Called to repentance, not disobedience

Yes, he’s trans. Yes, he’s a Christian. Or so Blaire White wants to reintroduce himself to his audience, in a surprising new video about his “faith journey.” The popular YouTuber has built his brand on edgy anti-woke content that trades on the clash between his (trans)sexualized image and his MAGA-flavored politics. Now, it appears that he wants to throw Christianity in the mix too. 

White describes “a 1.5 to 2-year journey” that started with “what I can only describe as a supernatural experience,” after he asked God for a tangible sign of His presence. Whatever exactly that experience involved, it evidently hasn’t given White a sense of urgency to conform with orthodox doctrine or biblical Christianity. White wants to encourage other self-identified gay or trans people who might feel “forsaken by God” or believe their sexual identities are incompatible with Christianity. If they don’t feel “open and comfortable in a church,” well, neither does he. “But maybe no one told you,” he assures them, “you don’t need that.” Maybe he will feel “called” to try a church and maybe he won’t, but hey, didn’t Jesus say the church was in our hearts anyway?

Taking questions from fans, White explains that he has likewise not felt “called” to stop presenting as a woman, even though he has never been under the delusion that he actually is a woman. Reading the Bible, including what he calls “the banned books,” has convinced him that the story of Jesus is really all about “transcend[ing] flesh,” meaning whatever White has done to his body is just “external” and “superficial.”

As Lutheran Satire’s Irish Twins might say, “That’s gnosticism, Patrick.”

Cultural apologists are long used to LGBTQ syncretism in a left-wing key. But among other strange products of this decade’s cultural re-sorting, we should prepare to encounter more “right-coded” people like White. Gay MAGA influencer Rob Smith is another example. Smith collaborated with Charlie Kirk and claimed to share his faith. He’s tweeted about renewing his prayer life and churchgoing over the last few years, feeling at home in an apolitical church that doesn’t feel like “a left-wing campaign rally.” He speaks fluent evangelicalese. When Hollywood mocks evangelical Christians, he positions himself as our ally. At the same time, he has also used his platform to normalize his own lifestyle. When Franklin Graham objected to Pete Buttigieg’s self-description as a “gay Christian,” Smith labeled this “not a loving message,” thereby not-so-subtly attempting to usher Graham outside the Overton Window of polite discourse.

David, a younger “gay Christian Republican” content creator, went viral after Kirk’s assassination with a tweet declaring that he felt more compelled than ever to share the gospel, and he wouldn’t be discouraged by “mean comments.” Conservative Christians politely registered questions and concerns, which David continued to paint as a campaign to “drag me down and try to force me into silence.” Yet, like Rob Smith, David posts enthusiastically about attending an evangelical church and claiming Jesus as his Lord and Savior. 

Two takeaways suggest themselves here. First, sexual idolatry is a universal constant. Left-leaning or right-leaning, woke or anti-woke, no one likes being told to die to himself. For all the surprising common ground that a Christian might find with the “gay Republicans,” at the end of the day the same simple truths need to be repeated. And they likewise need to be repeated for people clinging to heterosexual sin. Young men full of colorful opinions about woke leftism may be well-stocked on arguments for why the Democrats are bad, but what they really need is a wise older man to say, “Stop sleeping with your girlfriend.” The gender may vary. The principle is the same.

Second, while Rob and David’s stories are anecdotal, they suggest a lack of strong sexual discipleship. By the sound of it, these men feel too comfortable where they are. Whether some pastors are afraid to cause offense or overseeing congregations that are simply too large for each congregant to be individually shepherded, too many sheep are left unfed, even in evangelical churches. If Blaire White did suddenly feel “called” to try a church, would he be challenged as he needs to be, or would he be served nothing stronger than baby milk? His language of waiting to see if God “calls” him to do X or Y may be keeping him outside the church doors, but such language can excuse away a multitude of sins inside them too.

At the end of the day, we should be unsurprised that real people don’t always sort themselves into ideological monoliths. They will arrive on our doorstep with unique mixtures of insight and foolishness, virtues and vices. For those invested in LGBTQ identities, whatever their political inclinations, there is an especially urgent need to meet them with a robust theology of the body. Let’s be sure our churches offer everyone the gospel that still saves.