Rodney Wilson, the founder of LGBTQ+ History Month, is setting the record straight about how LGBTQ+ identities are depicted in the Bible.
After a historic vote yesterday by the United Methodist Church to end its ban on LGBTQ+ clergy, Wilson penned an essay for Advocate directed at the religious leaders around the world who still use the Bible as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.
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Wilson acknowledged that there are certainly some passages in the Bible that “are not friendly” to homosexuals, asexuals, or gender-nonconforming people.
“Of course,” he added, “the holy writ can be awfully rough on a lot of people: women generally (‘women are not permitted to speak in the church’); boys who make fun of prophets (just ask the 42 boys who made fun of the receding hairline atop the prophet Elisha’s head); non-virgin brides (‘she shall be stoned to death at the door of her father’s house’); those who commit adultery (‘they shall be put to death’); the enslaved (‘slaves, obey your masters’); and the indigenous inhabitants of the Promised Land when Moses and Joshua brought their people from Egypt to Canaan (‘they killed everyone, young and old, women and children’).”
He emphasized that, above all, the Bible champions kindness and says folks must “practice peace and harmony while loving one another, even in defiance of exclusionary practices embedded in social status, class, ethnicity, or gender and sexual identities.”
He then quotes St. Paul, who said, “In Christ, we are neither male nor female,” before adding that both Jesus and St. Paul were asexual. Jesus, Wilson wrote, “never courted, was infatuated, kissed, or married a woman.” He said St. Paul lived “an unmarried, asexual life” and encouraged others to do the same.
Jesus also taught that gender does not exist in the afterlife, Wilson said, writing that Jesus instead taught that angels in heaven are “asexual, nonbinary beings who do not have romantic or sexual partnerships.”
“Heaven, according to Jesus, is a nonbinary paradise,” Wilson said. “Gone are male and female. Gone are heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. Jesus’ vision for this life is one of welcoming arms that invite all persons to the table, and his vision for the afterlife is something more rainbow-friendly than his conservative followers will admit.”
Wilson ended the piece by explaining that Christianity still has a place in today’s world when viewed through this more inclusive lens and when we acknowledge that Jesus had progressive views that embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“Looking at this way,” Wilson said, “the Christian story can be an encouragement for all of us to love our neighbors without regard to sexuality, gender dictates, or which bathroom people relieve themselves in.”
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