An Orthodox Priest Confronts Transgenderism

In Meeting Michelle: Pastoral and Theological Reflections on a Transgender Inmate from Fr. Richard René and posted on Public Orthodoxy, I find another example of the thinking that drew me to Orthodox Christianity.

In the face of this person and her story, I suddenly felt myself powerless, unable to say anything definitive about her, to sum her up in the way that correctional staff found so easy. In meeting Michelle, I sensed that her identity was somehow hidden from me, and I was profoundly hesitant to render snap judgments.

It is has become clear to me, however, that such an attitude is entirely appropriate, not just in Michelle’s case, but for any person I meet, because in the end, human persons are mysterious. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and as a result, we can no more encompass who a person is based on what we know about their nature, than we can encompass who God is based upon the positive affirmations we make about Him. As Metropolitan Kallistos has said, “We need to be both subtle and humble in our approach to this human mystery, standing before it in awe, and fully prepared for surprises.”

I have been working on this law review article about natural rights. I assume transgenderism to be a topic I need to touch upon. This led to me reading the essay. Frankly, I did not know what to expect, but that is a common apprehension when reading Orthodox writers - they will fool you with their consistency.

In his teaching concerning the human being, St. Maximus the Confessor distinguishes between God’s “idea” of our true identities in Christ (our logos) and the way we actually exist (our tropos). In the fallen world, Maximus says, our understanding of our logos has become opaque to us, and as a result, we engage in sin precisely because we have a distorted view of our true identities. However, in what Maximus calls the “middle” between our tropoi in this fallen world and our logoi revealed in Christ in the age to come, God the Word “plays” with us like a parent joining in their child’s games, seeming to adopt our limited understanding, so that he might lead us to a more perfect understanding of Himself. (See Ambiguum 71[PG 91: 1412C-1413B].) 

To return to Michelle, then, we can say that even if her transgenderism is indeed a product of her distorted view of her true identity, Maximus suggests that we need to suspend judgement. This attitude does not imply endorsement, but simply the willingness to “enter under the roof” of this person’s life, sitting with her in the “givenness” of her current state, knowing that God is somehow “playing” even in this “middle” to draw her towards their true identity, which is, like Christ himself, yet to come. This no more requires us to compromise our moral integrity than entering the house of Zacchaeus (and other sinners) required Jesus to embrace or endorse their sinful ways of living.

There, in that suspension of judgment, I see the teaching of Christ, and I see how natural rights should apply to transgenderism. Neither approval nor understanding is necessary, but respecting personhood without applying our narrow morality is required.

sch 5/30