Transgenderism as a False Theosis
Transgenderism takes the natural human desire to become one’s holiest self and misdirects it onto a false path.
What is sometimes lost in the discourse around transgender issues is an acknowledgement of exactly what transgenderism offers to its adherents and supporters. Like many other modern ideologies, transgender ideology is filling the spiritual void left behind by the abandonment of a relationship with God. Transgenderism takes the natural human desire to become one’s holiest self and misdirects it onto a false path.
Transgenderism catches many people in its snares by offering an ultimately destructive path to holiness or “perfection” by encouraging people to focus transformative energy on the body/gender expression instead of union with Christ. The testimonies of detransitioners illustrate how transgender ideology is a false form of theosis, which is the Orthodox Christian understanding that human beings can have real union with God and become like God to such a degree that we participate in His divine energies.
Transgenderism offers some of the same things that religion offers, but in a warped sense. Transgenderism identifies a spiritual ailment (gender dysphoria), offers a path to transformation (medical treatments to transition your body), and promises an eventual goal or state of “holiness” (passing and living as the opposite sex).
The transformative path of Orthodox Christian belief, theosis, also helps one to identify spiritual ailments (our sinful nature), offers a path to transformation (theosis), and identifies an eventual goal (infinite joy, paradise and eternal life). In theosis, Christians undergo a continuous process of acquiring the Holy Spirit, and become like God through perfection in holiness. Because the goal of Christian life is to be with God in eternity, our journey is not completed until death. But in transgender ideology, the goal is said to be attainable in this life — yet its realization often leaves adherents feeling empty or worse.
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