"God arranged..."

There are a wealth of arguments in the Catholic faith that speak against transgenderism; doctrinal, biblical, philosophical, and social. The most obvious and basic is the argument from creation. God made them "male and female"; case closed. There is however another place in the Scriptures, though not speaking specifically to transgenderism itself (since no one alive during those centuries appears to have been mentally unbalanced enough to come up with the idea), where the point cannot be missed.

It comes from this last Sunday's second reading from St. Paul. The Apostle is telling us about how God created our physical bodies as an illustration for how we are to understand the corporate body of the Church (as well as individual parishes). He says there: "God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose." If God arranged, then that means we have no right to rearrange. Yeah, that makes it pretty clear. Anyone who pursues transgenderism is telling God that He chose wrong.

St. Paul also tells us that, "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'" We would be completely faithful to the text if we extrapolated the idea: "the brain cannot say to the sexual organs, 'I have no need of you, because I want different ones.'" No one has any right to get rid of a body part just because he thinks he was given the wrong one.

Finally, St. Paul says that, "our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty." Those "unpresentable parts" are clearly those parts of our physical being that we cover in public. To uncover them is immodest and shows a disordered understanding of humanity. Furthermore, to seek to change them through chemicals or surgery (whether for a child or an adult, it is wicked either way) is completely immodest. Have you ever known of someone who is "transgender" and does not want anyone to know it? Is there ever any humility in them about what they have done? Do any of them seek modesty at all? No.

Again, this is not St. Paul's primary argument. No doubt about it. Yet, the conclusions from what he says are evident to even the most casual reader. In fact, if transgenderism is true, then St. Paul is wrong, and thus his main understanding of the Church (as "the body of Christ") is faulty. From there, almost everything about the Church would be confused. I am going to side with the infallible words of God; they are always true, and they always speak to what we need.