Jesus Is Queer

What if what they call profane is really holiness in disguise? Listen here to learn more about seeing Jesus enfleshed as queer and trans.

One of the ironies of faith deconstruction is doing exactly what our evangelical parents and pastors told us to do—take the Bible seriously! And when you take the Bible seriously, you begin to notice all the red letters, all the words of Jesus that evangelical Christians conveniently ignore.

For instance, when Jesus states "Whatever you have done to the least of these, you have done unto me,” he is providing the most direct identification of the Godhead with the least human person, with the other. According to Jesus, God is not directly found in a book, God is not even fully expressed in the Eucharist. God is known in the very bodies of people conservative Christianity told us were profane: the poor, the cast off, the societal misfits, the marginalized, the person of color, the immigrant at our border, the prisoner, the BLM protester, and yes, especially the queer and transgender.

Recognizing the sacramental presence of God in those we’ve been told to either ignore or use as pawns in a culture war might be the first step toward meeting Jesus in the flesh. Jesus is the eternal other, the outcast in every generation, the least human person in every human interaction, in every social context, in all power dynamics. And unlike us, “Jesus doesn’t demonize, or marginalize the other. He incarnates the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, even lays down his life for the other,” writes our friend Brian McLaren. If Christians continue to turn away from the “other,” in the name of purity culture, they are turning away from the very Christ they profess to believe in.

So when we say Jesus is queer, we aren't saying that in some playful way, we are saying it in the same breathe with Jesus who said he embodies the other, the outcast, the least human person who just happens to currently be our trans and LGBTQIA friends and family.

Insofar as we want to claim Jesus is present in this world, then we have to take him seriously when he says he is here with us in the bodies of those who are different, in the bodies of those we exclude, in the other. The hands Jesus is using to heal the world are queer hands. The feet Jesus walks this earth are trans feet. This is his queer and trans body broken and given for you.

And what have we done with it?

Transgender and queer bodies continue to be thrown into the culture war chumming the waters of hatred and bigotry by evangelical Christians and their Republican Party goons, leading to a rise in dehumanizing tactics and strategies aimed at eliminating LGBTQIA+ individuals from society. Recent laws passed in Bible-belt states like Texas, Alabama, and Florida are making it almost impossible for transgender and queer people to get healthcare, participate in sports, be themselves at school, and even be in an affirming relationship with their parents. And it is evangelical organizations helping to write bigotry into the laws of our land. In a way, these tactics are crucifying Jesus all over again, because he is in the body and blood of everyone who dares to be different. “When you see someone being scapegoated, targeted, stigmatized, oppressed, diminished, devalued, dehumanized, and excluded, that is Jesus. No need to look further for him. You found him,” writes Preston Shipp.

What if in our pursuit of purity, power, and holiness we are running in the opposite direction of Jesus? As Maki Ashe Van Steenwyk says in the latest episode of Holy Heretics Podcast, “Queer Jesus exposes what people think not only as normal, but what people think of as holy. And it exposes the fact that they see me as fundamentally profane.” But she is in good company now isn’t she?