A New York City Episcopal priest has claimed that Jesus Christ was transgender and that God is nonbinary—views once also held by seminarian and Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.
Father Flourish Klink, who identifies as nonbinary and transgender, made the claims during a recent sermon at Christ & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
“God is nonbinary,” Klink said, according to a clip from the church’s livestream that was shared on X Wednesday. “But I’m going to go further than that, and I’m going to say God is actually also trans.”
Klink, who uses “they/elle/hen” pronouns, compared the experience of transgender people—whose gender is assigned at birth based on physical appearance—to the nature of God.
“When we’re old enough, we realize that wasn’t right and we’re not, in our deepest selves, the gender that everyone thought we were. Reasonable working definition of a trans person, right?” Klink asked the congregation.
“When God, who—as we have established is nonbinary—was born in human form as our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary said, ‘Oh look, a baby boy.’”
Klink, who has a spouse and daughter, paused before continuing: “God isn’t a boy, we have established this. God is beyond boy and girl.”
“God was assigned a gender at birth, and later on it became clear that that gender wasn’t right.”
“So if you’re gonna deny that God is trans, I think you’re going to be denying the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and I have some notes about that,” Klink said.
Klink later argued that Jesus did not live according to the traditional expectations placed on a first-century man. The priest pointed to Jesus’ unmarried life and his interactions with women, which Klink described as differing from a “traditionally masculine way” of living.
Klink also cited biblical accounts describing Jesus as appearing different after his resurrection as support for the claim that Jesus was transgender.
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“There was something different about Jesus,” Klink said, while acknowledging that the Bible does not specify what had changed.
“The Bible doesn’t tell us why it is that Jesus’ best friends, his disciples, the people who had walked with him to the end of his life, the people who had buried him in the tomb when it was politically difficult, who were committed to him still didn’t recognize Jesus for a good long time,” Klink said.
Klink’s concluding argument relied on personal interpretation and speculation rather than specific biblical evidence.
“Now I don’t know for sure, I wasn’t there,” Klink acknowledged.
“But based on everything else I know about God, I have an idea. I think Jesus was resurrected as Jesus’ true self, which is beyond male or female. I think Jesus was not only transfigured; I think Jesus transitioned.”
The sermon drew criticism online, with some viewers questioning Klink’s authority and condemning the remarks as “blasphemous.”
“I dont understand how so many Christians just stand by and let this happen? Where is the push back?” one commenter wrote.
Another commenter disputed Klink’s description of Mary’s reaction, writing: “Mary didn’t say ‘oh look a baby boy’ and decided his gender!? This is a lie. The angel Gabriel says ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.’”
“There is a special place in hell for these pernicious blasphemers,” a third added.
Klink’s views follow Talarico’s similar remarks, but the pol has since backtracked as he seeks victory in the closely watched Senate race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is nonbinary,” Talarico said on the State House Floor back in 2021 when he was a state Rep.
“I was being provocative with that statement. I get that,” Talarico admitted, explaining, “What I was trying to say is that you can’t use human categories to define God, and that’s not controversial theologically. In fact, the late Charlie Kirk, the late Pope Benedict all said the same thing.”