Mx Chris Paige - OtherWise Christian: A Guidebook for Transgender Liberation

OtherWise Engaged Publishing

Copyright 2019 Chris Paige

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Please refer all pertinent questions to the publisher.

First edition July 2019

Forward by the Rev. Louis Mitchell

Cover and cover photo by Chris Paige

Author photo by Dezjorn Gauthier

ISBN: 978-1-951124-00-7 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-951124-01-4 (Kindle)

eISBN: 978-1-951124-02-1

Published by OtherWise Engaged Publishing

http://otherwiseengaged.wordpress.com

Visit http://www.otherwisechristian.com

Dedication

T his book is dedicated

to OtherWise prophets,

past, present, and future,

who have taught me so much:

i n memory of Bobbie Jean Baker and

Charlene Arcila,

i n memory of Audre Lorde and

Leslie Feinberg,

i n honor of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy,

Jonathon Thunderword, and

Kate Bornstein,

w ith thanksgiving for Nevaeh Paige,

Ovid Amorson, and

all of the Young Leaders,

transgender and OtherWise,

who are yet to come.

OtherWise Christian
A Guidebook for Transgender Liberation

F oreword by the Reverend Louis Mitchell

P reface

I ntroduction

S ection 1: Getting Started

Chapter 1 Practicing Safer Spirit/uality (Choose Life)

Chapter 2 On (OtherWise) Transgender Liberation

Chapter 3 Gender Diversity in Historical Context

S ection 2: Creation

Chapter 4 Sex, Gender, Science, and Arguments from Natural Law

Chapter 5 In the Beginning ... ?

Chapter 6 Queerly Created in the Image of God (Genesis 1:27)

Chapter 7 The Earth Creature(s) (Genesis 2:1825)

S ection 3: Clobber Passages

Chapter 8 Biblical Self-Defense

Chapter 9 Cross-dressing and Drag (Deuteronomy 22:5)

Chapter 10 Crushed Testicles and Transgender Women (Deuteronomy 23:1)

S ection 4: Eunuchs , Eunuchs, and More Eunuchs

Chapter 11 Of Words and Their Many Meanings

Chapter 12 Modern Day Eunuchs

Chapter 13 Blessed Is the Eunuch (Isaiah 56:15)

Chapter 14 Jesus and the Eunuchs (Matthew 19:1112)

Chapter 15 Two Ethiopian Eunuchs (Jeremiah 38:113 and Acts 8:2640)

Chapter 16 A Flock of Eunuchs

Chapter 17 Eunuchs for the Sake of the Kingdom

S ection 5: OtherWise Jewish Traditions

Chapter 18 Torah Study

Chapter 19 Joseph(ine) (Genesis 3750)

Chapter 20 Virile Women and Trans-Masculine Experience

Chapter 21 Resident Aliens and Feeling Different

S ection 6: OtherWise Christian Traditions

Chapter 22 Letters of Liberation (Galatians 3:28)

Chapter 23 Gospel-Style Resistance

Chapter 24 OtherWise Disciples and OtherWise Jesus

Chapter 25 Journey with Jesus

E pilogue: Living OtherWise Ever After

B ibliography

A ppendices

A Sexual Orientation and the Bible

B Reading the Bible Again

C Christendom, White Bullshit, and the Power of Colonial Imagination

D Poetry Is Not a Luxury

A cknowledgements

Forward

O therWise Christian , much like Transfaith, was born of a need for something that did not already exist. I have known them for nearly a decade and Chris Paige is a bit of a spiritual mid-wifegiving birth to new life in a variety of ways. Chris has a knack both for identifying critical needs and for finding the adjacent opportunities waiting nearby.

I am not an authority on all things biblical, but I do live in a world that often uses Christian teachings and texts to erase, disable, disparage, and demean me. I have a stake in this conversation because, as a Black transgender Christian, I nurse the bruises and count the scars of my various religious experiences. Yet, I find comfort more and more in the embrace of Godas I experience the All in my life. Like many of my friends and colleagues I am deeply invested in exploring, engaging, and even wrestling with the words of our ancestors in faith. I am both spiritual and religious, and this book gives me plenty to work with and work on.

I have spent time with many books and scholars, seminaries and Bible studies, reading, searching and listening for deeper, more nuanced ways to engage with biblical texts. I finally found what I was looking for and more in this book! I actually wept with joy a few times as I read.