2015 LGBTQ guide to AAR (American Academy of Religion) and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Annual Meeting

An amazing variety of 40 LGBT and queer events are planned for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Nov. 20-23 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Presentations cover everything from Afro-cosmopolitan imagination to ex-gays in in the Dutch Bible Belt, from traditional topics such as Pauline Epistles to pop-culture phenomona like Comic-con and Conchita Wurst. Several presentation titles touch on the erotic with references to “divine enjoyment,” the “hard-body Christianity” behind body-building “muscle gods,” and “intimacy, ecstasy, and the lesbian relation of Annunciation.”

They present liberating new ideas about the Bible, the church, sexual ethics and the impact of Christianity on individuals. Scholars will also take a queer look at every major world religion from various racial, ethnic and cultural perspectives.

Reading the schedule provides a sneak-preview of the latest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, interesex and queer religious scholarship, even for those who can’t be there. 

The joint annual meeting is the largest gathering of biblical and religion scholars in the world with more than 11,000 attendees.

Books that are up for major LGBTQ discussion this year include "Intersex, Theology, and the Bible: Troubling Bodies in Church, Text, and Society" by Susannah Cornwall, “Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women, and Queer Christians are Reclaiming Evangelicalism by Deborah Jian Lee and "Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays" by Bernadette Barton.

One session is of special interest to readers of the Jesus in Love Blog because it focuses on LGBT Christian art. Three scholars from Europe will deliver presentations on "Queering Christ in Controversial Art: The stagings, effects and subversive potential of the Other Jesus."

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 hours searching the conference program books with a fine-toothed comb to create this list.

As one reader wrote in response to this guide in a previous 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!

If you appreciate this list, please donate to support the Jesus in Love Blog.

Note: Session numbers begin with "A" for AAR, "S" for SBL and "M" for additional meetings. These events are subject to change.

Friday, Nov. 20

A20-100 AAR Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Committee Meeting
Patrick S. Cheng, Chicago Theological Seminary, Presiding
Friday - 9:00 AM-5:00 PM

P20-316 Book Discussion: "Divine Enjoyment: A Theology of Passion and Exuberance" by Elaine Padilla.
Jacob Erickson, St. Olaf College, Presiding
Friday - 6:00 PM-8:30 PM
The book includes interpretations of God as a queer lover.

M20-407 Word Made Fresh: Full Acceptance of LGBTIQ Christians in the Church: Should Evangelicals Change Their Minds?
Thomas Oord, Northwest Nazarene University, Presiding
Friday - 7:00 PM-9:00 PM
The Word Made Fresh lectures seek to stimulate creative dialogue among evangelical Christian scholars from diverse backgrounds about pressing issues in contemporary theology. Sponsored by Azusa Pacific University and Point Loma Nazarene University.
Panelists:
David P. Gushee, Mercer University
Responding:
Ronald J. Sider, Eastern University

A20-404 Film: "Al Nisa: Black Muslim Women in Atlanta's Gay Mecca"
Friday - 8:00 PM-10:00 PM
In this documentary by Red Summer, women discuss their triple identity as black Muslim lesbians.

A20-402 Film: "Pariah" about a black lesbian in Brooklyn, NY.
Friday - 8:00 PM-10:00 PM

Saturday, Nov. 21

A21-115. Honoring the Scholarship of Randall Bailey, who has advocated for queer,feminist and contextual Bible interpretations.
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM.

A21-124 Progress and Perils in the Queer-Evangelical Sea Change
Deborah Jian Lee, author of “Rescuing Jesus: How People of Color, Women, and Queer Christians are Reclaiming Evangelicalism," Presiding
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Panelists:
David P. Gushee, Mercer University
Joshua Wolff, Adler UniversityHaven Herrin, Soulforce, Abilene, TX
Paul Southwick, On God's Campus

A21-146 Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Committee Roundtable Lunch
Patrick S. Cheng, Chicago Theological Seminary, Presiding
Saturday - 11:45 AM-12:45 PM

S21-230 Queering Canons
James Hoke, Drew University, Presiding
11/21/2015 - 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Eric A. Thomas, Drew University on When Eunuchs Read: Black Queer Ambi-veil-ence, Matt 19:12, and Others.
Lynne Gerber, University of California-Berkeley, on Queering the Sacred, Sacralizing the Queer: The Bible and/as Gay Literature at the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, 1986–2001.
Teresa J. Hornsby, Drury University, on The Slender Man: A Trans Hermeneutic of the Apocalypse
LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics Business Meeting

