Steve Chalke calls for full church inclusion for trans people

The leader of the Oasis network has published a new eBook encouraging churches to include, welcome, support and accept transgender people.

The Gender Agenda: Towards a Biblical Theology on Gender Identity, Reassignment and Confirmation attempts to “heal the hurts” inflicted on people who are transgender. Its purpose is to also help Christians form an “inclusive theology”, which Rev Chalke argues is consistent throughout the Bible.

He said: “The subtle shift from viewing transgender people as ‘depraved sinners’ to ‘unfortunate victims of psychological pressures and mental illness’ camouflages the fact that, in the end, as numbers of trans people have learned to their cost, the environment it creates is just as toxic for them.”

The book also asserts that the world’s first Gentile convert to Christianity had gender and sexual minority status. It uses the example of Philip baptising an Ethiopian eunuch even though Jewish theology at the time would not have deemed him worthy of it due to his status as a foreigner and a eunuch.

Rev Chalke added: “For the record, I am not suggesting that a 1st century eunuch is the exact equivalent of a 21st century trans or intersex person. It is, however, an extraordinary example of the early Church’s understanding of the principle of radical inclusion as central to their mission and purpose.”

He also teamed up with LGBT rights charity…