All Saints Day 2012: Queer and LGBT saints honored

“37 Santos” (37 Saints) by Tony De Carlo (tonydecarlo.com)

All Saints Day is celebrated today with the addition of 13 new profiles to the LGBTQ Saints page at JesusInLove.org.

Jemima Wilkinson

The most popular new saint is a little-known historical figure: Jemima Wilkinson, a queer American Quaker preacher reborn in 1776 as “Publick Universal Friend.”

New saints on the list also include Biblical characters such as the gay centurion plus more recent writers, theologians and activists. Traditional Christian saints are joining the list too.  For example, Saint Valentine is presented as a role model for marriage equality. Two popular figures, Saint Francis of Assisi and Blessed John Henry Newman, received totally new profiles that explore their same-sex love relationships in depth.

LGBT Saints page

With these new saints, the LGBT Saints page grows to 55 profiles. They include 31 traditional Christian and 24 alternative figures. Along with official saints, there are martyrs, prophets, mystics, witnesses, holy people, deities and religious figures of special interest to LGBTQ people and our allies.

Queer and LGBT saints are important because people are searching for alternative ways to lead loving lives. Churches have tried to control people by burying queer history. The LGBTQ saints show us not only their place in history, but also our own place -- because we are all saints who are meant to embody love. We can tap into the energy of our ancestors in faith. For some they become friends, helpers and miracle-workers. I created the LGBT Saints page to give people an easy way to find the spiritual resources that they seek.

The 13 new profiles were all published over the past year in the LGBT Saints series by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry. The Saints page provides a user-friendly list of links to these resources at the Jesus in Love Blog. Almost every profile on the page has been updated and expanded this year.

The following new saints are welcomed to the LGBT Saints page today. Visit the page at http://www.jesusinlove.org/saints.php.

Biblical

Jesus heals
a gay centurion's lover

Gay centurion: Jesus heals a soldier’s boyfriend in the Bible

Esther and Vashti: Biblical queens inspire LGBT writers

Ethiopian eunuch: A black gay man was the world’s first convert to Christianity

Historical

Christina Rossetti: Queer writer of Christmas carols and lesbian poetry

Jemima Wilkinson: Queer preacher reborn in 1776 as “Publick Universal Friend”

20th-21st century

Pauli Murray

Marcella Althaus-Reid: Queer theology pioneer

FannyAnn Eddy: Lesbian martyr in Africa

Peter Gomes: Gay black Harvard minister preached “scandalous gospel”

Pauli Murray: Episcopal church votes on queer saint / activist for civil rights and gender equality

Henri Nouwen: Priest and author who struggled with his homosexuality

Adrienne Rich: Lesbian feminist poet of the soul (1929-2012)

Traditional Christian

John Henry Newman

New additions:
Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos: Mystical same-sex marriage with Jesus

Saint Valentine: Marriage equality role model

Total rewrites:
Francis of Assisi’s queer side revealed by historical evidence

Cardinal Newman and Ambrose St. John: Gay saint and his “earthly light” share romantic friendship

___
This article is illustrated with “37 Santos” (37 Saints) by artist Tony De Carlo. He affirms the holiness of gay love with colorful, festive paintings of gay saints, Adam and Steve, same-sex marriage and more. For more info, see my interview with him.

Let us be inspired by the LGBT saints who surround us as a “great cloud of witnesses” and commit ourselves to our own queer paths toward sainthood.
___
Related links:

LGBT Saints list at JesusInLove.org

Why we need LGBT saints by Kittredge Cherry

A queer theology of sainthood emerges (99 Brattle blog of Episcopal Divinity School)

Feminism leads to a queer theology of sainthood (Feminism and Religion Blog)

Who are the "Queer Saints and Martyrs"? by Terence Weldon (Queering the Church)

LGBT-friendly memorial for All Saints, All Souls and Day of the Dead

Santos Queer (LGBT Saints by Kittredge Cherry in Spanish / en español)

TrinityStores.com (innovative icons, including some LGBT saints)

Sanctity And Male Desire: A Gay Reading Of Saints by Donald Boisvert

Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive People by Dennis O’Neill

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

2012 LGBTQ guide to AAR (American Academy of Religion) and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Annual Meeting

A mind-boggling variety of about 40 LGBT and queer events are planned for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature Nov. 17-20 in Chicago.

Here is the Jesus in Love guide to LGBTQ activities at AAR-SBL. My unique guide covers both AAR and SBL, including all the official LGBTQ events, plus “buried treasures” that are sponsored by other interest groups, and panels on other topics with a lone queer voice. Please let me know if I missed anything!

