Just to be clear… this is a book title: ‘Queer Gospel: An Alternative Telling Of The Bible’. This is one of those ‘god made in man’s image’ scenarios. A twist around of what the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is. A ‘creative rant’ against Biblical orthodoxy. The expressions of someone who may have been left wounded by some insensitive professing Christians. Yet still just plain wrong. I am going to post below a video response to this ‘bible’ by Christian youtuber ‘Whaddo you meme’ for details on some of the book’s content. Do have a listen to the video. We should support good Christian content that helps us be alert to what’s going on out there. *Disclaimer: this is not an endorsement of every personal view of Christian youtube preachers.
The author of ‘Queer Gospel’ is Riley Alerton, who uses ‘they/them’ pronouns. The book’s author description on Amazon says:- “Riley believes that human spirituality must be based in compassion, love, and mutual respect. Riley has made it their mission in life to promote and defend LGBTQIA+ people who feel left behind, excluded, or attacked by traditional religious society….”. Compassion, love and mutual respect are good attitudes to have. No question. If Riley, or anyone close to Riley, has experienced the opposite treatment from anyone in the church, that is not good. If personal rejection by professing Christians is the ultimate reason for Riley’s book, then this is the ultimate kick-back. But for ‘human spirituality’ to be truly ‘spiritual’, it requires drawing on the Source of all spiritual life – God. The LORD. The Creator and Redeemer. All our human efforts to be kind and respectful to fellow humans, though important and needed, are not answers in themselves. Riley needs to know that we ALL fail, we ALL fall short of God’s glory, not just those who don’t agree with his or her’s self-perceived ‘queerness’ or sexuality.
To want to make a literary stance to attack the Gospel of Christ because some ‘religious’ folk didn’t agree with your perceived identity seems hypocritical. To cry out for tolerance and acceptance, whilst being intolerant towards those who don’t agree with you, is disingeneous. To be irreverent towards God and the Bible by writing satire against it makes Riley the one with the problem. But actually, we all have a problem as humans. It’s called sin – falling short of God’s righteousness – expressed in various ways such as lust, pride, envy, selfishness and so on. That’s why we need redemption rather than the right to ‘self-identify’. Yet Riley says: “Self-identity is a birthright. Try as they might, no person can ever take that away from you…” (author description: Amazon).
So, what does God’s word says about our identity?
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:27
‘Self-identity’ – the right to identify one’s self however one feels, is not actually a true birthright. It is certainly a free choice, an opinion, but it is not a legitimate birthright. What is legitimate is that we are lovingly made by a Creator who is completely good, pure and faithful. Riley’s campaign to encourage self-identity in others (whilst bashing and mashing up what the Bible says) does not lead anyone to true liberation, only confusion deep down. But one of the wonderful things about Christ is that He has the perfect ability to come alongside each of us wherever we are at in our perceptions of self and the world around us. He is the ‘good Shepherd’ and the ‘Light of the world’. When we look to Him with the eyes of faith, we find our true identity restored. So, whenever we meet someone who identifies as ‘queer’, ‘gay’, ‘transgender’, etc, let’s ensure we treat people graciously, as Christ has given us grace, and with the truth of the Gospel. In treating people with kindness and respect, we need not agree with a false self of identity, because it’s not based on actual reality. Yet we can lovingly point people to the crucified Saviour.
God doesn’t make mistakes.
Truth Prevails 