ELCA Seminary Professor Prays to Mary: More Teachings From Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney

Did you hear the one about a ELCA seminary professor who prayed to (or through) Mary? Or the seminary prof who calls drag queens some of her favorite “critical gender theorists and theologians?” Or the Seminary professor who calls herself a “drag-inspired theological dominatrix?”

If not, then you may not have heard of or met Rev. Dr. Wil Gafney. She is an associate professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) and is someone Exposing the ELCA has written about many times before. (see here, here, here, here and here)

On Twitter Rev. Dr. Gafney calls herself a “drag-inspired theological dominatrix.” (see here) And in a sermon given at her seminary chapel she declared, “I love drag queens. I love the way they make me think about gender, its construction and its performance. Drag queens like RuPaul, Sharon Needles and Latrice Royale are some of my favorite critical gender theorists and theologians.” (see here)

Rev. Dr. Gafney's blog, on the seminary's website, has this prayer to Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the beginning and conclusion of one of her articles -

“Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death. Amen.”

Rev. Dr. Gafney writes the following trying to justify praying to/through Mary -

“In her office as mother of God, mother of sorrows and some say the first priest of the church to offer the body and blood of Christ to the world, she endures as a shining light in the communion of saints. We believe in the communion of saints. We confess it on a regular basis and live it when we talk to our loved ones after their deaths at their graves or anywhere we feel their spirits.
We pray not so much to the Virgin as through the Virgin, asking her to pray for us now and in the hour of our deaths. We confess the communion of saints and eternal lives of all the holy dead believing that God is not God of the dead, but the God of the living. We ask the saints, prophets, martyrs and Mother of God to pray for us as we ask each other to do the same.” (read here)

Finally, another blog by Rev. Dr. Gafney has her stating that the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 of the New Testament is queer. (see here)

Rev. Dr. Gafney claims that she is not out-of-the-ordinary as far as ELCA seminary professors go -

I'm not the only progressive voice on an ELCA seminary faculty. I am particularly visible because of my embodiment as a black woman.

— Wil Gafney (@WilGafney) April 29, 2014

So have no doubt, as Dr. Gafney professes, this kind of "progressive" teaching permeates the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's seminaries.  Teachings that should not be allowed in any Christian institution.