The joint annual meeting is the largest gathering of biblical and religion scholars in the world with more than 11,000 attendees. This list is a useful summary for those attending -- and a sneak-preview of the latest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer religious scholarship for those of us who can’t be there.

Events on this list cover everything from Arab masculinities to Zambian Pentecostal ideas on homosexuality. LGBTQ programs at the conference present liberating new ideas about the Bible, the church and the impact of Christianity on individuals. They go on to take a queer look at every major world religion from various racial, ethnic and cultural perspectives.

The dizzying array of topics includes lesbian dharma teachers, queer Quaker utopias, the homosexuality of the Hebrew patriarch Joseph, a theology of LGBTQ homeless youth, and the Korean Christian fundamentalist antigay movement. There are drag kings in Corinth and “gender performance” in the Prophets. They’ve got “outsider theology” and “indecent ecology.” And much more.

A few trends emerge: Same-sex marriage is discussed in various contexts ranging from ancient Mesopotamia to today’s historically black churches. Two separate sessions will examine gay artist David Wojnarowicz, whose video art was recently censored by the Smithsonian after pressure by religious conservatives. At least four sessions apply ideas from the book Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others by Sara Ahmed, professor of race and cultural studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

The meeting also features LGBTQ entertainment, such as the animated film Tokyo Godfathers and the one-person play “Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender in the Bible” by Peterson Toscano -- both followed, of course, by scholarly reflections on their queer Christian content.

It’s possible to do LGBTQ religious events almost non-stop for five days! Sometimes multiple events even overlap.

Getting access to this information is not easy. The Jesus in Love AAR-SBL guide offers a rare glimpse into the fairly private world of scholarship-in-the-making. I spent many happy hours searching the conference program books with a fine-toothed comb to create this list.

As one friend wrote when I posted my guide last year, “Wow - that is so great that you will be consolidating all the LGBTQ sessions - very helpful! Your blog is going to become my go-to site for choosing where to go next :)”

Best wishes to the many friends of the Jesus in Love Blog who will be attending and presenting at AAR-SBL!

Note: Session numbers begin with "A" for AAR and other letters for SBL. These events are subject to change.

Friday, Nov. 16

A16-108 AAR Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Committee Meeting
Friday - 9:00 AM-5:00 PM

M16-407: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Caucus at AAR
Friday - 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Saturday, Nov. 17

A17-120 Gay Men and Religion Group
Theme: Behold the Book, the Author, and the Critics: Kent Brintnall's book Ecce Homo: The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Patrick Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School, Presiding
(The Ecce Homo book analyzes the way narratives of Christ's death and resurrection both support and subvert cultural fantasies of masculine power.)
Panelists:
Björn Krondorfer, St Mary's College, Maryland
Aaron Klink, Duke University
Joseph A. Marchal, Ball State University
Karmen MacKendrick, Le Moyne College
Stephen Moore, Drew University
Responding:
Kent Brintnall, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

***

A17-123: Liberal Theologies Group
Theme: New Contexts for Liberal Theology
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Panelists include:
Hussein Abdul Latif, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Towards Muslim Same-sex Unions

***

A17-109 Theology and Religious Reflection Section
Theme: Theorizing Maternality
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Panelists include:
Carolyn Roncolato, Chicago Theological Seminary
Mimetic Conception: Infertility Treatment as Deconstruction and Reinscription of Western Maternality and Heteronormativity
(She applies queer theory to infertility treatments.)

***

A17-135 LGBTIQ Mentoring Lunch
Saturday - 11:45 AM-12:45 PM
Melissa M. Wilcox, Whitman College, Presiding
Panelists:
Claudia Schippert, University of Central Florida
Cameron Partridge, Harvard University
Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Rudy V. Busto, University of California, Santa Barbara
Kent Brintnall, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Patrick Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School
Horace Griffin, Pacific School of Religion
W. Scott Haldeman, Chicago Theological Seminary
Rebecca Alpert, Temple University
Mark Jordan, Harvard University
Laurel Schneider, Chicago Theological Seminary
Jennifer Harvey, Drake University
Heather White, New College of Florida

***

A17-220 Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group
Theme: Queering Women's Religious History: Desire, Identity and Religious Practice
Saturday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Yvonne Zimmerman, Methodist Theological School, Ohio, Presiding
Panelists:
Judith Weisenfeld, Princeton University
“From Father in Me”: Celibacy and Same Sex-Desire in Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement

Emily L. Silverman , Graduate Theological Union
Out of Line: Sarah Ahmed’s “Queer Phenomenology” Applied to Edith Stein’s and Regina Jonas’ “Out of Place” Religious Identities.

