Anna Sheetz, the Director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church of Iowa City, had this to say during last Sunday’s service.
“This past Thursday, March 31st, was the International Transgender Day of Visibility. In the PCUSA, we welcome all of our transgender and queer siblings into this family and relationship with the Creator God. So today, I wish to pray a prayer that was written for this incredible day. Will you pray with me?
“Oh God of Pronouns, we give praise to the Great One, the One who was identifiable as God.
‘I am what I am,’ You say. The Great ‘They,’ the Incarnate ‘He’ and ‘She,’ the God of Trans-Being.”
[Who exactly was the Incarnate She?]
“Impregnating Mary, fathering God. Breastfeeding God of Many Breasts, You shatter all stereotypes, making every single person…male and female, intersex, nonbinary in Your image. Exactly in your image.”
[Mary has many breasts? Or some other “incarnation” of God? I’m confused.]
“God is flexible and affirmative:”
[Really? I remember Jesus being pretty heavy handed in his criticism of unrepentant sinners, especially among those who presumed to be religious leaders!]
“Spectrum Rainbow God, who put Your promise for non-violence in the symbol for queer love before humanity knew.”
[Uhhh, no. The LGBTQers appropriated the rainbow that was God’s promise to never destroy the earth again with a flood. It had nothing to do with “non-violence” and especially not with “queer love.”]
“Because You knew. Who had Joseph, who could not sleep with a woman in a beautiful lady’s cloak, perhaps of rainbow colors. Before we knew, You knew.”
[Wait, wut? He didn’t sleep with Potiphar’s wife, because she was Potiphar’s WIFE. Not because his father had given him that cloak of many colors umpteen years before that he no longer had anyway.]
“God of Pronouns, who said, ‘You can call me ‘He’ or ‘She’ or ‘They,’ whatever makes you feel closest to Me.’”
[No. He never said that. Like, ever.]
“Invisible and Visible God, on this day where visibility, celebration, belatedness, affirmation, and acceptance is [sic] the bare minimum, remind us that You are the God of Pronouns, so You affirm and You celebrate them.”
[Acceptance? Nope. Repentance and conversion, yes. “Go and sin no more.” – John 5:14, John 8:11]
“The minister beholds the ‘Great They/Them’: God of Saul, Paul, Simon, Jacob, Isaac, Simon Peter, Abram and Sarai and Abraham and Sarah, God of Joseph, of the coat of many colors, of the Ethiopian eunuch, of the virgin Mary, God of all Found Families in the Bible.
“Remind us that You affirm us in our full identity — name, pronoun, found family, all of it. For this, we give You thanks and praise to the Great I Am. The Great They/Them. Thank you, God.”
To put this into context and if you have the time, I recommend this video. While I’m not a fan of Mike Winger’s anti-Catholic crap (why can’t these people find out what the RCC actually teaches?), on this issue, I think he nails it. The main take away I got is that progressive theology is Christian churches that go left end up with empty pews. And, golly gee whiz, notice how few people were at that service.
polination.blog 