sex”:

We affirm that those born with a physical disorder of sex development are created in the image of God and have dignity and worth equal to all other image-bearers. They are acknowledged by our Lord Jesus in his words about “eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb.” With all others they are welcome as faithful followers of Jesus Christ and should embrace their biological sex insofar as it may be known.

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While growing up, I don’t think anyone ever told me that being transgender was unacceptable, but I nonetheless received this message loud and clear.

Over the years, I began to question the validity of this idea, but I didn’t dig deeply into it until last year. As you can see from my recent posts, I found the arguments to be less than compelling.

This presents something of a mystery: many Christians express strong anti-trans sentiment, but the stated reasons for this opposition don’t seem to…

When I was in 8th grade, one of my teachers required daily Bible reading; he didn’t care which part we read, as long as we read a certain number of chapters per day—and wrote something about it.

I started at the beginning. Genealogies, detailed instructions for tabernacle construction, ceremonial laws: I slogged straight through it all.

Several weeks in, I ran across this gem:

5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

Oh no.

By the time that I read this, it had already been about a year since I had become aware…

When non-affirming Christians bother to make any appeal at all to scripture when discussing gender identity, the first destination is usually Genesis 1:27:

27   So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

Possessing a gender identity that is different from what your physical characteristics might suggest would seem to blur the lines between male and female. Because God created two categories for gender, anything that might subvert this is clearly outside of his will—or so the argument goes.

This line of reasoning is…

By which I mean that I’m finally out of the closet, as it were. After struggling against my gender identity for many years, I finally came to a place of peace regarding it about a year ago.

Since then, I’ve been busy making arrangements to head down the path of “social and medical transitioning”, and about a week and a half ago, I reached the point of being ready to open with everyone in my life about what’s been going on.

So here’s the short version: I’m trans.

I was assigned male at birth, but…