Marie Cartier, California State University, Northridge
Wendy Griffin, Cherry Hill Seminary
Herlands: Finding Goddess on Lesbian Land

Responding:
Heather White, New College of Florida
Melissa Wilcox, Whitman College

***

A17-233 Latina/o Critical and Comparative Studies Group and Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean Group
Theme: Contested Spaces: A Critical Engagement of Latina Spirituality
Jennifer Hughes, University of California, Riverside, Presiding
Saturday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Panelists include:
Laura Perez, University of California, Berkeley
Latina/o Feminist Spirituality and the Decolonial: (Non)violence and the (Non)Western
(She examines the recent work of queer U.S. Latina/o artists, including Alex Donis and Maya Gonzalez.)

***

A17-322 Queer Studies in Religion Group
Theme: Queer Reorientations: Questioning Bodies and Futures
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Claudia Schippert, University of Central Florida, Presiding
(Panelists discuss topics in the context of Sara Ahmed’s book Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others)
Panelists:
Brandy Daniels, Vanderbilt University
Is Kinship Always Already Reproductive? Ecclesiology, Ethics, and the Antisocial Thesis

Brian Blackmore, Chicago Theological Seminary
Quaker Unprogrammed Liturgy as Queer Futurity

Sarah Bloesch, Southern Methodist University
Maximus Confessor and God's Queer Table

Heike Peckruhn, University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology
Bodies as Orientation in/to the World – Bodies in Queer Phenomenology and Religious Studies

***
S17-304 Bible and Cultural Studies. Theme: Difference
Sponsored jointly by various groups, including LGBT/Queer Hermeneutics
11/17/2012
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM

Difference and pedagogy
Jacqueline Hidalgo, Williams College, Presiding
The first part of this session, “Difference and pedagogy,” considers how to teach concepts of difference to undergrads.

Encouraging hermeneutics of difference
Lynn Huber, Elon University, Presiding
Melanie Howard, Princeton Theological Seminary, Presiding
James Hoke, Drew University, Presiding
The second part, “Encouraging hermeneutics of difference,” is a mentoring session for graduate students working in “non-traditional” approaches.

***

A17-326 Roman Catholic Studies Group.
Theme: Disrupting Complementarity II: Male Bodies
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Panelists include:
Jeffrey Marlett, College of Saint Rose
Getting the Cloud: Leo Durocher and Catholic Manliness
(He applies queer theory to Hall of Fame baseball manager Leo Durocher)

***

A17-319 Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Group
Theme: Memory and the Ethics of Forgiveness
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Panelists include:
Adam Pryor, Graduate Theological Union
Who Are We? Remembering and Forgetting in the Reparation of Communal Memory
(He proposes that Kierkegaard’s ideas on forgiveness can help congregations heal after votes on gay and lesbian ordination.)

***

A17-404 LGBTIQ Scholars/Scholars of LGBTIQ Studies Reception
Saturday - 8:00 PM-10:00 PM

***

A17-407 Film: Tokyo Godfathers
Saturday - 8:00 PM-10:00 PM
(Japanese anime film about three homeless people, including a flamboyant ex-drag entertainer / transvestite, who find a baby on Christmas Eve.)

Sunday, Nov. 18

A18-100 Sex, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion Cluster
Theme: Naming Our History, Rebuilding Our Alliances, Mapping Our Future
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Jacqueline Hidalgo, Williams College, Presiding.
Panelists:
Bjorn Krondorfer, Men, Masculinities and Religions Group; St. Mary's College, Maryland
R. Marie Griffith, Religion and Sexuality Group; Washington University, St. Louis
Stephanie Mitchem, Womanist Issues in Religion and Society Group; University of South Carolina
Jay Emerson Johnson, Gay Men and Religion Group; Pacific School of Religion
Jung Ha Kim, Women and Religion Section; Georgia State University
Marie Cartier, Lesbian Feminist Issues in Religion Group; California State University, Northridge
Karen Alliaume, Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group; Lewis University
Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching and Activism Group; Moravian Theological Seminary
Melissa Wilcox, Queer Studies in Religion Group; Whitman College

***

S18-131 LGBT/Queer Hermeneutics
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
James Hoke, Drew University, Presiding

Kathleen McCaffrey, Independent Scholar
Same Sex Marriage in Ancient Mesopotamia (Newt is Wrong)

David Tabb Stewart, California State University, Long Beach
Another Look at Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13: Can Anything New Be Said?

