in meiner Englisch Abschlussarbeit schreibe ich einen Essay und Ich habe schon viel geschriben aber Ich habe keiner Ahnunch ob das gut geschrieben ist
Vielen DankWhen I asked a security guard at the local corporation how her day was going recently, she responded by saying “Great; it's my birthday.” I wished her a hearty “Happy Birthday,” told her my name, Steph, and asked hers.
Dumbstruck by the matter-of-fact words out of her mouth - “Right now it's Carol, but it will be Aaron (both names changed for privacy reasons)” - I silently prayed for a wise yet compassionate response.
I like the name Aaron, who was a biblical priest, but didn't want to interject the Bible or my faith too early in my conversation with Carol by commenting on her choice.
My words “please forgive my ignorance'' and kind demeanor disarmed Carol, who quietly and calmly told me she was transgender.
I possess a vague notion of what that means, thanks to new friends and their growing relationships with the , gay, bisexual and transgender community.
My friend and I had just had a conversation about the transgender people she met as a Youth With A Mission missionary to Pattaya, Thailand a week before I met Carol.
Meeting a transgender person for the first time (at least I think it is) put flesh and bone on the abstract concepts shared by my new friend and her husband, who together are building understanding and friendships with a handful of LGBT people.
On a larger scale, they're going to gay-pride events where they offer prophetic or “encouraging” words to people who say they are amazed at the accuracy of my friends' insights. For those who are open to prayer, a team of other prophetically gifted people speak to God on behalf of men and women at LGBT-sponsored gatherings.
For me, there was an immediate sense that this was a “divine appointment” orchestrated by God, who was providing an opportunity to demonstrate the same kindness to Carol that my YWAM friend had shown so-called “lady boys”
in southeast Asia.
Recognizing Carol's ease in sharing her gender identity, I sheepishly confessed my limited understanding, as well as my interest and concern about her life as a woman who believes she's meant to be a man.
“Biologically I'm a woman but inside a man,” Carol said. “I will soon begin testosterone injections on my way to becoming Aaron.”
Carol hushed when truck drivers and salesmen entered the security guard station at the Colorado company where she works. I acknowledged them on my way out the door, telling the three men that it was Carol's birthday.
Outside, my prayers became loud pleas to God for his intervention in Carol's life before she begins the process of becoming Aaron, as well as a petition for the opportunity to talk to her again.
Instinctively I knew that Carol's decision to become a “man” isn't God's best plan for her life; it's also clear to me that Carol doesn't know God as a Father who saves, delivers, heals and restores through the sacrificial death of His son, the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I'm hoping for a future opportunity to share Jesus' redemptive and restorative love and grace with Carol.
When I told my friends about meeting Carol, they agreed with me in prayer for her deliverance from gender confusion. They also affirmed my hunch that “Aaron” won't be any happier than Carol.
My grades in biology weren't great, but even an A-plus science student knows that it's impossible for Carol to successfully become Aaron; others would guess that I flunked my high school and college biology classes with that statement.
But my spiritual, moral and yes, biological, understanding of Carol's condition is confirmed by the findings of a former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital; his work is circulating on the internet, though he's widely lambasted by the LGBT community.
Ironically, Johns Hopkins Hospital was the first American medical center to perform -reassignment surgery in the 1960s but stopped doing the procedure due to a high number of “troubled” patients in later years.
“At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. ' change' is biologically impossible,” Dr. Paul McHugh wrote in a Wall Street Journal column published June 12, 2014.
“People who undergo -reassignment surgery do not change from man to woman or vice versa.
“Rather, they become feminized men or masculine women. Claiming that this is a civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder,” wrote McHugh, author of “Try to Remember: Psychiatry's Clash Over Meaning, Memory and Mind” (Dana Press, 2008).
I don't know if Carol's gender identity issue is a mental-health dilemma that can be minimized as McHugh suggests, but I do believe that God can restore peace about her biological and infuse Carol with contentment in soul and spirit.
McHugh is adamant, however: “Policy makers and the media are doing no favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending, rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention,” he wrote.
By befriending Carol, who is young enough to be my daughter, I hope to gain understanding and maybe an opportunity to share with her alternatives to becoming “Aaron,” a choice she may regret like others who've experienced gender identity issues, according to McHugh.
“When children who reported transgendered feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt and London's Portman Clinic, 70- to 80-percent spontaneously lost these feelings,” McHugh wrote.
Johns Hopkins studied the outcomes of transgender people who had surgery with those who did not during a period in the 1970s.
“Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as satisfied by the results, but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn't have the surgery.
“And so at Hopkins we stopped doing -reassignment surgery since producing a 'satisfied' but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs,” McHugh wrote.
And to that I say a hearty amen.
I pray for Carol and others who are influenced by mass media into believing that being transgender is a permanent condition and a civil right to be championed and protected.
Tracking subjects for 30 years, Johns Hopkins found that of 324 people who had -reassignment surgery, many experienced increased mental difficulties 10 years after the procedure.
“Most shockingly, the suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable non-transgender population.
“Given that close to 80 percent of such children would abandon their confusion and grow naturally into adult life if untreated, these medical interventions come close to child abuse. A better way to help these children: Devoted parenting,” McHugh wrote.
I don't know if Carol's home life and upbringing might have produced a better outcome with devoted parents. But I do know the biblical admonition to bring up a child in the way he or she should go.
What I do know is that the world is under the curse of sin (without Jesus) and the enemy of human souls deals in lies and confusion. And when a Godly, discerning parent observes their child's confusion, prayer for clarity and truth to prevail is a mighty antidote for the adversary's tricks.
It is for clarity and truth in Carol's life that we're praying, believing God for a bright future and hope in her body, soul and spirit.
Resources:Tools:
- McHugh, P. (2016) "Transgender Surgery Isn't the Solution," Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/paul-mchugh ... 1402615120
- Street, J. D., Street, J. (2016) The Biblical Counseling Guide for Women. Harvest House Publishers. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=s296D ... &q&f=false
- HemingWay App Editing Tool. Retrieved from http://www.hemingwayapp.com/
- Your Homework Help Editing Tool. Retrieved from http://yourhomeworkhelp.org/biology-homework-help/