Dear Friends,
I trust your May days have been pleasant ones, with those April showers bringing you some beautiful, spring foliage, as we’ve had here in verdant Indiana. And may Christ’s great promise, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27) be yours throughout this sixth week of Easter and vibrant spring season.
Our prayers continue for the friends and families of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lishinsky, the two Israeli Embassy staffers who were senselessly murdered at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. Prayers abound also for the young people of Lebanon engaged with Youth for Christ there, where I ministered some sixty years ago. Stay strong, for none of the political and cultural pressures you face can prevail against your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ!
As always, brothers and sisters in Christ,
My Thanks For YOU!
D. Paul
CELEBRATING PERVERSITY
After last week’s podcast, God Works In Mysterious Ways, I assumed I could take a breather for a few months and refrain from critiquing The Episcopal Church. Assumptions are always subject to change, as were mine when a friend sent me two notices found in the May 18, 2025, email publication of—
THE FIRST NOTICE READS:
In a celebration of inclusion and community, St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, 830 W. Bonita, Claremont, plans to kick off Pride Month with a special “Drag Eucharist” on Sunday, June 1 at 9 a.m., at its regular morning service.
The event will feature a guest preacher and co-officiant appearing in drag, with the Rev. Jessie Turnier, rector, serving as officiant. While attendees are not required to dress up, they are invited to come “with open hearts and festive spirits.”
Following the service, the celebration will continue with a Pride-themed brunch and lively games of bingo, hosted by two local drag performers.
“This event is about affirming the dignity and belovedness of all people,” said Turnier. “We’re blending sacred tradition with joyful celebration to honor Pride and extend a heartfelt welcome to everyone—no exceptions.”
All are warmly invited to bring friends, neighbors, and family to this vibrant Festival.
THE SECOND NOTICE READS:
St. George's, Riverside, is hosting an evensong and drag performance “Drag me to Church,” Saturday, May 24, at 7 p.m. The Church is located at 950 Spruce St., Riverside.
Well, there you have it, dear friends, just when you thought you’d seen it all. Perhaps I should have posted a “trigger warning” at the top of this podcast, but, if your curiosity is as mine, you can always go to the St. Ambrose or St. George parish websites for further information. Also, all the drag “artists” highlighted by the two parishes have individual platforms celebrating their “drag queen,” or “drag king,” or “drag queer” personas. Of course, in posting these church announcements in their official “Episcopal News” publication, the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles (one of the largest in the nation) has put its imprimatur upon the legitimacy of a “drag eucharist” and a “drag evensong,” irrespective of the shame it brings to the parishes’ saintly progenitors—St. Ambrose and St. George respectively. The St. Ambrose of history, who fought against paganism and wrote in his hymn, “Eternal Maker of All” (Aeterne rerum conditor), Jesus, look upon those who lapse, and by Thy seeing us, correct us, would have nothing but disdain for a “drag eucharist.” And as for St. George, who was martyred for refusing to recant the Christian faith, he was not into anything remotely “drag,” unless as legendary hagiography has it, the slaying of dragons would somehow qualify him. Oh, I’m sorry, forgive me, my friends, for the feeble humor; you either laugh or weep, and perhaps we should be doing the latter.
Naturally, our progressive culture takes all of this in stride: a high-end jeweler here in ol’ Zionsville, IN, just 5 miles north of me, has announced its celebration of Pride Month by hosting “Drag Story-Hour on Main Street” this coming June 7th., “…with the fabulous Mistress Dunn-Slapter.” I guess there’s a sadistic double entendre in there somewhere, but, supposedly, “This family-friendly event celebrates creativity, self-expression, and the power of storytelling. All ages are welcome to come enjoy vibrant tales, lots of laughs, and a message of love and acceptance.” The promotional copy could have come right out of St. Ambrose’s advertisement, as the fashionable jewelry store and the trendy church are in perfect lockstep one with the other. But go to Mistress Dunn-Slapter’s Facebook post of December 24, 2024, and there the truth beneath the “laughs” and the “love and acceptance” is exposed—expressed in Dunn-Slapter’s own words:
“They call me The Mistress Dunn-Slapter. Not your side piece. Something more sinister and dark. Love to you all.”
Purposefully, St. Ambrose and St. George parishes have opened their doors wide to “something more sinister and dark,” all under the guise of “blending sacred tradition with joyful celebration” and “affirming the dignity and belovedness of all people.” I’ll not ask you to view the YouTube shows and Instagram photos of drag performers Klitus Black, Bené Diction, Morella Lizzie Diamond, and Sinnamon Jones who are now “gracing” the chancels of St. Ambrose and St. George—a few seconds of watching them were more than enough.
This is not about innocent kids dressing up at Halloween, or men playing women’s roles at the Old Globe in Shakespeare’s day. I’m going to go “Old Testament” on you, friends, for even as it was for Sodom and Gomorrah, this is “a stench in the nostrils of God.” And this perversity is being repeated in The Episcopal Church, The United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) in pockets throughout the country. Drinking the dregs of our culture, the progressive Church would rather be hip than holy, not only normalizing but celebrating the deviant. And to be clear—there is no intention of transforming lives here, only affirming them in their behavior. And there is nothing new nor progressive about it—it is the old, old story of sinful human nature, lifted right out of the Scripture: Delighting in doing wrong and rejoicing in the perverseness of evil (Proverbs 2:14), …and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it (Isaiah 3:9). Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all (Jeremiah 6:15), and Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Harsh words found there in Romans 1:32.
And such is much of the Church today, if not in practice, than in spirit. If there were tears in heaven, the saints would be weeping. Are we?
I confess, dear friends, your podcaster is somewhat disquieted in writing and speaking of such things, but while we are to “….have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness,” we are encouraged to “expose them” (Ephesians 5:11-12). And if we look behind the sparkling glitter and the leather boots and fishnet hose, we will find a precious individual—a precious soul—not unlike ourselves, in desperate need of a Savior, searching for his or her true identity, an identity that can only be found “in Christ,” not a faux identity of superficial appearances, with its assortment of rebellious guises, but an identity “born of the Spirit not of the flesh,” literally birthing a “new creature in Christ,” where “The old life is gone and a new life has begun” (I Corinthians 5:17). The identity God is calling us all to be!
This is the true message of the Church, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, a Church whose “…one Foundation Is Jesus Christ Her Lord!”
Amen
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