People often reshape Jesus into their own image – ethnically, politically, socially, and spiritually – through selective interpretation of scripture and artistic representation. This makes Jesus – and Divinity as a whole – feel close and relevant to a culture’s experiences. This reshaping of Jesus has been done countless times across history, but one particularly striking example to me is the Mormon portrayal of him as a married polygamist.
In 1854, Orson Pratt taught that the marriage at Cana of Galilee was actually Jesus’s own wedding, and that he had multiple wives including Mary of Bethany, Martha of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene, and that he fathered children from these unions. Pratt would go on to affirm this claim in 1855 and 1857. Decades later, Ogden Kraut’s 1969 book Jesus Was Married took the argument further, contending that Jewish law required marriage, and that Jesus could not have fulfilled all righteousness without it. For Kraut, this meant Jesus was not only married but necessarily lived plural marriage, following the pattern of Abraham, Jacob, and other patriarchs. Suffice it to say that while the LDS church has long since abandoned this notion, it remains a living tradition in fundamentalist circles.
On its face, I find little objectionable in such a telling, so long as it imagines Jesus and his wives as consenting adults. But as a Queer Mormon, another question presses on me: was Jesus necessarily straight? Surprisingly, this question has been raised for centuries.
The Gospel of John describes John as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John lays on Jesus’s chest as they eat together (John 13:23), remains with him at the crucifixion (John 19:26), is entrusted to care for Jesus’s mother (John 19:27), and is among the first to be told of the empty tomb (John 20:2–4). These are not incidental details but signs of intimacy, devotion, trust, and covenantal love.
Many may dismiss Jesus’s and John’s connection as mere friendship, but again, people have always reshaped Jesus, and the question of Jesus’s sexuality has long been contested. Some see him as a celibate asexual, others see him as heterosexual, and his connection to John also suggested homo- or bisexuality. I believe that this phenomenon is yet another example of how Jesus is reshaped in the image of those who behold him.
In that tradition, I reshape Jesus again – not to diminish him, but to acknowledge the fullness of love he embodies. I see him as polyamorous and bisexual, married and sealed to Mary of Bethany, Martha of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and John the Beloved. In this, Christ is not a distant and aloof figure; he is a man who had a family that looked like mine.
