God is a Drag Queen | 2025 Pre-Conference Devotional
“For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
— Galatians 3:26-27, NRSVue
The fourth phrase on our Conference T-shirt is a bold claim: “God is a Drag Queen.”
The Human Rights Campaign defines drag as “a performance art that uses costumes, makeup, and other tools to present exaggerated forms of gender expression to critique gender inequalities and imagine a transformational future where people are truly free in how they express themselves.”
What, then, might it mean to suggest that “God is a Drag Queen?” I think this passage from Galatians is a fun one to explore in this context.
Paul says in Galatians: “you… have clothed yourselves with Christ.” This is a beautiful turn of phrase, and reflects an experience of drag so well. There is a “putting on” of a new person/way of being, and an experience of living in the “clothing” of Christ. Christ becomes what we present to the world, and through this experience, other people see Christ more fully.
What’s more, Christ could be considered as doing drag by “putting on” humanity! We recently celebrated Christmas, a season of remembering Christ’s coming and leaning into the incarnation of Christ in Jesus. Jesus became human so that we might recognize God’s presence with us. Jesus’ presence as human and divine came to critique the power systems and inequalities we have created. God choosing to put on the form of a baby invites us to imagine a transformational future where the God of the universe is choosing to take on the vulnerability of a child born in a lowly manger. This completely subverts all expectations about how a powerful leader should show up among us!
As we think about clothing ourselves with Christ, really we are following Christ’s example who first became like us to identify with us in humanity. The best part about this drag show is that it doesn’t end! Christ is who we reflect as Christians, day in and day out. We carry the name, the message, and the good news of God with us everywhere we go.
I encourage you, as we get closer to the QCF conference, to reflect on how you are “clothed” with Christ.
How can you share the queer joy of God this week?
