Queer Theology

Amir Yass is an LGBTQ activist and regularly hosts panels at the LA LGBT center battling transphobia, femme bashing, body shaming, and racism in the queer community. He has interviewed a diverse group of people for the Broadway Podcast Network. As an actively visible queer Muslim, Amir hopes to change the way religion and sexual orientation are mutually exclusive.   Connect with Amir: The Take On Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-take-on/id1518719109 IG: https://www.instagram.com/amiryassofficial/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amiryassofficial     If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.   If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com.  The post Using Humor as Protection with Amir Yass appeared first on Queer Theology.

This week, we have Emmy Kegler as our guest. Emmy is a pastor, author, and speaker called to ministry at the margins of the church, especially among LGBTQIA+ Christians. She serves as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Northeast Minneapolis, a small servant-hearted neighborhood congregation focused on feeding the hungry and community outreach. She is a co-leader of the Queer Grace Community, a group of LGBTQIA+ Christians in the Twin Cities who meet for worship, Bible study, and fellowship. She is also the founder and editor of the Queer Grace Encyclopedia, a curated collection of online resources around LGBTQIA+ life and faith.    Her first book, One Coin Found: How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins, tells her story as a queer Christian called to ordained ministry and how it formed her relationship with Scripture. Her second book, All Who Are Weary: Easing the Burden on the Walk with Mental Illness, offers a pastoral and Scriptural accompaniment to those facing symptoms and diagnoses of mental illness along with the families, friends, communities, pastors, and therapists who care for them. She lives in Minneapolis and enjoys biking the lakes, reading books on her front porch, and playing board games with her wife Michelle.   Get to know more of Emmy and find her books at: http://www.emmykegler.com/ Queer Grace: http://queergrace.com/ Her social media platforms as @emmykegler   If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology.   If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com. The post Public Witness Not Private Suffering with Emmy Kegler appeared first on Queer Theology.

This week, we have Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis who is an assistant professor and director of the Social Transformation program at United Theological Seminary. He earned his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Interdisciplinary Studies in addition to a Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry from San Francisco Theological Seminary. As a pastor, he served congregations in Boston, Honolulu, and San Francisco and was Director of Leadership Development for Metropolitan Community Churches; he is now with the United Church of Christ. In his prior work, he served as Managing Director at the Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion (CLGS) and directed communications for the Hawai’i Equal Rights Marriage Project, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. He has taught at the University of Arizona, Pima Community College, Iliff School of Theology, and Pacific School of Religion. He lives in Minnesota with his husband, Henry, and their two dogs. Find more of Rev. Dr. Justin at: https://www.unitedseminary.edu/academics/faculty/justin-sabia-tanis/ Grab a copy Trans-Gender: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith  Injustice at Every Turn A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey   If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology. If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com.  The post Gender is a Calling with Justin Sabia-Tanis appeared first on Queer Theology.

This week’s guest episode is with Jess Grace Garcia (she/they) who is a co-founder of Q Worship Collective, Co-Host of Lavender Mafia Podcast, and the Worship Pastor at NoHo Community in Los Angeles where she lives with her wife and girlfriend. They spent a number of years leading worship in nonaffirming spaces until she took a break to rediscover what it looks like to be a queer person of faith. After spending 20 years in Baltimore Jess and their beautiful wife Erica moved to Los Angeles in hopes of finding better care and weather for Erica’s health. After moving, she quickly got connected to an affirming church community and with their love and support got super engaged in ways to give back to the LGBTQ+ Progressive Christian Community. Earlier this year they met their gorgeous girlfriend Janna at a Queer Christian (Virtual) Conference.  Jess is passionate about writing and producing songs that provide healing and reflection on the beauty, holiness, and God’s image within us. She loves to love people, creating safe spaces for healing from religious trauma/spiritual abuse and to deconstruct/ reconstruct at their own pace.  When Jess isn’t leading and loving her community she owns and operates a video production company & studio called Springwood Productions that she started over 10 years ago. She loves to help artists tell their stories in unique and compassionate ways of connecting with their audience.   Learn more about Jess and her work: IG: https://www.instagram.com/jessgracegarcia/ Lavender Mafia: https://linktr.ee/lavmafia Q Worship: https://www.qworshipcollective.com/   If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology. If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com.  The post Seeing The Divine in Music with Jess Garcia appeared first on Queer Theology.

