Salty for Jesus

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. – Colossians 4:6 (NIV) 

The quick selfie I snapped with Flamy Grant when she toured through my town last winter is one of my favorite recent pictures. I’m not at all chill when it comes to fan-dom, and in the picture you can see my inner fan-girl radiating joy to be meeting one of my she-roes.  

I first became aware of Flamy Grant, the “shame-slaying, hip-swaying” drag artist, in the summer of 2023 when a song from her album The Bible Belt topped out at number one on the Christian music charts. Her collection of songs, which take aim at the messages of exclusion she received as a child growing up in a conservative Appalachian Christian household, are funny, astute and eminently singable.  

But I don’t habitually follow the Christian music scene and I would never have heard of Flamy if it weren’t for her detractors. See, when Flamy became a little bit famous, she was attacked online and from various pulpits around the country. When her small fan base heard about the trolling, they flooded social media with messages of support and love, urging followers to listen to Flamy’s music. The hateful messages and the response to them was what, ironically, made her really famous.  

Flamy neither backed down nor slapped back. She stayed positive, grace-filled, and maybe just a little bit salty, as in this social media post from July 27, 2023: “If you’re gonna come for a drag queen, you better be ready for how she comes back… She comes back with an army of love.” 

Prayer
Keep us grace-filled and salty, Brother Jesus, no matter how vicious the haters become. Amen.

About the Author
Rev. Jennifer Garrison (formerly Brownell) is a writer, spiritual director and pastor living in the Pacific Northwest. Her published work most recently appeared in the book The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, available from The Pilgrim Press.