Pastoral interview from Call Me Malcolm
A documentary feature about one man's struggle with faith, love and gender identity A theological conversation between Malcolm and Pastor Emily from the Washington Park United Church of Christ.
Malcolm: The certainty that I was wrong, everything about me was wrong, used to trouble me a great deal and then I thought "Well what if I'm not wrong? Then it was livable, so I was wasting my life, 'worrying about being wrong and now I'm not wasting my life.
Pastor Emily: Talk to me about that, how you've worked that out with God, that sense of betrayed in terms of being incarnated in what, for you, felt like the wrong gender. How are things going with you and God on that conversation.
Malcolm: One of the issues I really haven't complained to God about is what kind of body I have. I mean, I assume that, if this is really how I feel and think, that it must be part of my body, and, like, my body is involved in sending signals to my brain that tell me how to think, so I'm not sure exactly why I don't have the same kind of body as another man, but it's not necessarily a problem. More of an issue I had with God was, "Why were You so not clear that all Your people think this is such a big issue?" You know, shouldn't God bear some of the blame for.
Pastor Emily: All right, but see, I think God was really clear. I think God was very clear in Genesis when we hear the language "In the image of God was humanity created both male and female and you've heard me articutate before that my theology of transgender is that if you're looking for someone who in carnates the most clear and whole vision of who God is, well based on our Scripture of tradition that it has to be a transgender person who has experienced both male and female that is the most whole vision of the sacred that we're going to get, which is why it's so easy for me to ascribe a prophetic call to you because it sounds like God to me.
