IT was, for one evangelist, simply “perverted”. The Archbishop of Glasgow thought it was “hard to imagine a greater affront to the Christian faith”. Some baptists declared it “blasphemy”.
Jo Clifford’s Glasgow performance as a transgender messiah exactly a decade ago sparked a wave of controversy which rumbles on to this very day.
Her show, Jesus, Queen of Heaven, is re-running this weekend as part of a huge retrospective of its impact.
But Ms Clifford’s central theme, re-imagining the son of God as a transwoman, remains as challenging for many Christians as it was on the day she first took to the stage in November 2009 as part of the Glasgay! Festival.
Protests greeted the show. One said: “God; My son is not a pervert”. As the play travels around the world, including to Brazil, so too has the revulsion felt by some believers.
Speaking ahead of her reprisal of the role, Ms Clifford, herself a transwoman, admitted she had been affected by the crowds objecting to her role.
She said: “I was so hurt to find angry crowds of Christians outside the Tron Theatre for my performance of The Gospel According To Jesus, Queen of Heaven.
“I was really distressed to find myself being publicly denounced by an Archbishop who hadn’t read the play.
“Not to mention being relentlessly mocked by the tabloid press and the hundreds of thousands of people on the internet who told me I was ridiculous and grotesque and wished all manner of painful deaths on me and told me they were looking forward to seeing me being tortured in hell.
“I was traumatised, and it took me a long time to recover.
“But somehow I knew the play was important, and needed to be kept alive. I also knew I couldn’t rely on Scottish theatre to help me, and that even though I had no idea how I would have to do it myself.”
Jesus, Queen of Heaven, was of its time in Scotland, reckons Steven Thomson, former director of Glasgay! Festival; “When Jo first presented the idea of her play, I was immediately struck by how timely it was - and what the reaction from Scottish audiences would be.
“In 2009, the mainstream media were full of reports condemning the forthcoming Equality Act (2010). Ministers, clerics and religious fundamentalists occupied huge amounts of space in the public debate - whilst LGBTQIA voices were few and far between.”
“We all knew what we were getting into, but never expected mass protests outside the theatre, or the worldwide online hate campaign. These battle scars are still with us and they deeply affected our community.”
It was not just the play that unleashed fury. Some Christians sought to include minorities by letting then write their own new Bible - or at least messages, at GoMA. That did not go down well with some of their fellow believers.
Dr Anthony Schrag, the artist behind that project, called ‘Made in God’s Image’ : “When the (misguided) wrath descended upon the work, I (at first) took the brunt of the abuse. I received death threats, the first inklings of social-media trolling - reporters even ominously doorstepping me at home.”
Reverend Jane Clark, Metropolitan Community Church, said: “The popular press picked up the story. They said that the gallery was inviting people to “desecrate” that Bible. They even said it was condemned by the Pope.
“The gallery was picketed, people really did start to “desecrate” the Bible.
“The idea behind it was that for many people, the Bible is an exclusive book that doesn’t speak to them or their circumstances; “If you feel excluded by the Bible, write your way back into it.”
This week the Brazilian version of Jesus Queen of Heaven, O Evangelho Segundo Jesus, Raihna do Ceu, was performed in Scotland by trans artist and activist Renata Carvalho.
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