How ‘Throw My Body in a Ditch’ Theology Relates to Sexual Ethics

Consider these words from Katie Leone:

“In fact, being transgender does not mean that I was born in the wrong body. Being transgender means that God has placed me in a body that looks like one gender while I identify as being another. It is neither right nor wrong that I am a female in a male body, as much as it is neither right nor wrong that I am six foot tall and left-handed. These things just are” (source).

Do you hear the language there? “Who I really am” is not an embodied question. At it’s core this isn’t entirely different than believing the the naked soul is who we really are. Again, both are basically saying “throw my body in the ditch.” One just still has a beating heart pumping blood through it.

What does all of this mean?

Conclusion

I’m really not intending to argue here about sexual ethics and such, but only to say that at least in this regard we’ve already surrendered one leg of our argument for a God-defined sexual ethic. Instead, I’m arguing that we really need a solid understanding of the body if we’re going to have these discussions. And if we hold a “throw my ditch in the body” theology, we’re already moving away from a Christian foundation for our argument.

To be clear, I don’t think this is all that needs to be said about discussions of sexual ethics and transgenderism. There are complexities here that I haven’t mentioned. For one, how do we define “body”? Is it merely genitalia? How does biochemics, genetics, hormone levels, and other issues help us define our mutually fallen human bodies?

But it does help us to say the body matters. Yes, the body you were born with matters. And the body you die with matters. And as I concluded in another article, “Burial is a last act of faith, and we should choose our method wisely.” Let’s get all that firmly established and then we’ll have better footing to talk about sexual ethics.

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.