Christian love: Last night a brave Bruce Jenner revealed he is transitioning into a woman, and as one might expect, many Christians are taking the opportunity to abuse and mock Jenner and other transgender individuals.

In a highly anticipated interview, Jenner told Diane Sawyer that “for all intents and purposes, I am a woman.”

Immediately following the interview some ‘loving Christians’ condemned Jenner as an abomination and in need of Jesus. Many patronizing and condescending Christians on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook simply repeated messages such as:

Bruce Jenner needs Jesus So people find this brave & normal? The world is going bad! A total mess! Jesus is coming back soon! #FixItJesus #BruceJenner I know this is strange, but my heart grieves for Bruce Jenner. I pray that he finds Jesus because only He can break every chain!! The #Perversions never end and just gets worse…that’s why God calls it an #Abomination…Live & let live – yes! Glorify – No! #BruceJenner We Christians KNOW if you were born a man, you ARE a man. If you were born a woman, you ARE a woman, period!!! Bruh #BruceJenner is a fuckin abomination and he is going to hell tbh idc what ppl say if u believe in God u live with what he made u

One particularly heinous example of bashing Jenner for being transgender comes from a blog posted here at Patheos. Catholic blogger Kathy Schiffer, writing at Seasons of Grace, minced no words in expressing her bigotry and contempt towards Jenner and other transgender individuals.

The following is an excerpt from Schiffer’s post:

Bruce Jenner is a man. He will always be a man. He may be a man who’s been surgically altered (ouch! just thinking about it!), but he’ll still be a man. He may grow long hair, have his Adam’s apple surgically removed, take hormones to enhance breast growth, and paint his fingernails; but he’ll still be a man. Every single cell in his body contains XY chromosomes, and no amount of chemical or surgical or psychological manipulation will change that. His skin is male; his fingernails are male; his chest hair is male, as are his feet, his nose, his eyeballs. Bruce Jenner is not a woman. He may be a sad, physically mutilated and psychologically troubled man–but a man he is.

Schiffer’s uninformed and uneducated opinion why Jenner will never be a woman is cruel and mean-spirited, and reveals an astonishing lack of intellect, character, and human decency.

Schiffer takes the opportunity to openly persecute and humiliate Jenner, and by extension all transgender people, in a vicious and ugly rant dripping with the smug self-satisfaction that only the religiously deluded can manage.

Schiffer’s unseemly rant is a paradigmatic example of transphobia. It is the exact kind of attitude and argument that drives so many transgender kids and adults to suicide.

Yet Schiffer is not alone in her prejudice and bigotry towards transgender individuals. Indeed, she represents a common type of religious fundamentalist that will always condemn and attack that which they do not understand.

And while Schiffer may represent an ugly reality, it is important to note that not all Christians express bigotry and contempt for transgender individuals. Indeed, the ironic fact is that Jenner identifies as a Christian, as do many other transgender individuals. The fact is, many Christians are good and decent people who accept and love transgender individuals.

However, one need only recall the tragic life and death of Leelah Alcorn to understand that the kind of open hostility and cruelty towards transgender people expressed by Schiffer and other religious extremists often have real and tragic consequences.

(Note: At this time, Bruce Jenner has not yet chosen to publicly identify as a woman, hence the author’s use of the male pronoun in the opening paragraph.)

