I have a question for the Christian schools kicking out trans kids.

What’s the point? What’s your purpose in evicting students who don’t meet your lifestyle standards?

Mission statements tend to read like “I want” lists. Yes, we’d all love to live in a society full of people with a sense of social connection, intelligence, the willingness to question their beliefs, and the tact to know how to interact with other flawed human beings, but…let’s be real. Most of us don’t. And, even more real, most of us aren’t.

When Christians say they’re trying to ‘live according to God’s way’ are they aware of the verse “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”? If being trans is a sin, then lying (like Scott Morrison has) is also a sin, and cheating (as Barnaby Joyce has) is also a sin, and rape (as one of the PMO’s staffers has certainly done) is also a sin. Drunkenness is a sin, short-changing your fellow worker of his due pay is a sin, heck, even crude behaviour is a sin.

All sins are bad, but some are more bad than others.

The dissonance between which sins are “more bad” for conservative Christians vs which sins are “more bad” from the world’s POV seems…significant.

Rape, lying, cheating, stealing, child sexual abuse, usury, drunkenness? We tend to handwave or dismiss or downplay those when someone who’s done things we consider ‘important’ have committed sins like these. A leader, a politician who’s supporting our point of view, a respected teacher or coach. As the Christian world in the US (and sometimes Australia) have seen, there are many excuses made for a preacher man who ‘does great things’ or ‘speaks the truth’ or ‘brings people to God’.

On the side of hurting others, there are far too many tales of Christian schools and organisations shuffling along, appeasing, and cleaning up after people in authority who did things which would have received condemnation if they’d been committed by people that the Christians making excuses didn’t like.

Sexual personal behaviour, sexual attraction and orientation, not wanting to be the same as everyone else or go down the expected path, asking questions? No. Those are unacceptable and will get you cast out of the communities and organisations that protect and keep their own.

One of the things I can feel hovering in the air, waiting to settle upon us is the subtle insistence of the insufficiency of Christ to provide us grace.

It’s “grace plus sexuality” or “grace plus orientation” or “grace plus a good, sober, middle-class life”.

Is the grace of Christ enough or not?

“Yes, but a mature Christian will…”

Are we only accepting mature Christians then? No new Christians need apply? Good grief, no wonder the church has a problem with “new recruits”. Imagine if a college student were dropped into the role I perform at work after 28 years of working in this industry!

And, also, in the midst of the culture wars I do wonder how much of “mature Christianity” is functionally indistinguishable from “middle-upper class western aspirationalism” when it comes down to most of these schools.