Queer Theology

In today’s world where the poor stay poor, the oppressed stay oppressed, and the unjust are enabled to continue wreaking havoc, it is refreshing to hear Luke 18:1-8 where it shows us that God is just. May this passage inspire you to continue fighting the fight and always do what is good and just. Episode Transcript Brian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns  B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. FS: Welcome back to the Queer Theology podcast. It is Sunday, October 20th. We are gonna take a look at Luke 18:1-8 this is episode 299, we are so close in our countdown to episode 300. We’ve got some really special announcements and stuff planned for next week. So make sure that you stay tuned for that until then, we are super stoked to be at episode 299. I can not believe how long we’ve been recording this podcast.  B: What a journey! FS: We were looking at the text for today, and I was like, “I am pretty sure we have done all of these at least three times”. And it was close to that! But today we are actually gonna do one that we haven’t done before, Luke 18:1-8, I’m gonna go ahead and read it for us now. This is from the Common English Bible. Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him, asking, ‘Give me justice in this case against my adversary.’ For a while he refused but finally said to himself, I don’t fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice because she keeps bothering me. Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me.” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Human One comes, will he find faithfulness on earth?” So what do we do with this? B: Yeah! Well before we even jump into what this passage means, or might mean. I think it’s important to preface all of that with, this is a parable, right? So by design, it is not straightforward. Some types of Christians will say, “The Bible is extremely clear. It says this or it says that.” And even when approaching parables, some folks have this expectation that there’s this one secret, hidden meaning that you have to get at and figure out what the one true correct meaning of this passage is. I even heard folks say like, “Well Jesus sometimes couldn’t come out and say exactly what he meant because He will get in trouble for it.” So yeah, he had to speak in these parables to sort of hide His message, but well if we can figure it out, so could the people who’d be getting Him in trouble. So Jesus could’ve given us a rule book of: do this, don’t do that, do this, don’t do that, but instead oftentimes Jesus tells stories. And I think stories are a really important part of what it means to be human, how we make meaning, form community, get inspired, get excited, get sad. Stories are really powerful. Obviously, you know that Shay, you have a whole theatre company dedicated to stories for social change. Just to start with that, this is a parable that by design, is not always clear. And it gets really cool because in a lot of scripture, you can come at it from different ways, and it’s especially true for parables. There’s lots of different things that you can tug at, and tease at, and pull apart. Whatever we talk about today, is just one of many interpretations. You might have a different perspective, and so if you do, we would love to hear what you think on Twitter, or Facebook, or even leave us a review on iTunes and let us know your thoughts on this passage.  But for me, one of the things that comes up is that just this constant reminder that God is a God of justice. I think justice has been perverted sometimes to people to say justice, and they mean it in a wrathful way. That like God is just, and so God will punish you. But here we see that God’s justice to help this widow, and we don’t know exactly what her concern is, it probably doesn’t matter because it’s a parable right? She wasn’t real. But God is not just in the business of justice for the sake of punishing you and threatening you with hell, but that God is a God of justice who will help you resolve the things that are bothering you and is on your side. And this is another example of over, and over, and over again we see this idea of God and justice and God being-on-our-side mattering—it’s not secondary to the gospel, it’s at the very heart of it. I’ve got some other thoughts, but Shay what about you? FS: I love this passage because I think it gives us some really, both a lot of information about God and how Jesus understood God, but also a lot of information about how to deal with unjust judges. Which I think is super helpful, right? This passage on one hand is about being faithful, continuing to pray, and that’s something that I don’t know, feels kind of church-y, and that’s fine. But also it says that “keep praying and God will listen” and that’s cute and nice. But what I love about this passage is Jesus’ commentary on this judge. This judge who doesn’t respect God or people, but he decides to give this woman what she wants, not just because she keeps bothering him but also because she’s an embarrassment to him. I think of all of the different social movements that we’ve seen were like public embarrassment and in some ways, public shame have made a huge difference. Something about being so public and bringing embarrassment on people who, for instance, are not funding FDA research on AIDS. Or who aren’t willing to bake a cake for a gay couple. Somehow that embarrassment forces them to then become just. Not because they’re good people, we are not appealing to their morality because they have none. We’re not appealing to their good hearts and if we could just be nice enough we’ll win them over. It’s like, No, we’re gonna shame them and embarrass them so badly that the only choice that they have is to do the right thing.  I think that sometimes in the niceness of politics, especially of the LGBTQ Christians, there’s this sense of “No, we just have to love people into the kingdom.” And it’s like, no sometimes we have to embarrass them into the kingdom. That’s the work. The work is to be so loud and obnoxious that they can’t ignore us. Also, embarrass them and I think that’s one of the things that Church Clarity is doing so well, right? People are embarrassed because they know that their homophobia is not cool anymore, and yet, they don’t want to change it. And so Church Clarity does this thing of being like, “No. We’re just gonna shine a big ‘ole light on to your homophobia and make you deal with it.” I think that’s a really powerful tool in our activism arsenal that I think these days doesn’t get enough traction.  B: Amen. Also, for LGBTQ people who have so often been on the receiving end of shame and embarrassment, and shame-based coercion to do things. It’s understandable that we’re like, shame is always a bad thing and no one should ever be embarrassed into doing something. I know how painful that is and I don’t want to force that upon anyone else. Going back to what we were talking about last week, and what we’re talking about constantly here that in both the time of the Hebrew Bible, and Jesus, and today, power and positionality is a thing. So the dominant culture using shame to oppressed, and control, and manipulate you for devious and exploitative ends is different than oppressed minorities using whatever tools they have available to them to take a stand for their humanity. You being shamed and embarrassed for doing something that is wrong and hurtful is a different experience than being shamed or embarrassed for this part of who you are, how you love, and how you relate to your body. In English, it’s the same words but I think even emotionally queer people being shamed for existing experience that shame in a different way than, like you were saying, the FDA who is refusing to research AIDS, or folks who won’t bake cakes for gay couples, or the CDC who is not allowed to research gun deaths, whatever that is. So that’s an important thing to note. I think also, there’s so much I would like to talk about so I don’t want to go on and on, I know folks like short podcasts, but this is not just any character in this passage, right? It’s not like Donald Trump pulling a fast one and dicking over independent contractors by not paying them. The person who’s getting their way in this passage is a widow, a widow being someone who is very vulnerable and losing a spouse now is hard enough. In this context, it would be very, very devastating. God is on the side of not just everyone, but on the side of particular people, sort of a preferential sheet, preference for the poor and that jumped out at me. FS: Yeah, I love that, right? The shame is very specific, right? It’s towards the judge with power who’s not doing the right thing; who’s abusing his power. It’s not towards the widow who is caught in this unjust “justice system”. I mean that resonates today, a lot.  B: Amen! So as we approach episode 300, if this podcast has meant anything to you, if you could do us a favor by sharing it on social media or even more better would be to go and leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcast for this: iTunes, Google podcast, Apple podcast, Stitcher. When you leave a review, a rating, and you can write a little review it helps the algorithm see the algorithm in it. It also helps folks that are considering listening to this podcast, lets them know what this is about. We get reviews from haters who leave us a one star review saying that we are sinful, and don’t know the Bible. So if this podcast has been meaningful to you, you could help us out by doing that. We would love to hear your thoughts on this and other episodes on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, all of the places, and we will talk to you next week for episode 300! Download the transcript (PDF) Today’s episode highlights: A reminder on how parables should be taken The importance and power of stories That God is the God of justice How embarrassing the oppressors is a powerful arsenal in fighting for our rights Luke 18:1-8 Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him, asking, ‘Give me justice in this case against my adversary.’ For a while he refused but finally said to himself, I don’t fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice because she keeps bothering me. Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me.” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Human One comes, will he find faithfulness on earth?” Photo by Aaron Burden The post Embarrass Them Into the Kingdom – Luke 18:1-8 appeared first on Queer Theology.