Nicholaus Benjamin Pumphrey, Claremont Graduate University
The Lack of Action: Textual Evidence for Joseph’s Homosexuality

***
A18-101: Arts, Literature, and Religion Section
Theme: Expanding Borders: Religion and the Arts
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Panelists include:

Benjamin Lindquist, Yale University
Sex, Art, and Censorship: Chris Ofili’s Black Madonna and David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly

***

A18-110 Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Group
Theme: Asian North American “Conservative” Christian Communities, Masculinities, and Gender Issues
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Michael Sepidoza Campos, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding
(Topics include the experience of a trans-male in a Korean American Christian community in New York, and the activism of conservative Asian Americans in opposing LGBTQI rights in America.)
Panelists:
Steve B. Hu, University of California, Santa Barbara
Mark Chung Hearn, Azusa Pacific University
Sung Won Park, Union Theological Seminary
Justin K.H. Tse, University of British Columbia
Patrick S. Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School

Responding:
Grace Yia-Hei Kao, Claremont School of Theology

***

S18-141: Reading, Theory, and the Bible. Theme: Affect Theory and Biblical Interpretation
Joint Session With: Reading, Theory, and the Bible, Bible and Cultural Studies
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Panelists include:
Alexis G. Waller, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
The Thunder: Perfect Mind as a queer approach to trauma
(Looks at shifting gendered self-characterizations in a Nag Hammadi text)

***

S18-240: Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies. Theme: Postcolonial Theory in Dialogue
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Panelists include:
Stephen D. Moore, The Theological School, Drew University
Does the Empire of Heaven Run on Roman Time? Postcoloniality, Queer Temporality, and Matthew’s Canaanite Woman

***

A18-208: Religion in South Asia Section
Theme: Re-figuring Bodies That Matter: Sex, Gender, and Alternative Bodily Identities in South Asian Traditions
Sunday - 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida, Presiding
(Panelists engage the queer theories of Judith Butler)
Panelists include:
Barbara A. Holdrege, University of California, Santa Barbara
Alternative Bodily Identities in Gaudiya Vaishnava Discourse: From Karmically Constructed Sexed Bodies to Eternally Gendered Nonmaterial Bodies

Anya Pokazanyeva, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sexed Voices, Gendered Bodies: Constructions of the Feminine Subject in Bhakti Poetry

Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, Emory University
Paris is Burning, Gender is Burning: The Drag Performer versus the Kuchipudi Female Impersonator
(Female impersonation is done by brahmin male Kuchipudi dancers in South India)

Elaine Craddock, Southwestern University
Altered Bodies and Alternative Lives: Tirunangai Communities in Tamilnadu (Tirunangais are Tamil male-to-female transgender people.)

***

A18-282 World Christianity Group
Theme: Sex, Gender, Society, Faith: Homosexualities in World Christianity
Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Jane Redmont, Guilford College, Presiding

Min-Ah Cho, St. Catherine University
The Other Side of Their Zeal: Evangelical Nationalism and Anticommunism in the Korean Christian Fundamentalist Antigay Movement Since the 1990s

Adriaan van Klinken, University of London
The Homosexual as the Antithesis of “Biblical Manhood”? Queer(y)ing a Zambian Pentecostal Discourse

***

A18-272 Religion and Cities Group and Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group
Theme: Roots in the Concrete: Urban Tales of Redemption, Hybridity and Family
Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Panelists include:
Julie Hawks, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Constellations of Redemption in the Inner City in Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers
(Analysis of Japanese anime film about a homeless transvestite who finds a baby on Christmas Eve)

***

A18-276: Ritual Studies Group
Theme: Performed Ritual Expression: The Ethnographic Study of Art, Prayer, and Song
Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Panelists include:
Avvia Goldberg, York University
Reimagining Ritual: Examining Ritual through a Jewish Queer Lens

***
A18-279: Sociology of Religion Group
Theme: Sociology of Public Religion: A Global Perspective
Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Panelists include:
Helene Slessarev-Jamir, Claremont Lincoln University and Claremont School of Theology
A Cross National Analysis of Religion’s Role in Legislative Debates over Gay Marriage

***

A18-321 Gay Men and Religion Group
Theme: The Borders of Queer Religion
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
Jared Vazquez, University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Presiding
Panelists:
Justin Tanis, Graduate Theological Union
David Wojnarowicz: Outsider Theologian
(Wojnarowicz was a gay artist and AIDS activist.)