S21-252 Intersections of Gender, Race, and Class in Biblical Literature
11/21/2015 - 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Includes Caryn Tamber-Rosenau, Vanderbilt University, on Un-gendering Texts: A Queer Critique of Looking for “Male” and “Female” Voices

A21-227 Lesbians, Dykes, Feminists, and Queers: Who Really Is Part of the "L-Word" Today?
Jennifer Rycenga, San Jose State University, Presiding
Saturday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Includes:
Raedorah Stewart, Washington, DC on Queer Femmes: Lipstick on My Dipstick and Other Womanist Feminist Lesbian Poems.
Amey Victoria Adkins, Duke University, on Hail, Mary: Intimacy, Ecstasy, and the Lesbian Relation of Annunciation
Sarah Bloesch, Southern Methodist University, on Lesbians in Space and Out of Time: Sexuality on Display from Museums to Prisons
Responding:
Amy Milligan, Elizabethtown College
Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group Business Meeting:
Marie Cartier, California State University, Northridge

A21-224 Unfamiliar Spaces: Critical Perspectives on Ethics, Sexuality, Pedagogy, and Erotics
Saturday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Includes Jeremy Posadas, Austin College, on Queering and De-Protestantizing "Religion and Sex/uality” Courses

A21-222 Orthodoxy and Eros: Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition
Vera Shevzov, Smith College, Presiding
Saturday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
Includes Crystal Lubinsky, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, on What’s in a Name?: The Transvestite or Andromimetic Saints of Eastern Christendom

A21-308 Binding Practices: Relational Connection in Visual and Performing Art
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Includes Anne-Marie Korte, Utrecht University, on Queer Iconoclasm and Queer Iconoclash: From the Christas to Madonna

A21-327 Book discussion: The Relevance of Lynne Huffer's Mad for Foucault (Columbia University Press, 2009) and Are the Lips a Grave? A Queer Feminist on the Ethics of Sex (Columbia University Press, 2013) for Theology and the Study of Religion
Mary Keller, University of Wyoming, Presiding
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Includes Jason Frey, Chicago Theological Seminary, on A Queer Vulnerability: Body Ethics and Foucauldian Relationality

A21-341 From Tolerance to Recognition: Recognition and the Acceptance of Otherness
Risto Saarinen, University of Helsinki, Presiding
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Includes Elina Hellqvist, University of Helsinki, on Recognition, Toleration and Identity: LGBTQ in the Lutheran Church

A21-339 Global Perspectives on Religion and HIV/AIDS Seminar
Lynne Gerber, University of California, Berkeley, Presiding
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM

A21-312 Guns, Climate, Contraception, and Marriage: How Religion is Shaping American Politics Heading into 2016
Robert P. Jones, Public Religion Research Institute, Washington, D.C., Presiding
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Includes Marie Cartier, California State University, Northridge, on Spouses for Life: How the Fight for Gay Marriage is Changing Religion and Politics

A21-306 Engaging Trans Studies in Religion: Scholarship, Teaching, and the Intersectionalities of Trans Lived Experience
Cameron Partridge, Harvard University, Presiding
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Panelists:
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Pacific School of Religion
Jacob Lau, University of California, Los Angeles
Max Strassfeld, University of Arizona
Justin Tanis, Graduate Theological Union
Erin Swenson, Atlanta, GA

A21-408 LGBTIQ Scholars / Scholars of LGBTIQ Studies Reception
Saturday - 9:00 PM-11:00 PM

Sunday, Nov. 22

S22-130 Book discussion on "Intersex, Theology, and the Bible: Troubling Bodies in Church, Text, and Society" by Susannah Cornwall (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
11/22/2015 - 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Joseph Marchal, Ball State University, Presiding
Sean Burke, Luther College
Megan DeFranza, Boston University School of Theology
Teresa Hornsby, Drury University
Candida Moss, University of Notre Dame
Max Strassfeld, University of Arizona
Susannah Cornwall, University of Exeter, Respondent

A22-102 Queer Disability Theory and Theology
Leigh Ann Hildebrand, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Deborah Creamer, Association of Theological Schools, Pittsburgh, PA, and Heike Peckruhn, Daemen College on Cripping Religion.
Max Thornton, Drew University on Trans/Criptions: Gender, Disability, and Liturgical Experience.
Brian Blackmore, Temple University, on Towards a Crip Theology: Biblical Foundations of the Queer Disability Drive.
Cassie Houtz, Harvard University, on Saving the Unsavable: A Queer Redemption.
Karen Bray, Drew University, on Willfully Unredeemed: The Mad Cripping of Liberal Queerdom.

