PRICHEP: Kearns says figuring out the Bible's message on transpeople is partly about rediscovering these stories. There are eunuchs, which were considered this kind of other third gender. We have men who spend their time in the kitchen. PRICHEP: There are all sorts of stories of transgressing gender norms. SHANNON TL KEARNS: The world of gender in the Bible is much more complex than I was taught growing up as an evangelical. Shannon TL Kearns is the first openly transgender man ordained in the Old Catholic Church, a denomination that split from Rome after the first Vatican Council in the 19th century. PRICHEP: And if you look in the Bible, those different stories are there as well.

HENDERSON-ESPINOZA: I think that's how we bring heaven to Earth, is having these hard conversations and creating more relationships and creating more opportunities to be in relationship with difference. PRICHEP: But Henderson-Espinosa, author of the book 'Body Becoming: A Path To Our Liberation,' says this recentering of the story is the work of Christianity. ROBYN HENDERSON-ESPINOZA: I followed the story of a brown Palestinian Jew who was executed by the Roman Empire. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, a theologian and ordained Baptist minister, says conflict is not new to Christianity. Not every congregation, not every Christian, welcomes these changes. PRICHEP: Sometimes the change is as easy as a sign on a bathroom door, and sometimes it's harder. PRICHEP: Buckley says that's part of living out the Bible's message.īUCKLEY: For me, as a nonbinary person, I've been to so many churches where they don't have a bathroom that I feel like I can use, and so I'll just not go to the bathroom there. And so having those things say, no, you're actually wanted here, and we're excited that you're here. PRICHEP: Buckley's church, like many, has made changes, putting pronouns on nametags, preaching to siblings in Christ instead of brothers and sisters.īUCKLEY: Sometimes, we will say God loves you but then not live that out in the church always. The Reverend AJ Buckley is associate rector.Ī J BUCKLEY: I speak to you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And the stories that are told on any given Sunday, like at Saint David of Wales Episcopal Church in Portland, Ore. Deena Prichep explains.ĭEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: Theology is stories - the stories written millennia ago by people trying to figure out their relationship with the divine. But some other Christians are using sacred texts to come to a different conclusion, highlighting the presence of characters who defy traditional gender roles.

They say God separated humans into males and females, and those categories are innate and immutable. Many evangelical Christians have pointed to the Bible as the reason they oppose transgender rights.

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