🏳️🌈 Pride, Sin & Sodomy: Why The Church Fears Queer Confidence
Episode 7 – The Sanctuary of Sin Podcast
Pride: one of the seven deadly sins—or a fierce declaration of survival and self-worth?
In our latest episode of The Sanctuary of Sin, we tackle the twisted legacy of “pride” in Christian thought and how queer people have reclaimed it, resisted, and risen up in the face of holy condemnation. This isn't just about rainbow flags and glitter. It’s about why the Church has always feared queer joy, queer confidence, and queer autonomy—and how we’ve fought to hold onto all three.
✝️ Pride as Sin, Pride as Salvation
The Church calls it the root of all evil—superbia, the original sin. But for LGBTQ+ people, pride is not vanity. It’s visibility. It’s resistance. It’s survival.
We start by pulling apart the idea of pride in Christian theology, especially through the writings of Augustine and Aquinas, who framed it as rebellion against God. But what if pride is not about rising above others, but rising out of shame?
Queer theologians like Patrick Cheng and Marcella Althaus-Reid have long challenged these definitions, calling for a radical reimagining of what sacredness looks like—one that includes queer bodies, desires, and love.
🏰 Queer Heretics & Holy Panic: A Hidden History
You can't erase a people without rewriting the story—and the Church tried damn hard.
We explored the Manicheans, early religious competitors to the Christian Church whose open expressions of same-sex love made them targets of condemnation and erasure. Their teachings were a direct threat to rising orthodoxy—and so, they were branded as heretics.
Then there’s the infamous case of the Knights Templar. Their secretive, intimate initiation rites became fodder for wild accusations: idol worship, sodomy, and blasphemy. These allegations weren’t about truth—they were about power. The Church couldn’t control them, so it made them burnable.
🔥 Oh—and if you’ve ever been called a “bugger,” you’ve just been dragged through centuries of slur-laced history. The word traces back to Bulgarus, a reference to Balkan heretics believed to engage in “unnatural” acts. Once again, queerness became a weaponised accusation.
🏳️🌈 Reclaiming Pride: From Stonewall to Now
We end the episode where resistance roars loudest: Stonewall. With queens, trans women, butch dykes, and street kids leading the charge, Pride became a protest born from an uprising. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major—they didn't wait to be accepted. They demanded space, loudly, joyfully, defiantly.
And that fight continues today. Against pinkwashing. Against anti-trans bills funded by religious lobbying. Against respectability politics.
Because when the world says your joy is sinful, choosing to celebrate becomes revolutionary.
🎧 Listen to the Episode
Episode 7: Pride – Queerness, Confidence & Why The Church Fears It
Available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.
🩷 This episode includes:
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Theology and heresy
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Queer resistance through the ages
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The weaponisation of sodomy
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Glitter, obviously
📝 References & Further Reading
https://www.newadvent.org/summa/3162.htm
https://tandirection.com/pursuit-of-perfection/the-four-types-of-pride/
https://libguides.derby.ac.uk/c.php?g=722310&p=5256623
Rictor Norton, A History of Homophobia, "4 Gay Heretics and Witches" 15 April 2002, updated 18 February 2011 <http://rictornorton.co.uk/homopho4.htm>.
https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/walter-hungerford-and-the-buggery-act/#gs.me5tsh
https://www.famous-trials.com/wilde/329-homosexual
https://fyeahhistory.wordpress.com/2019/08/29/why-you-have-to-know-about-the-1533-buggery-act/
https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/stonewall-era
https://www.biography.com/activists/marsha-p-johnson-quotes
https://medium.com/@wickedwitchywriter/herstory-why-the-l-is-first-2ba08399891b
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/amnesty-feminist-network-blog/pride-protest-solidarity-and-defiance