A22-101 Critical Analysis of Gender and Transgender in Indigenous Cultures
Suzanne Owen, Leeds Trinity University, University of Chester, Presiding
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:00 AM

A22-142 Yoga and Nationalism: Identity and Destiny
Andrew J. Nicholson, Stony Brook University, Presiding
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Includes Andrea Jain, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, on Where Yoga, Homophobia, and Nationalism Intersect: Baba Ramdev and the Sexual Politics of Yoga

M22-102 Struggling in Good Faith
Sunday - 11:45 AM-12:45 PM
An opportunity to discuss the forthcoming book "Struggling in Good Faith: LGBTQI Inclusion from 13 American Religious Perspectives" with its editors Rabbi Mychal Copeland and Rabbi D'vorah Rose.

A22-212 Violence against Women in Africa: Politics, War, and Religion
Dianna Bell, Vanderbilt University, Presiding
Sunday - 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
Includes Michelle Wolff, Duke University, on The “Corrective” Rape of Black Lesbians in South Africa: Locating the Failure of Progressive Politics within Secular Democracy

S22-203 African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Shively Smith, Wesley Theological Seminary, Presiding
11/22/2015 - 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Includes Stacy Davis, Saint Mary's College (Notre Dame) on Beyond Male and Female: Same-Sex Imagery in Malachi 2

A22-210 Contesting Authority, Reclaiming Traditions: Religion and Gender in Southeast Asia
Emma Tomalin, University of Leeds, Presiding
Sunday - 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
Includes David Brian Esch, Florida International Univerity, on The World's First Transgender Mosque: Javanese, Gendered, and Religious Embodiments

A22-230 Book discussion: Erin Runions's "The Babylon Complex: Theopolitical Fantasies of War, Sex, and Sovereignty" (Fordham University Press, 2014)
Edward Silver, Wellesley College, Presiding
Sunday - 1:00 PM-2:30 PM
Scholars look at the book based on queer theorizing.

A22-275 Reimagining Religion as Queer Resistance
Linn Tonstad, Yale University, Presiding
Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Sonia Crasnow, University of California, Riverside, on Talking About Transition: Addressing Transgender Inclusion in Judaism.
Drake Konow, Meriden, CT, on The Cathedral Project: Protest, Liturgy, and AIDS Activism at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Mara Block, Harvard University, on “Baudelaire’s Dream”: Queer Writing and Parodies of Clinical Discourse.
Responding:
Heather White, New College of Florida
Queer Studies in Religion Group Business Meeting:
Kent Brintnall, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Thelathia Young, Bucknell University

A22-315 Male Aesthetics and Muscle Gods
Brett Krutzsch, College of Wooster, Presiding
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
This panel explores what the gym-built bodies such as bodybuilders known as "muscle gods" say about gay/hetero/bi men and religion.
Jeffrey F. Keuss, Seattle Pacific University, on Crossfit and Muscular Christianity Resurrected.
Jason Smith, Vanderbilt University, on Foucault for Heisman: Normalizing Power and the "Gym-Built" Amateur Athlete.
Scott Strednak Singer, Temple University, on From Muscular Christianity to Hard-Body Christianity: The Power Team and the Meaning of Muscle in Sports Evangelism.
Jared Vazquez, Iliff School of Theology, University of Denver, on When This Boy is Not a Bottom: Effeminate Men and the Failure of Masculine Performances.

Monday, Nov. 23

S23-117 Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
11/23/2015 - 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Includes Katy E. Valentine, First Christian Church (Chico, CA) on Disrupting the Binary: Creating a GNC (Gender Non-Conforming) and Transgender Hermeneutic

A23-104 Queer Utopias and Dystopias
Roger A. Sneed, Furman University, Presiding
Monday - 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Allison Covey, University of Toronto on Comic-Con International as Performance of Queer Utopia.
Christopher Ashley, Union Theological Seminary on A Kind Angel's Thesis: Religion, Technology, and Queer Humanism in Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Andrea Tucker, Vanderbilt University, on Desiring Earthseed: Teaching Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower behind the Gate.
Anthony Hoshaw, Chicago Theological Seminary, on Trash Animals, Queers, and the City.
Responding:
Marco Derks, Utrecht University
Gay Men and Religion Group Business Meeting:
W. Scott Haldeman, Chicago Theological Seminary

A23-101 Regulating Sexuality in Postwar American Jewish Communities: Navigating Queer Bodies, Heteronormativity, and Hegemonic Christianity
Laura S. Levitt, Temple University, Presiding
Monday - 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Brett Krutzsch, College of Wooster on Jewish in Life, Christianized in Death: The Jewishness of Harvey Milk’s Gay Activism.
Gregg Drinkwater, University of Colorado, on AIDS Was Our Earthquake: American Judaism in the Age of AIDS.
Jonathan Jackson, Maxwell School of Syracuse University, on Useful and Inhuman: Inversions of Queer and Corrections of the Jewish Body.

