Let's start with some real talk: Right now, it's rough out there for trans folks, because we've been made into political scapegoats... or rather, we've been made anew into political scapegoats. The reality of that means that it is impossible to talk or write about trans folks without "being political." That can make a lot of Christians, especially of the comfortably Mainline sort, profoundly uncomfortable. However, discomfort is the means through which we are reformed... transformed, even, by our faith.
Enter Austen Hartke's book, Transforming: The Bible & the Lives of Transgender Christians. I've been looking for a while for a book that explores transgender issues through a solidly Biblical lens that actually honors the dignity of trans folks. There are many books out there by "husband, pastor, father" types about trans folks, which suppose to wrestle with transgender folks' existence compassionately without actually telling a single story about a trans person, let alone allowing them to speak for themselves. Transforming breaks out of that mold, firstly in that it is written by a transgender man. Secondly, Transforming juxtaposes scriptural and theological scholarship with the stories and actual words of transgender folks, including those who work in ordained ministry. This humanizes the subject in a profound way. Although many of the stories I encountered in this book were wildly different from my own, I could hear rhymes from my own story, presented in a way that made space to acknowledge the way that God transforms all of us, including and especially in relation to "the world." After all, gender is an expression of cultural context and stands alongside, not within, religion. Austen Hartke acknowledges throughout that his perspective as a transgender man informs his interpretation of the Bible and that, necessarily, his book is apologia. Rather than diminishing the arguments he's presenting, this acknowledgement renders an integrity and authenticity to the work that, frankly, I haven't seen in most of the books by and for Christians about transgender issues.
Rare is the time when a book written by a cisgender Christian about transgender issues acknowledges that the author may have something to gain by making arguments against the full and transition supported inclusion of transgender people in the Church. Moreover, the failure to include the perspectives of anybody in the transgender community, aside from perhaps the occasional detransitioner, typifies a cispatriarchal blind spot: that rigid binary gender roles imprison and harm cisgender people as assuredly as they imprison and harm transgender people. Any book about transgender people which does not include transgender voices is necessarily going to miss the mark and, to one extent or another, objectify our very human experiences. Transforming represents visions for what transgender inclusion can look like in its very format: throughout the book, it explores both scriptural scholarship and the life stories of a diverse sampling of transgender people. Hartke regularly "passes the mic," with extensive quotes from those he interviewed for the book, allowing their own words to speak for themselves. There's a generosity of spirit in this that makes it clear that Hartke endeavors in his work to not just talk the talk on inclusion, but to actually walk the walk.
I commend to you this book, especially if you're looking for an accessible, but rich and scriptural, introduction to transgender issues for those in your faith community. I can envision this being a powerful group book study. I especially like that, at the end of the book, Hartke presents practical advice for both allies and transgender folks for how to care spiritually and bodily for transgender folks as Christians. As a bonus, it is also available on audiobook, read by the author himself.
Click here to order through Bookshop.org Bookshop.org supports independent bookstores through profit sharing. As a Bookshop.org affiliate, I also receive a small portion of the proceeds from sales through links from my blog.
Comments
Post a Comment
Please remember that other living, breathing human beings will read your comments. Any comments which deny the inherent, God-given dignity of other people will be removed.