A Letter to Jesus on a Queer Christmas Night
Dear Jesus,
This is the season we celebrate your entrance into the world. We read the Christmas story found in Luke, sing Christmas carols, and put a star on the Christmas tree. But is it enough? Have we really considered what it took to bring you into the world? It’s almost as if Latter-day Saints forgot you came from a queer family.
It’s as if they forgot your mother, Mary, was impregnated by means other than her lawfully wedded husband. Yet, she wasn’t stoned to death. Instead she is revered as the fairest of all virgins. My fellow Latter-day Saints insist that vaginal-penial intercourse is essential to Heavenly Father’s eternal plan to produce offspring, yet his beloved daughter Mary was impregnated by him with no such intercourse. Did people forget the Father impregnated his daughter without sex?
It’s as if they forgot your mother, Mary, is also your sister. You and Mary came from our Heavenly Parents. Tell me, when your sister agreed to be your mother, did you celebrate with her? When Heavenly Mother agreed to have her husband impregnate their daughter was She happy? Did Heavenly Mother speak with Mary about her essential role as the earthly mother of Jesus? I imagine Heavenly Mother and Mary both loved you as their son, and their shared love for you spilled over into their love for one another.
It’s almost as if they forgot you have two mothers, or perhaps I should say three mothers. Tell me, what was the conversation like between Heavenly Mother, Mary, and Eve, before the foundation of the world was laid? Did your Heavenly Mother create your spirit? Did Mary create your body? Did Eve, the Mother of All Living, have a hand in your existence? Christ the Living Water must have come from the Mother of All Living. Tell me, did all three of your mothers mourn your death at Calvary? I imagine all your Mothers, not just Mary, grieved your death and celebrated your resurrection. What must it be like to have three mothers?
It’s almost like they forgot that even though Heavenly Mother’s narrative wasn’t recorded by the patriarchs, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t there. Who knows? Some say you have many Heavenly Mothers. What a wonderful thought. My daughter’s friend has two mothers. They are sister wives. My daughter’s other friend also has two mothers. They are lesbians. My daughter’s other friend also has two mothers. One is her adopted mother and the other is her birth mother. Having two mothers is not uncommon, yet for some reason people think that the perfect family consists of only one mother and one father.
It’s almost like they forgot that the scriptures never explicitly state the reproductive anatomy or sexual orientation of our Heavenly Parents. Sure, Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father might be sealed in a union with the common goal to create a world for their offspring to grow to be like them, but that doesn’t mean they are heterosexual or even cisgender. Who knows? Maybe Heavenly Mother and Heavenly Father are in a mixed orientation marriage? Maybe Heavenly Father prefers the company of men even though he has multiple wives. Maybe Heavenly Father is asexual and impregnates his wives via non-sexual means, like he did with Mary. What is sex or gender to gods? I’ve never read a scripture or authoritative passage stating Heavenly Father has a functioning penis and a sexual desire for cisgender women. If Heavenly Father didn’t need a penis to impregnate his daughter, why do we assume he has a penis at all? Maybe Heavenly Father is a trans man.
It’s almost as if they forgot you have two fathers. They say that fathers are only capable of caring for their biological offspring and that is why men have evolved to require monogamy of their female partners—to ensure their offspring is in fact theirs. At least that’s what they say. How sad to think of men in such a poor light. Thank goodness your adopted father, Joseph, didn’t require you to be his biological offspring to be worthy of his care and devotion. Tell me, was he a loving father? Did he raise you as his own despite the fact that you were not his biological offspring? I imagine he was a good father. My son has a friend who with two gay dads. His adoptive fathers love him just as much as any biological father has loved a son. I imagine the love Joseph has for you is just as sincere as the love gay fathers have for their adopted children, even if they are not genetically related. Families are more than genetics.
It’s almost as if they forgot that families are built upon love. Tell me, did Joseph feel jealousy when Mary was impregnated by Heavenly Father? Did Heavenly Mother feel jealousy when her husband impregnated her daughter? I imagine the relationships among your godly parents and earthly parents was built upon cooperation and benevolence, not scorn or jealousy. The goal was to bring a Savior into the world and though each of their jobs were different, I trust they understood that each job was essential. You must feel so happy to know you have many parents who love you and worked together to bring you into the world.
It’s almost as if they forgot you came from a queer family. Even during the Christmas season, when we celebrate your entrance into the world, they overlook how queer your family is. Sometimes Latter-day Saints go as far to say there is no room for queer families in celestial glory—that queerness is oppositional to God’s presence. Yet, they do so without realizing God’s family is a queer family. That means eternal life, in part, is to dwell in the presence of eternal queerness.
Sometimes, I feel sad thinking of all the queer families excluded from the Church and temples on account of our queerness. Yet, at the same time, I am comforted that you came from a queer family too. If a queer family is what it took to bring a god into the world, we can’t be all that bad. No matter where queer families are, if they are built upon a foundation of love, there God is also.
Happy birthday, Jesus. I am thankful for the queerness that brought you into the world.
Sincerely, your queer Mormon sister