In such a short yet beautiful scripture, we are reminded that life is full of uncertainty. That there will be obstacles and sacrifices along the way before we receive what was promised to us. All of these are very relatable points for us queer folks. On that same note, we keep the faith despite being exiled because we know that we will see the promised land — someday. Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns  B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. B: Good morning! Today is Sunday, October 13th, 2019. This is episode 298 of the Queer Theology podcast. I can hardly believe how long we’ve been doing this. We’ve got some exciting announcements coming up around our episode 300, so stay tuned for that. Today we are going to be looking at Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 I will read it to you now. The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem to the few surviving elders among the exiles, to the priests and the prophets, and to all the people Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem. The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare. I’m really excited to dive into this passage because there’s a few things that I think are gonna be juicy for our listeners. So Shay, what comes up for you? FS: Yeah, I love this. You know, we’ve been talking a lot in the Bible course that we just finished. We talked a lot about understanding the historical context of scripture and how that, unless you understand the historical context, you miss a lot. And we talked about how the Hebrew scriptures, in particular, were written in exile. Right? So much of the Hebrew scriptures is about the people of Israel being taken away from their homeland and away from the land that they had been promised. Living in exile, far away from home and with people in charge of them.  So I love that we have this little tidbit of a passage, right? It’s really short, but there’s so much stuff in it and the instructions that they are being given from God, the God who has promised them that they would have their own land — a land of their own where they can worship freely, is now to settle down in this city where they are in exile. And I can just imagine how traumatic that would have been for the people to hear. And not only that but they’re being told to get married and have kids, and then help their kids get married and have kids. So we’re talking like they’re gonna be in exile for a really long time, and that’s gotta be devastating to hear that this promise that they have been waiting for is not coming anytime soon. And that even when it does come, that they probably won’t see it. But what I love is the kind of insidiousness of the end of this passage or this bit that we get, “Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile… because your future depends on its welfare.” I think that this is fascinating, right? Because they’re being told, basically to help the people who took them into exile. And I think that in the conservative Christian whatever, that I would’ve grown up hearing this it would’ve been, you know, because God has your back in the end, so it’s a way to convert them, it’s a way to be — whatever. I think that really, it’s this sense of like, no this is a survival tactic when you are outnumbered, you need to have some allies, and some protection in place. I think that this is a prophet telling the people, we’re gonna be here for a while, so figure out how to survive. And again this isn’t a sense of “get comfy here” and “just disappear into the woodwork”. This is a survival tactic, it’s a survival mechanism. I think that as people who care about justice for all and who don’t want to disappear into empire, the empire the United States, or the empire of imperialism. It’s important that we tease out the tension of these passages. It’s important to survive. Also, don’t get too comfortable. There’s all sorts of tensions here that I find really interesting. B: Yeah, it reminds me a little bit about coming out, actually, or before you come out. I think that the goal for queer folks is to be able to live fully into your truth whether that means coming out publicly, whether that means if you’re trans – transitioning stealthfully and living into your gender. Whatever living into your queer truth looks like, I think the goal is that we would leave exile, that we would leave the closet, that we would leave being hemmed in, to live into that. And also, sometimes, it’s not safe yet. That you’re financially dependent upon parents or family members, that you’re a minor living at home, that you’re at a school on a scholarship, and that’s the only way that you can afford school, and you can’t violate their codes. Sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to survive. I think that that tension that you were talking about is true for queer people. Sometimes you have to do what it takes to survive and that means not coming out or being selective in who you come out to or how you come out to. But also, not being so invested in straight supremacy that you end up reinforcing the closet that you find yourself in. That there’s this tension between, I got to do what it takes right now, but the end goal down the line is to be free from this exile. So I know that whenever we’re talking about queer folks and Christianity, or queer folks and religion. Anytime in the Bible where there’s anything about people getting married, and it’s like men marrying women I hear anti-LGBTQ people be like, “See! Look at all these examples of straight people!” and “Where are the gay people in the Bible?” That message becomes so insidious that queer folks sometimes can see that also. And this beautiful text about exile and liberation, if you run it through the wrong lens can somehow be like, “Well, what does it say about gay people?” So Shay, what would you say to people who are reading this and seeing all this talk about husbands getting married to wives, and sons finding their wives, and daughters finding husbands. What place does that have here? FS: I mean again, we have to focus on historical context, right? I’m sure that gay and queer people existed in Bible times. We know that right? B: Yup! FS: We also know that we didn’t have words or language around that. They’re not gonna talk about that probably. Also, this passage is really specific of like, we need you to procreate so that there’s more of you. B: Exactly. Yup! FS: Right? And so, we can talk about how gay people can also procreate, and that there are lots of different ways to form families. But this was a very specific line about, I need you to have a lot of babies so that the line continues. And we know, right? That even queer folks have parented children have had children. There are lots of different ways for that to happen. So these passages don’t necessarily exclude queer people even though it’s obviously very specifically about a certain type of procreation. B: Yeah. So a few weeks ago, I was on this podcast called Drunk Bible Study and they’re reading through Deuteronomy. That’s where they are in the podcast right now, and sort of reacting to it, and sort of feeling like there’s this sense of imperialism, and let go, and take and settle land that’s not yours. And one of the things that I shared with them is what we’ve been talking about in this course and throughout Queer Theology. The Hebrew Bible was written in the context of exile, and so you have to remember that these are an oppressed minority, community. Trying to struggle to survive. When you understand that, it changes the perspective like right now, in the whole world — American Christians are this political powerful force. So it looks a lot different to say to a politically powerful religious group to let go, and live there, and settle, and reproduce, and spread, and take over. We’re this really small, fragile community, struggling to survive. What does it mean to define our ethnic identity and want to reproduce so that we don’t literally die of? Remembering the historical context is so, so important. I think, for me, enriches scripture, it doesn’t diminish it. That bringing this whole history to it is a sacred thing to do. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters.  FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) In this episode, we talk about: How even people in the past had to make sacrifices in a situation they weren’t ready for The importance of knowing and understanding the historical context of a scripture; Hebrew was written in the context of exile How this scripture is very related to coming out as queer That the queer folks existed during the Bible days Procreation extends beyond the union of a man and a woman Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem to the few surviving elders among the exiles, to the priests and the prophets, and to all the people Nebuchadnezzar had taken to Babylon from Jerusalem. The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare. Photo by Toa Heftiba The post Settling Down & Surviving – Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 appeared first on Queer Theology.

