In Jesus, God rose with wounds that would have impaired his mobility and fine motor skills. In John 20, Jesus allows his disciples to gaze at his impaired body, and even lets Thomas touch his wounds. Let’s explore how this story connects to the complications of marginalized bodies being put on display for public consumption — of being made into a spectacle.
Many of us are taught that in order to be a strong Christian, we must have unshakable faith and be certain in our beliefs. But this creates a culture of shaming doubt, and millions* of Christians who experience doubt fear that they can’t be open about their faith. Maybe this is you. But what does the Bible really say about faith, doubt, and questioning?
*One 2017 study from Barna indicated more than half of Christians!
What Do These Words Even Mean?
In the New Testament, the word “believe” is a translation of Greek [image 3] (pisteúŌ, meaning to trust).
Like how you “believe in” or “trust in” your friend. Similarly, both “belief” and “faith” are both translations of [image 4] (pistis, meaning trust).
The words “belief” and “faith” aren’t wrong, but we’ve been using them so long they now have specific religious connotations that can limit our understanding. Thinking about it as our TRUST in God offers us a fresh perspective: it’s less like a thing we can possess (faith/belief) and more like a RELATIONSHIP WE LIVE (trust).
The Bible is a Communal Text
Speaking of relationship, there’s a relational contrast between Scripture’s original readers and us: while we today are extremely INDIVIDUALISTIC, they were a COMMUNAL culture.
The peoples in the Bible used their Scriptures to question and discuss how to worship God and live a good life AS A COMMUNITY. Of course it’s still good and fruitful to read the Bible on your own, but they knew the fruit is riper when harvested collectively. And while we often assume Scripture has the single unchanging answer, they quoted it to voice various perspectives within their communities, which changed with the changing times.*
*Just like healthy relationships do!
Biblical Examples
We see Jesus doing this reinterpretation among his own communities. He raises questions about how the Scriptures are interpreted and often disagrees with his fellow Jewish scholars.
Paul also does this, in one instance arguing strongly with Simon Peter,* which shows us that from the beginning of Christianity, questioning how we should live our faith (and even disagreement!) is a part of the tradition!
So how does doubt fit in?
*Galatians 2:11-14
The Wisdom of Doubt
It’s been said the opposite of faith isn’t doubt, it’s certainty. Doubt calls our attention to what doesn’t feel right, urging us to challenge what we think and look deeper than what’s on the surface. Doubt offers us questions which we can voice in a community* (just like Jesus and Paul and those before them!). And when we listen to our doubt, we give our TRUST opportunity to grow.
*ideally in a safe, open, curious community
A Nonbinary Way of Faith
The same binary way of thinking which dictates that everyone must be either male or female — this same binary mindset demands we choose between doubt and faith. But maybe our doubt is the Holy Spirit’s whisper that Christ’s good news is more inclusive and nonbinary than we ever imagined. God loves us all for our genders, our sexualities, and our curious questions, doubts, and changing beliefs.
Divine and Human, Trust and Doubt
When we (mis)use the Bible like proof that we’re right or an emotionless instruction manual, we miss so much of it’s nuanced wisdom and cheapen it’s artistry. The complex beauty of Scripture is that it’s a DIVERSE LIBRARY OF BOOKS, INSPIRED BY GOD AND WRITTEN BY PEOPLE. It is profoundly divine and thoroughly human, and contains many perspectives: some confident, some questioning, some harmonious, some disagreeing — all inviting us through doubt and trust in community to love God.
Practical Tips for Doubting
Find a safe, open, curious community to question with. (join our weekly youth group here.)
Start following experts. While anyone can benefit from reading the Bible regardless of education, we also need historians, scientists, archeologists, linguists, theologians, philosophers, and many other sort of experts to help us interpret what we read. Many have podcasts, books, and social media! (some listed in picture 4)
Trust that God isn’t tallying your failures or loving you because you believe X, Y, or Z. God loves you. Invite Them into your journey of doubt and faith.
