{"id":246,"date":"2007-10-18T17:18:06","date_gmt":"2007-10-18T17:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2007\/10\/transsexual-pastor-prompts-une.php"},"modified":"2007-10-18T17:18:06","modified_gmt":"2007-10-18T17:18:06","slug":"transsexual-pastor-prompts-une","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/10\/transsexual-pastor-prompts-une","title":{"rendered":"Transsexual Pastor Prompts Uneasy Questions for Methodists"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Burke
\nReligion News Service<\/strong>
\nBaltimore – The Rev. Drew Phoenix is many things to many people.
\nTo St. John’s of Baltimore City, he’s the fun-loving pastor who
\ncounsels them, takes their kids hiking, explains Scripture, and plunges
\ninto worthy causes.
\nTo conservative Methodists, Phoenix embodies another front in the
\n“culture wars,” a rebel who has defied God and nature and should be
\nremoved from ministry.
\nTo mainstream society, Phoenix is an enigma who transcends
\ntraditional sexual boundaries, provoking uncomfortable questions about
\nthe interplay between body, mind and soul.
\nTo the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church he’s number
\nIV on the docket for their Oct. 24-27 session: “A Review of Bishop’s
\nDecision … Whether Transgendered Persons Are Eligible for Appointment
\nin The United Methodist Church.”
\nThe issue of transgenderism seems too hot to touch for religious
\nAmericans already bitterly divided over sexual orientation. A number of
\nMethodist theologians and ethicists, asked to comment for this article,
\ndeclined.
\nBut as scientific advances and changing sexual mores allow
\ntransgender people to slowly move into the mainstream, religious leaders
\nwill soon have to grapple with theological implications of gender
\nidentity, scholars say.
\nIn practical terms, they have to deal with Phoenix and whether he
\nshould remain in ministry. The judicial hearing of the United Methodist
\nChurch, one of the largest Christian bodies in the U.S., may be a
\nhigh-water mark for transgender awareness in the pews.
\n“The theological issues here are very important,” said Mark Jordan,
\na professor of Christian ethics at Atlanta’s Emory University. “It’s not
\njust an issue of church discipline and it’s not just a freak show.”
\nAbout 18 months ago, after 46 years of feeling like a soul trapped
\nin the wrong body, a Methodist minister had sexual reassignment surgery,
\nat last aligning psyche and sex.
\nThe Rev. Ann Gordon became the Rev. Drew Phoenix.
\nPhoenix, now 48, describes the transition from female to male as a
\nhomecoming.
\n“For me, now it’s very much about being embodied, my spirit is in a
\nbody now,” Phoenix said in an interview. As a female, “my spirit was
\njust, like, homeless.”
\nThe 40-odd members of St. John’s, who say they pride themselves in
\nbeing the most accepting and inclusive Methodist church in Baltimore,
\nsaid their minister’s sex change was no big deal. They had some
\nquestions, which Phoenix answered in individual meetings, but no large
\ntheological hang-ups.
\n“It was like, `Ok, great, congratulations. You’re living as God
\nintended now, how wonderful,”‘ said Kara Ker, 33, a social worker and
\nlifelong Methodist. “Every now and then people struggle with the
\npronouns, that’s the biggest challenge.”
\nBut to some Methodists, Phoenix’s ministry posed larger problems.
\nAt a meeting of the Baltimore-Washington Conference last May,
\nseveral pastors questioned whether the ministry should be open to
\ntransgendered people.
\nBaltimore-Washington Bishop John Schol reappointed Phoenix,
\nreasoning that the Methodist’s Book of Discipline has no rule forbidding
\ntransgender pastors. Now the nine-member Judicial Council — the United
\nMethodist Church’s supreme court — will rule on Schol’s decision in San
\nFrancisco later this month.
\nDr. James Holsinger Jr., President Bush’s nominee for U.S. surgeon
\ngeneral,heads the council. Senate Democrats have stalled Holsinger’s
\nappointment in part because he has described gay sex as abnormal and
\nunhealthy.
\nConservatives have already promised to pass a ban on transgendered
\npastors at the Methodists’ next General Conference in 2008.
\n“Most church people instinctively recognize there are problems with
\nthe church affirming a gender change but haven’t really thought through
\nall the implications,” said Mark Tooley of UMAction, a branch of the
\nconservative Institute on Religion and Democracy.
\nIf some theological types are troubled by the implications of
\ntransgenderism, scientists seem to be equally mystified by its origins.
\nThe American Psychiatric Association labels transgenderism a
\n“disorder” but notes that “many transgender people do not experience
\ntheir transgender feelings and traits to be distressing or disabling,
\nwhich implies that being transgender does not constitute a mental
\ndisorder per se.”
\nMoreover, the APA says, “there is no generally accepted explanation
\nfor why some people are transgender,” listing genetics, prenatal
\nhormones and early-life experiences as possible influences.
\nThe absence of a concrete explanation for transgenderism, as well as
\nthe cultural norms it upsets, can alarm those accustomed to dealing with
\nfixed gender categories.
\n“What’s the first question people ask when a baby is born?” said
\nMelissa Wilcox, an assistant professor of religion and director of the
\ngender studies program at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. “They
\nneed to know whether it’s a girl or a boy.”