Oftentimes the LGBTQ community gets called out and shamed for our sexuality and the choices we make around it — enter, the clobber passages. Because of this, it’s very important that we know how to read the Bible and understand its context to protect ourselves and strengthen our faith. Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns  B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. B: Hey, there! Today is Sunday, October 6, 2019. Today we are going to be looking at 2 Timothy 1:1-14. I will read it to you now from the Common English Bible. From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, to promote the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear child. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I’m grateful to God, whom I serve with a good conscience as my ancestors did. I constantly remember you in my prayers day and night. When I remember your tears, I long to see you so that I can be filled with happiness. I’m reminded of your authentic faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. I’m sure that this faith is also inside you. Because of this, I’m reminding you to revive God’s gift that is in you through the laying on of my hands. God didn’t give us a spirit that is timid but one that is powerful, loving, and self-controlled. So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about the Lord or of me, his prisoner. Instead, share the suffering for the good news, depending on God’s power. God is the one who saved and called us with a holy calling. This wasn’t based on what we have done, but it was based on his own purpose and grace that he gave us in Christ Jesus before time began. Now his grace is revealed through the appearance of our savior, Christ Jesus. He destroyed death and brought life and immortality into clear focus through the good news. I was appointed a messenger, apostle, and teacher of this good news. This is also why I’m suffering the way I do, but I’m not ashamed. I know the one in whom I’ve placed my trust. I’m convinced that God is powerful enough to protect what he has placed in my trust until that day. Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you heard from me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Protect this good thing that has been placed in your trust through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Oh my gosh, Shay. I can not, can not wait to dive into this. There’s so much in this passage. I knew kind of a little bit about what I wanted to talk about beforehand, and reading it, there was like “more, more, more”. So I can’t wait! What’s your LGBTQ Christian take on 2 Timothy? FS: I mean, first of all, I love this lineage of ancestors in this very first part. That’s the thing that always jumps out at me first when I read this passage both Paul saying, “I’m grateful to God, whom I serve with a good conscience as my ancestors did.”, but also this calling out of where Timothy’s faith comes from, right? His grandmother, his mother. Often 2 Timothy is attributed to Paul, and Paul the kind of anti-woman person that he is often made out to be in this passage is calling on the very genuine, and rich, and authentic faith of two powerful women. That’s where Timothy’s, not only where his faith comes from, but also this gift that is in him to do this work. I think that that’s really beautiful and it makes me think of both the ancestors in my life of faith, and also the ancestors in my life of queer and transness. Specifically, the women that I’ve learned from. I think that’s a really powerful reminder, it’s a moment to reflect on, and give thanks for those people that have influenced my faith, and that have helped me stay in it in the midst of suffering, and in the midst of kind of rethinking and reframing my faith that I had to do from childhood, and teen years, to today. In order to have a faith that is actually good news and life-giving. You know, that’s really hard work and I’ve had a lot of mentors along the way who have helped me at pivotal points both mentors in person, but also mentors from books that I’ve read, and from preachers that I’ve heard. I think it’s important to reflect on that every once in a while to give thanks, to remember on whose shoulders I stand, and in whose lineage I am. And that’s really powerful. So that’s the first thing that comes up for me. What about for you, I know that you got multiple things? B: Haha yeah! So one of the first things that jumped out at me is reading the Bible literally versus metaphorically, and a certain type of Christian often says that they read the Bible literally and then turn around and read it very metaphorically in all of the places that are very clearly literal. So what they actually mean by literal is “I’m gonna pick and choose what I want to emphasize, but I’m gonna call that literal because it sounds better.” Paul is a literal prisoner, he’s not a prisoner in his sin, or shame, or whatever. He is literally been a prisoner, and that’s so important to remember to think about the way in which everyone in America for the most part, looks at prisoners, or “criminals”, or breaking the law. We hear, see protest happening especially if it’s queer folks, people of color, poor people, immigrants, it’s like “Oh, why can’t they just do it in a way that doesn’t break the law.” Right? People really have this, my propensity towards “law and order”, and we look down on prisoners. The whole Bible, we talked about this last week, is full of love and liberation for prisoners. This idea of then Paul later is talking about, “Don’t be ashamed of the gospel. Please don’t be ashamed of me.” Paul had a reason why people might be ashamed. People are looking down upon him, he’s been in prison, he’s a persecuted religious and political minority. So this isn’t Christians who have lots of political power in the US. Thinking like, “Oh, my co-workers don’t get it that I like don’t drink a lot.” You know? They think it’s kinda weird that I go to Bible saying, that’s not the shame we’re talking about here. The shame of growing up queer or trans in a world that completely marginalizes, erases, mocks us. The shame of having HIV, of living with HIV. The shame of who you are and how you exist in the world being this thing that is scorned. We queer people know shame.  A little while ago we did an issue of our digital magazine Spit & Spirit, all about pride and shame, which you can get at queertheology.com/pride. Looking at like, God is powerful, and God can protect us, and this like who we are that might be a source of shame for us, is actually a source of pride, and power, and goodness. So I think that’s the message for queer folks [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters.  FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) In this episode, we talk about: Find “your people.” Find people who will inspire you and help you strengthen your faith especially when it’s being shamed and challenged Acknowledge the people who have helped you How queer folks reflect on shame Check queertheology.com/pride for a little inspiration about pride and shame 2 Timothy 1:1-14 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, to promote the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear child. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I’m grateful to God, whom I serve with a good conscience as my ancestors did. I constantly remember you in my prayers day and night. When I remember your tears, I long to see you so that I can be filled with happiness. I’m reminded of your authentic faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. I’m sure that this faith is also inside you. Because of this, I’m reminding you to revive God’s gift that is in you through the laying on of my hands. God didn’t give us a spirit that is timid but one that is powerful, loving, and self-controlled. So don’t be ashamed of the testimony about the Lord or of me, his prisoner. Instead, share the suffering for the good news, depending on God’s power. God is the one who saved and called us with a holy calling. This wasn’t based on what we have done, but it was based on his own purpose and grace that he gave us in Christ Jesus before time began. Now his grace is revealed through the appearance of our savior, Christ Jesus. He destroyed death and brought life and immortality into clear focus through the good news. I was appointed a messenger, apostle, and teacher of this good news. This is also why I’m suffering the way I do, but I’m not ashamed. I know the one in whom I’ve placed my trust. I’m convinced that God is powerful enough to protect what he has placed in my trust until that day. Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you heard from me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Protect this good thing that has been placed in your trust through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Photo by Jacqueline Day The post Gender, Shame, and Faith – 2 Timothy 1:1-14 appeared first on Queer Theology.

This is another special episode as we are going to read three different passages. Different, and yet they fit nicely together. Somehow these passages form a beautiful reminder that God is in our midst and is for us: the oppressed, the minority, and the marginalized. Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns . B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. B: Hello, hello,  hello! Today is Sunday, September 29, 2019. We are going to be doing something a little bit different this week. We’re gonna be actually reading three different passages: 2 from Psalms and 1 from Amos. As we were looking over the text over this week, we found that they just went really nicely together. Sort of came at same idea from a few different angles. We wanted to talk about them all. So we are going to do a little popcorn back and forth. I will read to you right now, Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16. Living in the Most High’s shelter, camping in the Almighty’s shade, I say to the Lord, “You are my refuge, my stronghold! You are my God—the one I trust!” God will save you from the hunter’s trap and from deadly sickness. God will protect you with his pinions; you’ll find refuge under his wings. His faithfulness is a protective shield. Don’t be afraid of terrors at night, arrows that fly in daylight, or sickness that prowls in the dark, destruction that ravages at noontime. God says, “Because you are devoted to me, I’ll rescue you. I’ll protect you because you know my name. Whenever you cry out to me, I’ll answer. I’ll be with you in troubling times. I’ll save you and glorify you. I’ll fill you full with old age. I’ll show you my salvation.” FS: And I’m going to read for us Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Doom to those resting comfortably in Zion and those trusting in Mount Samaria, the chiefs of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on their couches, eat lambs from the flock, and bull calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and, like David, compose tunes on musical instruments; who drink bowls of wine, put the best of oils on themselves, but who aren’t grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore, they will now be the first to be taken away, and the feast of those who lounged at the table will pass away. B: And this is Psalm 146 Praise the Lord! Let my whole being praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with