Midrash Nyc

There is a freedom that comes with the realization that you are not who the world says you are -- but there is also destabilization. Like many of you, Austen grew up in a church environment that had narrow views on what men and women look like and how to interpret the whole "created in His image" thing. When he realized that his gender identity didn't sync up with either his birth certificate or what the church believed, there was a certain existential quake that reverberated through his life and faith, but that deconstruction led to a reconstruction into a more full and beautiful concept of how being created in the image of God is not limited to an inflexible dichotomy. It's these experiences as well as biblically based scholarship that Austen presents in the latest edition of his book, Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians to help usher readers into a vision of a more inclusive Christianity.  ABOUT AUSTEN Austen is the founder and Executive Director of Transmission Ministry Collect