Reading the title you might perhaps be thinking, “A Christian What?”
I’ll start by explaining what Furries are. Many of you already know, but not everybody does. Once we have that foundational understanding in place, we can then jump into the “Christian Furries” news.
What are Furries?
Basically this is the term used to describe the subculture of people who like to dress up as animal characters that have human like attributes.
If that sounds like something kinky, then generally sort of no. There is an even smaller subculture within that Furry subculture that is into that. For completeness, I’ll describe it shortly because … well hey, why not.
The Furry concept comes across as something that is akin to Comic Con Cosplay. For those that don’t know the term “Cosplay”, that is a reference to people attending Comic Con conventions dressed in SfFi or Superhero costumes. The entire Fury concept has its origins in such conventions, but has over the decades branched out into its own distinct subculture.
American writer and historian Fred Patten, who loves to observe and document stuff like this, explains …
…There is no single specific date or event that can lay claim to being the birth of furry fandom. However, there is general agreement that it was around late 1983 or early 1984 that furry fans coalesced out of SF fandom and comics fandom and began an independent identity…
They now have conventions that specialise in just Furries. Basically this is role playing, socialising, crafts, and for those who are really into it, this is a way to escape into something fun.
Those outside might be tempted to view it as a form of kinky sex or a fetish, but it’s not. For many who participate it is just role playing, they have a “non-sexual interest in being a furry”.
That’s not the whole story because there is, as I mentioned above, a subculture within this subculture that are indeed into what is called Yiff. That’s a Furry tongue-in-cheek term for Furry porn. Yes, “Yiffing” means exactly what you think it means.
The larger Furry subculture is OK with this because there are a very open and accepting crowd. However. they do generally have strict policies at conventions that restrict where Yiff can be displayed. The Sexual Kink reputation has come about because various media outlets have naturally gravitated to stories about the Yiff Furry subculture and so tarred the entire Furry subculture with that brush.
This has lento some disappointment.
A reporter, once hearing that there was a Furry convention in town decided to go check it out. Expecting kinky Furry sex to be on the cards, the reported was disappointed to find a group of people … “talking and drawing animals and comic-book characters in sketchbooks“. No kinky sex at all.
There is one twist to all of this. Jumping into this subculture requires a lot of commitment. Apparently a full custom costume can cost as much as $10 K.
That’s a lot of commitment.
Christian Furries?
Yea, it all makes a bit more sense now. No weird kinky sex, just a bit of fun role playing and socialising with like minded people, so there are indeed Christians who participate.
Never remiss on missing an opportunity to share Jesus, there is apparently a Furry Christian Fellowship.
So what prompts me to write about this?
On Aug 2, 2022, an article appeared within Religious News Service titled, “When mixing faith with furries, things can get hairy“.
The guy they interviewed explains why he is a Furry, and honestly, it makes a great deal of sense …
His fellow furries, he said, pulled him from the depths of suicidal thoughts and gave him a support system.
God placed Hund in the community, he said.
“He knew that me dressing up like a blue dog would get me out of my depression, grow my social skills and make me the person I am today,” Hund said. Hund the Hound’s YouTube channel, which Hund has managed with his wife, Lilly the Fox, since March 2017, has 320,000 views and nearly 5,000 subscribers.
The point of this recent article is that these Christian Furry’s are finding that they have a lot of worries …
All the same, Christians in the furry community are cautious about who knows about both their furry and faithful selves. Christian furries interviewed for this story, including leaders of the group that calls itself the Christian Furry Fellowship, asked to be anonymous, fearing “doxxing” from within the largely secular furry community for their Christian identity and ostracization from their professional lives for their furry hobby.
To be honest, they really don’t need to worry about their Furry hobby being known by work colleagues. Office life is such that people often do have “interesting” things. For example, I’ve worked with somebody, no names, who was into nude rock climbing, and another who used to be a Nun but gave it up, and yet another who would spend his weekends in a Monastery.
Side Story, the Monastery guy was telling me that while there his corporate laptop was stolen. It had surprised him because of all the places to have your laptop stolen, a Monastery was not on his bingo card.
So the point is this, colleagues discovering that one of their number was a Furry would perhaps be talked about, but really would most probably not be a big deal or an issue.
These Christian Furries do have deep challenges
Many LGBTQ Furries are justifiably deeply concerned about religious Furries “Witnessing” to them. There is a great deal of evangelical hostility, intolerance, and persecution of the gay community, so finding some who represent such obnoxious factions within their own Furry ranks can be deeply unsettling for some.
The Christian Furries are also be deeply concerned about their Furriness being known about within their Evangelical communities. They would potentially face shunning, intolerance, and bigotry.
Who Really Needs the “Witnessing”?
To be brutally blunt, the people that need saving and not the Furries, it’s the Evangelicals. After decades of promoting intolerance, misogyney, hatred, and now deeply embracing an extreme right-wing authoritarian Christian Nationalistic political belief, they are no longer a team where Jesus is the team coach, but instead is just the team mascot.
The Furry evangelicals would be far better off witnessing tolerance, empathy, and basic human decency to their non-Furry evangelical colleagues. They won’t of course because they would be ostracised and rejected for attempting to do that.
Bottom Line
There is weird and yet also wonderfully strange stuff out there. I honestly never imagined that Furry Evangelicals existed until I read that RNS article, and yet there they are.
Life is complicated.
Life is also what you make of it, so don’t drift and let it happen. Instead, grasp hold, take control and steer it in the direction you want to go in.