all my life; I will sing praises to my God as long as I live. Don’t trust leaders; don’t trust any human beings— there’s no saving help with them! Their breath leaves them, then they go back to the ground. On that very same day, their plans die too. The person whose help is the God of Jacob— the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God— is truly happy! God: the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, God: who is faithful forever, who gives justice to people who are oppressed, who gives bread to people who are starving! The Lord: who frees prisoners. The Lord: who makes the blind see. The Lord: who straightens up those who are bent low. The Lord: who loves the righteous. The Lord: who protects immigrants, who helps orphans and widows, but who makes the way of the wicked twist and turn! The Lord will rule forever! Zion, your God will rule from one generation to the next! Praise the Lord! This is the word of the Lord! Amen! FS: Yeah! I’m so struck by, I mean, you have this passage, freeing prisoners, protecting immigrants, helping orphans and widows, and this idea that Bible isn’t political. It’s just blown out of the water, right? We see this over and over again. That you can’t say that the Bible doesn’t talk about politics. All three of these passages are about kings, and people with political power, and people with a lot of money, and who God is on the side of, and God is clearly on the side of the people who are most oppressed and marginalized. And so, we have this beautiful reminder of that in all three of these passages. B: Yeah, so a few weeks ago, we posted a graphic on Instagram that said: “The gospel is good news.” The caption talked about how the Bible has often been used against us, but that we see in it, from Genesis to Revelation, a good news. That God is with us and for us. And someone commented, and this isn’t the first time we’ve gotten a comment like this, that there’s just so much bad stuff in the Bible and it’s been used against us so much. How can you say that it’s good news? It’s passages like these right? It’s important to remember that these are three passages, we haven’t even looked at Luke 4 or Isaiah. There’s other parts of Amos and all of Exodus, right? The entirety of the gospels that, you know, it’s not these isolated, there’s not like one verse, right? I think there are six verses that people point to and say that homosexuality is a sin and there’s one or two about trans folks that people sometimes try and twist and point to. I think that those are really stretches, we don’t spend a lot of time talking about the clobber passages because, a) it’s been written about ad infinitum for decades, and that we get stuck in those cycles of missing what the Bible has to say about us. If you want to take a look about those clobber passages in particular, we have some resources at queertheology.com/apologetics. But I think it can be tempting to say that these political passages are the exemptions. No! The political passages are sort of the heart of the Bible. What I love about this is that God is our shade, our refuge, our stronghold. God is our shield, God will protect us from terror at night. It’s not queer people who should be scared about God. God is on our side and it’s not just everyday folks that are like, maybe I didn’t say the prayer the right way and God hates me, and then I’ll go to hell. No! God is on our side. It’s people that are sort of, puffing themselves up, profiting off of the masses while the rest of us are suffering. It’s people who are, you know, camps at the border, it’s people who are supporting ex-gay ministries, I’m looking at you Bethel. So, God is very clearly on our side both on a personal level and on a political level. FS: And this is another of those times where I think it’s really important to understand that pretty much the entire context of the Bible is, it was written by people who are in oppressed communities. It was written by them for their communities. Trying to make sense of the bad things that were happening. Trying to encourage and lift up those communities. I think it’s really dangerous when the Bible becomes a tool for those empowered to further oppressed people because that was never who it was written for, that was never how it was intended to be used. It’s really important that those of us from the marginalized and oppressed communities, remember that we are the intended audience for these passages of hope and comfort. That they were written to people like us in another time. Obviously, also then be willing to confront the places in our own lives where we are people in power who are oppressing others, right? That’s a both/and. But you know, like you said, it’s not queer and trans folks that should be afraid of the judgement of God. It’s the people that are oppresing queer and trans folks and making laws to take our rights away and to make us unsafe. The people that are hateful towards us all the time.  B: Yeah, so we are exactly halfway through this journey into the Bible course on How to Read the Bible that you are leading. It’s been really exciting to dive into the Bible with these group of students. We’re looking at stuff just like this. In this course, we talk a lot on this podcast about the political context and looking at it in its time and we get these sort of glimpses of it… We’re doing a different verse every week and our episodes are relatively short. It’s been exciting to dive deeper into what is that context specifically, and who specifically was it for, and what was happening, and what else is going on there. I have done a lot of studying, I study religion in college, and have been doing faith-based activism for the past 10 years, and studying under pastors and theologians, and even I am learning new stuff in this course. That’s been really exciting. Obviously, it’s in session but it will be coming back probably next year. We’re also going to be doing one that looks specifically at queering the Bible. So if you’re interested in learning more about that, getting on the waitlist, finding out when it comes back. You can go to queertheology.com/biblecourse. We will keep you posted on when we’re doing this bad boy again, it’s been so much fun and such a blessing to go through this with you Shay, leading it and with all the folks inside the Sanctuary Collective. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters.  FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) This episode highlights: Who God is in on the side of How the clobber passages are always twisted and used against queer folks. If you want to read about it, you can check it at queertheology.com/apologetics The importance of knowing the context of the passage, who it was written for, in what circumstance it was written Bible and politics We are already halfway through the Bible course on How to Read the Bible, and we will be doing this again (as it had been so much fun and eye-opening) sometime next year. To keep posted, join the waitlist at queertheology.com/biblecourse. Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 Living in the Most High’s shelter, camping in the Almighty’s shade, I say to the Lord, “You are my refuge, my stronghold! You are my God—the one I trust!” God will save you from the hunter’s trap and from deadly sickness. God will protect you with his pinions; you’ll find refuge under his wings. His faithfulness is a protective shield. Don’t be afraid of terrors at night, arrows that fly in daylight, or sickness that prowls in the dark, destruction that ravages at noontime. God says, “Because you are devoted to me, I’ll rescue you. I’ll protect you because you know my name. Whenever you cry out to me, I’ll answer. I’ll be with you in troubling times. I’ll save you and glorify you. I’ll fill you full with old age. I’ll show you my salvation.” Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Doom to those resting comfortably in Zion and those trusting in Mount Samaria, the chiefs of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! who lie on beds of ivory, stretch out on their couches, eat lambs from the flock, and bull calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and, like David, compose tunes on musical instruments; who drink bowls of wine, put the best of oils on themselves, but who aren’t grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore, they will now be the first to be taken away, and the feast of those who lounged at the table will pass away. Psalm 146 Praise the Lord! Let my whole being praise the Lord! I will praise the Lord with all my life; I will sing praises to my God as long as I live. Don’t trust leaders; don’t trust any human beings— there’s no saving help with them! Their breath leaves them, then they go back to the ground. On that very same day, their plans die too. The person whose help is the God of Jacob— the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God— is truly happy! God: the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, God: who is faithful forever, who gives justice to people who are oppressed, who gives bread to people who are starving! The Lord: who frees prisoners. The Lord: who makes the blind see. The Lord: who straightens up those who are bent low. The Lord: who loves the righteous. The Lord: who protects immigrants, who helps orphans and widows, but who makes the way of the wicked twist and turn! The Lord will rule forever! Zion, your God will rule from one generation to the next! Praise the Lord! Photo by Artem Sapegin The post Beautiful Reminder – Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146 appeared first on Queer Theology.

Today’s episode is a special one as we get a break from the usual Sunday lectionary readings. Fr. Shay and Brian answer some deep and riveting, queer-related questions. AND we are excited to announce that this episode holds a HUGE giveaway. Stay tuned to learn more! Episode Transcript Brian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. Good morning! Today is Sunday, September 22nd and I’m so glad to have you all hear for another episode of the Queer Theology podcast. We’re going to break from the lectionary today to do another Q&A episode and we’ve got an exciting announcement. In this episode, we’re gonna touch upon some of the Christian books that were influential to us. You know, when Shay and I first were growing up and coming up, there just weren’t many, if any, books that were written by and for LGBT Christians. Thankfully, that is changing and so we reached out to a bunch of our friends who have written some books that we think are stellar. We are putting together a mega giveaway! So you can see everything that’s included, and enter at queertheology.com/giveaway. The grand prize is a powerpack of seven books, most of them we got signed by the authors for you, and they are:   1. Radical Love by Patrick Cheng 2. Queer Virtue by Liz Edman 3. Transforming by Austen Hartke 4. One Coin Found by Emmy Kegler 5. Outside the Lines by Mihee Kim-Kort 6. Our Lives Matter by Pamela R. Lightsey 7. Transgender Theology Ministry and Communities of Faith by Justin Tanis It’s a really awesome collection of books, I think. The grand prize also includes a “God is Love” shirt, some LGBTQ Christian theme stickers, and a year of subscription to Sanctuary Collective. Which if you don’t already know, in addition to being a supported international online community, also comes with resources like: Resurrecting Faith, An LGBTQ Christian Guide to Self Care, all 12 issues of our digital magazine Spit & Spirit which covers everything, from Sin & Grace, to Pride & Shame, to Sex & Bodies, to Crucifixion & Resurrection, and more. We are constantly adding to Sanctuary Collective, we got a really cool lineup of stuff coming out next year, so the prize pack is gonna be pretty awesome. So the giveaway is totally free to enter. All you have to do is go to queertheology.com/giveaway. So pause the podcast right now and go do that! Tell you friends. There will be a few runner up prices, so make sure that you head over to queertheology.com/giveaway and enter now. