Young Pastor Preaches Pride-Themed Sermon Titled 'The Queer Christ'

He also called out 'white Christian nationalism' from the pulpit in Wenatchee

Dane Breslin, pastor of The Sunnyslope Church near Wenatchee, Wa. on Sunday, June 4. Photo by Dominick Bonny.

On June 4, Dane Breslin, pastor of the Sunnyslope Church in Wenatchee, preached a sermon titled “The Queer Christ” and called out Christian nationalism.

“Jesus would not have been a fan of white Christian nationalism and neither are we,” he said. “Can I get an amen?”

“Amen!” the congregation responded.

About 75 people were in attendance. Some were there because the church had a booth at the Wenatchee Pride Festival at Memorial Park the day prior and heard the pastor would be preaching a Pride-themed sermon, others were regular attendees.

The young pastor’s message is radical and inclusive in a way unusual for most of the churches in the region – and the country. Breslin identifies as queer and bisexual and described his church as small and progressive, but it is one of the oldest Christian churches in the Wenatchee Valley.

“What a high holy day to celebrate the queerness of Christ,” Breslin said.

Queer theology comes from queer theory, he said, and there are two ways to see it. The first is to see the word “queer” as a label or sexual identity. The second is to conceptualize queer as a verb – as a “way of being” that subverts traditional power dynamics and “breaks all binaries.”

“Jesus was queer as F-U-C-K,” Breslin said, spelling out the last word.

The altar at the Sunnyslope Church. Photo by Dominick Bonny.

According to Breslin, Christ didn’t fit neatly in any of the social boxes of his day. He broke the binaries and eschewed the rigid social rules that dictated the everyday lives of faithful Jewish people of that time and place. He mingled with the “unclean,” like tax collectors and prostitutes, and insisted his message was for everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. For that he was crucified, Breslin said.

“Jesus was radically inclusive,” he said. “And his greatest teaching was about loving friends and enemies equally.”

Breslin’s small church is less than a mile from one of the newest and most successful churches in the region, Grace City Church, but their take on the message of Christ are worlds apart.

During his sermon, Breslin called out anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry in churches like GCC.

“Is there anything more sacrilegious than to condemn people for how God made them?” he asked.

Referencing the story of Jesus flipping the tables of the money changers and driving them out of the temple in the gospel of Mark, the young pastor said if Jesus was here today the tables he’d flip would be in white Christian nationalist churches.

He called for righteous anger like Christ was feeling that day to animate folks to break oppressive systems as Jesus did. He said that doesn’t mean being violent, he is committed to non-violence, but that doesn’t mean being meek and silent in the face of oppression.

“Non-violence is not non-action,” he said. “Silence will not save us. We have to speak up. We have to become prophetic in our own right. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ.”

Near the end of the sermon, Breslin outlined his concept of Christ.

“Within Christian theology, there is glorious concept that the Christ is present whenever two or more are gathered,” he said. “That the Christ resides within us, that the Christ is a real and living energy that is flowing throughout all of creation and that we as people of great spirit, as people of justice can tap into this universal person that the Christ is available to all of us. The Christ which breaks binaries and flips tables and resists categorization is available to all of us and is in all of us.”

After his sermon, the congregation took communion, and a “glitter blessing” was offered. Taking a cup full of oil and glitter, Brelin dipped his fingers into the vessel and then dabbed some of the mixture on the foreheads and cheeks of his congregants.

“We have a very queer Christ and we are one body in this spirit,” he said. “Amen.”