1: GENDER IS A COMPLEX THING. Essentially gender is our internal relationship to societal concepts of masculinity and femininity.
2. GENDER EXPRESSION is the behavior attributes and symbols that indicate and perform one’s gender(s).
3. PART OF IT HAS TO DO WITH how you feel, part of it is how people see you, part of it has to do with expectations based on biological sex. Frankly, no definition of gender really gets all of what it is or isn’t.
4. MANY PEOPLE IDENTIFY WITHIN the binary of man or woman, many have a fluid experience within the spectrum, and still many identify outside the spectrum of these two options altogether.
5. CISGENDER PEOPLE identify with the gender society prescribes them at birth based on external sex characteristics.
TRANSGENDER PEOPLE internally align with gender(s) other than those assigned at birth.
Even Biological Sex Is NOT A Binary
The terms “MALE” AND “FEMALE” are used to categorize the anatomical differences in our bodies, but everything we attribute to biological sex— chromosomes, horomones, sex-linked genes, and genitalia— all exist on a complex spectrum. We are taught that XX chromosomes means female and XY chromosomes means male, but someone with XX chromosomes can be born with a penis and someone with XY chromosomes could be born with a vagina. Other chromosomal combinations exist (including X, XXY, XXX), and many people are born with varying degrees of both ovaries and testicles. This diversity has come to be generalized as “intersex” (neither male nor female). Tragically, doctors in many parts of the world perform irreversible surgeries to assign a binary sex to children whose bodies don’t match traditional understandings of male and female anatomy.
Who you are sexually or romantically attracted to is separate from your gender. Many people confuse the two.
“When I first came out as a lesbian in college, my friends assumed I must feel like a man on the inside because they couldn’t imagine two women loving each other.” “Growing up, everyone assumed I was gay because of my personality and how I dressed, but that was because they didn’t have the language for gender diversity. To them, everything queer had to be gay.”
Brief History of Gender Diversity
While most of the western world is only just waking up to the diversity and complexity of gender, many cultures around the world and throughout time have recognized transgender and gender nonconforming people, often giving them spiritual reverence.
Ancient Egyptians identified three genders, man, sekhet, and woman, as early as early as 2000 BCE. Other cultures acknowledge three, four, and even more genders.
THE MODERN EMPHASIS ON GENDER as a rigid binary is primarily the consequence of European colonialism: a Christianity of patriarchy and cis-normativity allowed European colonists to call other cultures primitive and justify violence against them along with other forms of theft and control.
The Importance of Pronouns and Names
There’s so many options for pronouns: he, she, they, ze, or even just using a person’s name, and more. THE WORDS WE USE TO GENDER PEOPLE MATTER.
Calling a transgender person by their birth name, or a previous name associated with an identity that is not authentic to them can be harmful. Often times trans people choose a name that aligns more with their identity. Their previous name is sometimes called their “dead name.” DON’T DEAD NAME PEOPLE.
Using a person’s chosen name and proper pronouns can REDUCE THEIR RISK OF SUICIDE BY 30%.
FUN FACT: the singular ‘they’ has been used as a gender neutral pronoun in English for many hundreds of years!
God is Not a Man
God is infinitely more complex than can be contained within human vocabulary and thoughts (see Isaiah 55:8-9).
THIS INCLUDES GENDER. God’s fullness includes woman, man, non-binary, and being outside of gender. The gender-diverse nature of God is reflected throughout scripture. In addition to masculine terms, God is repeatedly described as a nursing, protective, and comforting Mother who has born us from Her womb (Hosea 11:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:11-18; Isaiah 42:14, 49:15, 66:13; Psalm 131:2; Matthew 23:37; etc). Even Genesis 1:27 says all of humankind was made in God’s image (not just cisgender men).
In the Beginning
The Bible says that in the beginning, God created day and night, land and sea, birds and fish. But have you ever seen a sunset, or a beach, or a penguin? Well, trans and non-binary people are kind of like that. A BEAUTIFUL ARRAY OF DIVERSITY.
