VIDEO: UNC student’s powerful poem says ‘God is Gay’

A University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student’s poetry slam, “God is Gay,” is going viral, says Time magazine’s Swampland blog. (Hat tip, Carolina Mercury.)

Twenty-year-old drama student Elliot Darrow’s poem contains a rolling commentary on misguided anti-LGBT religious discrimination and prejudice.

Time’s Elizabeth Dias says the Darrow’s poem is a “dynamic work of gay liberation theology…[using] Bible passages to challenge conventional views about god.”

From Dias: “Elliot Darrow identifies as a straight male and says his identity as an “out Christian” drives his writing. Like many Christian millennials, Darrow does not currently attend church—“more due to the chaos that is college than anything else,” he says—but he grew up Presbyterian in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area. Social issues comprise the core of his poetry portfolio, and the viral piece was one of his first to directly address his faith.

See the video and full text of the poem below. First, some snippets…

“A history lesson: A faggot is a bundle of sticks / Originally used as kindling for fires that engulfed gays / When they were burned at the stake, people were firewood / But Moses came across wood on fire and saw God in it / What is a burning bush but bundles of branches / On fire, isn’t it funny how faggots and God can look the same sometimes?”

“‘Pray for us sinners’ / For we have become blinded by bigotry. / And forgotten that God gave us the rainbow / As a promise that we will never be flooded again / Either with rain or ignorance / And now all the homosexual Homo sapiens / Stand more united under God’s rainbow / Than all of his denominations do around the cross.”

The full poem:

What if I told you God is gay?

Do you think belligerent bible-belters

Would still holler hate speech to the hilltops

In His name?

Or do you think they would reread the scriptures

They say they swear and survive by

See, I’ve been reading the Bible again lately

And I think I’ve taken a leaf from their holy book,

Picking passages for my purpose

Which is in short

To let you know it’s very possible God is gay.

I mean think about the book of Genesis

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

And it wasn’t just good, it was fabulous.

I mean what else is our planet but the pinnacle

Of exterior design, and I don’t mean to generalize

But it certainly seems like that the Garden of Eden

Was designed by queer, I mean divine eye for the straight guy

But some Christians would go as far as to call

God’s creations abominations

Heretics calling themselves faithful

When their faith is full of belief that only God may pass judgment

Matthew 7:1 Judge and you too shall be judged

Luke 6: 37 Condemn not and you shall not be condemned

Fred Phelps 2006: You’re going to hell! God hates fags!

A history lesson: A faggot is a bundle of sticks

Originally used as kindling for fires that engulfed gays

When they were burned at the stake, people were firewood

But Moses came across wood on fire and saw God in it,

What is a burning bush but bundles of branches

On fire, isn’t it funny how faggots and God can look the same sometimes?

Keep in mind Jesus had two dads and turned out just fine

In fact, Jesus had two dads and a surrogate mother

That never had sex with either of them,

Maybe Mary was a lesbian

And I remember the prayer going

“Hail Mary, full of grace”

Not full of sin,

“Pray for us sinners”

For we have become blinded by bigotry.

And forgotten that God gave us the rainbow

As a promise that we will never be flooded again

Either with rain or ignorance

And now all the homosexual Homo sapiens

Stand more united under God’s rainbow

Than all of his denominations do around the cross.

I was brought up believing that my Savior loved us all

And never had to specify “no homo”

But if you have hate in your heart

Say it don’t pray it

Don’t teach it and for the love of God don’t preach it

Because I am tired of these fire and brimstone sermons

Slinging slurs when they’re not firing brimstones

From voices that should be filled with love and praise

Instead of raised with hate and rage

I am a Christian, and I believe in saying the Christian thing.

Which used to sound like “Love thy neighbor as thyself”

But now sounds more like hate at the top of your picket signs

The closest thing to God being “Hell, is waiting for you”

They’re passing out damnation pamphlets

Filled with out-of-context Bible verses

Trying to define God

When his meaning is clear.

He is acceptance, He is pride, He is humility, He is just,

God is perfection, God is protection, God is love,

But most importantly

God is gay