Unschooled Seminarian

Are you considering dropping out of high school or college? A mentoring program is forming in Asheville, NC for folks seeking to leave the halls of institutional learning. If you want to take control of your education with the support of people who have already taken the leap send an email to unseminarian@gmail.com for more information.

Friends, mentors, and apprenticeships are waiting just outside the walls of your stuffy classroom. Bust out!

image: Elementary by Roger Peet

Amendment one is the current topic of conversation for North Carolina’s voting citizenry. On May 8th, ballots across the state will describe amendment one as a “constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized by the state”.

Americans have grown accustomed to seeing the words “marriage” and “vote” in the same sentence and assuming that the union being legislated is between people of the same sex. North Carolina’s marriage amendment is broader. Unmarried straight couples would also be prevented from accessing domestic partner benefits or obtaining medical coverage for a partner’s child. It’s a pro-business measure. If the amendment is made it will be easier for businesses and municipalities to deny benefits. It is far more polarizing to call amendment one the anti-gay marriage amendment. Naturally, that’s how everyone refers to it.

People feel the need to grovel when they talk to me about amendment one. They tell me how fervently opposed to it they are. They’ll definitely vote against it. And then they wait as though I should…thank them? But honestly, I resent that people use my partner and I as a reason to engage with the political system. We don’t vote and we don’t want you to either.

I abstain from the vote as a religious practice. As a radical christian, I have chosen to stick with the balance of power that Christ advocated. The weak are favored.  The strong are humbled. And the wealthy fall into the traps they have set for others. Democracy always favors the majority, the side that fights the hardest. I said it and I meant it, democracy is not christian.

As a radical queer person, I am opposed to state-sanctioned marriage and I am sick of gay folks fighting for it. Justice and assimilation are very different. It is important to know to which end your struggle leads. The fight for marriage equality certainly leads to the latter. Let’s struggle for equal access to healthcare and death benefits. Let’s make marital status a non-issue.Those efforts lead to justice.

My covenant to my partner of three and a half years and my covenant to God will be unchanged by the vote in May. I’ll wake up on the ninth sure that the state is as bad for Christians and queer people as it ever has been, regardless of how many ballots are cast one way or the other. If you are compelled to fulfill your citizenship duties, so be it. But don’t expect any gratitude from me.

From the same university that brought us the Womanist Ethics and Theology list, comes a fantastic list dealing with queer theology. If you are not familiar with queer theology this list mentions a lot of great titles that can put you in the know, including Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology by Patrick Cheng. Pastoral care topics for this particular class include “LGBTQ history, sexuality studies, scriptural texts of terror, coming out, pastoral counseling, same sex unions and marriages, and spiritual direction”.

“sissy pants” tag photographed in the river arts district of asheville, nc.

Not all books on queer theology are covered by this class but a good number are. Take a look at how long this list is! Queer friends, the bible is a handbook of liberation for all oppressed folks. When Jesus talks about “good news”, know that the goodness was meant for the queer children of God just as they are. Liberate yourself from heternormative theology!

Required Reading:

Marvin Ellison and Sylvia Thorson-Smith, Body and Soul: Rethinking Sexuality as Justice-Love.

David J. Kundtz and Bernard S. Schlager, Ministry Among God’s Queer Folk: LGBT Pastoral Care.

Deborah T. Meem, Michelle A. Gibson, and Jonathon F. Alexander, Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies.

Timothy Palmer and Deborah W. Haffner, A Time to Seek: A Study Guide On Gender and Sexual Diversity.

Neil Miller, Out of the Past.

Susan Stryker, Transgender History.

Robert E. Goss, Queering Christ.

Justin Tanis, Trans-Gendered.

Marcella Althaus-Reed, Indecent Theology.

Althaus-Reed and Isherwood, Trans/Formations.

Nancy Wilson, Our Tribe.

Guest, Goss, West and Boache, The Queer Bible Commentary.

Goss and West, Take Back the Word.

Ken Stone, Queer Commentary in the Hebrew Bible.

Douglas and Ellison, Sexuality and the Sacred.

Alan Downs, The Velvet Rage.

Joretta L. Marshall, Counseling Lesbian Partners.

Tim Dean, Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking.

Robert Weiss, Cruise Control.

Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy, The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships and Other Adventures.

Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy, Radical Ecstasy.

James L. Empereur, Spiritual Direction and the Gay Person.

Susannah Cornwall, Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ.

Horace Griffin, Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches.

Kay, Nagle and Gould, Male Lust: Pleasure, Power, and Transformation.

Dwight N. Hopkins, Black Faith and Public Talk.

Required Website:

http://www.lgbtran.org/HistoryMatters.aspx

Students from this class are required to watch the video LGBT Religious History Matters. They are also required to write a 3 page paper on a person profiled in the archives.