Jennifer Loh, School of Oriental and African Studies
Spiritual Practices Among the Hijras of India: Amalgamating Traditions

Elizabeth Perez, Dartmouth College
A 'Trans' Formation of Religious Experience: Transgender and Transsexual Subjects of Afro-Atlantic Traditions

Responding:
Peter Savastano, Seton Hall University

***

A18-315: Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group and Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group
Theme: Buddhists Shifting Gender Paradigms through Teaching, Chanting, and Transcending
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
Panelists include:
Barbara Sullivan, University of Queensland
Women Dharma Teachers in the West
(She interviewed 20 women dharma teachers, including lesbian and transgendered.)

Hsiao-Lan Hu, University of Detroit, Mercy
Queering Avalokitesvara: From the Thirty-Three Forms in the Lotus Sutra to Minority Identities in Today's World
(Avalokitesvara is also known as Kuan Yin)

***

A18-336: Beyond the Boundaries
Theme: Religion and Politics
Sunday - 6:00 PM-8:00 PM
Panelists include:
Jermaine McDonald, Emory University
President Obama, Historically Black Churches, and Public Discourse about Same-Sex Marriage

***

A18-402 Arts Series: Transfigurations: Transgressing Gender in the Bible
Sunday - 8:00 PM-10:00 PM
Joseph Marchal, Ball State University, Presiding
Theatrical performance followed by cross-disciplinary conversation.
Peterson Toscano, Performance Artist and Guest
Responding:
Deborah Haynes, University of Colorado
Erin Runions, Pomona College
Lou Ruprecht, Georgia State University
Sharon Fennema, Harvard University
Ken Stone, Chicago Theological Seminary
Peterson Toscano, Performance Artist and Guest

Monday, Nov. 19

S19-128: LGBT/Queer Hermeneutics
Theme: Drag, Performance, and Biblical Traditions
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
David Stewart, California State University, Long Beach, Presiding
M Adryael Tong, Yale Divinity School
"Dude Looks Like A Lady": Queering Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9

Susan E. Haddox, University of Mount Union
The Queenmakers: Gender Performance in the Prophets

Making Perfect Men: Isaiah 56:3-5 Through Torah as an Anti-Queer Text
Joseph A. Marchal, Ball State University
Female Masculinity in Corinth?: Drag Kings, Laggings, and Imitations

Lynn Huber, Elon University, Respondent

***

A19-127 Men, Masculinities, and Religions Group
Theme: Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinities after Twenty-five Years
Monday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Panelists include:
Amy Chaney, Syracuse University
Fragmented Hegemonies: Recovering Arab Masculinities
(She draws from Sara Ahmed’s book Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others to discuss the Arab male body.)

***
A19-227 Queer Studies in Religion Group and Transformative Scholarship
and Pedagogy Group
Theme: Vanguard Revisited: A Transformative Theology for/with/by LGBTQ Homeless Youth in the 1960s and Today
Monday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Panelist: Megan Rohrer, Pacific School of Religion

***

S19-221: Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Theme: Methods and Afterlives
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Panelists include:
Heather R. White, New College of Florida
The Sexologist’s Bible: Homosexual Acts and Sexual Identities in the Science of Biblical Interpretation

***

S19-246: Women in the Biblical World
Theme: Bible Trouble: Queer Reading at the Boundaries of Biblical Scholarship
(book edited by Teresa J. Hornsby and Ken Stone; Semeia Series; SBL August 2011)
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Luis Menendez, Vanderbilt University, Presiding
Hal Taussig, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
Jennifer Knust, Boston University
Gail Streete, Rhodes College
Kent Brintnall, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Ellen Armour, Vanderbilt University
Teresa Hornsby, Drury University, Respondent

***

A19-207 Religion and Ecology Group
Theme: Religion, Ecology, and the Body: Inscribing and Enacting Eco-Imaginings
Monday - 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Panelists include:
Jacob Erickson, Drew University
Indecent Ecologies: Karen Barad, Naturecultural Performativity, and Queer Ecotheology

***

A19-224 Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group
Theme: Feminist Theory on Disability, Trauma and Vulnerability
Monday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Panelists include:
Lisa Powell, St. Ambrose University
The Infertile Womb of God: Ableism and the Doctrine of God
(She challenges ideas about Mother God with feminist and queer theory.)


