Culture

Indiana Pastor Fired After Appearing on HBO’s Drag Show We’re Here


 

As we all know, God is an all-loving and benevolent being of infinite compassion — unless you have a dick and wear a dress, at which point it’s lake of fire time, chum.

Pastor Craig Duke of Newburgh United Methodist Church in Newburgh, Indiana was recently served a harsh reminder that bigotry is alive and well after appearing on HBO’s reality show We’re Here.

In season two of the drag transformation show, which visits smaller cities and towns across America, Duke underwent a makeover at the hands of Eureka O’Hara, then danced to Ke$ha’s “We Are Who We Are” — a song suggested by O’Hara because of the lyric “I’ve got Jesus on my necklace.”

“It was an incredibly wonderful, refreshing, deepening, powerful spiritual experience,” Duke, a proud LGBTQ+ ally, later told Religion News Service.

But although it may have been a blessing for Duke, the performance was entirely too much for some members of his congregation. After the episode aired last month, Duke reportedly received so many negative messages that Newburgh’s Staff-Parish Relations Committee insisted he request a new assignment.

“It just got to the point where the conflict, the anger grew too much, and so for my mental health, too, I started to back away, and I told my district superintendent that the conflict was so much, it was at such a level from some, that I was unable to be an effective leader,” Duke told the Washington Post.

In a November 26 letter to the congregation shared with local media, Mitch Gieselman, the superintendent for the South and Southwest District of the Indiana United Methodist Church, wrote that Duke was “being relieved from pastoral duties effective December 1, 2021.” 

Gieselman disputed the idea that Duke was being “fired” or that he had “resigned,” insisting that “these are not actions that are consistent with our appointment system,” but let’s not split hairs here. The bottom line is that he won’t “be returning to the NUMC pulpit,” per the letter.

On Tuesday, GLAAD issued a statement Tuesday in support of Duke after the news began to spread more widely.

“Pastor Craig Duke stepped into a community that has experienced disproportionate church-based trauma to proclaim a message of God’s love for all of creation,” wrote GLAAD Media Institute’s Ross Murray. “That his own church members bully him and the church hierarchy into removing him from his ministry is a disservice to the congregation, to the Evansville community, and to the ministry of the United Methodist Church.”

Thankfully, Duke’s story appears to be headed towards a hopeful — if not necessarily happy — ending. A GoFundMe set up to support the Duke family has rocketed past its $30,000 goal, with Duke and his wife expressing intentions to found “some kind of inclusive ministry” with the funds, “whether it be a new and affirming church or a faith based camping experience for LGBTQIA+ youth/families.” Praise and werk!

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