Gays Cøuntry
The Divine Homosexual and the American God
“Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!”
Psalm 82:8
Gods Country, a place belonging to and beloved by God. Many kingdoms, empires, and nations across time have proclaimed this title. And for good reason—
To sit atop a throne of favor and rule a land that god almighty bestows miracles upon. A people blessed, a land holy, and a kingship divine in nature. Of all the countries to have claimed this title, none have come closer than the titan of modem society:
The United States of America.
Oh’ America the Sublime
The United States of America geographically is a marvel, lauded by early colonists for it’s diverse biomes and majestic wilderness. But more than just looking nice, there always existed a christian influence, a notion of the sublime.
"sublime landscapes were those rare places on earth where one had more chance than elsewhere to glimpse the face of God…God was on the mountaintop, in the chasm, in the waterfall, in the thundercloud, in the rainbow, in the sunset”
William Cronon
The sublime refers to a unique experience, the feeling of awe, or bewilderment, that eclipses human capabilities. In essence, it is a subjugation of oneself to the natural powers, to divine creation. The term was borne out of the transatlantic movement commomly reffered to as American romanticism. Look to the legendary Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau to see instances of this in the mid-late 19th century.
But the actual categorizations of the word predate it.
I’ll save my discussion of American Puritanism and Calvinism for another day, but the important take away is that early colonial calvinists saw America as a beautiful opportunity, and Puritans saw America an escape from persecution in England and a mechanism to create their Holy Commonwealth.
The big idea is that America was founded off of heavy Christian influences, be it literary works, political ideals and the revolution, or the Constitution itself. This nation agreed by all who resided to be under god’s purview rose to historical heights in the 20th century. Capitalism birthed American manufacturing and innovation, a military might, a rich creativity of sciences and arts, every aspect of the USA was exceptional on the world stage.
So it wasn’t just history, in the modern sense the land of the free, the world’s “Superpower” is moreso than any one else, God’s Country.
But what is it like living in Gods Country?
The Great American Theocracy
Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.
Exodus 19:5-6
If the idiom of “Gods Country” alluded to a utopian society, despite it’s geographical beauty, America is the furthest thing from it.
Long before the 21st century, back when the nation was first formed in 1776 the founding fathers noticeably ignored women, people of color, and indigenous people from the constitution. I need not to preach to you all about the very dark, bloody, and discriminatory history of this nation. But stay with me, I first want to talk about how in this “God’s Country” the line between God and Country became increasingly blurred.
America had a gift, its exceptional nature and the miracle of colonial success couldn’t be chalked up to just luck.
To quote John Winthrop Governor the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Puritan lawyer:
“we shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when tens of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and a glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations: the lord make it like New England, for we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people upon us.”
Before the revolution was even fought the notions of a divine right of America were being sowed. And that narrative was only emboldened by the revolution and subsequent creation of America.
There was a religious like fervor to post-revolutionary America. The great general and 1st President George Washington literally became their Moses. Washington was their messenger of a higher purpose who led his people, the colonies, to freedom and a new life. Look no further than the artistic depictions and idolatry in subsequent decades, including the Michaelangelic “Apotheosis of George Washington” frescoe pictured above.
Beyond George Washington, the constitution, the belief in freedom, the values at the root of the nation weren’t just adhered as laws but devoted to by all Americans. A culture, religion, was built around America with even rituals and rites such as the Pledge of Allegiance.
We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!
Balch’s Pledge of Allegiance
The separation of church and state was merely on paper, in truth America had created a Civil Religion the world had never seen. Though Christianity was initially a guide America reformed it’s religious beliefs and practices away from a Christian God, the bible and biblical messaging became mere icing, decoration of a religion slain and draped across the American flag. In this bastardized portrayal of the divine, America became more than God’s country, it became God.
Let’s now return to the previous question (What was life like living in Gods Country?)
The Birth of a God and Death of a Nation
What happens to a nation that kills and rebuilds God in its image? God becomes a weapon of mass destruction.