***
A19-311 Special Topics Forum
Theme: Mentoring Across Sexualities and Genders
Monday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Horace Griffin, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding
Panelists:
Cameron Partridge, Harvard University
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology
Thelathia Young, Bucknell University
Patrick Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School
Mary Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Alice Hunt, Chicago Theological Seminary
Laurel Schneider, Chicago Theological Seminary

Tuesday, Nov. 20

A20-118 Gay Men and Religion Group and Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group
Theme: (Un)holy Bullies in LGBTQ Lives
Tuesday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, University Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Presiding

Benjamin Lindquist, Yale University
Touch and the Ex-Gay Movement

Carolyn Davis, Vanderbilt University
Bullying as Christian Practice? Homophobic Harassment and Christian Speech

Mauricio Najarro, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
"Your Son, Your Only One, Whom You Love": Sacrifice, Idolatry, and Reproductive Futurism

Jeanine Viau, Loyola University, Chicago
Does It Get Better? Considering the “Capacity to Persevere in a (Queer and) Livable Life”

Responding:
Kate Ott, Drew University

***

A20-128 Paul Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group.  Theme: The Radical Tillich
Tuesday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Panelists include:
Christopher Rodkey, Lebanon Valley College and Pennsylvania State University, York
Pirating Paul Tillich, the Patriarch with Good Ideas: Mary Daly and the Radical Tillich
(Mary Daly is a lesbian philosopher.)

___

If you appreciate this list, please donate to support my work at Jesus in Love.

Last year a couple of readers asked Are the AAR-SBL presentations available in any way to people who can't attend?

The panels are usually not recorded or available in printed form, but abstracts of some of the papers are online now. Visit the AAR and SLB links below, go to the online program books and start searching. You can also try contacting the speakers directly.

For more info, visit:

Meeting events list from AAR Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer Persons in the Profession

American Academy of Religion
http://www.aarweb.org/

Society of Biblical Literature
http://www.sbl-site.org/default.aspx

Here’s another resource for those who want to follow the latest research and scholarship of various LGBT theologians (and others).
http://www.academia.edu/

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Allen Schindler: Gay martyr in the military

The Murder of Allen Schindler by Matthew Wettlaufer

Allen Schindler (1969-1992) brought international attention to anti-gay hate crimes and gays in the military when he died on this date (Oct. 27) in 1992.

Maybe Allen Schindler is resting more peacefully now that the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against gays and lesbians in the military ended on Sept. 20, 2011.

For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Allen Schindler: LGBTQ role the military highlighted by murder of gay sailor


Today also happens to be Navy Day in the United States. Remembering the service of Allen Schindler is a fitting way to mark the day.

Allen R. Schindler, Jr.

Schindler was a U.S. naval petty officer who was brutally beaten to death because he was gay by two of his shipmates in a public restroom in Sasebo, Japan. Schindler’s murder was cited by President Bill Clinton and others in the debate about gays in the military that culminated in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The crime is portrayed in an epic painting by gay artist Matthew Wettlaufer, who makes connections between anti-gay violence and other human rights struggles in his art.

At first the Navy tried to cover up the circumstances of Schindler’s death. The movie “Any Mother’s Son” tells the true story of how his mother, Dorothy Hadjys-Holman, overcame her own homophobia and Naval cover-up attempts to get justice for her gay son. She also spoke at the 1993 March on Washington for LGBT Rights.

Wettlaufer discusses his painting of Schindler and his other gay-related political art in my previous post “New paintings honor gay martyrs.”

___
Related link:

American Veterans for Equal Rights
_________
This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.

Artist paints portrait of Kittredge Cherry, lesbian Christian author

Kittredge Cherry is delighted to receive her new portrait on her birthday. (Photo by Audrey)

A portrait of lesbian activist, author and art historian Kittredge Cherry has been painted by Angela Yarber for her “Holy Women Icons” series.

Yes, it’s me! My life partner Audrey commissioned the portrait in honor of my birthday this month. I am pictured with rainbows and this message in my heart:

Body grounded,
her heart dances the passionate
love of God
in queer harmonies
untethered and free...

“Kittredge Cherry” by Angela Yarber,  2012
Acrylic on canvas, 11x14 inches

I love the beautiful way that Angela captured my spirit in words and images with vibrant rainbow energy. It’s an honor to be included in her “Holy Women Icons” series with great lesbians of history as well as goddesses and historical, Biblical, literary and mythological women. She uses a colorful, expressive style to portray holy women from Sappho and Sophia, from Mary the mother of Jesus to lesbian philosopher Mary Daly. What a gift to be among them!  My heart overflows with gratitude.

The portrait wasn’t a surprise present. Part of the gift was collaborating with Angela in the creative process. I helped write the text and choose the rainbow imagery.  One of her first questions to me was “Are there particular colors that are meaningful for you?”

The first “color” that came to mind was a rainbow. The reason was threefold: 1) The rainbow symbolizes the LGBT community, where I have done all my ministry, and affirms my identity as a lesbian who has been in love with the same woman for 37 years. 2) One of my most important healing practices is doing meditations in which I visualize balancing the colors of the rainbow within my body's energy centers (chakras). 3) The rainbow represents God's covenant with humanity in the Bible.