So, God created male and female, and we are no less beautiful, diverse, and wild than a sunset or a beach or a penguin. God created people with genders beyond male and female in the same way God created realities in between, outside of, and beyond these others. Trans and non-binary and agender and intersex: God created us. –Adapted from a message from trans pastor Asher O’Callaghan
Tonight July 8, 2021 at 630 PM EST we will be having a Zoom group meeting specifically for transgender people facilitated by myself, Rev. Michael Cardamone. This is for anyone who considers themselves trans anywhere on the spectrum and at any point in their trans journey (whatever that journey means to you).
If you are transgender and wish to attend this meeting with me to discuss lovely trans-affirming Christian literature, please feel free to hit up our inbox.
Tonight July 1, 2021 at 630 PM EST we will be having a Zoom group meeting specifically for transgender people facilitated by a gay-ish transgender man (namely me). This is for anyone who considers themselves trans anywhere on the spectrum and at any point in their trans journey (whatever that journey means to you).
If you are transgender and wish to attend this meeting with me to discuss lovely trans-affirming Christian literature, please feel free to hit up our inbox.
Mod Rev. Michael Cardamone here. I am a bisexual transgender man and I have an important announcement today.
Jesus People is happy to announce that we are starting a brand new Zoom meeting on Thursday nights at 6:30 PM EST. This meeting will strictly be for (and by) transgender persons across the gender spectrum. (We will schedule learning opportunities for cisgender persons separately at a later date.)
Euphoria is a weekly group by trans people for trans people concentrating on trans-affirming Christian literature and living joyfully in our true and truly God-given gender, not the World’s expectations for our bodies and lives.
First meeting will be an icebreaker meeting where we can discuss the author, our expectations for the book study, and peek at the intro. I plan on breaking this down into 8 weeks.
If you’re a trans person and interested in this meeting, feel free to message this page and I will get details to you.
Stock photo of a butterfly from Dreamstime for visibility.
Tonight’s the night! Be sure to message us if you’d like the Zoom link.
For the first meeting, don’t worry if you don’t have or can’t get the book at this exact moment. We’re just getting into the intro and speaking about what we expect to gain from diving in.
Mod Rev. Michael Cardamone here. I am a bisexual transgender man and I have an important announcement today.
Jesus People is happy to announce that we are starting a brand new Zoom meeting on Thursday nights at 6:30 PM EST. This meeting will strictly be for (and by) transgender persons across the gender spectrum. (We will schedule learning opportunities for cisgender persons separately at a later date.)
Euphoria is a weekly group by trans people for trans people concentrating on trans-affirming Christian literature and living joyfully in our true and truly God-given gender, not the World’s expectations for our bodies and lives.
First meeting will be an icebreaker meeting where we can discuss the author, our expectations for the book study, and peek at the intro. I plan on breaking this down into 8 weeks.
If you’re a trans person and interested in this meeting, feel free to message this page and I will get details to you.
Stock photo of a butterfly from Dreamstime for visibility.
Mod Rev. Michael Cardamone here. I am a bisexual transgender man and I have an important announcement today.
Jesus People is happy to announce that we are starting a brand new Zoom meeting on Thursday nights at 6:30 PM EST. This meeting will strictly be for (and by) transgender persons across the gender spectrum. (We will schedule learning opportunities for cisgender persons separately at a later date.)
Euphoria is a weekly group by trans people for trans people concentrating on trans-affirming Christian literature and living joyfully in our true and truly God-given gender, not the World’s expectations for our bodies and lives.
First meeting will be an icebreaker meeting where we can discuss the author, our expectations for the book study, and peek at the intro. I plan on breaking this down into 8 weeks.
If you’re a trans person and interested in this meeting, feel free to message this page and I will get details to you.
Stock photo of a butterfly from Dreamstime for visibility.
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