Faith leaders: Ohio board of Ed member should study Bible, abandon anti-Christian attack
Ben Huelskamp (he/they) is the executive director of LOVEboldly. Hank Osmundson (he/him) is the executive director of Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio and pastor of Community Engagement at St. John’s UCC in Columbus. Jon Osmundson (he/him) is associate pastor at Hilliard UMC and a father of six, four of whom attend public schools.
During their September meeting the State Board of Education was presented with board member Brendan Shea's “Resolution to Support Parents, Schools, and Districts in Rejecting Harmful, Coercive, and Burdensome Gender Identity Policies."
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The resolution is an open assault on transgender and gender-expansive youth stating that sex is an “unchangeable fact” and treats children and adolescents as nothing more than the property of their parents.
Shea’s resolution aims to support efforts by some parents and elected officials to reject new USDA protections and proposed changes to Title IX protections by the Biden administration.
In his official biography on the State Board of Education website, Shea is described in terms of his faith as an “active parishioner in St. Patrick Church,” “the founder and president of the Madison County Right to Life,” and enjoying “Bible study” in his free time.
Shea may read his Bible, but he clearly needs to study it further. Because of people like Shea and their attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community from a perspective called “faith,” Christians have earned a reputation as anti-LGBTQIA+.
However, many Christians believe that a faithful Christian response does not allow for the homophobia and transphobia that Shea’s resolution demonstrates.
Our very understanding of God as a being whose infinite nature transcends human limitations and definitions is an understanding which should position Christians as open and naturally inclined to the many ways that God created us to be.
Speaking at Spelman College, Howard Thurman argued that, “There is in every person, that which waits, waits, waits, and listens for the sound of the genuine in (theirself). There is that in every person that waits, and waits, and listens for the sound of the genuine in other people. And when these two sounds come together, this is the music God heard when he said, let us make [humans] in our image.”
We can recognize the genuineness in other people only when we are engaged mutually in each other’s flourishing. And isn’t that what Jesus told his followers to do in Matthew 7:12 (the Golden Rule) and Matthew 22:26-30 (the Great Commandment)?
Therefore, a faithful Christian view from the perspective of this genuineness must include a robust inclusion of and fight for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people. A Christian cannot argue that, as Shea’s resolution does, that transgender youth be barred from using restrooms and competing in athletics corresponding to their gender identity.
A Christian cannot hold a position that educators must out students to their parents based on any identity including sexual orientation and gender identity.
As Christians, we believe that there is only one Savior. Given Shea’s bold pronouncement that he is a Christian, too, we can only assume that he agrees. Therefore, we are mystified why he and other self-proclaimed Christians are deeming themselves to be the saviors of cisgender children and adults from transgender people run amok, lest we forget the Target restroom uproar of 2016.
To be clear, we are an educator, a parent, theologians, and pastors. We are not scientists, psychologists, or medical doctors. We do, however, trust science. Thus, we feel it is important to point out that the fear-inducing rhetoric concerning the safety of cisgender people if trans people are allowed access to restrooms that match their gender identity is misplaced and false. Just one of the many examples is this 2019 study from Harvard University and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
When Shea next has free time and turns to his Bible, perhaps he will turn to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Ben Huelskamp (he/they) is the executive director of LOVEboldly. Hank Osmundson (he/him) is the executive director of Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio and pastor of Community Engagement at St. John’s UCC in Columbus. Jon Osmundson (he/him) is associate pastor at Hilliard UMC and a father of six, four of whom attend public schools.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio school board Anti-trans resolutions anti-Christian| Opinion
