Illustration Courtesy of Christy Thomas
Special to United Methodist Insight | June 29, 2026
A black and white, i.e., binary, world is easier for all
The world is ever so much easier to deal with when everything divides into two neat categories, i.e., a binary world.
This is good, that is bad. This is heaven, that is hell. This is day, that is night. This is right, this is wrong.
This is a wave; that is a particle, except we know matter can be both waves and particles!
This is what much of the “holiness code” found in the Hebrew Scriptures is about: categorizing as much of the world as possible into good (clean) and bad (unclean).
Semen and menstrual blood were unclean. Childbirth was unclean. Women, in general, had so many possibilities of being rendered unclean by bodily secretions that they were permanently barred from priestly roles.
Men who had damaged genitalia or physical deformities were also permanently barred from such roles. They were perpetually “unclean.”
Certain parameters had to be met to be “clean.” There could be no confusion about the nature of the item/person to be categorized.
Therefore, the mingling of unlike things became, by definition, unclean: the mixture of two kinds of cloth, the mixture of milk and meat.
The mixture of clothing did not escape categorization: men were to wear men’s clothing, and women were to wear women’s clothing. Thus, the church has been known to throw hissy-fits over women wearing slacks, despite the fact that they are significantly more modest than many dresses or skirts.
What WILL we do with the intersexed?
Separation and exclusion were part of the process. Work and rest had to be rigidly separated. The Sabbath had to be perfectly separated from the regular workweek.
A big part of the holiness code involved the careful separation of that which is male and that which is female. There was no crossover. This is male, that is female. Period.
So what do we do with the intersexed, those born with ambiguous genitalia, neither fully male nor fully female? Shall we just call them God’s mistakes and be done with them? Because if the holiness codes are to serve as guides to our lives, there is simply no place for such indefinable people, for they don’t fit neatly into either “male” or “female” categories.
Before answering that question, I strongly urge you to watch the video of this TED talk.
As much as we’d like to think otherwise, the interpretation of the texts found in the Bible has always invited disagreement. Although many may loudly pound the pulpit and should loudly, “THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD,” there simply is not one final word on anything, particularly concerning the nature of God.
The size of theological libraries and the variety of Christian beliefs and experiences bring this home. Furthermore, much of the interpretative process, along with the controversies, has been shaped by the growing body of scientific inquiry.
The Bible teaches it . . . or does it?
Very few still live as those grounded in a geocentric three-storied universe with a fixed earth and the sun, moon and stars revolving around it in concentric spheres. But it is possible to make a case that the Bible teaches it.
And while a significant minority (particularly in the US) of Christians still hold to a seven 24-hour-day creation at a fixed point in time in the somewhat recent past, far more do not. But it is possible to make a case that the Bible teaches it.
Yet those who appreciate science to illuminate God’s way of creation still see the Bible as a trustworthy source of revelation. They have been able to incorporate evidence of the universe’s vast age and the processes of evolutionary change into their interpretations of the poetic creation passages in Genesis.
Many believe that the Scriptures teach genocide, slavery, and the rape of captured women as normal and justified activities. It is possible to make a case that the Bible teaches it.
Many others affirm that such passages do not reflect the heart of God. Instead, they are the actions of flawed humans who were making their own interpretations of what Pure Holiness demands of impure humanity.
Our reasoning powers, our experiences, our faith, family and national traditions, our fears, our neuroses, all radically shape how each person reads the Scriptures. Truly, no one has the capabilities of a perfectly objective reading.
Flaming wars and fractured churches
Right now, we experience flaming wars and fractured churches over the question of how to decide whether the homosexual community is just making unholy choices from which they can repent or whether one’s sexual orientation is actually inborn and unchangeable.
Now, I ask us to stop and say, “What about those born intersexed?” In this case, we may clearly state that the choice of their non-normative sexuality was made for them. They did not “choose” their “lifestyle” as so many accuse those in the GLBTI community of doing.
And I say again, “Shall we just call them mistakes and be done with it?”
The Intersexed don’t fit anywhere within a Biblical world that insists on a clean delineation between male and female. They mess up every single category. They mess with our minds. They mess with our theologies.
They really mess with the Adam/Eve dichotomy that many call upon to show the model for the only God-approved marriage arrangement and the only place for people to find loving fulfillment of their intimacy/sexuality needs and desires.
Church, we have a problem.
Will we once again be able to let science help us interpret the Holy Scriptures in a way that reflects Jesus’ ministry of inclusion? After all, he opened the kingdom of heaven to the unclean of the day: menstruating and foreign women--about as bad as it got in those days.
Will we deal with the inevitable discomfort of being unable to hold to clean categories while still holding to the redemptive power of the Gospel?
Will we be the Church to all people?
Will we do the same thing that the courageous first followers of Jesus did and declare boldly, “There is no male or female!”
Will we humbly acknowledge both our lack of knowledge and the lack of knowledge of the Biblical writers of human nature, even as we continue to acknowledge the God-breathed nature of the Holy Scriptures?
Will we say with conviction, “God creates, but does not make mistakes!” Remember what God said over and over again about the created world: “It is good.”
We must address the place in God’s creation of those born outside of what we generally call normal. Because when we do, we will also be better able to clarify the rest of our arguments about human sexuality.
I write this as one who has essentially identified with the “Progressive” Christian movement. However, I do not write to demand that those who call themselves “Traditionalists” or “Orthodox” change their minds about their positions. I only ask that all of us hold our positions with humble grace and be willing to ask the hard questions about them.
A host of complex questions awaits us
I am aware that a whole host of complex questions arise from taking the position that there is no rigid separation between male and female. By going there, we have to ask again what to do with the biblical witness of the creation narrative and the Gospel passages with Jesus’ reference to them:
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mt 19:4-6)
Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (Mk 10:6-9)
I honor the Scriptures and believe they give us what we need to enter into God’s redeeming place of grace. I am very aware of the slippery slope concerns, that by opening doors to alternate understandings of human sexuality, we also open doors to deeper and deeper immorality.
But two thoughts continually come to mind here. One, we have wrongly focused the majority of our concerns over immorality on “who is having sex with whom” rather than the wider question of, “Where do I treat others in a way I personally hate to be treated?”
As we rightly broaden the definition of immorality, we can address it more holistically.
Second, our argument about the dangers of the slippery slope needs to be directed to Jesus. Many of Jesus’ actions, as recorded in the Gospels, are in direct opposition to the standards set by the Holiness Codes in the Hebrew Scriptures.
He touched the dead, the leper, the menstruating woman, the foreign woman--all untouchables of the day, all as scandalous to those around him as the emerging GLBTQI world is to those who hold to more traditionalist views.
Jesus’ insistence on violating those codes contributed significantly to the traditionalists of his day’s need to get him out of the way. Personally, I think they acted with the best of motives. Purity matters. It did then. And it does now.
But we’re going to have to think more broadly about what purity is if we are going to be carriers of the Gospel to the world as it exists today.
Christy Thomas
Courtesy Photo
Author and columnist the Rev. Dr. Christy Thomas is a retired clergy member of the Horizon Texas Annual Conference (formerly North Texas) of The United Methodist Church. This post is republished from her Substack blog, "Christy Thomas: Quiet Resistance for a Noisy Age."