Certain narratives of what it means to be blessed by God have often been used as a tool of fundamentalist and Prosperity Gospel proponents to exclude, condemn, and persecute LGBTQIA+ persons, relationships, and communities. When looked at with a critical eye, their vision of blessedness is narrowed to include a so-called faithful remnant that looks suspiciously just like themselves receiving all kinds of riches and privileges. This perspective has imbedded itself in the imaginations of many Christians through social media tags like #blessed, furthering the narrative that being blessed by God means getting wealth, health, and everything else a person might desire.
In short, those who have are obviously blessed and those who have-not are obviously not blessed. At first, we might be tempted to connect this perspective with capitalism but it was present long before capitalism became mainstream and is a perspective found in the Deuteronomic texts of the Bible. What we must recognize that this is likely about justifying greed and is used to maintain a stratified socio-economic order.
Contrarily, the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (often referred to as the Beatitudes) paints a very different picture. One could summarize these ten verses as exalting the “have-nots” rather than the “haves” or as centering those who have lost and will receive the blessing. Once again, we are faced with the challenge of sorting out seemingly contradictory ideals in the Bible and must ask ourselves not “is it biblical?” (because wealth-based blessing is found in the Bible) but instead ask ourselves “is it Christlike?”
The big problem in Genesis’ stories about Abraham is his willingness to do whatever it takes to secure his blessing. Whether it be though deceit, sexual violence, or child abuse, he was going to get the blessing he believed he deserved. Despite the fact that it was God who made the promise, we mostly see his story revolve around trying to make it happen his way. So when we, as Christians, read these texts we must see that Abraham plays the anti-hero when it comes to embodying the Fruit of the Spirit. He is not the model for the faithful but a cautionary tale for those who view blessing as acquisition.
After the Beatitudes, Jesus speaks of the People of God being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. He describes them as showing a better way to be community for one another. What does this look like? Well, turn back to those Beatitudes and find out! It’s sharing with the poor among you, it’s comforting the mourning, it’s supporting the meek, it’s giving food to the hungry, it’s showing mercy to one another, it’s checking each others’ motivations, it’s peacemaking, it’s surrounding the persecuted with the truth of their belovedness.
Many of these qualities existed in queer communities while many privileged Christian communities embodied very little of this kind of blessing. I am reminded of the story of a marginalized queer community that rallied to support their neighbors in need, which was depicted in the movie Pride. While not without internal and external challenges, many of the qualities attributed to God’s Kingdom People showed up in this queer community.
What does this tell us? Two things (for now): 1) The status of #Blessed is not the exclusive property of those who have much but is the inclusive presence of the Holy Spirit among us; 2) just as there is no one way to be queer, there is no one way to be blessed—any other message is a false gospel of those who have sold out to empire.
