Proud Jesus
Liberty Church, an inclusive church in Blackpool
A 4 metre high Big Jesus carnival figure danced, waved and laughed his way through Blackpool Pride this year embracing the gay community with his big hands and huge smile.
Big Jesus was created by a group of Christians from Liberty Church, an inclusive church in Blackpool. Nina Parker from Liberty Church was inspired by a conversation she had with a person she met in Pride 2011. He still suffered the effects of the homophobia he had experienced from Christians. Nina was emphatic that unlike many Christians Jesus was not homophobic. She explained that Jesus always valued people on the edges of society and that if Jesus was around today he would definitely want to come to Pride. The man just could not take that in. It made Nina and others decide to create an enormous statement to everyone that Jesus would enjoy coming to Pride.
“Big Jesus was created as a symbol of God’s desire to communicate with LGBT people on a personal level.” said Nina “To say to each person, ‘you are beautiful exactly as you are’. He loves the inner-self of every person and he wants to free us from our inhibitions to be all we can be. He is a demonstration of God’s gift of love to everyone.”
As a social statement Big Jesus is also an icon of the new movement to end homophobia in Christianity. He is the battle cry against those who have constantly fought to oppress the gay community. Religion, allows people to use their moral laws to judge and oppress others, and this is well past its sell by date. However, spirituality is alive and well. To Nina spirituality is about personal discovery of the unconditional love of God.
Now the LGBT community are coming out of their spiritual closets to own God for themselves and they need everyone’s support. Nina said “No matter what your beliefs are, we need you to bring them out of the closet and talk about them, God cannot be owned by a judgemental few, he loves us all. “
Big Jesus is now on his way to the Manchester Pride Parade on the 24th of August, if you’d like to walk with him or you’d like him at your Pride, please contact Nina at Liberty Church at nina@libertychurchblackpool.org.uk. You can also follow us on facebook: Liberty Church Blackpool
For further information contact: Nina Parker nina@libertychurchblackpool.org.uk.