Category: Biblical Theology

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First ‘Gender-Queer’ Priest in the Church of England

As a Christian, I know that separating the soul from the body is the definition of death. Those who believe their ‘authentic self’ has nothing to do with their physical body are engaged in a death wish.

Christians who love God and their neighbor cannot affirm such a wish. And we surely should not ordain as pastors the deeply confused.

Church of England Priest Bingo Allison prefers they/them pronouns (Image: Bingo Allison)

Church of England priest on how God guided them on their journey of becoming queer

To Bingo Allison’s knowledge, they are the first openly non-binary priest to be ordained in the Church of England.

It was while writing an essay on how God created the earth that Bingo had an epiphany. They said the language which the bible originally used in Genesis 1:27 spoke about “from maleness to femaleness” as opposed to men and women.

They added: “I was sitting there in the middle of the night when I realised I might need to run my life upside down. It was a deepening spiritual experience, I properly felt God was guiding me into this new truth about myself. One of the things that has kept with my ministry ever since is that transition and coming out can and should be a spiritual experience, as well as an emotional and social and sometimes physical one. There is something beautiful about growing into who we were created to be and growing into our authentic selves.”

I suspect we will soon hear of a few other Christian denominations that have also fallen into this death trap.

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God Help The Body Of Christ

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The Massacre Of The Innocents

PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER – The Massacre of the Innocents
Courtesy of the Royal Collection Trust

Description

According to St Matthew’s Gospel, after hearing from the wise men of the birth of Jesus, King Herod ordered that all children in Bethlehem under the age of two be murdered. Bruegel set the story as a contemporary Flemish atrocity so that the soldiers wear the distinctive clothing of the Spanish army and their German mercenaries.

The artist also drew upon his experience of the exceptionally severe winter of 1564-5 to describe a village covered in snow, with icicles hanging from the rooftops and the pond in the foreground thickly frozen over.

Bruegel’s Massacre of the Innocents was a popular image, repeated numerous times mainly by the artist and by his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger.

Source: Royal Collection Trust (UK)

The Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens (1638) – Alte Pinakothek – Munich – Germany

Toward the end of his life, however, Herod became increasingly paranoid about potential coups and had several of his sons and his most beloved wife, Mariamne, executed to forestall what he feared were attempts to overthrow him. At one point, Augustus ironically remarked that he would rather be Herod’s pig (which a Jew would not kill) than his son (whom Herod would kill). Although recorded in Latin, the remark probably preserves a play on words in Greek because of the similarity between hus (pig) and huios (son). Thus, although there is no independent confirmation of the story in Matt 2:16 of Herod ordering the massacre of the young children of Bethlehem, the account is entirely in keeping with his character and actions at the end of his time in office.

Craig L. Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey, 2nd Edition. p 21–22. [emphasis mine]

Matthew 2:16-18
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, 
wailing and loud lamentation, 
Rachel weeping for her children; 
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” 

(NRSV)

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The Presentation In The Temple

The Presentation in the Temple – Byzantine Painter (15th century)
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Hypapante is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox church. According to the Gospel of Luke (2:22–38), when Joseph (far left) and the Virgin (center) presented Christ in the temple for the rite of purification forty days after his birth, his divinity was immediately recognized by Simeon (right) and the prophetess Anna (left).

Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Circumcision of Jesus by Giovanni Battista Trotti (1555-1619)
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Luke 2:21-24
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 

Jesus Is Presented in the Temple

22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), 24 and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” 

(NRSV)

Companion Post

Simeon’s Song of Praise

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Bible Beauty