Westward Expansion that saw Indigenous Americans killed, enslaved, and removed en masse, was fueled by the notion of Manifest Destiny.
Manifest Destiny, a continuation of America’s divine right to exist and the covenant between America and God, mandated we colonize and “civilize” the wilderness. For God’s people, these white Americans that found themselves on the right side of the new American theocracy, they only knew abundance. Their life was filled with prospect, discovery, a new frontier that belonged to them if they claimed it. If you focus on the experience of these “American israelites”, this was more than just their city upon a hill, America was heaven.
Pause for a moment and really consider this implication.
This is a particularly important trait as we witnessed more than just a government directive or project. Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion acted as, and set the precedence for, a “Holy American War”. The weaponization of America as a God, and the American value system and populace as religious believers, against a population deliberately for the sake of economic and political interests in the region. This war relied much more heavily on a faith based belief in the nation and it’s values, than anything evidence based. If that sounds a lot of like Iran 2003, Vietnam, Slavery, and a bunch of other instances in our history— stay tuned.
Back to the lesson.
To everyone else, the millions of Indigenous Americans that existed in the margins of God’s grace, life was hell. This infamous historical instance of Christianity commingling with American interests, was not the last of how easily this new American God could become a weapon of the state.
And it wouldn’t be a QueeRevolution episode without LGBTQIA+ so let’s just jump right into the thesis.
Who called the shot?
It is undeniable that America historically has been anti-gay, we saw that with the Lesson 1 with the events of Stonewall, and we see it today with homophobic legislation. But when we try and unearth why, you’d normally reach a wall.
Most presume the origins of homophobia as we see it are some mixture of theological beliefs, and now debunked scientific theories that saw homosexuality as a condition to be fixed. Seen in this way, homophobia is a difficult to tackle topic. After-all, the strongest case for homophobia, theology, is so deeply personal and faith based to attempt to influence anyone is a near impossible task.
But what if, religion wasn’t homophobic. Or more accurately Christianity and faith based religion as we know them, aren’t expressly anti-gay at.
I am not inserting myself into this discourse because it’s divisive and contested by scholars and believers alike, but I do rely upon the main takeaway from this debate. That there is no definitive doctrine against homosexuality, trans identity, or any queer identity to be found in theological sources. The Bible, the Quran, the Torah, the major abrahamic religions can all coexist with lgbtqia+.
Accepting this premise we are left with no answer as to why theology has then become so historically weaponized against homosexuality. If it’s not inherent to religion, where does it come from? Who, or what, fired the shot that led to over a centuries worth of discrimination?
The Colonialism of Christianity
Well just as Christianity influenced America, western society, and particularly with the installment of the American God, reshaped Christianity in accordance to their beliefs and interests. And they did so via Colonialism.
Africa to Europe was the wilderness, filled with beasts, barbaric black people, and debauchery that was nothing less than “unholy”. As people were enslaved and shipped overseas to work tortuously on plantations, there was a desire to erode what culture remained. African theology was accepting of diversity and sodomy, as unique perspectives on gender and sexuality existed. Self expression as a whole wasn’t something to be feared in Africa prior to European colonists.
To rectify this “satanic” embrace of humanity, Europeans imposed penal codes that outlawed sodomy, unnatural acts, and homosexuality. Knowingly or not, all that would one day be seen as LGBTQIA+, because it was African, because it was black, was seen as a waste to colonialism and targeted for removal.
Back in America the institution of slavery became a founding pillar of the country: the plantation was the economic backbone of the nation, and half of all signatures to the declaration of independence coming from slave owners. The legal doctrines imposed on slaves, by slave owning founding fathers, become the values of the nation. The American God had economic and therefore political incentive to continue the repression of all things African. So with indigenous people having similarly diverse perspectives, it became a national interest to destroy queer existence.
What happens when you mix an America that acted as a religion, with the economic and political incentive against queerness, you end up with the foundational homophobia we still see today. The remnants of Christianity in the new American religion sought biblical justification for slavery, and colonization. They found in mistranslated and misinterpreted evidence of sodomy and homosexuality as unholy. At the intersect of these barbarians who lived in the way of the American God, as their culture and practices were economically and politically harmful, and the reshaped Christian God as evidence by cherry picked quotations at the behest of colonial interests, we find American society had all it needed to permanently declare war on queerness.
