Queer Resurrection

Christ’s ‘Queer’ Resurrection?

Josiah Hasbrouck on June 7, 2023

The core of Christianity is the Gospel: that all humans are sinful and deserve death, but Jesus Christ the Son of God lived a perfect life and offers salvation to sinners through his death, burial, and resurrection. Recently, two seminary students problematically analogized an essential element of the Gospel – Christ’s Resurrection – in an attempt to defend their unbiblical beliefs about human gender.

Eric Busby and Brendan Nee, students at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, wrote “The Queer Gospel of Resurrection: Easter Season Op-Ed,” calling Christians to “proclaim the queer gospel of resurrection, in its panoply of rainbow hues, to the Church and the world.” In the seminary-published op-ed, Busby and Nee focused on parallels which they believe exist between the lives of “transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming (TNBGNC) Christians” and the person and work of Christ. 

Busby and Nee first focused on anti-TNBGNC activity, including “laws attempting to restrict and erase queer existence.” The seminarians also highlighted violence against TNBGNC-identifying individuals, citing PBS data indicating “2021 was the deadliest year for trans people, with 2022 close behind.”

The authors concluded that “This reality [of violence] plainly illustrates that faith leaders must work harder to protect and grow acceptance of TNBGNC people, creating places of safety, both physically and spiritually.” Writing in the Easter season, the students said: “At a time when Christians celebrate the promise of new life, TNBGNC Christians face an assault on their hope. How can we trust in the promise of the resurrection when the outlook is so bleak?” 

This question is odd, as Scripture clearly indicates the Resurrection ought to be a comfort to Christians who share in Christ’s resurrection from the dead. As 1 Peter 1:3-9 indicates, the Resurrection is the core hope of the Christians, regardless of life’s circumstances.

Busby and Nee go on to suggest that the Resurrection “is why TNBGNC Christians identify so strongly with Jesus Christ.” They say this identification is rooted in Jesus’s transition from death to life: “There is no boundary that seems so permanent and unbreachable as that between the living and the dead, and yet, Jesus crosses it.” The seminarians conclude that “If not even the binary categories of life and death are fixed, then our conception of gender must expand. Through this lens, the resurrection is undeniably trans.” These claims must, however, be denied. 

God created man to live, and man naturally (and rightly) orders his actions towards continued life. As a consequence of the Fall, however, man naturally dies. In his movement from death to life–a movement which Christians united to Christ join him in–Christ restores the original natural order with which God created the world.

God created humans in a binary, male and female. The Fall did not abolish the existence of this binary, though it certainly distorted our understanding of it. Movement between genders is thus a violation of God’s good natural order of creation.

Christ’s “transition” from death to life certainly surmounts a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, as Busby and Nee suggest. It is, however, a transition in accordance with God’s natural design for humanity. Attempting to “transition” from male to female is also a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Because it is a transition in opposition to God’s natural design for humanity, however, it is not parallel to the transition of the Resurrection.

Busby and Nee go on to attempt a defense of medical and surgical gender transition based on Christ’s wounds. “TNBGNC who pursue medical and surgical transition are often told that we are mutilating our bodies–but [Christ’s] resurrected body is scarred,” they note. “If the miracle of the resurrection hinged on Christ being indistinguishable from someone who had never died, then that is the story that would have been told – but it’s not. Jesus Christ’s holiness, and our holiness, is not normative perfection, but in the wild triumph of life over death.”

There is some truth to what Busby and Nee say here, but their argument for the morality of gender transitions is ultimately insufficient. Jesus Christ’s body was wounded and scarred for the salvation of sinners. Various physical forms of gender transitions, however, wound and scar only for the attempted self-satisfaction of the individual transitioning. Through Christ’s wounds, the wrath of God towards countless sinful men and women was appeased. Through the gender transitioner’s wounds, the confused feelings and self-conception of one man or woman might be appeased. As already implied, gender transitions do not merely fail to atone for sin – they are sin, violating God’s good natural ordering of humanity.

Busby and Nee are not at fault for condemning violence against trans people – violence against anyone is reprehensible and deserves condemnation. The rest of their op-ed is, however deeply problematic. Christ’s “transition” from death to life in his Resurrection is not parallel to gender transitions, it is in opposition to it. Christ did not live a perfect life, die, and rise from the dead so that the effects of the Fall could continue. The Gospel instead calls us to reorder our desires and our lives in accordance with God’s good natural order of creation, that we may live in a manner worthy of Christ’s sacrifice for us.

  1. Comment by Pastor Mike on June 7, 2023 at 6:29 am

    Sin is first rationalized, justified, accepted, and finally demands to be worshipped.

  2. Comment by Clint Shahan on June 7, 2023 at 7:51 am

    Thank you. Thank you for disecting the vulgar arugments to compare those to Jesus Christ to gain equal footing. Agreed, that violents against any and all should be condemed. I never felt compelled to use violent as there is always an alternative solution to a problem. I AM a disciple of Jesus Christ, my Lord and savior. I and believe you as well wear the full armor of God ( Ephesians 6).

  3. Comment by David on June 7, 2023 at 8:59 am

    This is a strange argument. Since we live in a society where people can pursue activities associated with the opposite gender, I do not see the need to physically change yourself. There may be unnecessary risks associated with this.

  4. Comment by David S. on June 7, 2023 at 6:36 pm

    Well, regarding the next to last paragraph…I bet they reject the very biblical doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement or are on the verge of and consider the crucifixion cosmic child abuse.

  5. Comment by John67 on June 8, 2023 at 6:30 am

    “We absolutely believe that the United Methodist Church is drifting day by day ever more progressive,” (Jay) Therrell said.
    Why do we continue to cede ground by using the false word progressive?
    Instead of progressive, theologians for centuries have used the true word “heretical”.
    https://www.lifenews.com/2023/06/07/4876-methodist-churches-leave-the-pro-abortion-united-methodist-church/

  6. Comment by Ted on June 14, 2023 at 12:21 am

    Amen, Pastor Mike!

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