(RNS) — “My iPhone started capitalizing the G in God again without asking me,” Taylor Tomlinson says in her latest Netflix stand-up special, gripping a mic beneath the ornate ceiling of Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “The robots are coming, and they love the Lord.”
Wearing a cross on her necklace and a long leather jacket, Tomlinson looked right at home in the vaulted sanctuary. But the comedian’s set, filmed in November and released on Feb. 24 with the title “Prodigal Daughter,” would be regarded as irreverent at best by most nondenominational Christian congregations. Filled with sexual themes, f-bombs and jokes about everything from foreskins to the crucifixion — “I hope I die in a way that looks good on jewelry,” she quips — it would rate as blasphemous in many.
But Tomlinson’s edgy content is exactly what made Fountain Street the perfect venue, church leaders say. The historic congregation is known for its support of abortion access, free speech and LGBTQ+ rights. It’s also an interreligious community that rejects specific doctrines…