You couldn’t make this up if you tried.

And you thought Adoptionsism was bad!

Via ijr.com:

Report: Church in Sweden Calls Jesus Gender Neutral: He ‘Is Not Very Masculine in Physique’

A church in Västerås reportedly bought an advertisement in a Swedish newspaper days before Christmas, inviting those in the area to celebrate the birth of Jesus with worship, Christmas music, and a Christmas crib. But it did it using a gender neutral pronoun[Gender neutral Jesus!]

The word used was “hen,” which is the gender neutral alternative to “hon” (she) and “han” (he).

Swedish news-magazine Expressen originally reported the story in Swedish, according to Dangerous blog. IJR translated it into English. [According to Dangerous: “Sweden is at the forefront of the social justice movement, and not even Christianity is exempt from the progressive push for inclusivity of genders other than male and female and a full embrace of the ‘gender spectrum.’”]

Susann Senter, who’s the female dean of the church, explained:

“There are many who have heard from us via Facebook, but I have also received positive reactions. We did not want to sex the little child right away […]  [They didn’t want to “sex” the God man!]

Theologically, we are talking about Jesus as true God and man. A human is not just ‘he.'”  [Generic man.  Not even a kouros.]

She also went on to say that how people are treated based on their gender [not “gender”, “sex”!] has been a frequently discussed topic at the church. She added that although Jesus Christ was a man, her interpretation of the Bible makes him “beyond man or woman.[ummm…. Meta-Human!]

Senter continued:

“If I’m a little provocative, most 19th and [20th century depictions] of Jesus are quite feminine. He is gentle, has curly hair and is not very masculine in physique.” [So… a Jesuit?]

The dean concluded that “it is a strain that we always talk about God as ‘he’” and that “we can not change the texts in the Bible, but we can change our way of highlighting this.”  [I think there are a lot of people who would disagree that can’t change texts in the Bible.]

Somethings are beyond parody.

What’s really funny is that today, 1 January, has traditionally been celebrated as the… wait for it…

Feast of the Circumcision.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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14 Comments

  1. Benedict Joseph says:

    Well beyond time for the Susann Senters of the globe to pick up a copy of Leo Steinberg’s “The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion” published first in 1983, then in 1996 [expanded version] by University of Chicago Press. Despite the seemingly provocative title it is an orthodox and respectful exposition on the masculinity of Jesus Christ, the necessity of his masculine nature as perceived by the Fathers and as depicted in art – and regretfully in modern oblivion.
    It is a big pill for fembots to swallow, and I have taken great delight in recommending it to a number of them, male and female, over the decades. Those few brave enough to engage with the scholarship therein return my copy [it is difficult to come by] enlightened and with a bitter scowl.
    Ah, the educative moment! Gender ideologues find their blind spot while yanking the beam from their own eye. A real man, necessarily so, and in Him we men, and women, can determine the character of our primary vocation by nature.
    True God and true Man, the New Adam, Lord of Creation.
    No way around it.

    [US HERE – UK HERE]

  2. acardnal says:

    There was a news report on this topic on PBS News Hour, December 26, which I just happened to watch. The video is HERE

  3. bobk says:

    You really want to shock a Swede? Tell them today is the celebration of the Circumcision of Jesus (at least on the Orthodox Calendar). How you manage that with none-of-the-above Jesus is their problem. I predict it would cause no end of distress to people wanting to ban such a misnamed practice on girls and women, also objections that Mary and Joseph not to mention the Temple Establishment had dared to “assign” gender at birth to innocent Jesus. He should have been born Swedish so he had a better shot at personal freedom. Some Scandinavian jokes write themselves.
    Ole: You know our church just said Jesus maybe vasn’t a boy after all?
    Sven: Ya, them theolojuns, they yust keep learning new things about old things.
    Ole: How did Yoseph and Mary make such a big mistake?
    Sven: They yust didn’t know Svedish so good then.

  4. arga says:

    What “church” are we talking about? Lutheran?

  5. Grumpy Beggar says:

    We did not want to sex the little child right away […]

    . . . which would imply that the Holy Spirit didn’t know what He was doing . . .or even better, the Holy Spirit wasn’t sure – even though the Blessed Virgin was when she pronounced her Fiat

    Imperfect world, imperfect humans . . . Okay. But now they want us to believe in an imperfect God.

  6. JuliB says:

    We need to refer to Jesus by His preferred gender. So while God is beyond male or female, He evidently made His choice before birth.

  7. Nan says:

    @bobk, Byzantine Catholic as well. As well as the Feast of St. Basil the Great.

  8. frjim4321 says:

    “If I’m a little provocative, most 19th and [20th century depictions] of Jesus are quite feminine. He is gentle, has curly hair and is not very masculine in physique.” [So… a Jesuit?]

    Even too snarky for this blog.

  9. Cafea Fruor says:

    Among other nonsense…since when did curly hair become a sign of not being masculine? I know a number of guys with curly hair, and they’re all rather masculine. What a bizarre thing to say.

  10. Pingback: TVESDAY CATHOLICA EDITION – Big Pulpit

  11. aquinasadmirer says:

    My Japanese wife laughed out loud when I told her the Swedes used the pronoun “hen”. Which is ironic because in Japanese, hen means “strange”.

  12. jaykay says:

    “But now they want us to believe in an imperfect God.”

    Well, that’d be consistent, since it appears they believe that God kept some sort of “hidden Church” from the Donation of Constantine until about 1517, or whenever (choose your heresy). Therefore, the vast majority of Christians were being led astray for 1,200 years or so. By a loving God, who permitted multitudes to be misguided until the “true faith” was re-discovered. Which, strangely enough, had a lot to do with the below-the-belt activities of some of its royal founders. Hmmmm…

    Yep. It’s Christianity, Jim, but not as we know it.

  13. Charles E Flynn says:

    There is a memorable description of the sexuality of Christ in the book by Leo Steinberg mentioned by Benedict Joseph above:

    “potency held under check”

  14. grumpyoldCatholic says:

    I laughed really hard about your comment [So… a Jesuit?]

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