Episcopal Priestess Faces Backlash Over Controversial Sermon
An Episcopal priestess identifying as “nonbinary trans” is facing considerable criticism for asserting that Jesus Christ is “trans” and suggesting the Virgin Mary made a mistake in naming her son as male.
In a sermon delivered on March 21 that gained attention this week, Madeline LeNore Klink, known as “Reverend Flourish Klink,” who is married to a man and holds the position of “assistant priest” at Christ and Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan, proclaimed loudly, “God is trans. It is not actually even a convoluted theological statement to make.”
Klink articulated, “When God, who, as we have established, is nonbinary, was born in human form as our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary said, ‘Oh, look! A baby boy!'” She added, “God isn’t a boy. We have established this. God is beyond boy and girl. God was assigned a gender at birth, and later on, it became clear that that gender wasn’t quite right.”
Clad in vestments, Klink addressed the audience at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, stating, “If you’re going to deny God is trans, I think you’re going to be denying the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
She further suggested that there was something “different” about Jesus, who frequently refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” in scripture and often speaks of God as “Father,” advocating that prior to His resurrection, Christ was not experiencing His “true self.”
Klink remarked, “I think Jesus was resurrected as Jesus’ true self, which is beyond male or female. I think Jesus was not only transfigured. I think Jesus transitioned. And I think that when the disciples saw Jesus, they were astonished because they were seeing who Jesus truly was. And that’s gospel.”
Later, in her sermon, Klink expressed her intention not to relinquish “the holy spaces of our world, the cathedrals and the churches,” to those who disagree with her views on God’s nature.
A portion of Klink’s sermon received a community note on X, drawing attention to the Gospel passage in Luke, where it is pointed out that Mary did not “assign” Jesus’ gender, as she was informed by the Archangel Gabriel that she would conceive a son named Jesus. This son would be revered as “the Son of the Highest.”
The note also references an article about Docetism, an early Christian heresy which diminished Jesus’ complete humanity and masculinity.
Responses to Klink’s sermon have been vocal. Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck reacted by questioning the integrity of the sermon, saying, “A little more distortion and lies with a side of evil anyone?”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tweeted, “I don’t think this is in the Bible,” while BlazeTV host Nick Freitas wrote, “I always wondered who exactly Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:21-23. I don’t wonder anymore.”
Ceirion Dewar, a missionary bishop in the Confessing Anglican Church, commented, “This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of Christianity. It is a profoundly perverse distortion of the biblical witness concerning the person of Jesus Christ.”
Dewar added that the Gospel makes it clear Mary did not impose an identity upon Jesus and emphasized that the claim of Christ being resurrected as His “true transgender self” contradicts the resurrection narratives, which portray the risen Christ as the same Jesus who was crucified.
Podcaster Mike LaChance remarked, “It’s a deliberate mockery of what Christians believe. That’s the whole point. Call it Talaricoism.”
James Talarico, a part-time Presbyterian seminarian and Democrat running against state Attorney General Ken Paxton for a Texas U.S. Senate seat, reportedly claimed in 2021 that “God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary.”
Klink has not responded to requests for comment, but she did mention on Instagram that it was a “blessing to get to see folks at their worst and know that God loves them anyway!”
