GLORY TO THE NON-BINARY GOD!

- BY DIVY SALLENTES UPTEGROVE

The connection between Christianity and the Queer community in the West is an obvious yet complicated one. On center stage, there are Christians who believe that Queerness is not of God, and is a sin. They may tolerate it but they believe to their core that Queer people are far from God. There are members of the 2SLGBTQIA+1 community that have been directly or indirectly hurt by dangerous pseudo-Christian “theologies” and the churches that affirm them. Then there are Christians who believe that you can be Queer and Christian without contradiction, and remain in their Christian faith and their Queerness proudly.

Even though gay marriage has been legal in Canada since 2005, the violence faced by the Queer community in Canada is still present. It feels like most of the violence that Queer people face in Canada is because of Christians. The lack of understanding and affirmation of Queer people has led to greater mental health conditions, youth homelessness, and suicide amongst the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

At Redeemer University, a Christian university in Ontario, a trans student named Bekett Noble committed suicide, and a day later a scheduled email was sent from Bekett to the school addressing their culture that was harmful towards the mental, spiritual, and physical health of Queer students.

As a non-binary leader of the SCM of Canada, this news is heartbreaking and yet not at all shocking. I grew up in a church where trans people are misunderstood and othered. Where they are theologized as an abomination to God’s creation. Even as I’ve moved away from this toxic, colonial form of Christianity, I find that I’m still compromising my transness by merely existing. Every time I use the non-gender inclusive bathroom in public, I’m compromising. Every time my mom calls me my child, instead of by my chosen name, I compromise. Even so, I’m thankful that my compromises are so small. They’re a buzzing noise in the background that I can tune out, whereas for some people compromise is like a siren that goes off sporadically; or like a fire alarm going off in the middle of the night.

2SLGBTQIA+ it's a term used in Canada to encompass the non-straight or non-cis gender community. It stands for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual plus. Two-spirit is used to encompass third gender identities in Indigenous communities in Canada.

I wonder how long Bekett Noble compromised before they couldn’t take it anymore. I wonder if I would have ended up like Bekett if never left the Pentecostal church I grew up in. In addition to the overt acts of violence towards Queer people that have killed Julie Berman, Selim Esen, Andrew Kinsman, Joe Rose, Grayce Baxter, and so many more, homophobic and transphobic theologies are killing us slowly with poisonous self-hatred and self-compromise. As a Queer affirming Christian, I can’t ignore the fact that these hateful and heretical “Christian” beliefs lead to mental, physical, and spiritual pain. When I’m free to be Queer and be in community with God and my siblings in Christ, my sadness evaporates.

I remember hearing online the idea that Queer people are sad, and that God can save us from our sadness. God wants us to feel joy. Let it be clear that God does not cause our sadness, nor does our Queerness cause our sadness. Queer joy is the most precious form of joy I’ve ever experienced. It is the exclusion predicated on the belief that Queer people are less than which creates Queer sadness. It’s Queerphobia, not Queerness itself that causes trans youth in North America to commit suicide at alarming rates. dangerous. Examples of this are when white Christians labelled the Indigenous people, and Filipino people, and Black people, and the non-white, non-Christian people as “non-godly beings” as savages. As lowly and less than. If with confidence it’s said that this belief is a god-thing, and it has been said with confidence, to refute this belief would be to refute God themself.

As a Christian, I’m ashamed. The transphobia and homophobia within several Christian communities speak to the power of belief. confess to almighty God and to you, my siblings in Christ, that either by action or omission, we have greatly sinned.

It’s powerful beyond words to label something as a “godthing.” A god-thing is irrefutable. To question a god-thing is to commit blasphemy. When things that are not god-things are labelled and understood as god-things, it’s incredibly

Today, the belief that it is a sin to be Queer is understood by many as a god-thing. Most Christians, it seems, believe that the Bible says that to be gay, or to be trans, is against God. Forget the fact that these words and Western concepts of sexuality and gender didn’t exist when the Bible was written, or translated into English. Many Christians affirm that because their Bible interpretation categorises Queerness as demonic, Queer is of evil. This belief is false, and this belief is dangerous.

It’s difficult to argue to people that what they believe to be a god-thing can easily fall in the realm of human fallacies. It’s difficult to convince them that their perceived spirituality could be better understood as a matter of psychology. Sometimes convincing a Christian that Queerness is of God, feels to me, like convincing an atheist that God exists.

Nevertheless, can openly affirm that Queerness is of God. Hallelujah! God, in their spiritual reality, is non-binary. Hallelujah! In Christ we transcend gender and there is neither male nor female. I deeply believe that in Christ, all forms of consensual, safe, and enjoyable love is a wonder of creation.

The SCM of Canada is extremely proud to be Queer Affirming, it's the rest of the world, and other Christians in this country, that are usually not Queer affirming, who we butt heads with.

For many years already, the SCM of Canada has created Queer affirming spaces for youth of faith across the country by running Queer affirming and celebrating programing both online and in person on university campuses. Some of these include the “Glory to the Gender-bending God” devotional; the “Queer and Christian without Contradiction” Bible study; and a “Stop Homophobia in the Churches” pamphlet. There's also an entire page on the SCM website dedicated to sharing Queer Christian resources that include tips for Trans-affirming churches. No matter what it looks like for someone to be full in Spirit, and in Queerness, whether that means leaving the church, or starting an affirming community of faith, the SCM affirms an individual's power to choose their path of faith. those who want to explore more of the topic, here is an episode of Samaritan Soapbox, our SCM podcast, one in which we talked about growing up in the Church as Queer people: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4jvLvg2tMrKt9Gnaz0fs72?si=EaQpx8vYQ861rzjSPOcNFw

The SCM of Canada rejoices in Queer community and Queer joy, and we honour our Queer ancestors who paved the way for us by continuing the fight for Queer justice. Amen.

Our SCM believes that being Queer and Christian should be without contradiction, but the world makes that extremely hard. As a leader within this SCM, I affirm I can be fully Queer and fully Christian. It’s part of our mission to stop homophobia in the churches, and most of the time this feels like an impossible task. With God, all things are possible. Glory to the non-binary God!

Divy Sallentes Uptegrove (they/them) is the General Secretary for Student Christian Movement of Canada. As a Queer young person in Canada, and the child of an immigrant, Divy works from their own experiences to create safer spaces for Queer youth across Canada. Divy is also a lover of animals and is a proud pet parent to two tortoises, four frogs, an anole lizard, and fish.