Beyond Blasphemy

Last Friday, a Unitarian ‘church’ in Doncaster hosted an overtly satanic attack on Jesus Christ.  Advertised on Eventbrite, where tickets were being sold for the princely sum of £10, it was billed as, The Gospel according to Jesus, Queen of Heaven.  There followed an encouragement to, Join Queen Jesus for a revolutionary queer ritual; bread and wine are blessed and familiar stories are reimagined by a transgender Jesus.

The Eventbrite advert proudly went on to announce that all profits would go towards the charity Gendered Intelligence, which it said works to expand “understandings of gender to improve trans lives.”  To spell out what that means, Gendered Intelligence is an organisation working to normalise and promote gender choice, amongst its many activities, actively supporting social and medical transitioning for children.

If you go to the website for Queen Jesus Productions, the group behind this burlesque, you learn that the play is a ‘unique, one-woman, site responsive theatrical piece’ performed by Stonewall role model and one of Scotland’s most renowned playwrights, Jo Clifford, who presents Jesus returning to earth as a trans woman.

VfJUK understands that the inspiration for the play was the abuse Jo Clifford suffered personally when starting to identify as a woman after the death of his wife.  We have every sympathy for the pain that was clearly felt, but, however viewed, this is a deliberate and focused challenge to Christian belief by ideological activists hostile to the core beliefs of Christianity.

We no longer have any law against blasphemy in the UK, but such deliberate and targeted disrespect should not be allowed.  Not in a secular venue, and most definitely not in a supposedly Christian church – no matter how liberal and inclusive that ‘church’ claims to be.

Please email Doncaster Unitarian and Free Christian Church today, asking them not to allow this offensive production to go ahead.