Jesus and Matthew: Monsters, Si[g]ns, and Wonders

Abstract

In the American New Right's outraged war against all things anti-family, -nation, and -civilization, the authority of Jesus, crucified yet triumphant, is held out as potent augury against all forces of evil. For many evangelical Christian groups, one “archenemy” in particular exemplifies the forces of Satan and civil distress. The resulting scene of Manichean conflict can only be called Gothic Verite: The suffering, broken body of Jesus, whose blood is piously read as atonement, rebukes the demonized and monstrous homosexual, whose blood, Gothically read, contains the taint of private immorality, public domestic threat, and world-ending civic collapse. This powerful clash of images, cosmic worldviews and mundane politics can be observed at the funeral of Matthew Shepard—beaten to death, most observers conclude, because his assailants thought he was gay. In the tense confrontation of Christians and homosexuals at his funeral, one sees a historic tension within the heart of Christianity threatening, at whatever cost, to reconcile. That is, at issue is the recognition, however dim, that the angel and the demon, the prayerful and depraved, mirror each other more than they differ.