In this week’s guest series episode, we have the Gottesman Chair in English at Yeshiva University, Joy Ladin. She became the first openly transgender employee of an Orthodox Jewish institution, is the author of a memoir of gender transition, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; the first book-length work of Jewish trans theology, Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist, The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective; and nine books of poetry, including The Book of Anna, recently reissued by EOAGH Press.   Episodes of her online conversation series, “Containing Multitudes,” are available at JewishLive.org/multitudes. To learn more about Joy and check her writing, check out her website: joyladin.wordpress.com If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology. If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com.  The post The Prophet Speaks with Joy Ladin appeared first on Queer Theology.

This week, we have Alicia T. Crosby (she/hers), a justice educator, activist, and minister whose work addresses the spiritual, systemic, and interpersonal harm people experience. Through her teaching, writing, speaking, and space curation, Alicia helps individuals, communities, and institutions explore and unpack topics related to identity, justice, journey, and intersectional equity. This native New Yorker channels her creativity into her writing, speaking, and work with nonprofits, educational institutions, corporate entities, faith grounds, and communities around the US.   Where to learn more about Alicia Web: https://www.aliciatcrosby.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/aliciatcrosby Twitter: https://twitter.com/aliciatcrosby IG: https://www.instagram.com/aliciatcrosby/   If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology. If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com.  The post Experiencing the Divine Outside the Church with Alicia T. Crosby appeared first on Queer Theology.

In this week’s guest episode, we have Trans singer and songwriter Namoli Brennet on the podcast. Her music has been an inspiration to so many, especially the Trans community. We talked about how she writes her songs and her journey beyond her music. Tune in as Namoli plays some of her beautiful and moving songs for us “live”.  Trans* artist Namoli Brennet has been writing, recording, touring, and releasing albums since the age of Napster. Country Queer calls her latest release, Light It Up, “An uplifting shot of hope…that queers the sonic landscape.” A multi-instrumentalist with a degree in composition, Brennet’s decades-long career has seen her morph from more traditional singer/songwriter fare into what one reviewer called a “sonic painter,” creating rich, ambient textures as a backdrop for often profound and poetic lyrics. Her music explores themes of belonging, struggle and spirituality and paints a picture of an artist who’s spent their share of time looking for light in the darkness.  Namoli has performed in most of the continental United States, Canada, Mexico, Austria, Switzerland and Germany; has been nominated for numerous Outmusic awards, the German Music Critics award (twice) and was listed on the inaugural Trans 100 list. She’s also been featured on NPR and her music is featured in the Emmy-award-winning film Out In The Silence.   Find more of Namoli: Website: https://namolibrennet.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tucsonrockstar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/namoli/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/namolibrennet If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology. If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com The post Journey to Babylon with Namoli Brennet appeared first on Queer Theology.

In this episode, we have one of Brian’s oldest friends, Asher Kolieboi, and he’s got an inspiring list of accomplishments. Asher grew up in Liberia and got involved in organizing with Food Not Bombs after moving to Missouri in his teen years. He has a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University and has worked as an organizer on a range of queer and progressive causes. He was a director at Soulforce, where he organized against Christian fundamentalism; a campus religious life director at Oberlin and Johns Hopkins University; and most recently as UX researcher and inclusive designer to merge justice, accessibility, and design. Learn more about Asher: http://www.asherkolieboi.com/ If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology. If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com.  The post Faith Merges with Justice & Design with Asher Kolieboi appeared first on Queer Theology.

