A controversial play presented last week at a Bible museum in Germany imagines the Son of God as a transgender “Queen of Heaven.” The drama wrapped up a six-month exhibit at Frankfurt’s Bibelhaus that explored supposed LGBTQ themes and gender fluidity throughout Scripture.
The play and exhibit led to backlash from conservative Christians. Evangelist Franklin Graham, for example, called them “a profane perversion” of God’s Word.
An Attempt to Meld Divinity With Diversity
Visitors to the museum’s “G*tt w/m/d” exhibit were told to “look at the diversity of gender identities from biblical and modern times and find a divine answer that fits all the questions: You are good as you are.” In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum offered family workshops on gender fluidity and seminars on queer theology. It also provided activities and study materials for school groups.
The Bibelhaus website, which showcases some exhibits with English translations, features images ranging from an ancient goddess statue to a modern-day drag performer. Text explains “alchemists of the Middle Ages” discovered that “God’s image is both male and female.” It adds, “In the new creation of God” gender designations don’t apply because “all are one.”
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Of the play “The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven,” transgender British author Jo Clifford explains: “I had been brought up as a Christian and taught that when you’re unsure of what to do, you should try to think, ‘What would Jesus do?’ I thought, ‘Well, what would Jesus do if Jesus came back to earth now and was me, a trans woman? What would she do, and what would she say?’”
Last week’s performance was the first time the play was performed in German. When it premiered in Scotland in 2009, Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia said it was “hard to imagine a greater affront to the Christian faith.” John Denning, education director of the British Christian Institute, called the misrepresentation of Jesus “deeply distressing and offensive.”
Franklin Graham: This Is ‘False’ and ‘Sick’
When asked by Fox News to comment on the exhibit and play, evangelist Franklin Graham offered harsh condemnation. “The idea that there is a LGBTQ theme in the Bible is a lie,” he says, adding that biblical references to homosexuality include sin, rebellion and judgment. “Any suggestion that Jesus Christ is transgender is not only false, it’s just sick,” he says. “This is simply man trying to bring God down to his own level.”
