Tonight was the hardest task so far for SEITE training. The first assignment for this module asked for a presentation of an argument for how eschatology or pneumatology contribte significantly toforming Christian understanding on an issue of sexual ethics. For a number of reasons I chose transsexualism and eschatology.
I say this was the hardest as this was quite challenging. The traditional Christian view, supported by O’Donovan seems to be that this is wrong based on physical characteristics, and in this case sexual organs, being God given. The majority argue against acceptance of a transsexual lifestyle as it seperates physical and mental identity in a kind of gnostic way, arguing the God-givenness of sexuality should not be tampered with. The difficulty I have found with this is the question of what is God given, and I have come to the conclusion, at this point in time, that to deny the orientation of the brain as also God given seems to cut off the mind in some way that it is also created by God. In light of this I am led to the conclusion that to accept and allow sexual realignment surgery (SRS), as a means to remove suffering as we look to the coming Kingdom of God, is the ‘Christian’ thing to do.
I ended my presntation with a quote from a Claire Weiner article:’Maybe not God given by birth, but God given by the ability of medical science developed through the God given talents of compassionate human beings’.
I’d appreciate your comments, and if you’d like to read and critique the 1500 word presentation that would be welcome to.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 
I don’t pretend to be an expert in any part of this but my uniformed view is as follows:the O’Donovan view can surely only hold as long as you regard what is God given as perfect for that person and therefore not to be intefered with. If this were true we would not carry out surgery to alter physical defects that a person is born with e.g. hare lip. If we accept the concept of birth defects that can be corrected why would we not accept the possibility of sexuality/mind defects that can be corrected?Secondly we have a view in modern Christianity that life is a journey and we are to discover our purpose and our place in God’s plan as we move through this life. None of us are perfect but we seek to to follow the pattern of human perfection (Jesus) as far as humanly possible. Jesus was always looking to engage with, and bring into the Kingdom of Heaven, those who are on the margins of society. It is hard to think of nay perosn who is more on the margins than a trans-sexual and therefore instinctively I believe the Church should be trying to engage with these people rather than stigmatising them as being “wrong”.
Darrel2 very valid points which the opponents of the argument do not seem to answer very well.Thanks for commenting