Jesus was the 1st transgender man, blasphemous Huffington Post column claims

CHICAGO (Christian Examiner) – A Huffington Post columnist has sparked a new controversy by calling Jesus the first "transgender man," a claim that critics have called "blasphemous" and "a perversion."

Author and writer Suzanne DeWitt Hall began her column by criticizing Christians who oppose open bathroom policies for transgendered persons. She then argued that if Christians applied their own literal interpretation of the Bible, "they would quickly see that Jesus must be, by their own exegetical rules, the first transgender male."

She began by asserting that Eve was the first transgender woman.

"God reached into Adam, pulled out a bit of rib bone, and grew Eve from that XY DNA into Adam's companion," Hall wrote. "She was created genetically male, and yet trans-formed into woman."

Hall, who believes Eve was the first instance of cloning, said the cloning/transgender pattern was repeated with Jesus.

"The teaching of the church from ancient days through today is that Jesus received his fleshly self from Mary. The church also teaches that Jesus is the new Adam, born of the new Eve," Hall wrote. "... The Holy Spirit comes upon the second Eve, and the child takes flesh from her and is born. Born of her flesh. Born with XX chromosome pairing. Born genetically female, and yet trans-formed into man."

Her sensational column received 14,000 Facebook likes and 2,700 shares across social media.

"If Jesus and Eve were walking around today, perhaps shopping at the mall for a Father's Day gift, they'd have to swap restrooms," Hall wrote.

Many people on social media, though, weren't convinced.

"This is nothing more than a perversion of theology and of the Scripture that people read every day," one person, identified as Michael Angelo, wrote in the comments section. "There is zero evidence presented and no facts available to back up any statement or claim made. The 'article' really should be removed for that alone. The writer may want to reconsider a career change as a science fiction writer. I believe that would suit him or her better."

Hall, in the comments, claimed that she wrote the column at the "prompting of the Holy Spirit," but she received a lot of pushback for that claim, too.

"Now you are just adding insult to injury by blasphemous the Holy Spirit," a person calling himself Godsent Gideon wrote. "The Holy Spirit would NOT contradict the Word of God. There [are] just too many Scriptures that forecast the coming of Jesus and refer to Him as a man, male."

Another person, Sabrina Ferriera, wrote, "Asinine example and total twisting of Scripture! Eve was formed and created as FEMALE. She was NEVER completed as a male and then changed to female. Jesus was BORN MALE. Period."

Ferriera made a parallel to alligators: "All alligators start as females in the eggs. The temperature determines their sex. The eggs that hatch at a temp of 93 F or higher become male. Those that hatch at 86 F or lower become female. So does this mean all alligators are transgender? Because someone should let them know so they stop forcing themselves to breed and procreate. Tragic really."