A23-138 Sin, Suffering, and Spatiality: Exploring Culture, Caste, and Critique
Eboni Marshall Turman, Duke University, Presiding
Monday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Includes:
Sailaja Krishnamurti, York University, on Hindu Religiosity at the Margins of Diaspora: Queer and Feminist Activism, South Asian Diaspora Communities, and the Critique of Caste.
Elyse Ambrose Minson, Drew University, on Liberative Ethics at "The Pier": Environmental Transphobia and the Christopher Street Pier, New York City.

S23-234 Queer Approaches to Pauline Epistles and Interpretations
Jeremia Punt, Universiteit van Stellenbosch - University of Stellenbosch, Presiding
11/23/2015 - 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Ben Dunning, Fordham University, on Romans 1, Queer Theory, and the History of Sexuality.
Robert Paul Seesengood, Albright College, on Queers, Jews, and Paul: Struggling with a Pauline "Universal Subjectivity."
Jay Twomey, University of Cincinnati, on Stranger in a Strange Pauline World.
Tyler M. Schwaller, Harvard University, on "A Slave to All": First Corinthians 9 and Paul's Performance in Slave Drag.
Timothy Luckritz Marquis, Moravian Theological Seminary, on Dionysus, Disidentifications, and Wandering Pauline Epiphanies.
Lynn Huber, Elon University, Respondent
Will Stockton, Clemson University, Respondent

A23-203 Latina/o Religious Iconoclasms
Chris Tirres, DePaul University, Presiding
Monday - 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Includes Adrian Emmanuel Hernandez-Acosta, Harvard University, with On Queer Religion, Nationalism, and Sex: A Response by Caribbean (Theological) Bottoms.
Alejandro Escalante, Union Theological Seminary, on God in Drag: An Indecent Approach to the Sacrament of Protest.

A23-225 Book discussion: "Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays" by Bernadette Barton (New York University Press, 2012)
Marie Cartier, California State University, Northridge, Presiding
Monday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
John Erickson, Claremont Graduate University, on The Power of Interview: Deconstructing the Geographical, Temporal, and Current Experiences of Gay Men and Lesbians in the Bible Belt.
Aaron Klink, Duke University, on Praying after the Gay Wouldn't Go: Ethnography, Theology, and Spiritual Practice.
Daniel Tidwell, Seattle University, on We Pray What Our Bodies Know: A Formational Response to Bernadette Barton's "Pray the Gay Away."
David Bos, University of Amsterdam, VU University, on Perseverance of the Saints: The Short but Meaningful Life of "the Ex-Gay" in the Dutch Bible Belt.
Responding:
Bernadette Barton, Morehead State University

A23-307 Protest, Performance, and Prophecy: Resisting Violence against Black Queer Bodies
Whitney Bond, Emory University, Presiding
Monday - 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Adriaan van Klinken, University of Leeds, on Queer Prophecy and Afro-Cosmopolitan Imagination: Kenyan Writer Binyavanga Wainaina’s "Coming Out and Religious Critique."
Thelathia Young, Bucknell University, and Benae Beamon, Boston University, on "Dying" to Live: Protest and the Radical Performativity of Black Queer Bodies.
Jennifer Rycenga, San Jose State University, on Enraged Against Us: African-American Women Students Practicing Non-Violence at Prudence Crandall's Academy, 1833-34.
Indhira Udofia, Duke University, on Whoring the Madonna, Virginizing the Jezebel: Black Women’s Gender Performance.

Tuesday, Nov. 24

S24-130 Queering Christ in Controversial Art: The stagings, effects and subversive potential of the Other Jesus
David Stewart, California State University - Long Beach, presiding
11/24/2015 - 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
This session investigates art in which iconic Christian imagery is deliberately queered.
Anne-Marie Korte, Universiteit Utrecht on Queer Iconoclasm and Queer Iconoclash: From the Christas to Madonna
Mariecke van den Berg, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, on Setting the Table for a Queer Jesus: Ecce Homo in Sweden and Serbia
Srdjan Sremac, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, on Conchita Wurst: A “Jesus-like Figure” Between Blasphemy and Religious Innovation
Susannah Cornwall, University of Exeter, Respondent (25 min)

___

Readers asked if 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:

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

Major LGBT magazine covers Passion book censorship as religion versus free speech

Intriguing analysis of Facebook censorship of the new gay Passion of Christ book appears in the latest issue of an important national magazine, the Gay and Lesbian Review / Worldwide.

