What are drag queens doing in church?
“God is GOOD all the time! That means God is a DIVA…and girl…Jesus is FIERCE!”
Thus spake Serenity Jones, drag-queen-in-residence at First Church Somerville, a Massachusetts church which has hosted Jones and other drag performers for an annual “Drag Gospel Festival” since 2011. Advertisement
“What do drag queens or drag kings have to do with Jesus or the gospel? We at FCS believe ‘God don’t make no junk.’ So whether you are straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or still playing hard to get, Jesus loves you and so do we! Amen BABY! So come and get yours at this here church!”
FCS might have been one of the first American churches to promote transgenderism from the pulpit, loud and proud. It has certainly not been the last.
In September of this year, a journalist posted an undercover video of a “transition closet” at a church in Katy, Texas. Two men in vague positions of authority at the church led the reporter around the closet, showing off a dresser full of chest binders, underwear, and bras; hanging racks of mixed male and female clothing, sorted by size rather than sex; and tables full of other various clothing items (there is much back and forth between the two men about whether the collection includes scarves and where they are located). Toward the end of the clip, the church’s pastor, a woman named Amanda with the sort of haircut that suggests she drives a Subaru, starts to film the reporter and apparently has him removed after the clip cuts out. The church premiered the closet at a drag bingo event.
A few weeks later, at a church in Ontario, a sparsely attended drag queen Halloween event drew global attention after a woman named Chrystal Peters was arrested by Ontario police officers, also female, for protesting the event. At a Pride event in Kentucky, which boasted both drag queens and activities for kids, no less than three churches of varying denominations were listed as sponsors. Several months earlier, a New York church invited drag queens to perform at its service celebrating Pentecost, of all things. On the day of the celebration of the Spirit of God’s descent upon his people, every godly spirit seems to have left that church.
The very fact of these events taking place in a church makes a Christian want to gag. John’s words here seem relevant, that such churches have gone “out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” Advertisement
Notably, only certain churches court this wickedness, most of them belonging to very progressive mainline denominations. But put aside for a moment the very large, very obvious concerns with the leadership of the congregations where these events took place—and they are certainly large—to consider the other necessary component. That is, regardless of a pastor’s desire to bring men in women’s lingerie inside the church’s doors, it is impossible to fulfill without the willing participation and even pursuit of drag performers themselves. Transgender ideology in church says as much about the goal of transgenderism as it does about the morally bankrupt pastors and churches who participate in and promote it.
Why church? Why would such performers want to go right to the place where they must know they will be (or at least, should be) least wanted? Conservatives have often pointed to the slippery slope of woke ideology to explain trends such as this. It is the same law which says that if there is a crack, water will get into it. If there is any space in the republic which has remained untouched by men in lipstick and pornographic literature for children, don’t hold your breath, RuPaul will find a way. But while this explanation explains some of the drift, it falls short. Subscribe Today Get weekly emails in your inbox Email Address:
It is hard to imagine anything lucrative for the cottage industry of men in makeup in a church. The majority of church attendees are middle class, and those who attend regularly only comprise 22 percent of the U.S. population. Transgender activists are unlikely to gain more than a few dollars and a couple of converts, as the empty sanctuaries at many of these events confirm.
But there is something more than mere space at hand. A church is not just another crack, another space for the waters to seep in. It is not the same thing as a Starbucks, or a library, or a school, or even a “sacred temple of democracy.” What goes on within its doors is not just another assembly or exchange of ideas. The drag queens know this. They know it for the same reason the demon-possessed cry out to God. It is not enough to have free rein in the public square, to be celebrated by every major institution and corporation in America; or even to have 12 Republican Senators vote to codify Obergefell. Wickedness thirsts to pervert the holiest places. We can be certain it will not end its pursuit at the progressive mainline denominations.
There is something—Someone—particular about a church which belies the whole transgender ideology, and so it is there they feel the need to shout the loudest.
