One thing I just wanna preface before I begin this is that I absolutely LOVE the Progressive Christian movement, and I’m proud to be apart of it. I’ve been a Christian for over 10 years now, and embracing Jesus and his ways in the most loving and constructive ways possible is such a driving force in my life.

However, there’s one thing that some Progressive Christians do (huge emphasis here on the word “some”) that I find infuriating because it’s much more likely to set this movement back than to move it forward.

And that thing is the overt embrace and display of personal sexual desires outside the LGBT or straight spectrum, like kinks.

Whenever I hear about one of the churches of the Metropolitan Community Church encouraging its members to wear obviously sexually undertoned leather gear during a sermon (even though children as young as 12 are allowed to sit in during that sermon and potentially see people in these types of outfits) or to openly say that they are kinky while speaking to a crowd of churchgoers of various ages, I can’t help but cringe.

I have 0 problems with people being kinky, or even with people telling other people in appropriate situations (where it isn’t uncalled for and likely to make someone uncomfortable) that they’re kinky, but when I see video clips of a guy in a chasuble saying a prayer about forgiveness and God’s love from a pulpit while literally dressed (on top of the chasuble) like he’s about to get spanked, I get upset because that’s both inappropriate AND it gives fuel to trad evangelists to say that we’re all perverts and heathens.

I’m not accusing people who do this of being bad people who want to traumatize others and/or set this movement’s progress back, but it’s something that I can’t stand to see because I can only imagine the fuel that this gives bigots to throw at us, and the things it could unintentionally teach about how to carry yourself in public to the children who attend Progressive Christian churches.