“It’s not the visual images but the idea of Jesus as a gay man that’s being suppressed,” editor-in-chief Richard Schneider Jr. notes in his “BTW” column for the January/February 2015 issue.

He sees it as an example of “a syndrome that’s been identified by writers like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens: the peculiar immunity of religious ideas from the free speech protections that apply to every other realm of life.’

Facebook initially blocked ads for “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Kittredge Cherry when the book was released in October, but reversed the decision after pressure from the LGBT community and news media.

The book features Doug Blanchard’s paintings of Jesus as a gay man of today in a modern city. As Schneider points out, “in most of the book’s illustrations it’s not all that obvious that the central figure is even ‘gay.’”

The Gay and Lesbian Review is a bimonthly magazine of history, culture and politics for thinking LGBT people and allies. Library Journal described it as “the journal of record for LGBT issues.” It has a circulation of 11,000.

I left the following comment on the Passion article at glreview.org, which is under the subhead "Book versus Facebook":

You raise an important point when you say that the Facebook suppression of our Passion book illustrates “the peculiar immunity of religious ideas from the free speech protections that apply to every other realm of life.” Traditional religious ideas do get enshrined and exempted from the usual rigors of public debate. But what about alternative religious ideas?

Far from receiving “peculiar immunity,” Christians like me who believe that Jesus may have been queer find our sincerely held religious idea is suppressed as “anti-Catholic,” “blasphemy,” “offensive” or even “hate speech.” The debate often gets framed as if our religion is nothing more than free speech that desecrates religion. Meanwhile OUR religious images and texts are deprived of customary protection granted to mainstream religions. Overtly LGBT-positive religious images and ideas tend to be silenced or ridiculed.

LGBT-affirming Christians have had to put up with garbage, and aren’t we religious too? A powerful example is included in this same issue of the Gay and Lesbian Review – the 1973 photo of Rev. Troy Perry in the rubble of the burnt-down Metropolitan Community Church where he dared to preach God’s love for all people, including sexual minorities. (See “The Revolution was Photographed.” )

On the bright side, Facebook reversed its decision and “resurrected” the ads after pressure from the LGBT media and community.

___
Related links

Book website: passionofchristbook.com

Facebook u-turns to allow gay Jesus crucifixion ad (Gay Star News)

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

Hot topics in queer religion: 2014 LGBTQ guide to AAR (American Academy of Religion) and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) Annual Meeting

An amazing variety of more than 30 LGBT and queer events are planned for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Nov. 22-25 in San Diego.

Presentations cover everything from African lesbians to a queer zoological reading of Song of Songs. Hot topics this year include religion and sexuality in debates over same-sex marriage, anti-gay laws in Africa, and queer interpretations of Paul's letters in the Bible. Scholars will also make connections between queer experience and many other facets of life, such as disability and ecology.

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 joint annual meeting is the largest gathering of biblical and religion scholars in the world with more than 11,000 attendees.

There's surprisingly little about Jesus from a queer viewpoint. The only LGBTIQ event focused on Christ is "Jesus Is Still Acting Up! Celebrating Bob Goss' Scholarship and Ministry 20 Years Later." Author Robert Shore-Goss and a panel of scholars will reflect on his groundbreaking 1993 book "Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto."

Other books that are up for major LGBT discussion include "The Crisis of Islamic Masculinities" by Amanullah De Sondy and "Ain't I a Womanist, Too?: Third Wave Womanist Religious Thought" by Monica A. Coleman.

For a helpful list of LGBTIQ-themed sesssions at AAR, visit:
https://www.aarweb.org/2014-lgbtiq-themed-sessions

For LGBTIQ events at SBL, click this link and input the key word “queer”:
http://sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_ProgramBook.aspx?MeetingId=25

Reading the schedule provides a sneak-preview of the latest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer religious scholarship, even for those who can’t be there.

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



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

Queer religious art resource list: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Paganism

A rainbow of religious symbols: Latin Cross, Star of David, Omkar (Aum), Star and Crescent, Cross Pattée, Yin/Yang, Khanda (Sikh), Ayyavazhi, Triple Goddess (Diane de Poitiers). Artist Andrew Craig Williams worked his queer rainbow magic on an image from Wikimedia Commons.