\nConservative Christians tend to treat transgenderism as an extreme
\nform of homosexuality. It’s a disorder to be overcome, a cross to be
\nborne.
\nChristians and Jews have traditionally derived fixed notions of
\ngender from the Hebrew Bible, when God creates Adam and Eve. To mess
\nwith that, some argue, is to mess with God’s plan for creation.
\nOther conservatives point to Deuteronomy, which says, “The woman
\nshall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put
\non a woman’s garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord
\nthy God.”
\n“There’s the issue of what’s God’s intention for us,” said the Rev.
\nDavid Simpson, a United Methodist pastor from the Baltimore suburb of
\nEllicott City, who challenged Phoenix’s reappointment. “Is that
\nsomething that we get to choose?”
\nOn the other hand, some medical professionals and transgendered
\npeople say gender identity and sexual orientation are separate things.
\n“It’s not about whom I love,” Phoenix said. “It’s about who I am.”
\nMoreover, they argue, science is demonstrating that gender identity
\nis fluid — not fixed into binary categories. And it’s innate, not a
\nchoice.
\nFinally, those who argue the “God doesn’t make mistakes” and “Don’t
\nmess with creation” lines readily make use of medical procedures to
\nchange their bodies, Phoenix said.
\n“Think of all the vaccinations, medications and pharmaceuticals we
\ntake,” he said. “We completely alter our bodies.”
\nBut to many Christians, there’s a fundamental difference between
\ntaking a vaccine and changing something as basic as gender.
\nIn 2003, the Vatican said transsexuals suffer from “mental
\npathologies” and barred them from Roman Catholic religious orders. Last
\nyear, a Christian college in Michigan fired a transgender professor for
\nfailing to live up to Christian “ideals.”
\nOn the other hand, the United Church of Christ, traditionally the
\ncountry’s most liberal Christian denomination, ordained its first
\ntranssexual pastor, Bran Scott, in 1999.
\nOther mainline Protestant churches haven’t banned transgender
\npastors, but haven’t exactly welcomed them either.
\nThe Rev. Erin K. Swenson, a Presbyterian pastor who transitioned
\nfrom male to female in 1996, has written that “transgendered individuals
\nare modern lepers in a culture that worships at the altar of sexual
\nstereotypes.”
\nIn 2002, the Methodists’ Baltimore-Washington Conference was home to
\na similar dispute, when the Rev. Richard A. Zomastny had a sex change
\nand became Rebecca Ann Steen. Steen withdrew her reapplication for
\nministry under pressure from fellow Methodists.
\nSimpson, of Ellicott City, said it’s about time his church had a
\ndiscussion of the issue, with all of the theological and scientific
\nimplications brought to bear.
\n“This is our second case in five years, and we’re no closer to
\nanswers then we ever were,” Simpson said.
\nEmory’s Jordan said it’s not surprising many churches haven’t drawn
\nup rules to deal with transgender pastors.
\n“Why did it take so long to get explicit rules against ordaining
\nlesbian and gay people?” he said. “Churches expected these kinds of
\npeople just to disappear and go away. They expected the same with
\ntranssexuals — that if you went that way you were going to leave the
\nministry or leave the church.”
\nConservatives tried unsuccessfully to pass a resolution banning
\ntransgender pastors at the church’s last General Conference in 2004,
\nsaid Diane DeLapp, a transsexual from Massachusetts who heads
\nAffirmation, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and
\ntransgender Methodists.
\n“We seem to be the target now,” DeLapp said.
\nThe congregation at St. John’s say they would be devastated if they
\nlost Phoenix, whom they describe as the beating heart at the center of
\ntheir growing church. When Phoenix started five years ago, eight people
\nshowed up for Sunday worship; now 40 do.
\nBut the pastor said he’s prepared for whatever happens.
\nAs Phoenix began to preach on a recent Sunday, beneath the huge
\ncross and beside the posters proclaiming “This Ain’t Your Daddy’s
\nChurch,” he told the Gospel story about Jesus and the 10 lepers.
\nAfter Jesus heals the lepers, he tells them to visit the priests and
\nget certified for temple life. One, a Samaritan, realizes he’s been
\nhealed and turns back to thank Jesus.
\n“The Samaritan realizes he’s already recovered what most matters,”
\nPhoenix told his church, “not certification, but his own healing.”
\nCopyright 2007 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of
\nthis transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written
\npermission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Burke Religion News Service Baltimore – The Rev. Drew Phoenix is many things to many people. To St. John’s of Baltimore City, he’s the fun-loving pastor who counsels them, takes their kids hiking, explains Scripture, and plunges into worthy causes. To conservative Methodists, Phoenix embodies another front in the “culture wars,” a rebel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTranssexual Pastor Prompts Uneasy Questions for Methodists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/10\/transsexual-pastor-prompts-une\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transsexual Pastor Prompts Uneasy Questions for Methodists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Daniel Burke Religion News Service Baltimore – The Rev. Drew Phoenix is many things to many people. To St. John’s of Baltimore City, he’s the fun-loving pastor who counsels them, takes their kids hiking, explains Scripture, and plunges into worthy causes. 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