Whom do you talk to when you pray? It’s certainly a personal choice.
If you’re Christian, options might seem sparse. But they don’t have to be, as recently illustrated by Duke Divinity School.
Duke University is, you might know, a United Methodist college. And in a video from a March 22nd service, the Protestant school invokes life’s Creator with a twist.
“Good morning, the Holy and Queer One be with you,” a girl in a sparkly gold jacket begins.
If you wish to refer back to her later, she will list your pronouns.
“Good morning, and welcome to worship. Caroline Camp is my name. I prefer to use the pronouns she/they. I am the communications coordinator for Duke Divinity Pride, and I’m ecstatic to see this worship space so full and so vibrant with color. Thank you all for being here at the first-ever Divinity Pride worship collaboration.”
“We at Divinity Pride want to create a worship space that honors and celebrates all of our unique and good identities.” she says. Caroline touts the day’s speakers and soloists, “who’ll give words to their experiences with the God who calls them.”
She then clarifies the purpose of the group’s mission: affirmation. And she designates a deity — the “Great Queer One.”
“We want to affirm everyone to be who they truly are, to step into the Holy One’s fire that burns away all that says we are not good enough. And refines us by the pentecostal fire to be exactly who the Great Queer One calls us to be.”
After that, the group recites a prayer.
Amazing one, Strange One, and Fluid, Ever-Becoming One
Don’t allow us to turn your ideas into idols.
We are only as near to you as our breath. Your essence surpasses everything we can think.
Appeal to higher power uses familial terms that allow for the inclusion of non-binary family members:
You can be Mother, Father and Parent.
There are three types of siblings: Sister, Brother and Sibling.
There are more details about God, and then the prayer seems to direct its worship toward all who pray it.
Drag Queen, Trans Man, and Gender Fluid are your limitations.
Embodied in us — your creation — we recognize our flesh in all its forms is made holy in you.
Your manifestation, in all of its glory, is celebrated with thanksgiving.
Blessed is our body, blessed our love.
When we are able to celebrate what the world is turning away, we can be blessed
“Fill our hearts with a Pride rooted in resistance to all that seeks to destroy,” the congregation concludes.
It’s a notable change from the Christianity of old. Pride has been one of the seven Deadly Sins since the fourth century. The concept clearly has benefited from the expertise of a publicist over the years. The best I can tell, it’s now risen to the ranks of Greatest Human Virtues. And as self-worship — bolstered by shrines made to the self via social media pages — becomes its own religion, it’s no wonder church worship is following.
As for the Great Queer One, whereas humankind was once believed to be made in God’s image, as people define themselves to degrees never before seen in recorded history, it stands to reason we will define God accordingly.
No more close-minded Christianity! We are now seeing a refined faith and new outlook.
Duke Divinity School — an institution training America’s future ministers — is just one of many homes to our modern transformation.
And it isn’t necessarily the most interesting one. After all, they didn’t even mention breastfeeding:
Christian Church Offers Prayers to God of Pronouns and the Great They/Them Who Breastfeed
https://t.co/36aVkeNQxR— RedState (@RedState) April 8, 2022
-ALEX
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