Sunday, April 23, 2017

SDA Issues - "Rhonda" can stay- as "Rhonda"?

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man,
neither shall a man put on a woman's garment:
for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
Deuteronomy 22:5
 
Definition of abomination
  something regarded with disgust or hatred
MERRIAM-WEBSTER DICTIONARY
"....they sin with a high hand, give way to all the loose passions of the carnal heart,
gratify their animal propensities, disgrace the cause of God,....
And the church receives them and says "Amen" to their prayers and exhortations,
which are a stink in the nostrils of God and cause His wrath to come upon the camp.
He will not dwell in their assemblies.
Those who move on thus heedlessly, plastering over these sins,
will be left to their own ways, to be filled with their own doings.
Those who anciently committed these sins were taken without the camp and stoned to death. Temporal and eternal death was their doom;
and because the penalty of stoning to death is abolished,
this sin is indulged in beyond measure, and is thought to be a small offense.
Just such a state of things as exists today existed before the flood
and before the destruction of Sodom."
Ms 3 E.G.W.
 
"The delegates to the Spring Council voted to approve a statement, developed by the Biblical Research Institute, addressing the topic of transgenderism.  Although it articulates biblical principles that logically condemn transgenderism, the operative language states that if transgendered persons do not have sex outside of heterosexual marriage, “they can be members of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church.”  

This officially approved statement legitimizes the action of the Hollywood SDA Church in making “Rhonda”—a biological male who identifies, dresses and comports himself as female—an elder and Sabbath School teacher.  “Rhonda” recently weighed in on the official statement, and was described as follows:
Rhonda is a biologist and teacher currently employed by a very large mental health organization. She is a Seventh-day Adventist/Christian ordained elder who is also a transgender lesbian, otherwise known as a “transbian.” She is married to the love of her life.  They have been together for 51 years and have two beautiful grown daughters.
 
Although oddly called a transgendered lesbian or “transbian,” considering “her” male birth sex, "Rhonda" is actually heterosexual.  And "she" is also married to the woman with whom "she" has sex, so “Rhonda” fits perfectly within the policy set out in numbered paragraph 5 in the now officially voted statement.  He is transgendered—he lives as a she—but he/she is not having sex outside of heterosexual marriage.  Thus, per the newly voted statement, it is perfectly okay for him/her to be a member in good standing and an elder in the Hollywood SDA Church. 

Transgenderism is not caused by biological phenomena, nor it is about biological phenomena.  Transgenderism is not about living out one’s biology, even if it is inter-sexed or sexually ambiguous. To the contrary, transgenderism is choosing to live as the gender opposite that indicated by one's birth anatomy. The most famous transgendered person in America, Bruce/Caitlin Jenner, was a very masculine man who won the Olympic Decathlon in the 1976 Olympics, an event that includes such masculine events as shot put, discus, and javelin, as well as the running and jumping events.

God created humanity as two persons who are respectively identified as male and female in terms of gender. The Bible inextricably ties gender to biological sex (Gen 1:27; 2:22–24) and does not make a distinction between the two. The Word of God affirms complementarity as well as clear distinctions between male and female in creation. The Genesis creation account is foundational to all questions of human sexuality.

And yet sin must be called by its right name, especially the fashionable sins of the day, and no sin is more fashionable just now than transgenderism." Fulcrum7
To the Transgender Community-
*God draws the BOUNDARIES with His LAW. When we step outside of them it's called SIN. (He offers JUSTIFICATION to remedy it). But afterwards He expects us to step back within those Boundaries (called SANCTIFICATION ).Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them.  Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:7