Queer religious art resources from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Paganism are listed today on the Jesus in Love Blog.

The list provides dozens of links to art created throughout human history, from ancient cave paintings to the most contemporary images of today. It includes Asian, African / African-American, Australian, Celtic, Latina/o, Native American and more.

Usually LGBT Christian art is focus here, but today the attention shifts to other religions and spiritual traditions. The Jesus in Love Blog affirms the value of all faiths. The list is just an introduction to an enormous subject, so please leave comments with more suggestions.

This list took on a life of its own while I was researching it. One artist led to another and another. The lines between religions began to blur and overlap because cross-fertilization occurs between different traditions. Therefore some Christian art is included if it is expressed in a queer interfaith context.

Special thanks to Hugo Cordova Quero, adjunct faculty at Starr King School for the Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. This list was sparked by his request for help finding queer religious art to use when he teaches an online course on Queer Studies from a Multireligious Perspective in fall 2013.

Christian scriptures on interfaith religious tolerance are relatively rare, but many Bible verses do command people to love and care for strangers. In Acts 10:34-35 Peter said, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to God.”

Overview
LGBT themes in mythology and religion (Wikipedia)

LGBTQ Spirituality at Qualia Encyclopedia of Gay Folklife

LGBTQ Religion at Qualia Encyclopedia of Gay Folklife

Queer Spirituality Around the World (compiled by Marilyn Roxie)


Queer Buddhism
Kuan Yin: A queer Buddhist Christ figure (Jesus in Love)

Gay spirituality author Toby Johnson discusses Kuan Yin (or Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit) as an androgynous figure who embodies compassion in his articles “Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara” and “Avalokiteshvara at the Baths.”

Vietnamese-born lesbian artist Hanh Thi Pham refashions Buddhist imagery and precepts in her installation “Lesbian Precepts.”  More info and images:
http://cepagallery.org/exhibitions/relocatingasia/AS03.site/AS03.06.pham.1.html

Kukai (774–835), also known as Kōbō-Daishi, is a monk who founded Shingon Buddhism in Japan. He is one of Japan’s most beloved Buddhist figures, credited with everything from inventing the kana alphabet to introducing homosexuality to Japan. Kukai is shown with his male lover among the falling cherry blossoms in “Kukai” by Ryan Grant Long. It appears near the bottom of this article:
Artist paints history’s gay couples: Interview with Ryan Grant Long (Jesus in Love)


Queer Judaism
Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin’s “Jerusalem” photos draw attention to the Christian, Jewish and Muslim scriptures that threaten queer people. See:
http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2010/11/religious-threats-to-lgbt-people.html

Photos of LGBT seders and/or pride minion such as this one:
http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2011/12/happy-hanukkah-from-jesus-in-love-blog.html


Queer Islam
Rumi is a 13th-century Persian poet and Muslim mystic whose love for another man inspired some of the world’s best poems and led to the creation of a new religious order, the whirling dervishes. See:
Rumi: Poet and Sufi mystic inspired by same-sex love (Jesus in Love)

Sultan Malek al-Kamil captured St. Francis of Assisi on a trip to Egypt. At first they tried to convert each other, but each man soon recognized that the other already knew and loved God. Francis stayed for almost three weeks discussing spirituality with the sultan and his Sufi teacher Fakhr ad-din al-Farisi. Artist Robert Lentz celebrates the meeting of Islamic and Christian leaders as a model of interfaith dialogue in the icon “St. Francis and the Sultan” at these links:
St. Francis: Loving across boundaries (Jesus in Love)

“St. Francis and the Sultan” with narrative by Robert Lentz (Trinity Stores)

Gay Mohammad images were censored in 2008 from a Dutch art exhibit. Iranian-born artist Sooreh Hera was forced into hiding by death threats from Muslim extremists. She says that her images are an artistic expose of Islamic hypocrisy on homosexuality. More info:
Gay Mohammad art censored (Jesus in Love)

Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin’s “Jerusalem” photos draw attention to the Christian, Jewish and Muslim scriptures that threaten queer people. See:
http://jesusinlove.blogspot.com/2010/11/religious-threats-to-lgbt-people.html


Queer Hinduism
Many Hindu saints and deities transcend sexual and gender norms. Perhaps the most popular is Ardhanarishvara, who appears literally split down the middle as half male and half female. Get info and see images at these links:
Ardhanari at Qualia Encyclopedia of Gay Folklife:
http://www.qualiafolk.com/2011/12/08/ardhanari/

Ardhanarisvara at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarisvara

“Hindu Deities and the Third Sex” by Amara Das Wilhelm provides lots of info and images of Hindu deities, demi-gods and saints who embody the full spectrum of gender and sexual diversity, including but not limited to LGBT, queer and “third sex.” See it at the Gay and Lesbian Vaishnava Association website:
http://www.galva108.org/deities.html

The GALVA web article comes from the book “Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex: Understanding Homosexuality, Transgender Identity, And Intersex Conditions Through Hinduism” by Amara Das Wilhelm.

