- Hello world,
It's Austen. Let's talk about being
transgender and Christian.
(upbeat music)
I realized recently that
in the 50 transgender
and Christian videos
that I've made so far,
(Good grief, there are 50
transgender and Christian
videos, holy ____!)
I've never talked about heaven or hell
or what happens after we die.
Basically, I've never
talked about this stuff
because personally I don't
find it that interesting,
because we can never really
know what's gonna happen
after we die, so it just
seems like an argument
that kinda goes nowhere.
And, when you pair that
with the negative way
heaven and hell have been used as threats
towards LGBT folks and towards,
I mean lots of marginalized
folks and non-Christian
folks, it just, that kinda
put the kabosh on any interest that I had
as a young person.
I remember once hearing
about pastors that were
debating the size of heaven
and like, how many people
could fit into heaven
before the angels had
to hang out the "no vacancy"
sign, and I just remember
thinking "This is so silly."
Personally, I find for me
that it makes more sense
to concentrate on my life following Jesus
and my relationship with
God and the world in my life
rather than focusing on the
stuff that happens after death.
Having said that, I
read something this week
that made me think about this
whole heaven and afterlife
issue in a new way.
I was reading James Cone's
book, The God of the Oppressed,
which talks about Black theology
and how African American
folks have a different way
of thinking about their faith
than white American folks.
So, I got to a passage that
says that during slavery
"...heaven and Black religion
was inseparably connected
"to Jesus' promise to liberate
the oppressed from slavery.
"It was Black people's
vision of a new identity
"for themselves which
was in sharp contrast
"to their present status as slaves.
"This vision of Jesus as
the coming one who would
"take them back to heaven
held Black people together
"mentally as they struggled
physically to make
"real the future in their present."
There is so much happening
in those three sentences.
First, you have faith based
on God's liberating presence.
Then, you have the way
that that faith in heaven
and Jesus' coming kingdom
convinced people that they
were worth something, even
when the rest of the world
was telling them they
weren't worth anything.
And then finally, you have
that promise of heaven
giving people the strength
to work for justice
in their lives.
When I read this I immediately
thought of one of my
very favorite quotes by Vincent van Gogh.
He said, "If I am worth something later
"I am worth something
now, for wheat is wheat
"even if people think it is
a grass in the beginning."
In the same way, what
James Cone is saying is
that Black people during
slavery knew that they
were worth something in
heaven, which meant that
they were worth something on earth, too.
And that sense of worth that
the vision of heaven provided
gave them the strength and
the courage to stand up
and fight against
oppression and to liberate
themselves and others.
I've met a lot of trans
folks who are worried
about what's gonna happen
to them after they die.
I've gotten messages and
letters from trans kids
who say that they have known
that they are trans forever,
but they fall asleep
every night worried about
whether or not they
could die and go to hell
because of their gender identity.
Friends, God's love for
you is so much bigger
than your gender, so much
bigger than people's ideas
about you, so much bigger than
heaven and bigger than hell.
There are verses in the
Bible that supports slavery.
Did you know that?
Think about verses like
Titus 2:9, which says that
slaves should be submissive
to their masters.
Or, Ephesians 6:5, which says
"Slaves obey your earthly
"masters with fear and trembling
and with a sincere heart
"as you would obey Christ."
Or, I Peter 2:18, which
says "Slaves, be subject
"to your masters with all
respect not only to the good
"and gentle, but also to the unjust."
In fact, there are over
a dozen verses directly
supporting slavery and
there are one, possibly two
prohibitions in the whole Bible that maybe
could relate to transgender folks.
And yet, we don't teach
that the Black folks
who stood up and fought for their freedom
--like Nat Turner and Sojourner Truth--
We don't teach that they
went to hell for going
against the Bible.
Now, I'm not comparing being
Black to being transgender.
Those are very different things.
And obviously, there
are Black trans folks.
Those kinds of identity
are very different.
What I am saying is that I
think James Cone's description
of faith and heaven in Black
Christianity can be helpful
for other oppressed minority groups.
I think the concept of
worth in heaven can be
really helpful for people
who wonder about their worth
here and now.
Black folks during slavery read the Bible
and they read about how
the last will be first
and they read about how in
Christ there is no slave or free
and they read about how God
delivered the Israelites
from slavery in Egypt
and then again in Babylon
and they realized that
these people mattered to God
and that THEY mattered to God.
They realized that the
promise of heaven where God
would wipe away every tear
was for them, too, and even
maybe them especially.
They realized that if Jesus
cared so much for the poor
and the rejected and the
beaten down while he was here
on earth, then surely
they would have a place
in God's house of many mansions.
So, this got me thinking.
Maybe trans Christians are thinking
about this heaven thing backwards.
We see in the Bible that
God stands with the people
who are oppressed, who are
marginalized and rejected,
who risk violence and death,
the people whose rights
are taken away.
We see that God gives those people a place
in God's kingdom.
Add that to what Paul says
in Romans, Chapter Eight,
verses 38 and 39.
"We are convinced that neither
death nor life nor angels
"nor principalities nor things
present or things to come,
"nor powers, nor height nor
depth nor any created thing
"will be able to separate
us from the love of God
"which is in Jesus."
And if we can say that, that
we are assured of a place
in God's kingdom, then
we are assured of a place
in God's family today, too,
and every day of our lives.
If we are worth something to God then
we are worth something to God now.
So, remember that.
I know it's really hard to hold on to that
when so much of the world
is telling you to forget
and to think that you
are nothing and to think
that bad things are surely
going to happen to you.
But remember that God
loves you and that you have
a place in God's family
and in God's kingdom.
And then, remember to let
that blessed assurance
propel you into action for justice.
Thanks for watching the
video this week everybody.
If you have thoughts
about this stuff, put 'em
in the comments or get at me on Twitter
or on the Facebook page.
I'd love to hear your
thoughts about this, too
and I definitely recommend
reading James Cone's book
which I'm gonna put a link
to down in the description
so you have that as well.
Thanks for watching this week, everybody
I will see you back here next Wednesday.
Peace!
