All are welcome to celebrate Pride at First Baptist Church of Moorestown as Q-munity – the church’s LGBTQIA-plus ministry circle – hosts drag songwriter and singer Flamy Grant on Saturday, June 22.
The free concert will begin at 6 p.m. and is open to all ages. Donations to Q-munity can be made at the door; they will support Q-munity’s ministry of support, education and love to the LGBTQIA-plus community.
“Everything that she (Flamy) is just resonates so much with our church,” said Sandy Lehr, co-leader of Q-munity.
Award-winning and Billboard-charting artist Grant is a shame-slaying, hip-swaying, singing-songwriting drag queen from western North Carolina, as her website puts it. Her 2022 debut record “Bible Belt Baby” reached no. 1 on the iTunes Christian Charts and was nominated for best pop album at the San Diego Music Awards.
A vocalist, songwriter and comedy performer, Grant’s shows are a theatrical mix of storytelling and song emphasizing that nothing is sacred and shame belongs in the closet, the website notes.
“What’s going on in the Queer community with drag queens and just the pushback and hatred … I think it’s great to have her in a church,” noted associate pastor and Q-munity co-leader Rev. Jennifer Bradley of the current backlash against drag performers.
Grant’s music centers on the Queer spiritual journey, with stories of resilience and recovery from religious trauma, where LGBTQIA-plus (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, intersex, asexual and others) people are frequently ignored by, harmed in or ejected from religious spaces, the website explains.
“We’re a Baptist church on Main Street in Moorestown, and the history of our church has always been reaching out to those who are on the margins, to those who people do not normally reach out to, whether it’s the LGBTQIA community or any community …” Lehr pointed out.
“For us, it was a no-brainer to be a Baptist church on Main Street bringing in a drag queen … It’s who we are, it’s what we’ve always done.”
Just as Grant is bringing a new, inclusive LGBTQIA-plus voice to Christian music, the church has always believed in bringing a new, more inclusive LGBTQIA voice to Christianity and worship, where people are welcomed just as they are, not just welcomed, but full participants in the life of the church, according to Lehr.
“We have a saying at First Baptist Church that God loves you just as you are no matter what,” Lehr observed. “ … Her message is our message, so it was just a no-brainer that a Baptist church in Moorestown would bring her in, because we have the same exact message.”
“Sometimes you feel like, ‘Okay, well here we are, trying to do our thing,’” Bradley noted, “but realizing now, reaching out to these other faith communities, it’s bigger. There’s so much more, what we could do as a mass.”
To register for the concert or for more information, email FBCMQmunity@gmail.com or visit www.flamygrant.com.
