“God is good all the time! That means God is a diva, and girl, Jesus is fierce!” Jones, the “drag queen in residence” wrote on the FCS website.
“What do drag queens or drag kings have to do with Jesus or the gospel?” he asked. “We at FCS believe ‘God don’t make no junk.’ So whether you are straight, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered or still playing hard to get, Jesus loves you and so do we! Amen baby! So come and get yours at this here church!”
The church went on to hold a Drag Gospel event where members of the congregation were encouraged to come to church dressed contrary to the gender God gave them at birth. According to the Huntington News, during the service men dressed like women complete with wigs and lipstick during a Friday event which was also a fundraiser for the LGBT Asylum Support Task Force.
Then on Sunday, it was reported that Associated Pastor Jeff Mansfield arrived for the morning service wearing lipstick, blush and eye shadow. Flyers for the event featured Jesus wearing earrings and makeup.
It remains unclear how this rendition of Christ is reconciled with the observation by Pontius Pilate, who when he presented Jesus to the crowd in an attempt to release Barabbas said, “Behold the man.”
As part of the Roman Empire, which had the reputation of being the mightiest military might in the world, Pilate was certainly qualified to know what a real man looked like. If Jesus would indeed have looked like he was depicted in the FCS flyer then Pilate would have said something completely different about Jesus’ appearance, such as “behold the drag queen,” or something even more unflattering.
Moreover, if God has indeed had gender-reassignment surgery, Jones and the other members of the church leadership have failed to explain exactly when this surgery occurred and who performed it.
When it comes to spiritual surgery the bible is very plain about the details such as when the apostle Paul spoke in Colossians about the “circumcision without hands” that occurs to the believer in the church age, or when God placed a deep sleep on Adam to make Eve.
While many of the mainstream denominations have strayed from the faith of their founders, especially in the area of same-sex “marriage,” the United Church of Christ has been the leader of the pack on these types of issues. It was the first American Christian denomination to ordain homosexuals and affirm abortion.
It was also in the forefront of going against the bible definition of marriage last year when it filed a lawsuit against North Carolina’s affirmation of marriage as being between a man and a woman.
