Ordinariest

My point to all of this is the fact that I’m endowed and questioning my faith in the leaders of this church.

I trust that God did call them, but they are just as human as I am and make mistakes. God’s revelations come as people are ready for them and though I cannot say he’ll “ordain” anything besides a man and a woman as marriage I do know that he has more in store for us and better explanations as to why we feel certain ways than, “it’s just your trial for this life.”

“Men are that they might have joy.” Pain and suffering is inevitable but God has a reason for every little thing he does. He created each and every cell inside of us and he created us as ourselves. I cannot honestly say that a Heavenly Father would create someone with such a “flaw” that they cannot experience in any capacity the love he must feel for our Heavenly Mother. He has his reasons for why we are all the way we are and the reason has yet to be revealed to the world as a whole as they aren’t ready for it.

i must make…

b e a d l i z a r d

B…

AND with a little practice, you can even make them 3D shaped (especially with the smaller beads and wire, though you can make them with the bigger beads and string, to an extent) 

Hint: NOT. MOTHERS. OR WOMEN. AT ALL.

My RS president told me that there’s a new policy of ignoring Mother’s Day but good God my bishop really went the OPPOSITE DIRECTION.

But no. My bishop went “no we are ignoring it”. And I know his wife well enough to know that she is down and this is basically kicking her while she’s suffering and I am ANGRY. And it’s not like we don’t know anything about Her! There are SO MANY things we know about Her! There’s a whole freaking scholarly study that’s been endorsed by the First Presidency!

AAAAAAAAAGH.

The immediate next post on my timeline was this quote by Thomas S. Monson:

“If we would keep the commandment to love one another, we must treat each other with compassion and respect, showing our love in day-to-day interactions. Love offers a kind word, a patient response, a selfless act, an understanding ear, a forgiving heart. In all our associations, these and other such acts help make evident the love in our hearts.”

… … … 

…… there’s something supremely hypocritical about supporting discriminatory policies that would put thousands of innocent people in danger of assault or murder, and then turning around and talking about love. 

Not only does G-d never speak to Abraham again, Torah tells us he came down from the mountain ALONE.

“What would I tell my pastor, huh? That I’m fine with letting you turn away from God’s will?”

“Who is more important to you, your child or your pastor? Because I don’t understand why you’d lose either of us, but if it did come down to that, who are you here for, me or him? Are your children not the most important people in your life?”

And she responded in a way that left probably a permanent scar even if she does ever come around. “Im here for God. He made you a woman and I respect His path for your life over the ungrateful one you’re trying to set for yourself.

And I think in her heart she believes it is the moral choice to place honoring what she thinks is God’s wishes over her childrens’ wellbeing.

But this interpretation says No. Don’t persecute your children in the name of God!

Torah shows us an act of gender transformation. When Eve is created, she comes from a man. There’s nothing shameful or unnatural indicated in how she comes to be. And in Tanakh, in the psalms, we have “you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, how well I know it.” If G-d made and knew you before you were born, then he knows what’s up and what your soul is like. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but G-d looks at the heart.”

Check out this post by @wild-desert-highway​ “It was for Hagar” for a similar take on the story of Abraham’s failure in the sacrifice of Isaac story.

“…And then God turned to Abraham and said your turn. Take your son, your beloved son, Abraham, the promise for your future, and take the life from his lungs. You had no remorse to do the same thing to Ishmael - Ishmael, your son. …”

I highly recommend trans Jewish scholar Joy Ladin’s The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective. In that book, you’ll find:

various characters in the Torah (including Abraham and Sarah) as “gender failures” according to their cultures; 

and more figures (including Jacob) whose stories can be read through a queer lens

stuff about Adam and Eve when it comes to gender constructs – the “origin” of gender, of gender roles, and then of patriarchy 

God as the ultimate stranger

I’m also gonna promote some of my own stuff like a dork but it relates to this post’s content, plus i draw from both Christian and Jewish sources.

A section of my website blessedarethebinarybreakers.com features a “timeline of gender diversity in – and pre – Christian history.” It’s written from my own Christian lens, but I did my utmost to make the page on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible; the “Old Testament”) reflective of Jewish views as well, with much of my citations coming from Jewish authors. On that page you’ll find: 

the first human (ha-adam) as a genderfull or genderless figure who becomes both Adam and Eve (rather than being exclusively Adam to start with), and what that means for how we can interpret Genesis 1-3 in terms of gender and sex

Sarah and Abraham as intersex

Joseph read from a trans lens, with the famous colorful coat being translated as a “princess dress”

Trans look at the eunuchs of the Hebrew Bible

I have a sermon that focuses on Abraham called “No Good Patriarchs” that wrestles with another uncomfortable part of his story – his abuse of the enslaved woman Hagar