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s jump into the questions. I am excited to be doing another Q&A episode today we’ve got a few good questions to dive into. This is something we’re gonna be doing from time to time in the podcast. So if you have a question that you would like featured, just shoot us an email at connect@queertheology.com. Let us know if it’s a question for the podcast and we will include it here. So this first question is from Sarah whose a member of Sanctuary Collective, which you can learn more about at queertheology.com/community, and she asks: “Do you have any attachments to specific saints or theologians, who are they and why?” Shay, I know you’ve got a bug I think, but what’s your response to this? FS: I do! You know, growing up I was in a tradition that did not do saints, right? So it’s been fun over the last couple of years to discover the meaning of saints and figuring out how to connect to that. I think that my saints are, some of them are actual canonized by the Roman Catholic church saints and some of them are just people that I consider meaningful and have had an impact on my life. So I think of folks like Dorothy Day, Daniel and Philip Berrigan, all Roman Catholics who did a ton of work around justice issues, and caring for the poor. Those folks are super important to my life and have impacted my journey. So those are probably some of my favorite, more modern saints. I’m a big fan of Doubting Thomas, and his story, and I’ve written a lot about Thomas and Jesus’ scars in the midst of that. So yeah, those are the saints that come first to mind. Do you have any particular saints, Brian? B: Before I get into that though, you wrote a little bit about doubting Thomas in your book, Walking Towards Resurrection. Where can folks get that? FS: That’s on our website, we have a bunch of different options there. We did an ebook version, I read an audiobook version you can do a bundle that will get you all of that, and that’s at queertheology.com/resurrection. Folks have seemed to really resonate with it and found it meaningful, both trans and non trans folks. So yeah, if you wanna pick that up. B: Yeah! I remember the first time I heard you talk about Doubting Thomas and also this passage from Ezekiel, I was like, “Holy shit! Shay is not just regurgitating stuff other people have said before he is creating new theology right here in front of me.” It was amazing and I love it! I highly recommend that. I would also second Dorothy Day, I think for me some theologians that have been super influential in me, Dr. James Cone for sure, one of the founders of liberation theology, definitely Black Liberation theology here in America and abroad. Like, hugely transformative in a way that I understand the gospel, and reminds me of that scene in the scriptures were like, the scales fall off of Paul’s eyes. And I was like, oh yeah! I can see this all in a new way now. What was so clearly there all along and I somehow missed before. I think that our work at Queer Theology is definitely, forever indebted to the work of Cone and other Liberation Theologians. More recently in my journey, Patrick Cheng and Marcella Althaus-Reid, to queer theologians, Patrick’s big book is Radical Love and Maricela’s book is The queer God which is super, super dense. I’m like, a lot to get through, but really expanding the way that I think about God, and sex, and relationships, and how that all puts together in the ways in which things already queer. Christianity has always been queer, so those have been huge for me I think. FS: Yeah, I am really indebted to, and frankly these books are a little bit dated, but Robert Goss’ Jesus Acted Up and the Queer Christ, were really transformative for me. Especially in shifting out of this sense of apologetics and the clober passages, to a more expansive understanding of what theology could be and what queer theology could be. So his books are, like I said, some of the language is a little bit dated specially around gender identity, but a really great first intro into queer theology. Also, Justin Tanis’ book on Transgender in the Church is still the best book that I’ve read around trans 101 theology and also about how to make your church more inclusive for trans folks. That book was just republished, so it’s available again which means we’re so excited to have it. So I highly recommend that one too. Those books were really transformative for me, and then I think, even deeper than that I’m really enjoying the Rob Bell’s newest book on the Bible, that’s been super helpful. And I think a lot of the folks that came out of the radical left in the 60’s and 70’s, their theology still speaks and screams today at the American church in particular. So the writings of Dorothy Day and the Berrigan brothers are still super influential for me. B: Yeah, I think for me, the years before I came out and the first years after I came out, I spent a lot of time hashing and rehashing those clobber passages and reading all these books about apologetics. I didn’t really make much movement, from the time that I first had this inkling that I liked boys until a few years after I came out. It was really starting to look at moving away from apologetics and into queer theology, liberation theology. Listening to actual queer people talk about their faith, rather than just constantly defending at against or what I am not, made all of the difference and how things started to click into place. So I definitely recommend that for you. So let’s move on to the next question, shall we? FS: Yeah! Let’s do it. This one comes from Miranda and the question is: “How can we love our neighbors when our opinions and beliefs are so different? It’s so hard to find the good when our heads are butting so much.” B: Oh! I feel this! FS: Yes! B: Friends, neighbors, family altogether. I think one thing, sort of mental shifts that’s been helpful for me is switching from the idea of there are good people and there are bad people, to we are all people doing our best, hopefully with what we’ve got. All of us, whether the people that we might traditionally label as good or bad have redeeming qualities, and they do stuff that’s hurtful and harmful. I like to think of myself as a good person, but if I only ever think of myself and my loved ones as good people, then I don’t notice the ways in which I participate in white supremacy, sexism, even cis-supremacy right? So focusing less on judging the person’s whole entire character, and more about getting specific on actions and impact has been helpful for me. So then I can love in whatever ways that looks like the person while not condoning bad stuff that they do, I think. What about you Shay? FS: I think for me, it’s figuring out what this relationship look like with folks that have harmful and oppressive views, and realizing that a) I don’t have to be in relationship with everyone. That’s been really impactful even thinking around family, right? My family is not owed a relationship with me if they continue to react in ways that are harmful to my well-being. I think also figuring out that there are places where I can have conversations and be in some type of relationships with folks, but I am no longer willing to engage around certain issues because I know that folks minds are unwilling to change. So that it is unhealthy for me to continue to engage around those things. I also think that sometimes frictive relationships are important when we’re doing the work of justice, meaning that if white people are called to confront white supremacy all the time, and then it’s our job to do that so that people of color don’t have to do that. So it’s important that we don’t sweep bad views under the rug so that we can have a happy relationship with our neighbors or with our racist Uncle. You also have to figure out the safety and what is healthy for you. We have some great resources on our website around self-care, you can go to queertheology.com/selfcare. There are some courses and workbooks and articles, and if you think that you might need that. Especially around dealing with family and unaffirming family, I recommend that you check out those resources. B: Yeah, all of what you said and I think like, to be in a relationship with someone, vulnerability is so important and also people have to earn our vulnerability. So, like you were saying, not everyone is owed that. Also to your point of that sometimes some friction and tension in relationships is good and important thing. Knowing when you’ve got that to give and when you don’t, and I know for me, sometimes I’m just unwilling or unable to debate the rightness of my queerness or my polyness. So I’m probably more likely to take a bow out on that one, and then recognizing that sometimes it will be hard to confront family and friends about racism and transphobia, but I’m not personally affected by it. It’s not my character or life on the line there, so I feel called into that space to have those conversations and step into that conflict. So figuring out when those moments that you want to lean in and when are the moments when you wanna tap out all the while, like Shay said, figuring out the important boundaries, healthy boundaries. There’s all that at queertheology.com/selfcare. All the while that you’re doing all of that, sort of trying to see the good in people even while identifying the real harm that comes from their actions or their policies or their votes sometimes. FS: Yes. So those are the questions for this time. Reminder if you’ve got questions that you want us to feature on the podcast, connect@queertheology.com. Let us know that it’s a question for the podcast and we’ll do one of these again soon. B: Remember to go to queertheology.com/giveaway to enter our LGBTQ Christian book giveaway. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters. FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) In this episode, we dived into: Attachments to saints and theologians People who are influential to us Handling relationships with families, friends, and neighbors Fr. Shay’s book: Walking Towards Resurrection, which you can check at queertheology.com/resurrection Recommended links to check out: queertheology.com/selfcare and queertheology.com/community Plus details to the mega giveaway, details on all the prizes, and how to enter. Visit queertheology.com/giveaway Also, if you have questions for us that you’d like to be featured in one of our podcast episodes, please send them over to connect@queertheology.com, and make sure to let us know that this question is for the podcast. Photo by Claudia The post Q&A + Book Giveaway appeared first on Queer Theology.

