God says ‘gay rights’: queering Christian theology in the Good Omens fandom

ABSTRACT

In this essay I investigate how fandom discourse comments on, adapts, and reinvents existing theology. Using a selection of Good Omens fan works and ‘meta’ online posts as a case study, I argue that they welcome instances of queer theology while moving forward issues pertaining to the LGBTQ+ liberation movement. In expanding and altering the source material, fan fiction authors retrieve Biblical myths to legitimise the inclusion of queer individuals in Christian theology – the stated intent of the LGBTQ+ liberation movement. Additionally, they often offer a revisited, inclusive depiction of God as the ‘ur-ally’, framing them/her/him as an ‘ineffable’ figure made of encompassing and all-accepting love. Moreover, Good Omens fan fiction situates the binary forces of Heaven and Hell as the antagonists to the much more nuanced and queer-coded protagonists, who embrace humanity and reject notions of hard-set dichotomies. This celebration of queerness as opposed to strict dualisms fits into the purported goals of queer theology, which has no direct interest in finding a place for queer people within the existing Christian tradition, but rather works towards the dismantling of harmful dualities.

KEYWORDS:

• Queer theology
• Good Omens
• fan fiction
• fan studies
• LGBTQ+ liberation

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the authors of the fan works and blog posts featured in this article for letting me use their material and for commenting on an earlier draft of this paper. Their insights and personal experiences influenced deeply the contents presented here.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. It is worth remembering that Sodom has also been retrieved by feminist theologians, e.g. Toensing (2005), but this exceeds the scope of this essay.

2. I use She/Her, capitalised, to refer to God for consistency.

3. Falling is the punishment for angels that disobeyed God’s orders.

4. As we have seen in the stories of the previous section, a queer God can still convey the sense of belonging, acceptance and inclusiveness sought after by the LGBTQ+ liberation movement.