Welcome to the first episode of the guest series that we will be putting out over the next couple of months. We feature a whole array of amazing, interesting, and motivating people who have been doing the work and are putting their legacy out there for everyone to see, read, or hear. We start this series with Crystal Cheatham (she/hers). She received her MFA from Antioch University. She is an LGBTQ+ rights activist with a focus on religious liberty. Since 2011 Crystal has worked simultaneously as a ghostwriter and queer rights activist with groups such as Soulforce and the Attic Youth Center.  As an entrepreneur Crystal is the founder of two projects: Follow the Red Balloon and The IDentity Kit, both of which provided resources for marginalized communities of faith.  As an outspoken activist, she has written for The Huffington Post on the intersections of faith and sexual identity, a faith and spirituality column for the Philadelphia Gay Newspaper, sat on the steering committee of the HRC as the Faith & Spirituality chair and partnered with Equality PA to influence clergy to support non-discrimination legislation.  She is the host of Lord Have Mercy, a podcast about God, sex, and the bible, and has been featured in TeenVogue, Autostraddle, and LGBTQNation, amongst others.    Where to find and learn more about Crystal? Contact Crystal at Crystal@ourbibleapp.com Our Bible App: https://www.ourbibleapp.com/ Our Bible App IG: http://instagram.com/ourbibleapp Our Bible App FB: https://www.facebook.com/OurBibleApp/ Personal Web: https://www.crystalcheatham.com/   If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology. If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com.  The post Deconstruct and Unhook from Unhealthy Theologies with Crystal Cheatham appeared first on Queer Theology.

In this week’s lectionary podcast, we answer another listener’s question about unpacking shame. We checked our resources to see what articles we’ve written about shame, but we realized most of those have to do with our bodies and sex. So if you want to understand how shame culture impacts the social justice movement and how to talk about shame with others, make sure you tune in. Then we queered a lectionary text from Ruth, where we see the loyalty of a daughter-in-law to her mother-in-law. This text is often used to represent lesbianism, and is also used frequently in lesbian weddings. However, we share our thoughts on why we don’t see lesbianism in this passage. We also call on all queer folks to learn to read passages like this by understanding when and why it was written—more on that in this week’s episode. Key Takeaways: Life and Transfigured course update [0:39] Being a life-long learner [4:24] Listener question: unpacking shame [9:04] Shame and justice movements [9:51] What guilt can be an indicator of? [11:47] Getting stuck in shame [13:45] Queering the Bible: Ruth 1:1-18 [17:18] Seeing queer in this passage, not lesbianism though [17:43] Is this passage a gay love story? [20:43] Why was this story written? [24:50] If you want to support the Patreon and help keep the podcast up and running, you can learn more and pledge your support at patreon.com/queertheology If you’d like to be featured in future episodes, email your question or Bible passage suggestion to connect@queertheology.com  Ruth 1:1-18 During the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. A man with his wife and two sons went from Bethlehem of Judah to dwell in the territory of Moab. The name of that man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the territory of Moab and settled there.   But Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died. Then only she was left, along with her two sons. They took wives for themselves, Moabite women; the name of the first was Orpah and the name of the second was Ruth. And they lived there for about ten years.    But both of the sons, Mahlon and Chilion, also died. Only the woman was left, without her two children and without her husband.   Then she arose along with her daughters-in-law to return from the field of Moab, because while in the territory of Moab she had heard that the Lord had paid attention to his people by providing food for them. She left the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law went with her. They went along the road to return to the land of Judah.   Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, “Go, turn back, each of you to the household of your mother. May the Lord deal faithfully with you, just as you have done with the dead and with me. May the Lord provide for you so that you may find security, each woman in the household of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.   But they replied to her, “No, instead we will return with you, to your people.”   Naomi replied, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Will there again be sons in my womb, that they would be husbands for you? Turn back, my daughters. Go. I am too old for a husband. If I were to say that I have hope, even if I had a husband tonight, and even more, if I were to bear sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you refrain from having a husband? No, my daughters. This is more bitter for me than for you, since the Lord’s will has come out against me.”   Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her. Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her gods. Turn back after your sister-in-law.”   But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do this to me and more so if even death separates me from you.” When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her about it. Photo by Matheus Ferrero The post We Can Choose Our Family – Ruth 1:1-18 appeared first on Queer Theology.