The Lead

Music legend Elton John recently talked to Parade Magazine about a number of things. In what apparently constituted a sidebar conversation (is anything ever off-the-record anymore?), he said something about Jesus.

"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East -- you're as good as dead."

These comments appeared Ash Wednesday, several days in advance of Parade's Sunday release, and churned up a little chum in their wake.

But as surely as Mr. John knows how to make controversy, he's learned how to quell it, too. Yesterday he apologized (see video below) for the dust-up and responded to the past few days in a web-posted interview in which he adhered to his talking point.

Everybody's individual faith is their own business.... And we each have our idea of what religion should be.

His interviewer got closest to what perhaps is the case.

You're identifying him as a reflection of yourself and how you relate to Jesus.

When you strip away the celebrity and the fact that such a story would never have come to light if, say, your next-door neighbor said all this, what remains is a reader-response hermeneutic at least as old as the Christian faith - that we cannot help but view Jesus through our own lenses, and sometimes about all we can do is own up to those lenses.

What's your take?

Comments (8)

I'm glad he clarified, "I'm not saying Jesus actually was Gay, that's how I see him."

Jesus obviously is able to be a lot of things to a lot of people.

For Gay Christians, it's wonderful to have Elton John speak well of our Lord, even if he stepped in it a bit. I think this is actually a mainstream view among LGBT Americans, though there's a lot of public Christian-bashing for obvious reasons. Elton actually makes the task of bringing Gay people back to the Church a little easier.

Posted by Josh Thomas | February 21, 2010 12:32 PM

Seriously now, what difference would it make if Jesus were gay...or married...or any of the other things our small minds cannot allow for the Son of God to be. Would it change the truth of who he was or what he did? Would it change the mind and heart of God? We would be very blessed to have the hardness of our hearts and minds shattered by this God who refuses to be swayed by popular opinion.

Posted by Peter Pearson | February 21, 2010 1:41 PM

Some people will take offense at anything. I am glad that John did not apologize. He only expressed his surprise that others were offended.

Posted by Susan Hedges | February 21, 2010 5:03 PM

Obviously, there was no such concept as "gay" in Jesus's time, although people like Alexander and Hadrian did form long-term same-sex relationships. More to the point, Jesus lived outside the social and family conventions of his time. Not a family values guy.

Murdoch Matthew

Posted by garydasein | February 21, 2010 5:59 PM

Elton simply said that as a gay man he must embody Jesus as a gay man. Liberation theology says that one must take the position of the oppressed/marginalized, in this case gay people. The institution, alas, represents the establishment.

Sir Elton says he liked the interview as it appeared but that the blog misrepresented him. He should learn never to speak at length with a reporter unless one has previous experience with that person. Even then, the smartest thing is to come up with a good sound bite.

Gary Paul Gilbert

Posted by Gary | February 21, 2010 6:40 PM

I think Sir Elton's reflection is great, actually. I wrote some thoughts about it here: http://thediscursionists.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/was-jesus-gay/

Grant Charles Chaput

Posted by twitter.com/GCComposer | February 21, 2010 7:40 PM

His interviewer got closest to what perhaps is the case. "You're identifying him as a reflection of yourself and how you relate to Jesus."

Sir Elton is creating Jesus in his own image? Say it isn't so! I'm sure none of Elton's critics have ever done that before! ;-X

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux | February 22, 2010 2:53 AM

Great pictures, JC Fisher. Perfect illustrations.

Posted by Susan Hedges | February 22, 2010 11:38 AM

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