Images of same-sex affection between Hindu deities and Christ (including “Jesus and Lord Rama” by Alex Donis) appear in:
What if Christ and Krishna made love? (Jesus in Love)


Queer Paganism and other spiritualities
(including Native American, Indigenous, African / African-American, Latina/o, Asian and other spiritualities)

We'wha of Zuni: Two-spirit Native American bridged genders (Jesus in Love)

Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists reimagine an icon (Jesus in Love)
Art by Alma Lopez links Guadalupe to the Aztec mother goddess Tonantzin. Lopez has also done a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe as Coyolxauhqui, the Aztec moon goddess who has been interpreted as a lesbian deity.

Aztec god Xochipilli is the patron of gay men:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xochipilli

Haitian Vodou has many spirits that can be considered LGBT, queer, androgynous, dual-gendered, gender-fluid or otherwise queer. For example, Erzulie Dantor is the patron spirit for lesbians and is associated with the Black Madonna. Her more feminine sister Erzulie Freda protects and inspires gay men.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DANTOR.jpg
(Note: I am working on an in-depth article about Erzulie Dantor and the Black Madonna. Suggestions welcome!)

Brigid and Darlughdach: Celtic saint loved her female soulmate (Jesus in Love)
Raised by Druids, Saint Brigid seems to have made a smooth transition from being a pagan priestess to a Christian abbess who loved another woman.

Welsh mythology includes a gender-bending queer shamanic story of incest, rape and shape-shifting with brothers Gwydion and Gilfaethwy. Their queer adventures are included in the Mabinogion, a collection of ancient Welsh myths and legends. Artist Andrew Craig Williams has illustrated, adapted, and reclaimed their story from a contemporary queer perspective:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Blodeuben/292695
(The image of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy near the bottom was created this week specifically for inclusion on this links list.  Thanks, Andy!)

The Rabbit God from Chinese folk spirituality is considered the patron deity of the LGBT community. Info and images at Qualia Encyclopedia of Gay Folklife:
http://www.qualiafolk.com/2011/12/08/rabbit-god-temple/

Mary, Diana and Artemis: Feast of Assumption has lesbian goddess roots (Jesus in Love)
A mid-August holiday was once the festival of the Greek/Roman lesbian goddess Diana (Artemis), but it has been adapted into a feast day for the Virgin Mary.

Greek mythology has a wide variety of same-sex lovers, including Zeus and Ganymede,
Apollo and Hyacinth, and Dionysus and Ampelus. Get info and see images at:
LGBT themes in classical mythology (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_themes_in_classical_mythology

http://www.gay-art-history.org/gay-history/gay-literature/gay-mythology-folktales/homosexual-greek-mythology/homosexual-greek-mythology.html

Antinous, the young male lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian (AD 76-138), was deified after drowning in the Nile and honored with many statues, which are displayed online at:
http://www.antinoos.info

Lesbian Neopagan / Wiccan spirituality is often expressed in reverence for nature and the Divine Feminine, which is embodied in goddesses. Lesbians often connect with art that has a strong female, feminist or goddess emphasis rather than specifically lesbian content. For example, multicultural goddesses and imagined saints are illustrated by Sudie Rakusin, who has created art for various lesbian projects.  See her art at: http://sudierakusin.com/ Marie Cartier is a scholar, visual/performance artist, queer activist, writer and theologian whose visual art includes goddess imagery. Her website is: http://www.mariecartier.com/

Guide to women’s Tarot cards and decks:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/women.shtml

Pagan artist Paul B. Rucker discusses his painting “Androgyne” in his essay “People of the Rainbow: Transgender in Magick and Ritual”:
http://paulruckerart.wordpress.com/essaysarticleshybrids/people-of-the-rainbow/

Stevee Postman mixes images from nature, mythology, Neopagan and Radical Faerie culture to create images with mystical homoerotic energy:
http://stevee.com/

Guide to Tarot cards and decks that accommodate or celebrate LGBT or alternative sexual orientations:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/gay-lesbian.shtml

French artists and lovers Pierre et Gilles (Pierre and Gilles) create hand-painted photos of deities and saints from various religions as well as pop icons and figures from gay culture:
http://www.denoirmont.com/artist-pierre-et-gilles-galerie-jerome-de-noirmont.html