Day by day, the scripture reminds us to always find a way to reach out to others, be there for the underprivileged, and be present with the oppressed. It’s a blessing to be accepted, affirmed and be found, but equally (if not more) a blessing to find the lost and embrace them with love and acceptance. Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. B: Hello, hello, hello! Today is Sunday, September 15th 2019, we’re going to be taking a look at Luke 15:1-10. I’ll read it to you now and it’s also available through the show notes of this episode at queertheology.com/294 if you want to read along there. All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives. “Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life.” Shay, what do we do with this? FS: I am so intrigued to read this passage again. You know, this is one that was read all the time when I was growing up in my church. I feel like I have heard sermons on this passage for years and years and years and years. I mean you know, they often centered on converting people… B: Yuuuppp! FS: …and there’s this need to evangelize, and witness, and share our faith. Just a lot about that. I’m actually preaching on this passage this Sunday and have been thinking a lot about what’s a new take on it, is there a new take on it, and what do I wanna say. You know, I’m part of a Lutheran church, an older congregation — probably in a lot of ways shrinking congregation. I think that many mainline churches that are shrinking, there’s a lot of anxiety about: how do we get more people to come to our church, how do we grow our numbers. It’s this sense of we just have to fill the congregation, right? I’m struck by both these stories that Jesus tells. The message isn’t: “Be really great and get a lot of people to come into your congregation.” It’s like, “There are lost people out there, go and find them, and be where they are.” So I’m struck by that kind of turn around especially for the kind of liberal mainline church who are not comfortable with ideas like witnessing and converting people. What does it look like to then live in a world in such a way that you’re going out after people who are lost. And I don’t think of lost in a sense of like non-Christians. I think of lost in a sense of people who are experiencing despair, or who are searching for meaning and don’t know how to find it, or who are trapped in their lives and feeling depressed about that. What is it that we have to offer that could be helpful for them. It’s about going and being with people in those spaces and not necessarily like bringing them in into our congregation. And I think that that has to be the conversation. These ideas can’t be transactional anymore. They can’t be: “I’m going to be nice to you, so you join my church and save it from dying.” It’s gonna have to be: “What does it mean to live out in our faith in new ways when so many people don’t wanna come to church on Sunday morning?” That’s not exactly a queer take, but that’s something tthat I’m really thinking about for my own context for this Sunday. What about you? B: Yeah, I also heard of this passage a lot growing up. Sometimes it was, they would tell us that we are supposed to be excited about when we converted people or like if we’re good Christians our whole lives and some terrible person became a Christian at the end of their life, they still could go to heaven and God will almost be happy. It sounds like a good thing, but also, there’s a twinge with this like, I don’t know, weird jealousy or something. I was super, super involved in young life growing up and they have these summer camps for a week at a time. We’re like bringing out high school kids from all around the country and the target audience is people who are not evangelical Christians, to try and convert them. And literally, at the end of the week, they have people who have decided to “give their life over to Jesus”, like stand up and everyone claps and they play music and it’s like a literal celebration. The waters that we swim in are tainited by conservative, fundamentalist, and evangelical Christianity. So it’s really tempting to feel like that’s the real version of Christianity and our understanding of it is somehow like an adaptation. I wanna push back on that like that evangelical Christianity as we know today is relatively modern invention like within the past 100-200 years, right? I remember a few years ago, one of my boy friends from college have been not out for a long time. We were in our late 20s and he came out. I remember saying, “Oh! The angels are celebrating in heaven today! So and so, came out.” I do see this parallel between coming out or embracing your LGBTQ identity, and being found. Before we come out, we’re like literally separated from the queer community. We are literally separated. From any of us for are in anti-LGBT versions of Christianity. We’re like separated from a faith that is giving us life, so we’re like in this place of metaphoric darkness. We need a woman to come bring her lamp out to come find the coin that’s missing right? It’s dark, and scary, and depressing, and there’s all sorts of research that shows that not being accepted and affirmed in your queer identity has negative mental, physical, and health repurcussions. And so, we’ve got this good news of the gospel of tthe queer Jesus Christ. So I thought that: A. To you point earlier, it’s a good thing to share it. And not to share it in a, say this prayer with and you become a Christian, and then it stops there. But like, we have light, we have healing, we have community. If you’re alone or hurting or in despair, as you were saying, or have needs to be meeting, as you as well say elsewhere. This is a place that we should come together and celebrate this beloved community. That’s my, I guess slightly more queer ttake on tthis passage. I also find some real insight into coming back to these passages, and realizing like oh no, the Bible is alive, all of it,from Genesis to Revelation for LGBTQ people and there is a good word in there for us too. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters. FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) In this episode, we touched on: The anxiety that some churches feel over the decreasing number of churchgoers Finding the “lost” and how we should help How embracing LGBTQ folks is in the same lens as being found Luke 15:1-10 All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives. “Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life.” Photo by Garrett Sears The post Being Found – Luke 15:1-10 appeared first on Queer Theology.

When faced with tremendous pressure and issues in life, it sometimes becomes difficult to see past the pain, the anxiety and the stress. But luckily, we have been blessed to have the chance to choose life and choose who we surround ourselves with, in this life. Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. Hello, hello, hello! Today is Sunday, September 8, 2019 we’re going to be looking at Deuteronomy 30:15-20. I will read it to you now from the Common English Bible. Look here! Today I’ve set before you life and what’s good versus death and what’s wrong. If you obey the Lord your God’s commandments that I’m commanding you right now by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments, his regulations, and his case laws, then you will live and thrive, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and so are misled, worshipping other gods and serving them, I’m telling you right now that you will definitely die. You will not prolong your life on the fertile land that you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life—so that you and your descendants will live— by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him. That’s how you will survive and live long on the fertile land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Okay Shay, there’s some interesting messages in here. What do you make of this? FS: Yeah, I mean obviously the first thing that comes to mind is just the beauty of this idea of choosing life, and that life and death are set before us, and that we have the opportunity to choose life for ourselves. I think that’s really beautiful. I think that this idea of listening to your heart and trusting your heart to be able to choose life is beautiful and I think important especially for queer and trans folks who are often taught to not trust our bodies and our hearts. Instead, we are supposed to just trust things external to us. But I also think that there’s something here about, my sense is that this was around the time when the Hebrew people, the Israelites are about to be sent into exile again. Or have been wandering. There’s also the sense that by staying close to the community, by doing this work of choosing life, that’s what’s gonna help them survive all of the hardships that are ahead. I think that stuck out to me on this read. I think in a tumultuous American time, particularly, this sense of choosing life, of investing in your community, of doing the things that will give you survival is really resonating and sticking out to me. B: Yeah, you know, we talked in one of the past few weeks about how many of us grew up a conservative type of Christian and got messages about what the Bible meant and was saying. So it’s really easy for me to see this and say, oh by walking in the ways of God, and keeping God’s commandments, God’s regulations, and God’s case laws, then you’ll live. That the evangelical church gets to define what all of that means? This is a beautiful message for people living in this time, and now we’re living in a different time. We have to figure out what does that means for us. I love what you saying about being in excile, being vulnerable, and keeping in the community. I think about how the queer community is such a vibrant life-giving thing for so many people. That part of what is so devastating about the closet is that you’re like cut off from this community of people who are like you, who have been there before you, who understand what you’re going through, who have made the mistakes so that you might not have to. And so, in many ways, coming out of the closet, or choosing to transition, or getting connected to other queer folks, is choosing life. It’s not about, you have to choose this version of God’s commandments that some pastor on TV tells you is the right way to honor God. But look in front of yourselves, and see what’s good, and see the blessings in your life, and choose to be connected to that. I often say, just choose life. We know the research about what happens if you accept or don’t accept your queer kids. We know the research about accepting yourself as a queer person. We know the research about having supportive friends. Just choose life! I say it all the time. Part of that is an intellectual choice to say, believe good things about yourself and hold on to theology that is life-giving. Part of that is like what Shay is talking about, be in community with people who will take care of you, and nourish you, and understand you, and walk alongside you. Just like the importance of being in communion with queer Christians is so, so, so, so important. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters. FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) Today, we talked about: The beautiful opportunity we have to choose life How choosing life relates to queer and trans folks The importance of being in community with queer folks instead of keeping to yourself Living as queer while surrounding yourself with supportive people will make things a little bit easier We’ve looked into this same passage before which you can listen to here. Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Look here! Today I’ve set before you life and what’s good versus death and what’s wrong. If you obey the Lord your God’s commandments that I’m commanding you right now by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments, his regulations, and his case laws, then you will live and thrive, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and so are misled, worshipping other gods and serving them, I’m telling you right now that you will definitely die. You will not prolong your life on the fertile land that you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life—so that you and your descendants will live— by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him. That’s how you will survive and live long on the fertile land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Photo by Pablo Heimplatz The post What does it mean to choose life? – Deuteronomy 30:15-20 appeared first on Queer Theology.

