Three days ago Andrew Sullivan blogged a short post titled "The Tired, Lame Bigotry Of Some Homosexuals."

That post accused The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the San Francisco-based group of drag performers who dress up as nuns, of engaging in "smug, cheap and unfunny shots at the faith of other people," pointing specifically to this video clip from the 32nd Annual "Hunky Jesus Contest," held for maximum iconoclastic offense on Easter Sunday. Sullivan said the event "empower(s) every religious right prejudice about gays."

Yesterday SFist printed the Sisters' response, signed by Rev. Sr. Merry Peter. Here's an extract:

The point of Hunky Jesus is to have fun and chip away at those hardened walls between sex and spirit so often reinforced by the bigotry of so-called Christians who deny the embodied, fleshy reality of Jesus the man who no doubt sported a woody or two in his lifetime here on earth and most definitely came with his own set of balls.

Rail against the supposed grief we cause believers and wrap yourself in self-righteous anger if it makes you feel good- it’s your shtick and in these tough times I know you need a paycheck.

But for the love of every young LGBTQI kid out there trying to find a way through this cruel world, please stop carping on about how events like Hunky Jesus “empower every religious right prejudice about gays.” Bigotry like that is irrational and self- generating. They hate us because we’re GAY, Andrew, period.

It’s actually the GAYS and all those stung by that hatred the Sisters try to help by creating space for a good belly laugh at all the holier-than-thou attitudes that keep us down. If we’re all going to Hell, there’s no reason we can’t have fun and look fabulous on the way! Full post

Nothing more from Sullivan on the matter to date. But there's a pretty good debate going on about the matter at MetaFilter...

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For more on the history of the Sisters, check out their Wikipedia page.

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