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

Like the rising river in the Arkansas Delta, the persistence of poverty still looms just over the levee, threatening to wash young people down paths of violence, drugs, food insecurity, unemployment, and early death.

We share a new series in BNG’s Storytelling Projects “Arkansas Delta” as part of our "resilient rural America" theme.

This series will address the precise focus on literacy and leadership development to build children’s imaginations, the story of Swim Camp where children and teenagers not only learn to swim but learn to pursue leadership, and video interviews of those connected to Together for Hope Arkansas.

Imagination is the greatest threat to Delta poverty, Together for Hope Arkansas says

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.