Honoring marriage or a relationship is not only for straight relationships. More often than not, people who are in queer relationships take faithfulness even more seriously. This episode also shares how there are more important things to focus on in this world than to nit-pick other people’s relationships. Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. FS: Hello and welcome back to the Queer Theology podcast this week we’re taking a look at the text for Sunday, September 1st. We’re gonna look at Hebrews 13:1-8, and I’m gonna read it for us now. Keep loving each other like family. Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this, some have been hosts to angels without knowing it. Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place. Marriage must be honored in every respect, with no cheating on the relationship, because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery. Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. This is why we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper, and I won’t be afraid. What can people do to me? Remember your leaders who spoke God’s word to you. Imitate their faith as you consider the way their lives turned out. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! So let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise through him, which is the fruit from our lips that confess his name. Don’t forget to do good and to share what you have because God is pleased with these kinds of sacrifices. B: Oh man! FS: There’s a lot in here! B: Yeah. We’re reading this passage and I’m like, yeah, love each other like family, this is going to be great, we’re gonna talk about queer chosen family, open up your homes to guests, yes! Remember prisoners, the mistreated, and then I can almost hear in my head this record scratch, eerrr eerrr talking about marriage and I realize in myself that despite being a Christian my whole life and openly queer for over a decade — oh my God, 15 years at this point — closer to 2 decades than 1 — and I’ve been open and polyamorous for eight-plus years. I’m finding that sometimes my extinct is to clench up a little bit whenever marriage or relationship are talked about in the Bible because I don’t always trust it. And then I realize, oh wait! Marriage must be honored in every respect like no cheating on the relationship. I was like, oh yeah! I actually do take relationships and commitment in a relationship very, very seriously. I think sometimes even more serious than people who are monogamously married. And there is no cheating in my relationship, and I don’t know, I can’t say for certain whether or not, the author of this passage intended to be endorsing queer-polyamorous relationships to millennia in the future. But I do know that if you look at the spirit of this, that actually queer & polyamorous relationships fit right into this and are not so antithetical to it as folks might assume on first brush. So that was the first thing that jumped out at me, what about you Shay? FS: Yes, there are two things for me, kind of going off what you just said. I think part of this too, is understanding the historical context about what these writers were trying to do and who they were trying to protect, right? In a setting where women were able to be practically discarded, to say that you had to respect your marriage relationship and that you shouldn’t commit adultery was really protecting someone who was marginalized and oppressed in that community. I look at so many heterosexual and even heterosexual-Christian relationships today, and I think, well jeez, you’re still not respecting women and you’re still oppressing and marginalizing people who are vulnerable. So that kind of comes up for me in reading about this passage. And the other thing is that I’ve heard a lot about sexual immorality and adultery in the Christian communities. I have not heard very much about prisons and prisoners, and respecting those who are mistreated and opening your homes to guests, and you know… B: Not loving money. FS: Not loving money!!! So it’s like, again this idea that gay and queer Christians are the ones that “cherry picks” scripture is just not true. I think evangelical Christians do it all the time. I think that often they read this passage, even when they are talking about prisoners, they are talking about prisoners so they can convert them, not so they can actually be in solidarity with them, and treat them well in prison. So I think that this passage still really speaks today, and I think often queer and trans-folks are the folks that are the ones who are opening their homes to guests, and paying attention to people in prison, and paying attention to the oppressed and marginalized, and probably be more responsible and faithful in their relationships than even a lot of heterosexual Christians. I don’t see this passage as an indictment against my own queerness and transness. But it is a good reminder of where the places I could still be doing more. B: Yeah. And you know, I think that when I was first figuring out my queerness and how that fits into my faith. I felt like progressive Christianity or queer Christianity was this modified version of the real Christianity which I had grown up with. And it’s important for me to remember when you were saying all this stuff about not honoring this, and this, and that, queer Christians and progressive Christians have just as much of a claim, if not more of a claim to the Christian tradition than conservatives, evangelicals, prosperity gospel, anti-gay Christians, right? It’s not like they are the real ones and we are the modification of it. We are both laying claim to this and I always love going back to Matthew 7, “Judge the tree by its fruit.” We’re both saying that we’re Christians and we can’t say that we’re the real ones and they are not the real Christians. We’re all making Christian theological claims, but “judge the tree by its fruit”, and what fruit are our faith bearing. I just look at my life and the lives of other queer Christians that I know. There’s some tasty, tasty fruit there and I’m so excited to be part of this movement with all ya’ll. We talked about the historical context and Shay was talking about you have to understand that this was intended to honor women, and all that. So we are in the midst of registration for a How to Read the Bible course, we also recently did a Christianity and Polyamory course, and we are gonna be doing one about sex coming up. If any of the stuff that we’ve talked about in this podcast episode is resonating with you, you can learn more about the various courses and groups that we’re putting together at queertheology.com/courses. And add your name to the list of any ones that catch your eye that you might be interested. Again that’s queertheology.com/courses and we would love to dive even deeper into these topics if we have time for in this short podcast episodes. That is all for now and we will see you next week. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters. FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) In this episode, we talked about… Honoring marriage or relationships regardless of whether you are heterosexual or queer Who is really “cherry-picking” the scripture? How the writers of this passage were protecting the marginalized and oppressed — the women How Christian communities focus more on adultery and sexual immorality over prisoners and the mistreated We have tons of exciting courses lined up for you, and you can check if any of these courses excite you by going to queertheology.com/courses. Hebrews 13:1-8 Keep loving each other like family. Don’t neglect to open up your homes to guests, because by doing this, some have been hosts to angels without knowing it. Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place. Marriage must be honored in every respect, with no cheating on the relationship, because God will judge the sexually immoral person and the person who commits adultery. Your way of life should be free from the love of money, and you should be content with what you have. After all, he has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. This is why we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper, and I won’t be afraid. What can people do to me? Remember your leaders who spoke God’s word to you. Imitate their faith as you consider the way their lives turned out. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! So let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise through him, which is the fruit from our lips that confess his name. Don’t forget to do good and to share what you have because God is pleased with these kinds of sacrifices. Photo by Brooke Cagle The post What It Means to Honor Marriage (and other important lessons) – Hebrews 13:1-8 appeared first on Queer Theology.