I was delighted by Yarber’s Holy Women Icons when I discovered them last year. I began to dream of having Yarber paint my portrait when I interviewed her for the article Artist paints holy lesbians and other women.

Somehow when I saw her holy women icons I had a feeling that she could portray a loving, dancing essence of me that is not usually visible. Yarber and I are both lesbian ministers, although I am a retired MCC clergy and she is a pastor at a Baptist church in North Carolina. We both studied at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, although I was long gone by the time she got there. For my full bio, click here.

Angela sees her art as a “redemptive act” because it highlights people whose stories are rarely heard and affirms their alternative forms of holiness. Vibrantly alive and life-giving women dance through her paintings. Now I am one of them!  Thanks, Audrey and Angela!

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Related link:
AngelaYarber.com

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This post is part of the Artists series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series profiles artists who use lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and queer spiritual and religious imagery.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.

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Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts

Matthew Shepard: Modern gay martyr and hate-crime victim

Matthew Shepard brought international attention to anti-gay hate crimes when he died on Oct. 12, 1998. He was a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming at the time.

For a new version of this article, click this link to Qspirit.net:
Matthew Shepard: Modern gay martyr and hate-crime victim


Shepard (1976-1998) was brutally attacked near Laramie, Wyoming, on Oct. 6-7, 1998 by two men who later claimed that they were driven temporarily insane by “gay panic” due to Shepard’s alleged sexual advances. Shepard was beaten and left to die.

Now the Matthew Shepard Foundation seeks to replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance. U.S. President Obama signed "The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act" into law on Oct. 28, 2009. It broadens the federal hate-crimes law to cover violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Matthew Shepard” by Tobias Haller

Shepard has become a cultural icon, inspiring dozens and dozens of paintings, films, plays, songs and other artistic works -- with more still being created every year. Among the new images is a sweet portrait of him with a rainbow halo by Tobias Haller, an iconographer, author, composer, and vicar of Saint James Episcopal Church in the Bronx. He is the author of “Reasonable and Holy: Engaging Same-Sexuality.” Haller enjoys expanding the diversity of icons available by creating icons of LGBTQ people and other progressive holy figures as well as traditional saints. He and his spouse were united in a church wedding more than 30 years ago and a civil ceremony after same-sex marriage became legal in New York.

Shepard’s martyrdom gives him the aura of a Christ figure. His torturous death evokes the Good Shepherd who was crucified. The officer who found Shepard said that he was covered with blood -- except for the white streaks left by his tears. Based on this report, Father William Hart McNichols created the striking icon at the top of this post. McNichols dedicated his icon The Passion of Matthew Shepard to the 1,470 gay and lesbian youth of commit suicide in the U.S. each year, and to the countless others who are injured or murdered.

McNichols is a New Mexico artist and Catholic priest who has been rebuked by church leaders for making icons of saints not approved by the church, including one of Matthew Shepard. McNichols’ own moving spiritual journey and two of his icons are included in the book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More by Kittredge Cherry. His Matthew Shepard icon appears in his book “Christ All Merciful,” which he co-authored with Megan McKenna.

Another new project inspired by Shepard is “Matthew Shepard Meets Coyote,” a play that blends Christianity, queer experience and Native American folklore. In the final moments of Shepard’s life he encounters Coyote, the trickster god of the American West, who urges him to move beyond the cruel tricks that life has played on him. It was written by Harry Cronin, a priest of Holy Cross and professor in residence at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. In 2014 it was performed at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and at Bay Area churches as a way to spark dialogue. Cronin currently writes plays about redemption in alcoholic and queer experiences.

Several works were released in 2013 for the 15th anniversary of Shepard’s death.  They include the musical tribute “Beyond the Fence,” the film “Matt Shepard was a Friend of Mine” and the book “The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard.”

"Matthew Shepard: Beyond the Fence," a musical tribute celebrating a life that helped change the world, premiered in October 2013 in a production by the South Coast Singers, a LGBTQ performance troupe in Long Beach, California. Written by SCC creative director Steve Davison, it incorporates existing music by gay composers Levi Kreis, Ryan Amador and Randi Driscoll.

The documentary film “Matt Shepard was a Friend of Mine” is directed by Michele Josue, who indeed was a close friend of Shepard. She takes a personal approach, exploring his life and loss by visiting places that were important to him and interviewing his friends and family. View the trailer below or at this link.


Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine: Teaser #2 from Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine on Vimeo.

Award-winning gay Journalist Stephen Jimenez does extensive research into the circumstances of the crime in “The Book of Matt.” He finds that Shepard was not killed for being gay, but for reasons far more complicated.

Other books about Shepard include “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie” and “A World Transformed” by his mother (Judy Shepard) and “October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard” by Lesléa Newman, a novel in verse about the murder.

“Saint Sebastian and Matt Shepard Juxtaposed” by JR Leveroni

“Saint Sebastian and Matt Shepard Juxtaposed” by JR Leveroni is a painting that makes an important connection between a gay Christian martyr from history and the gay victims of hate crimes today. Leveroni is an emerging visual artist living in South Florida. Painting in a Cubist style, he matches Shepard’s death with the killing of another gay martyr, Saint Sebastian. The suffering is expressed in a subdued style with barely a trace of blood. A variety of male nudes and religious paintings can be seen on his website (warning: male nudity).

“The Murder of Matthew Shepard” by Matthew Wettlaufer

The grim scene of Matthew’s death is vividly portrayed in “The Murder of Matthew Shepard,” above, by gay artist-philosopher Matthew Wettlaufer. He lived in El Salvador and South Africa before returning to California. For an interview with Wettlaufer and more of his art, see my previous post “New paintings honor gay martyrs.”

“The Last of Laramie” by Stephen Mead

Above is a lyrical painting dedicated to Matthew Shepard: “The Last of Laramie” by gay artist Stephen Mead.of New York. It appears in his book “Our Book of Common Faith.” For more about Mead and his art, see my previous post “Gay Artist Links Body and Spirit.”

"The Candlelight Vigil for Matthew Shepard (NYC Oct. 19, 1998)” by Sandow Birk

California artist Sandow Birk painted a candlelight vigil for Shepard. With a drummer and a rainbow flag, it seems to echo “The Spirit of 76,” a famous patriotic painting of Revolutionary War figures by Archibald MacNeal Willard. But it is based on the 1889 painting (“The Conscripts” by Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret, a work that takes a hard look at the toll of war, especially the conscription of young people into the military during the Franco-Prussian War.

For more about Sandow Birk’s art, see my previous post Stonewall's LGBT history painted: Interview with Sandow Birk.

The play “The Laramie Project” by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project has been performed all over the world since it premiered in 1998. Many American performances were picketed by Westboro Baptist Church members, who appear in the play picketing Shepard’s funeral as they did in real life. “The Laramie Project” draws on hundreds of interviews with residents of Laramie conducted by the theater company. A film version of The Laramie Project was released in 2002.

Matthew’s story has also been dramatized in biopic movies such as “The Matthew Shepard Story” with Sam Waterson and Stockard Channing as the grieving parents.

More than a 30 songs inspired by Matthew Shepard are listed in “Cultural Depictions of Matthew Shepard” at Wikipedia. They come from a variety of singers, including Melissa Etheridge, Janis Ian, and Elton John.

The Altar Cross of LGBTQ Martyrs from Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco

The Altar Cross of LGBTQ Martyrs from Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco features photos of Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk, Gwen Araujo and others. In the center of the cross is the fence where Shepard was tortured and murdered in Laramie, Wyoming.

The tendency to acclaim Shepard as a martyr is analyzed in a scholarly paper that won the 2014-15 LGBT Religious History Award from the LGBT Religious Archives Network. “The Martyrdom of Matthew Shepard” was written by Brett Krutzsch, religion professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio. It is an excerpt from his Ph.D dissertation, “Martyrdom and American Gay History: Secular Advocacy, Christian Ideas, and Gay Assimilation,” which examines how religious rhetoric and gay martyr discourses facilitated American gay assimilation from the 1970s through 2014. He finds that secular gay advocates invoked Shepard as a gay martyr, using Christian ideas to present gay Americans as similar to the dominant culture. He questions the politics of martyrdom and analyzes why the deaths of a few white, middle-class, gay men have been mourned as national tragedies.

The award announcement explains: “The paper argues that Shepard’s appeal was connected to constructions of him as Christ-like and as an upstanding young, Christian man. His posthumous notoriety reveals a historical moment when Christian ideas significantly shaped arguments for American gay social integration. In turn, Matthew Shepard became an icon of the apparently ideal late twentieth-century gay citizen: a white, nonsexual, practicing Protestant.”

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Related links:
Cultural Depictions of Matthew Shepard (Wikipedia)

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Top image credit: “The Passion of Matthew Shepard” by William Hart McNichols

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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
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