This month Rabbah Rona Matlow is dealing with a couple of heavy issues and she is sure sure many trans readers will resonate with them. The first involves having PTSD and ASD. The second is planning for the inevitability of aging and the changes it brings.
Every major religion has language of peace and love in its traditions. Sadly many so-called Christians have stopped reading the parts of their holy book that speaks of peace and love. Of treating your neighbor as you wish to be treated and helping those who are in need of help. Instead there are Christians who want God to smite those with whom they disagree. They pray for storms and floods to afflict those they see as enemies while ignoring our shared humanity.
The Christian community in the U.S. reads their bibles in English, and they don’t care about the inaccuracies (many of them deliberate) that exist in those translations. They fiercely believe those translations come from God, so they must be right – no matter that there are many translations, and they often contradict each other. The danger to trans people comes from this evangelical right that believes the inaccurate translations and forget to love their neighbor.
Friday March 31 was Transgender Day of Visibility. This is a day where we work to bring ourselves out and bring justice for those in our community who are being oppressed. Rabbah Rona writes that this year TDOV happened the weekend before Passover begins and there are connections between TDOV and Passover.
On November 3-5,2022, Elizabeth Marie attended Center Peace “A Place at the Table” conference in Dallas Texas. The conference. As a religious trans woman Elizabeth was happy to find a conference that might help her reconcile her faith with her feelings of womanhood. After she arrived she found that it wasn’t just the panels and seminars on religion and transgender issues. It was the wonderful people who were attending. Just meeting others who follow the teachings of Jesus but don’t confirm to what most religions expect was wonderful. She reports on the conference and offers other resources for those like her.
Rabba Rona Matlow feels that many of those who consider themselves to be Christians are not following the words of Jesus. They rely on religious texts that vary in meaning from the original texts which were written in ancient languages. The poorly translated texts that make up the evangelical Bible are what those on the right use to justify their attacks on LGBTQ+ people. Rona has studied the original scrolls that indicate God is not interested in what body houses the soul.
Rabbah Rona wonders why people who profess to abide by the rules of their religion often seem to only follow some of the rules while ignoring the instructions to love thy neighbor, lift up the least of us, and don’t oppress strangers.
Rabbah Rona Matlow takes a look at the the section of the Torah that bans crossdressing in order to prevent “sexual licentiousness.” But crossdressing is often a part of the celebration of Purim. So which is it? No crossdressing or it’s okay for Purim? Rabbah Rona comments.
Rabbah Rona Matlow points out that many people who consider themselves to be Christians fail to follow the words of Jesus. He said to love God first and after that love your neighbor as you love yourself. So many find justification in the Bible to allow them to hate, senselessly. Listen to what the Rabbah advises.
Rabbah Rona Matlow says we must do better. Better at educating people about the contributions to society from marginalized communities. She makes the point, just after Juneteenth is made a federal holiday, that many of the contributions of Black people are either accepted without acknowledging the race of the person who contributed or who they were is not mentioned at all.
Two years ago Rabbah Rona Matlow published a paper with evidence showing that interfering with gender transition is prohibited by Jewish Law. Ze provided evidence such as the National Trans Discrimination Survey, other sociological research, and then went to texts in the Torah, Talmud and Shulhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law) which show that “saving a life overrides all biblical laws!”
Rabbah Rona Matlow uses the just passed Transgender Day of Visibility as a starting point for today’s post. The need for such a day shows that being visible can be dangerous. And, while all major religions preach love there are too many that promote orthodox doctrines which makes “othering” people easy.
Rabah Rona Matlow takes a look at how the words of ancient religious texts are too often cherry picked for justification of modern prejudices. A deeper study of the texts would reveal the true meaning but too many people cling to the superficial understanding as it agrees with what they believe.
When I came out to the world that I was now Chrissy, I posted the news on my old Facebook page. I said that I am transgender and had been going to a therapist for two years and had been on hormones for one, (at that time.) I said also that I would closing that […]
Today Rabba Rona, a disabled queer trans rabbi who served in the U.S. Navy writes that she was appalled and outraged when federal agents beat a Navy veteran on the street in Portland, Oregon when he did nothing wrong except ask them a question about what they were there to do. Whether you are conservative or liberal you should read Rona’s post and view the video of the vet being beaten. It should be a warning to all of us.