Australian Aboriginal spiritualities include an androgynous creator god known as the Rainbow Serpent, one of the oldest continuing religious beliefs in the world. Rock drawings of the Rainbow Serpent date back 6,000 years. The Rainbow Serpent connects with the symbolism of the LGBT rainbow flag. Image and info at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_serpent

___
Special thanks to Yvonne Aburrow, N.E. Francis and P. Sufenas Virius Lupus for pagan art recommendations.

___
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.
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

Happy 44th birthday, MCC! Photos show LGBT church history

Protestors carried a sign saying, “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free” when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to Metropolitan Community Churches in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. Pictured in the middle is Nancy Wilson of MCC. Photo by Kittredge Cherry.

Happy birthday to Metropolitan Community Churches! And thanks for 44 years ministering in the LGBT community. MCC was founded 44 years ago today on Oct. 6, 1968.

Photos from MCC history are posted today in honor of the occasion, and as a tribute to all queer people of faith who dare to believe that God loves us just as we are.

The photos here show highlights from my own ministry in MCC during the 1990s. I had the privilege of working closely with Rev. Troy Perry, the openly gay man who founded MCC. He was incredibly brave and visionary to create a church for queer people back in 1968, when homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime. He describes the founding and early years of MCC in the book Don't Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches by Troy D. Perry and Thomas Swicegood.

I joined MCC in 1985 and became an ordained minister. I served as program director at MCC San Francisco. Then I joined the denominational headquarters in Los Angeles, where I handled ecumenical and public relations, working with Troy and Rev. Nancy Wilson, who currently heads MCC as moderator.

I try to post some of my historic MCC photos every year on MCC’s anniversary. This year I am sharing many of Nancy and me doing ecumenical ministry together. The photos capture just a few moments from those memorable times.

We held protest signs and took over the microphones when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to MCC in Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 12, 1992. Nancy, pictured in the middle, seized the podium and said, “It’s easier to get into heaven than into the NCC!” She banged her fist on the podium so hard that it cracked. Protest signs in this photo say, “Stonewall Rises Again!!!” and “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free.” Pictured are, from left, John Taktikos of Axios (Orthodox gay and lesbian group), Nancy Wilson of MCC, and Lorna Cramer of Unitarian Universalists for Lesbian/Gay Concerns. Photo by Kittredge Cherry. RIP John Taktikos, who died of AIDS in October 1993.

The MCC banner is carried by Peter Trabaris and Gloria Soliz at the National Council of Churches meeting in Cleveland in Nov. 1992. The banner has the MCC logo and the words, “A Christian fellowship reaching out the gays and lesbians around the world.” Barely visible in the background is Rev. Howard Warren of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. It looks like his sign says, “Gay, lesbian and bisexual by God’s design.” The banner on the wall says, “National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.” Photo by Kittredge Cherry. RIP, Howard Warren, who died in 2003.

Here is the NCC-MCC Dialogue Committee in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. We sure look miserable. Our committee tried and failed to find common ground on homosexuality. Left to right: Bishop Clinton Hoggard (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church), Jean Marshall, Kittredge Cherry (MCC), Nancy Wilson (MCC), Laura Bailey (Disciples of Christ) and NCC staffer Eileen Lindner. Some other committee members are not pictured. RIP Bishop Hoggard, died 2002.

Ordination of Kittredge Cherry, July 1993 at MCC General Conference, Phoenix, Arizona. Ordination was done through laying on of hands by the elders. Elders pictured with me are, from left, Revs. Jean White, Don Eastman and Freda Smith. My life partner Audrey stands beside me on the far right. RIP Jean White, who died in 2010.

Close-up of my ordination from the photo above.

Happy times with Kittredge Cherry, Nancy Wilson, and my life partner Audrey at in July 1993 at MCC General Conference, Phoenix. I love the way the arch forms an arc over my head.

Nancy Wilson, left, and Kittredge Cherry advocated for LGBT rights at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991. I’m wearing headphones to listen to the translation at the multilingual event. This was the first conference that I attended after being hired as Field Director of Ecumenical Witness and Ministry for MCC.

MCC’s delegation to the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991 included, from left, Revs. Steve Pieters, Sandi Robinson, Nancy Wilson and Kittredge Cherry.

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See more of my MCC photos at these links:

Happy birthday, MCC and Desmond Tutu!  (2011)

See LGBT history in photos (2010)

Happy 40th birthday, MCC! (2008)