A war that waged for centuries, long after even the death of the economic interests which made homophobia a national value. As with all religions, some traditions die hard.
A New American God
But the times have changed. 2025 is not 1805, LGBTQIA+ occupy every aspect of our society one way or the other.
Pride is massive in places like San Francisco, NYC, and LA, with more broad support and existence in all 50 states. Demographically, you wouldn’t be wrong to call today’s America “Gay’s Country”.
Though our friends in the Netherlands might have a better claim to that title, it more-so represents the importance. Gay rights, existence, was skyrocketed by the aforementioned Stonewall Riots and liberation movement held here. What happens to the Gays of God’s Country, the nation at the peak of exisistence, ripples across the world.
As such, a point of conflict has formed: a divine battle for the soul of this nation and of the American theology itself.
There exists two sides:
All That Is God.
An old guard relying on the conservative god of old American interests. Showcased in the removal of trans people from the military, the Regan administrations intentional inaction to the AIDS epidemic, the scapegoating of trans youth, and rollback of gay rights.
This faction of the nation has become a caricature, a time capsule of aged colonial interests. Christianity as historically presented, provides cover for their claim with the aforementioned mistranslations and contested interpretations such as commonly cited in Leviticus. As such, their claims to the divine have echoed across the country. Older generations, much of established American history has only known a “God” that is homophobic.
All That is Gay
The new progressive God of modern American values. Queerness as marked by philisophical and religious discovery, a journey of deep reflection, love, acceptance, and community.
This opposition is also based in Christianity relying upon the foundational values of liberation, freedom, happiness, and love. This case for a new, divine homosexuality doesn’t pit LGBTQ+ against religion or the American God, but as part of it.
Which takes us to the battlefield.
The Battlefield for God’s Grace
To return to Psalms 82:8, God’s country was always a false prophecy, for all nations of the world belong to god. Colonialism and capitalism could never truly resolve their contradictions with Christianity. They required the death of the Christian God to uphold their sacrilegious empire.
As we live in a time where the cracks in that empire have never been deeper, where God has returned to reclaim the throne of American theology. Queer identity and expression offers us a modern battlefield for this fight. But importantly, it shows us that while once weaponized, theology is an ally. It’s no surprise pastors and churches serve as staples for organizing, that faith based groups have taken a more active role to support LGBTQ+.
As easily as the American God was weaponized against gay people, so too was it against women, black people, indigenous, and countless other minorities. To reiterate the battle we find ourselves in, there exists a battle between two gods. An old god of anger, known by obsession, oppression, and hate. And a new god of love, known by acceptance, expression, and existence. While the texts used as evidence on both sides have never changed, their interpretations, the intentional and deliberate outcomes wanted by those preaching them have. Today, be it Gays Country, or Gods Country, America has yet to decide.
But there is a great power to be had in the victor, to win the iconography of the world’s peak means to influence the world itself. Should America remain God’s Country, as the Trump administration has shown, there will exist greater hurdles for queer liberation and the continunation of historical violence.
But should America become Gay’s Country, the American God reshaped by modern political interests, we would see this weapon of destruction turned towards the systems of opression and hate which birthed it. A comandeering of a mechanism with the potential to shape the future in ways we could never imagine.
As much as I recognize the harm, the trauma our fractured theology has caused, this lesson 2 was a vision of possibility. That what made religion an enemy was an external pressure, and in our time with external pressures pushing towards progress, there is a potential to ally with theology and right a historical wrong.
That possibility is one I think worth fighting for. If we have any chance of creating a world where queer existence is enshrined, of creating a QueeRevolution, it will require the victory of the divine homosexual.
This was Lesson 2 of my all new “QueeRevolution” series for Pride. I appreciate your time here at The Garden Library. I invite you to subscribe and explore all there is to learn.
Until the next page unfolds.