UPDATE: I added the current list of synchroblog participants at the bottom. I'll try to update it later in the day. Peace!
~~~~~
So first, Jules threw down a double-dog dare.
Then (or actually, maybe it was first), Brian put out a Call for a Queer Theology.
And then Shay, the Anarchist Reverend, said, "let there be a synchroblog about this stuff", and lo, there is a synchroblog. I think this will be part of it, though not a big part.
(And all this is part of the Sanctuary Collective Empowerment Project, which is being dreamed up as we speak by the folks I just mentioned, and others!)
Shay's challenge to straight, cisgender folks (like me) is this: "If you’re straight and interested in solidarity I want you to share how being in relationship with queer people has deepened your faith and spiritual practice." I'm finding that both an extremely easy charge, and an incredibly difficult one.
Queer people who are dear to me have had a huge impact on who I am. In particular, my friendships with a bisexual woman named Jennifer, a transsexual woman named Perette, a bisexual woman named Rachel, a gay man named Ben, and a lesbian woman named Sarah have been, over many years, a huge formative influence on my life - and my faith and spiritual practice are a huge part of my life. But to tease out those connections seems challenging - and perhaps needlessly so. How much have Peri's spiritual openness - combined with her skeptic's impatience for spiritual bullshit - influenced my own combination of openness and cynicism in matters of faith? How much have Jen's insights on the intersections between issues facing different oppressed groups (Jen also happens to be disabled) informed my own (limited) appreciation of the complexity of social issues that I (and the faith communities I am a part of) try to engage? How much have Rachel's spiritual gifts - her heart's seemingly bottomless capacity to embrace, love, value, and offer hospitality to others - challenged me to open up wider myself? How much have Ben's commitment to service and Sarah's joyful approach to life brought me hope for the future?
I think the answer to all of these is "lots and lots". There are many other people who identify as LGBTQI who have helped to form me, and many other ways in which the dear friends I mentioned have touched my life. There are also many people who do not identify as queer who have had a huge formative influence on my life, faith, and practice. Is it the queerness of my dear LGBTQI folks that makes them, and their impact on me, special? No (well, not just that)...and of course! Queer folks are not the only people who have been a deep part of my formation as a person of faith. But queer folks have been HUGE in my formation - and in ways I could never count or enumerate, they have impacted me. They've impacted me in the manner that everyone who has been dear and influential to me has done that - by being themselves, by sharing of themselves with me, by loving me. Their queer identity is a part of what has made each of them the beautiful person they are - and, in turn, has become a huge part of what makes me who I am, too.
For that, I say: Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!
~~~~~
Here is the list of participants:
Shay writes Queer Theology Synchroblog home.
Brian writes “Why Queer Liberation Must Be Queer Led”
Cindi writes Queer Theology From a Reluctantly Queer Theologian
Gabe writes The Queerness of Christ: And over Or
Christians for Justice Action write “Imagine the Possibilities Four Years From Now”.
Darrel writes “Queer Theology: Outside the Box” at the Blog of the Grateful Bear.
Ken writes Queer Theology.
Peterson writes Lazarus Come Out!
Mike writes Queer Theology Synchroblog #SCEP.
Cindy writes Creative Differences in the Image of God (this link opens a PDF)
Jules writes Being Queerly Forward
Vince writes Loving Promiscuously: A Queer Theology of Doing It
Alison writes Why I’m Queer Too
Sonnie writes God Made Me Queer
Ellen writes Through A Glass Queerly
Steve writes In Solidarity
Matt writes A Love That Goes Beyond Welcome
