Episcopal Priest Declares Jesus as “Transgender” in NYC Sermon

An Episcopal priest in New York City has stirred controversy by proclaiming that Jesus is “transgender,” asserting that anyone who disagrees is, in effect, denying the divinity of Christ.

Reverend Flourish Klink, who identifies as a transgender nonbinary individual, made these provocative statements during a sermon at Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

“God is non-binary. God is non-binary, but I’m going to go further than that, and I’m going to say God is actually also trans,” Klink stated. She elaborated on this idea, explaining that transgender people often feel assigned a gender based on physical appearance at birth, but later realize that the designation doesn’t align with their true identities.

This line of reasoning led her to argue that Jesus was mistakenly assigned the “male” label at birth. Klink explained, “Here’s why God is trans. When God, who as we have established is non-binary, was born in human form as our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary said, ‘Oh, look, a baby boy.’ 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.”

Klink seemingly overlooks references in the Gospel of Luke, where the angel Gabriel tells Mary she will give birth to a “son.” The scriptures say, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus…”

Despite this, Klink contends that rejecting her viewpoint on Jesus as transgender equates to rejecting Jesus’s divinity. “So, if you’re going to deny God as trans, I think you’re going to be denying the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I have some notes about that,” she remarked. Klink further suggested that Jesus’s kindness towards women and his choice to remain unmarried are evidence of this so-called transgender nature.

She elaborated, “When I say that later on it became clear gender wasn’t quite right, I mean it. We already know Jesus didn’t live life exactly the way your average first-century Judean man did. To the best of our knowledge, he didn’t get married. We don’t know for sure.” Klink highlighted that Jesus engaged with women in ways that deviated from typical masculine behaviors of that time.

She continued, “And then Jesus died, and when Jesus was resurrected, Jesus was different. Jesus didn’t look like himself. There was something different about Jesus, and now I will admit the Bible does not tell us what that is. So if anybody says they do know what that is, they are also not telling the truth.” Klink observed that the Bible does not explain why those closest to Jesus took so long to recognize him after his resurrection, even as she repeatedly used male pronouns to describe him.

Ultimately, she concluded that Jesus’s resurrected body transitioned into a “true self” beyond gender. “Now I don’t know for sure. I wasn’t there, but based on everything else I know about God, I have an idea. I think Jesus was resurrected as Jesus’s true self, which is beyond male or female. I think Jesus was not only transfigured. I think Jesus transitioned,” she stated.

In an additional point, Klink disregards a moment from John 20, where Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, who did not recognize him at first and referred to him using a term with masculine connotations.

This sermon has gained attention amid ongoing theological debates, particularly in a Texas Senate race where Democrat James Talarico has made claims that challenge traditional Christian beliefs, prompting his pastor, Rev. Jim Rigby, to cast doubt on the resurrection itself. Additionally, Rev. Babs Miller, a chaplain at the same church, has expressed skepticism about Jesus’s existence and mission.