{"id":10774,"date":"2025-11-17T12:46:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10774"},"modified":"2025-11-17T12:46:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:46:54","slug":"liberal-churches-proclaim-holiness-of-transgenderism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=10774","title":{"rendered":"Liberal Churches Proclaim ‘Holiness’ of Transgenderism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From The Christian Post \u2013 Several liberal Protestant and Jewish denominations declared transgenderism \u201choly\u201d this week in direct rebuke of a vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to bar transgender procedures in Catholic healthcare facilities.\n<\/p>\n

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\u201cDuring a time when our country is placing their lives under increasingly serious threat, there is a disgraceful misconception that all people of faith do not affirm the full spectrum of gender \u2014 a great many of us do,\u201d read the Wednesday\u00a0statement, which included signatures of leaders from The Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ (UCC), the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Union for Reform Judaism, an association of Quakers and others.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLet it be known instead that our beloveds are created in the image of God \u2014 Holy and whole,\u201d the statement said of transgender-identifying individuals.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur scriptures vary, but they share a common conviction,\u201d the statement continued. \u201cAs we make justice our aim we must give voice to those who are silenced. Our shared values, held across many faiths, teach us that we are all children of God and that we must cultivate a discipline of hope, especially in difficult times.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The statement went on to suggest that opposing transgenderism is sinful, reiterating the belief that transgender, nonbinary and intersex individuals are intrinsically holy, which is the\u00a0only attribute\u00a0of God magnified to the third degree of repetition in the Bible.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs such, we raise our voices in solidarity to unequivocally proclaim the holiness of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people, as well as the recognition of the entire spectrum of gender identity and expression,\u201d the statement said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people of faith and conscience stay silent in the face of oppression, we are all made less whole. When people of faith and conscience speak out against that which violates the sacred in its own name, we have the power to stay the hand of sin.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTransgender, nonbinary, and intersex people are vulnerable today. Our faiths, our theologies, and our practices of prophetic witness call on us to say with one voice to transgender people among us: \u2018You are holy. You are sacred. We love you. We support you, and we will protect you.’\u201d\n<\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0press release, the statement was primarily penned by the Rev. Sof\u00eda Betancourt, who represents the Unitarian Universalist Association, a\u00a0belief system\u00a0that emerged from a denial of the Trinity, original sin and damnation.\n<\/p>\n

Betancourt identifies \u201cas a queer, multiracial, AfroLatine [sic] first-generation daughter of immigrants from Chile and Panam\u00e1,\u201d and has taught at Yale Divinity School, according to her\u00a0biography. Her courses focus on \u201cministerial leadership, theologies, womanism and Earth justice, and combatting [sic] oppression.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The statement from the liberal religious leaders came in response to U.S. Catholic bishops effectively\u00a0banning transgender procedures\u00a0at Catholic hospitals by overwhelmingly approving revisions to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which govern the extensive network of Catholic healthcare facilities nationwide.\n<\/p>\n

The vote came after\u00a0years of deliberation\u00a0and builds on prior Vatican guidance, as well as a 2023 USCCB\u00a0doctrinal note\u00a0titled \u201cMoral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body.\u201d The note outlined moral limits on body-altering technologies, drawing on Pope Francis\u2019\u00a0Amoris Laetitia<\/em>\u00a0and the Vatican\u2019s\u00a0Dignitas Infinita<\/em>, which affirmed human dignity.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cCatholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex, or take part in the development of such procedures,\u201d the bishops said in the 2023 doctrinal note.\n<\/p>\n

More than one in seven patients in the U.S. is treated at a Catholic hospital, especially in rural areas, according to the Catholic Health Association.\n<\/p>\n

During public discussion over the directives, Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who chairs the USCCB\u2019s Committee on Laity, Family, Youth, and Young Adults, emphasized the moral gravity of the decision before the prelates.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWith regard to the gender ideology, I think it\u2019s very important the church makes a strong statement here,\u201d he said, according to The Associated Press.\n<\/p>\n

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(This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld\/Getty Images.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 3 minutes From The Christian Post \u2013 Several liberal Protestant and Jewish denominations declared transgenderism \u201choly\u201d this week in direct rebuke of a vote by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to bar transgender procedures in Catholic healthcare facilities. Our Monthly Ministry Partners are the lifeblood of IFA.Join today. \u00a0 \u201cDuring a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[292,2337,2335,2336,2338],"class_list":["post-10774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-churches","tag-holiness","tag-liberal","tag-proclaim","tag-transgenderism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}