Anglican Church of Canada archdeacon, the Venerable M. Edward Simonton, has been in India and, in his peripatetic meandering, bumped into a number of transvestites: Hijra, some of whom, in their enthusiasm to embrace their inner woman, have had their penis, testicles and scrotum removed. Coming, as he does, from the Diocese of Montreal, the worthy archdeacon understandably felt quite at home in this milieu.
Would we not have “a different church” if we hired transvestites “to give blessings on a Sunday” he muses? Not that much different, surely.
From here:
Anyway, it just goes to show how different the world can be. A transvestite in Western culture would never be treated with religious awe let alone respect. I need not mention the history of persecution by western religions. I will also not get into Jungian concepts of the Sacred Hermaphrodite in pagan and classical religion but simple point out that the concept of a third gender is common to most cultures. Just not ours.
Still wouldn’t it be a different church if instead of persecuting transvestites we hired them to give blessings on a Sunday? And, hey, no jokes about men already dressing up in coloured ‘dresses’ every week to do just this! I know that transvestites are not the same as drag queens (the later are entertainers) but my mind immediately jumps to finale of Pricilla Queen of the Desert (the depictions are of indigenous Australian animals and the Sydney opera house). There are few church services I have been to that could not have benefitted immensely from a drag queen blessing thrown in at some point.
I found the word I was looking for … sacrilegious.
GROSS. David I need brain bleach after the last couple of posts. Why don’t you post some of your guitar playing or something similar. Yikes.
If not for David, we would be oblivious to these things.
And that would be worse how??
Context, context, everything is context. Thank you, at least, for supplying a link to the article so that people can see the quote you have used in its proper context. It is quite clear I am trying to be flippant even if, as your post suggests, too subtly. Humour is notoriously difficult to universalise. My point was that many church services today are often rather boring and dreary and could use some enthusiasm. Drag Queens are about the most ‘enthusiastic’ thing you could add to just about anything. The humour is supposed to lie in the extreme contrast. Really – quoting out of context is really not cricket.
I think the problem is not so much that you were too subtle, but that what you said about drag queen blessings, far from being an “extreme contrast” to what goes on in the Anglican Church of Canada, is actually uncannily close to it. It goes to show that drag queens are boring when they dress up in clerical garb.
If it’s any consolation, I found your article hilarious – just like your church.