Not of This World: Why Rejecting the Binary is a Global Political Act
I keep thinking about one of the most radical lines in the Christian Bible: Jesus telling Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
Now, I'm not Christian, but the power of that statement—delivered right to the face of the Roman Empire—is undeniable. This wasn't a call to be apolitical or to retreat to some spiritual cloud. This was a statement of anti-imperial resistance. Jesus was telling the dictator, My source of power, my loyalty, my truth? They don’t come from your violent, oppressive system. I have a different allegiance.
The Lie of the "World"
We tend to think of the "world" (or kosmos) as just the Earth, but the truth is, the "world" that statement rejects is a system of domination.
Today, that system is unmistakable: White Cis-Heteronormative Colonial Patriarchy. It's a rigid, relatively new invention in the long span of history, and it operates by creating violent binaries—us vs. them, citizen vs. threat, male vs. female, straight vs. queer. This ideology is the entire essence of "this world," and it's currently being weaponized globally to build and justify dictatorships.
If you don't fit in the box—if you are Black, Indigenous, a person of color, trans, or queer—your very existence is considered a threat to the "world's" order.
The World's Failures are Genocidal
The most brutal result of this power structure is the dehumanization that leads to mass murder and genocide across the globe. We can't talk about being "not of this world" without looking at where the "world" is currently exacted its ultimate, bloody price:
In Palestine, we see the settler-colonial logic of division and elimination playing out tragically.
In the Congo, decades of corporate greed and colonial exploitation continue to fuel resource wars and horrific sexual violence.
In Sudan (Darfur), we see ethnic cleansing and starvation driven by power struggles that maintain old, devastating hierarchies.
In every one of these crises, the people targeted are those on the margins—the ones whose identities already challenge the white, straight, cisgender ideal. When we talk about global genocides, we must center the Black, Indigenous, and trans and queer communities who bear the brunt of this violence.
Our Resistance is Boundless
This is where the idea of being "not of this world" becomes so profoundly personal and political for those of us who live outside the norm.
To be queer, trans, or gender non-conforming isn't just about identity; it's a prophetic act. Our refusal to be squeezed into the "world's" simplistic, harmful binaries is a constant, living protest against the very foundations of the oppressive system. Our existence literally dismantles the "world's" lie.
The pursuit of liberation, of seeing every single life as inherently worthy and complex, is the ultimate rejection of the tyrannical power of "this world." Our job isn't to fix the empire, but to build an unruly, non-dominating alternative—an allegiance to radical love and justice that has no limits.