Daily Verse | Exodus 15:11
Who among the gods is like you, Lord?
Who is like you—majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory, working wonders?

Tuesday’s Reading: Exodus 19-21

Happy Tuesday and if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know that it’s mostly focused on the crazy of our political class and its intersection with American culture. I also try to pay attention to where faith is making a statement in our culture, but come at all of it as an unapologetic conservative evangelical Christian.

With that in mind, I recently came across an article that showcases how the culture has, at least in one instance, twisted the very person of Christ himself in service to an agenda. In the following video, Simon Woodman of London’s Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church holds forth on his unique interpretation of Jesus’ activities. (Yes, I know it’s Britain, but “woke” is international and we know this stuff is here in the U.S.)

In case you don’t have time to watch it all, here’s what this misguided pretender said (my transcription):

So, if we think of Jesus as, um, the one who reveals God, uh, I was really struck by Angela saying earlier that “God is queer.” And, uh, I, I think, as humans we have a tendency to construct God in our own image, rather than to recognize that we are made in the image of God. And, therefore, the dominant expression of humanity ends up writing itself onto God, and making that God. And, and I think, in, in the story of Jesus, the stories of Jesus’ life, we, we find that being very condemned, um, in, in some quite radical ways, which is then having the ‘knock-on effect’ of altering the way we understand who God is in relation to humanity. So, I think Jesus, um, transgenders himself on a number of occasions. Um, I, I think, you know, just, just the little phrase, uh, Jesus is lamenting over Jerusalem, longing to gather Jerusalem as a mother hen gathers her chicks. Um, I think if you look at, um, the foot-washing from John’s gospel, foot-washing elsewhere in both Old and New Testaments, that it, it’s consistently done by, by women. And, yet, Jesus takes this on. People often cast that as being the servant’s role — it was the women’s role. And, and Jesus does it and becomes the woman at that point. And, and, I think, you know, we’ve observed that either he’s a marriage [sic], he’s childless, he defies gender and sexual norms of his day, he’s known for associating with those whose own sexual history or gender identity may be ambiguous. So, I think in Jesus, we’ve got a revelation of God as encompassing far more, than what historically and recently, at least, um, Christians have tended to construct God as being. And I think there’s a bit of an antidote to, uh, heteronormative idolatry hidden in the story of Jesus.

This statement is so full of holes and absurdities and contradictions and half-truths it’s hard to know where to start. But let me try. The logical flow of his argument is:

1) Jesus reveals God;

2) Humans “construct” God in their own image;

3) Therefore, the “dominant expression of humanity” makes God “heteronormative” (i.e. men attracted to women and vice-versa);

4) But, Jesus condemns that understanding of God by “transgendering” himself multiple times;

5) Ergo, Jesus reveals God as embracing transgenderism, which is an antidote to “heteronormative idolatry.”

So much theological nonsense, so little time.

We agree that Jesus reveals God. Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). We can also agree that people often imagine (“construct”) God according to their own ideas or “image.” After that, we disagree with everything else he says.

God Himself is not “heteronormative” nor “transgender” because he is Spirit and “not a man.” Woodman argues that the “dominant” practice of humanity is heterosexuality (true), which mankind has projected (or written) onto God. The scripture says otherwise from the very beginning: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). God “wrote” that onto humanity.

Woodman claims that Jesus “transgenders” himself. What the heck does that even mean? Nobody saw Jesus as a “transgendered” individual. For instance, the Jews were ready to stone Jesus in John 10:33 because “you, a mere man, claim to be God.” Is Woodman suggesting that Jesus “pretended” to be a man pretending to be a woman? And then went back to being a man?

It’s sheer nonsense.

Woodman also claims that foot-washing is done by women in both old and new testaments. This is not at all clear from the texts that mention washing feet. In fact, it seems like most of the time guests were expected to wash their own feet (see Genesis 18:4, 19:2, and 24:32 for three quick examples).

As far as Jesus hanging out with sexually “ambiguous” people — Woodman gives no examples of such people in scripture. However, the people that Jesus was most often associated with in the gospels were “sinners and tax collectors.” Some of the sinners were sexually immoral, like the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) or the Samaritan woman who had five husbands and was living with a sixth not her husband. All heteronormative relationships, I might add, even if sinful.

What’s so ironic is that Woodman starts off his argument by admitting that “as humans we have a tendency to construct God in our own image,” and then proceeds to do exactly that. None of his arguments hold up under scrutiny.

This is a case of someone with an agenda who “writes” onto God what he wants to see. You know how I know? Count the number of times he says, “I think.”

I’ll save you the trouble: eight times.

Eight times in roughly 13 sentences Woodman starts his thought with, “I think.” His entire statement is what he thinks—not what God thinks and not what the scripture teaches.

And when he concludes with the charge of “heteronormative idolatry,” that gives away the game.

Wokeness is envy run amuck.