Rabbah Rona Matlow, our spiritual correspondent, writes about faith in the current virus epidemic. Some people feel cut off from their spiritual anchors because they are unable to gather with others of their faith. Others deny faith as not being helpful and turn to science for instruction and information. As a former scientist, and current spiritual counselor who works with people of all religionsn — or none, Rabbah Rona shares her thoughts on the subject.
First let me introduce myself. I’m Rabbah Rona Matlow. I’m an AFAB NB trans woman, and I use ze/hir pronouns. Rabbah in the modern context means woman rabbi. I use ze/hir deliberately rather than they/them to engage people in discussions and learning because I believe that religion, science and sociology all clearly show that the […]
Many trans people are also people of faith. They often find that their transgender nature keeps them from worshipping as part of the church they were raised in. While the Catholic Pope has made positive statements about how the clergy should deal with transgender people, he has also made statements that indicate the Catholic Church is not a friend to transgender people. On November 29 our contributor Christine Zuba was invited to dinner with Cardinal Joseph Tobin in Newark, New Jersey. This invitation was extended to members of the LGBT community and was an effort by the Cardinal to get advice about how to move the conversation about the Church and LGBT people forward. Christine reports on how that dinner went.
CHRISTIAN EVANGELICAL LEADERS VICIOUSLY ATTACK THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY Since my last column post, God Made Us This Way, the volume of bigotry has been turned up by Christian conservative, evangelical leaders. The so-called “Nashville Statement,” released on August 29th by 150 evangelical leaders from across the United States, viciously attacks the LGBTQ+ community as immoral. […]
Today we introduce a new contributor to TGForum. Tommie Smith will blog for us on matters of a spiritual and religious nature as they relate to members of the trans community. She begins her blog with us by sharing her views on organized religion and how it affects our culture and what that in turn does to those who are viewed as outsiders. Many of our Christian sects, despite no specific language in the Bible, condemn LGBT people as immoral or mentally ill. Tommie shares her point of view on how to avoid feeling that you are “not right” when they judge.
The past is gone and cannot be accessed again. The future is not yet here and no one knows what it will hold. The present is all that we can affect and be aware of. The Artist D thinks that concerns over the past, the future and the will of God may be holding people back from being who they truly are. She explores that theme in today’s post “Tranny Queer, Queers in Church.”
Despite the fact that the United States of America was founded with the idea that religious freedom was important, so important that keeping church and state separate was written into the first amendment to the Constitution, many today find that their religious beliefs should void the rights of those they feel violate the tenets of their religion. What freedom of religion means is, you can practice or chose not to practice any religion but the government will not be influenced by any religion. But too many now feel that their religion is more important than the governments laws. Today Emily looks at religion and rights.
Cate was feeling the need for a spiritual dimension in her life. The “old time” religion just wouldn’t do since all attempts to engage with it resulted in no reply. She looked around a bit and investigated other faith communities. Learn what she found in today’s blog.
For our Christian trans writer Meggan Sommerville the biggest revelation she found in the Diane Sawyer interview with Bruce Jenner on ABC was that at one point Jenner mentioned his religion. Learn how that affected Meggan in her post today.
When people strike out at members of the trans community, whether through violence or scorn and derision, the tendency is to want to seek revenge on them for their ignorance or violent acts. Who hasn’t heard of the murder of a trans woman and thought how great it would be to become and avenging trans superhero, hunt down her killer and exact retribution? Meggan Sommerville has a more Christian way to get revenge.
Too often people on this Earth who claim to be religious and pious are instead intolerant and show bias. The worst of the religious right don’t just condemn LGBT people to Hell for being who they are. They want to put LGBT in Hell by having them executed. This is not just a trait of radical Islamists, or of Christian sects in Africa. Today Meggan Sommerville points to two “ministers” who preach hate.
