Treat transgender people with Christian love

March 26, 2016

Treat transgender people with Christian love

To the editor:

Thank you for the article by Russ Dean [“The fallacy in opposing ‘bathroom bills’”]. I am a lifelong Christian (not Baptist, but we are still brothers and sisters in Christ), who used to be totally confused about transgender people. My wife and I were convinced that transgender people must just have bad crazy liberal parents who wanted the opposite gender child.

That was until our own child came out to us as transgender. So we realized we were wrong. At this point we just want our transgender child to be treated with basic human decency. And the mainline “Christian” viewpoint doesn’t reinforce that. So I very much appreciate articles like Mr. Dean’s that ask us as Christians to help support the marginalized in Christian love.

Erik Kluzek via email

Embracing the power of story

We share a new series in BNG’s Storytelling Projects about the Norfolk Street Choir as part of our "Singing Our Faith" theme.

While Norfolk, VA is a performance rich city, Freemason Baptist Church’s idea for a street choir was never about performance. Rather, it was “to lift spirits and add dignity to human beings, no matter their circumstances.”

Norfolk Street Choir infuses dignity with a dose of music

Communal singing draws forth “beauty beyond ourselves that we get to see, get to participate in,” Bob Shoup, minister of music, said. Special groups like the street choir amplify that beauty among people for whom “experiences of beauty are harder to come by.”

We created Storytelling Projects because we believe stories, rooted in the Jesus Story, have the power not only to inform but to transform people and communities. They can be sources of spiritual insight, imagination, creativity and hope for all who seek justice and mercy.