A German pastor has been mocked and condemned for delivering a sermon full of liberal catchphrases, including the assertion that the Christian god is “queer.” Meanwhile, record numbers of Germans are leaving the church.
Speaking to attendees of the Evangelical Church Congress in Nuremberg on Sunday, Pastor Quinton Caesar declared that “now is the time to say” that “black lives always matter,” that “God is queer,” and that migrants must be welcomed to Europe, among other liberal affirmations.
While his speech was met with rapturous applause by the audience, Christians online were perplexed.
American Christian author Michael Sebastian described Caesar’s speech as a “succinct description of all key points of the Regime religion.” Conservative author Auron MacIntyre accused progressives like Caesar of “hollow[ing] out your religion and wear[ing] its skin like a trophy,” while other commenters described the sermon as “disgusting,” “heretical,” and “Satanic.”
Caesar’s speech closed off a five-day congress that saw 100,000 Protestants descend on Nuremberg for sermons, debates, and Christian music performances. Although the event is not organized by the Evangelical Church in Germany – an umbrella organization to which the majority of German Protestants belong – it has been held every year since 1949 and is a mainstay in the country’s religious calendar.
Caesar, who is originally from South Africa, describes himself on social media as an “activist pastor.” His views are not unique among Protestants, with his speech coming a week after an Anglican church in London held a drag queen performance for local “LGBTQAI+ communities and other marginalised people and groups.” A protestant church in Sweden also drew scathing criticism in 2019 for replacing an altarpiece depicting Adam and Eve with one showing homosexual couples in suggestive poses.
The Evangelical Church in Germany has allowed its pastors to officiate gay marriages since 2016, and one of its bishops drew headlines in 2021 for publicly asking the LGBTQ community for “forgiveness” during a ‘Pride’ parade in Berlin.
Despite its embrace of the liberal world view, the church is rapidly losing members. A record 380,000 members resigned in 2022, up from the previous record of 340,000 in 2021. The Catholic Church is not faring any better, losing 359,000 members in 2021.