Eunuchs as Biblical Models of Hope for Detransitioners
Jonathan Clemens, MS, ThM, PA-C, DMSc student, AT Still University
Evangelical Christian churches in America dedicated to binary gender as a tenet of faith have struggled to articulate a pastoral response to transition as an intervention for gender dysphoria. The explosion in non-binary or transgender identities creates both a challenge and an opportunity for such churches.
As barriers to gender transition surgeries and hormonal interventions dropped, the social acceptability—even desirability—to young people of identifying as transgender increased. Many teens and young adults pursued gender transition who did not meet criteria used by the Dutch Protocols to limit such interventions to those perceived as most likely to benefit from them. As such, America (and the West in general) has reason to anticipate that from now through the end of the decade there will be a tidal wave of disillusioned detransitioners who have regretted their interventions and desire to re–identify with their biological sex, despite irrevocable changes prompted by their interventions to date. These detransitioners, likely to number in the thousands to tens of thousands, will need relevant spiritual care.
This paper proposes eunuchs as a biblical model through which to view the ministry and significance of detransitioners. It reviews the prevalence of eunuchs in Hebrew and Greek scriptures, summarizing eunuch passages in both the Old and New Testaments. It reviews Torah prohibitions against castration, shows the prevalence and impact of eunuchs especially in the divided kingdom and foreign courts, and discusses key biblical figures who may themselves have been eunuchs. From this study, a trajectory of hope is proposed, moving from prohibitions against eunuchs in community in the Torah, to the promise to faithful eunuchs in Isaiah 56:1–8, to Jesus’ enumeration of eunuchs in Matthew 19:12, to Philip’s baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26–40.
This trajectory is used as a model for acceptance and inclusion of those who regret their gender transition care and desire a religious community not predicated on gender spectrum as a theological anthropology. This model is specifically targeted at Christian Churches who reject gender as a spectrum as a matter of doctrine, but is not limited to such faith communities. While detransitioners would have been seen as squarely outside such communities, the model of eunuch inclusion is accessible to any Christian community desiring to provide hope for those who regret gender transition interventions.
As barriers to gender transition surgeries and hormonal interventions dropped, the social acceptability—even desirability—to young people of identifying as transgender increased. Many teens and young adults pursued gender transition who did not meet criteria used by the Dutch Protocols to limit such interventions to those perceived as most likely to benefit from them. As such, America (and the West in general) has reason to anticipate that from now through the end of the decade there will be a tidal wave of disillusioned detransitioners who have regretted their interventions and desire to re–identify with their biological sex, despite irrevocable changes prompted by their interventions to date. These detransitioners, likely to number in the thousands to tens of thousands, will need relevant spiritual care.
This paper proposes eunuchs as a biblical model through which to view the ministry and significance of detransitioners. It reviews the prevalence of eunuchs in Hebrew and Greek scriptures, summarizing eunuch passages in both the Old and New Testaments. It reviews Torah prohibitions against castration, shows the prevalence and impact of eunuchs especially in the divided kingdom and foreign courts, and discusses key biblical figures who may themselves have been eunuchs. From this study, a trajectory of hope is proposed, moving from prohibitions against eunuchs in community in the Torah, to the promise to faithful eunuchs in Isaiah 56:1–8, to Jesus’ enumeration of eunuchs in Matthew 19:12, to Philip’s baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26–40.
This trajectory is used as a model for acceptance and inclusion of those who regret their gender transition care and desire a religious community not predicated on gender spectrum as a theological anthropology. This model is specifically targeted at Christian Churches who reject gender as a spectrum as a matter of doctrine, but is not limited to such faith communities. While detransitioners would have been seen as squarely outside such communities, the model of eunuch inclusion is accessible to any Christian community desiring to provide hope for those who regret gender transition interventions.