Christian Groups Attack Pat Robertson For Sympathetic Trans Commentary

Three days ago I noted Pat Robertson's surprisingly sympathetic commentary on transgender people. That post got a lot of notice and the attacks on Robertson have begun. From the anti-gay LifeSiteNews:

Traditional Christians have condemned such actions as a form of self-mutilation since the days of the ancient church. Speaking specifically of castration, the Apostolic Canons, a fourth century Syrian document, states, “If a layman mutilate himself, let him be excommunicated for three years, as practising against his own life.” More contemporary teachers uphold the Christian admonition to maintain one's biological gender and respect our bodies.

"To destroy organs purposefully that are healthy and functioning, and to try to create imitation organs which will never have the genuineness and functioning of authentic organs lacks charity,” said Fr. William Saunders, professor of Catechetics and Theology at Christendom College's Notre Dame Graduate School. "Such surgery which purposefully destroys the bodily integrity of the person must be condemned.”

The National Catholic Bioethics Center wrote, "Changing one’s sex is fundamentally impossible; these procedures are fundamentally acts of mutilation...Doing violence to one’s body when there is nothing wrong with it is an unjustifiable mutilation. “Furthermore, seeking such a mutilation manifests a self-hatred inconsistent with the charity we owe to ourselves,” the group added. “Persons seeking such operations are clearly uncomfortable with who they really are. Loving such persons properly demands addressing the beliefs and self-understanding that give rise to this fundamental rejection of self.”

The above-linked article concludes with a short cataloging of other controversial statements by Robertson, some of which were also mentioned here at the time.