This weekend's Unbelieveable? debate was "Faitheism: Why can’t atheists and Christians get along? Krish Kandiah & Terry Sanderson"

When discussing the traits that should not be held against a person - race, gender, religion, sexual orientation - atheist Terry Sanderson correctly observed that religion is the one trait that can be changed. In his glib response, Christian Krish Kandiah argued that the existence of transgender people suggests gender is also a changeable trait. I suspect Sanderson was surprised by Kandiah's evasive tactic and rightly replied that there was not enough time to get into the topic of gender identity.

I think Kandiah's attempt to compare changing religious affiliation with gender transition is vile and insincere. He is probably aware that most transgender people describe fulfilling their gender identity as correcting a gender incongruity they have experienced since birth -- not merely a philosophical choice. Unlike religious affiliation, there are no transgender door-to-door missionaries or transgender tent evangelists trying to save people from one gender to another. Gender identity is just not comparable to religious affiliation.

What Kandiah is reluctant to admit is that religion is very much a changeable trait. Christians -- evangelists in particular -- devote much of their lives to denouncing other faiths while trying to persuade people to change to the Christian identity. Christians even explicitly discriminate the differences in non-Christian and Christian life in dramatic testimonials -- which often suggests there are good reasons to consider religious affiliation when considering a person's character.

[premierchristianradio.com]