When our need to help the poor, feed the hungry, and uphold the oppressed is strong, we sometimes forget that it’s okay to slow down a bit. To rest. To take care of one’s self. And this passage from Isaiah reminds us of that. Episode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. B: Hello, hello, hello. Today is Sunday, August 25th, 2019 or at least that is the day that it is when this episode comes out. Actually, Shay is with me here in Los Angeles for a week so we’re recording a little bit ahead of schedule. It’s really been exciting and fun to have you here for the past week, Shay. FS: It’s been super fun to be here. B: A few days ago, we got together with some podcast listeners, some subscribers of the mailing list, some members of Sanctuary Collective for some park theology instead of pub theology. For an evening of getting to know each other, talking about everything from therapy, to veggie-tales, to Hebrew translations of the Bible, and all points in between. It’s been really a lot of fun. What have been some highlights for you Shay? FS: Yeah, I just love it when we get to meet with people face-to-face and hear more of their stories and find out how they found out about the website and podcast. But really, just to be in community with people and that’s been super fun. It’s been great to think a little bit about what’s next for Queer Theology. To think about how we’re doing things and what we can do better and what we want to do more of that’s been really exciting, too. B: Yeah, we got lots of exciting plans that we’ve been working on. One of them has already come to fruition. We are in the middle of registration for a course on How to Read the Bible. I think this is so important, I know that for me, I grew up reading the Bible, constantly talking with the Bible in church all the time. Really feeling like I knew the ins and outs of the Bible and then when I realize I was queer, having the Bible turn around on me and it becoming like a weapon used against me. Then, spending so many years having to fend myself against the Bible. And then, so feeling like I really knew the Bible, I remember as a closeted teenager and opening the Bible trying to figure out what the passages about homosexuality meant and did it condemn me. What about bisexuality, what about this transgender that I heard of? And then, fast forward years in the future and realizing that being a gay or a bi-sexual Christian wasn’t quite enough as much as I thought I knew the Bible in and out, there was just so much more to learn and reading a lot of books by serious academics has been helpful. Working alongside folks that had seminary education has been very helpful. One of our goals at QueerTheology.com has always been to sort of make all of this juicy stuff that happens in Academia available to everyone so that you don’t have to go hundred thousand dollars into debt and go to spend 3 years in seminary to learn how to read the Bible. Because I think there’s something more to just picking it up and reading like it’s the book in order to get the most out of it. So I’m super excited about this class if you’re interested in learning more, you can go to queertheology.com/biblecourse, with or without a hyphen, it will take you there. Shay, what can we look forward to in this course? FS: Yeah. We’re going to look at a ton of different stuff, we’re gonna a lot about how to read the Bible in context meaning both in what kind of literature it is, but also the historical context and really unpacking that and how knowing that context impacts how we read scripture. We’re gonna look at tools for you to do this work on your own, so that you don’t have to be necessarily beholden to going to seminary. We are just gonna give a hint and a tease of starting to read the Bible through a queer and trans lens. We are going to do an entire course on just that later on, but you’ll get just a hint of that in this course. B: I’m super, super, super excited. So before we jump into this week’s lectionary text, this is something that we don’t really ever do. But if you are a fan of this podcast, it would really mean a lot to us if you could go and leave a review on iTunes, or Stitcher or wherever it is that you listen to this podcast. The more reviews that there are, the more it helps other people find the podcast with the algorithms, and also just having your voice on there gives a sense of what this podcast is about for folks who might be considering it. We do from time to time get anti-LGBTQ Christians leaving one star, hateful reviews on there. So having your voice to counterbalance all of that negativity would be super meaningful. So iTunes, Stitcher, the Google podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcast, go on there and drop a review we would really appreciate it. And now, unto this week’s text. It is Isaiah 58:9-14 I will read it to you now. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.” If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech; if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon. The Lord will guide you continually and provide for you, even in parched places. He will rescue your bones. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water that won’t run dry. They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account; the foundations of generations past you will restore. You will be called Mender of Broken Walls, Restorer of Livable Streets. If you stop trampling the Sabbath, stop doing whatever you want on my holy day, and consider the Sabbath a delight, sacred to the Lord, honored, and honor it instead of doing things your way, seeking what you want and doing business as usual, then you will take delight in the Lord. I will let you ride on the heights of the earth; I will sustain you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. Amen. Shay, I know you really love this passage, why is that? FS: I do. I love the poetry of it for one, but I also love how it really turns so much of what I was taught as a kid on its head. I remember growing up and being told that the reason that America was in such bad shape, the reason that there were abortion and mass shootings was because we had taken prayer out of public school. B: Right! FS: I remember Carmen, God bless…. B: Carmen the life coach? FS: Yes …had this entire monologue about putting God back in America again. Quoted all these statistics that said that the rise, the violence happened exactly when they took God out of schools, whatever. But I love that this passage talks so clearly about when you call, the Lord will answer, but it’s if you remove the yoke from among you, if you open your heart to the hungry and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted. Then, your light will shine in the darkness. Again, when we talk about the fact that social justice is baked into scripture, that it’s all throughout, that this idea of caring for the poor and those who are marginalized is at the heart of what it means to follow God. We are talking about through all of these passages. I think that this is a passage that’s so clear. It’s also a passage that it isn’t like if you berate your neighbors for their religious beliefs, or lack of religious beliefs. If you make sure that you fly the American flat, if you protest the abortion clinics, and your light will shine in the darkness. No. You take care of the poor and hungry. And to me, my favorite is this, they would rebuild ancient ruins on your account, you will be called mender of broken walls and restorer of livable streets. I think that’s such a beautiful image and it’s so powerful to think about: that could be the legacy that we’re living. This legacy of mending broken walls and restoring livable streets, and that’s the work to be done. B: Yeah. What sticks out for me in this passage, or I guess what comes to mind is: sometimes I think that the prosperity gospel, and God that wants you to be uber rich, and just name and then claim it, which the secular version of that is the law of attraction or whatever. Gets put in conflict with social justice, Christianity. And somehow, social justice, Christianity, in the popular conception gets translated into, God wants you to suffer or that suffering is noble, or that abundance is bad. What I see here is for this marrying of both of those. Not that we should be excessively wealthy, or if you donate to your millionaire pastor’s church and God will pay your rent. But rather, this idea of removing the yoke and taking care of the hungry goes hand-in-hand with also resting on the Sabbath, and not being ground down. No one wins under capitalism. We’re all grinding, and grinding, and grinding, and grinding. The goal of the Hebrew prophets and what I see in Jesus and what I see in my atheist, social justice friends is not that we are constantly miserable, right? But there is enough and we can take care of each other and still rest. Take care of ourselves, our family and the stranger. I think that is an important message for the world today. FS: Just a reminder, if you want to take this Bible course, it starts really soon. We are going to start it right in the beginning of September. You can sign up for that at queertheology.com/biblecourse. We would love to see you there. It’s going to be a really rich and powerful time together. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters. FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. Download the transcript (PDF) This episode talks about: A recap of the LA meetup Why Fr. Shay loves this passage so much The work that needs to be done and the legacy that we can live behind Respecting the Sabbath day The importance of resting, and finding a balance between helping others and taking care of yourself The How to Read the Bible course is now open for registration. We are going to start the course on September 15. If this is something you’re interested in, you can sign up for that at queertheology.com/biblecourse. Isaiah 58:9-14 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.” If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech; if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon. The Lord will guide you continually and provide for you, even in parched places. He will rescue your bones. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water that won’t run dry. They will rebuild ancient ruins on your account; the foundations of generations past you will restore. You will be called Mender of Broken Walls, Restorer of Livable Streets. If you stop trampling the Sabbath, stop doing whatever you want on my holy day, and consider the Sabbath a delight, sacred to the Lord, honored, and honor it instead of doing things your way, seeking what you want and doing business as usual, then you will take delight in the Lord. I will let you ride on the heights of the earth; I will sustain you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. Photo by Helena Lopes The post Take Care – Isaiah 58:9-14 appeared first on Queer Theology.

It’s easy to misinterpret the scriptures, and even our so-called traditions and traditional ways of doing things can hinder proper understanding of the text. This episode highlights the importance of knowing historical and political context in order to truly understand the Bible. Download the transcript (PDF) Episode Transcript Brian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast! Fr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week’s lectionary readings. We’re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I’m Father Shay Kearns B: And I’m Brian G. Murphy. B: Hello, hello, hello. Today is Sunday, August 18th we are going to take a look at Hebrews 11:29-12:2 I will read it to you now. By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if they were on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were drowned. By faith Jericho’s walls fell after the people marched around them for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute wasn’t killed with the disobedient because she welcomed the spies in peace. What more can I say? I would run out of time if I told you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, brought about justice, realized promises, shut the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, escaped from the edge of the sword, found strength in weakness, were mighty in war, and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured and refused to be released so they could gain a better resurrection. But others experienced public shame by being taunted and whipped; they were even put in chains and in prison. They were stoned to death, they were cut in two, and they died by being murdered with swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats, needy, oppressed, and mistreated. The world didn’t deserve them. They wandered around in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground. All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us. So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne. B: Shay, there’s a lot of stuff in here. Where do we begin to make sense of this passage? FS: I mean one of the things that sticks out to me first off is this way that the author of this passage is reinterpreting their own texts and stories for a new context and a new community. By telling all of these older stories, the author is saying, “Look! This is our tradition, this is what we are part of, this is what we are doing, and this is how we can change it and understand it now and continue at forward.” This idea that scripture tells only one story is really false. In here, we have this narrative of how these things get repackaged and reframed and retaught. I think that that’s what we’re still doing today, and it’s really important that we use this as an instructive way of how to read scripture, through scripture. That’s the first thing that sticks out to me, what about you? B: What I notice in this passage is that, some churches that I’ve been to, the idea that you needed Jesus and the Christian writings in order to really understand the Hebrew bible. That almost the New Testament is like this secret key that unlocks the hidden meaning of the Hebrew scriptures. Even like Jonah and the whale being about Jesus and all of this stuff. But what I’m realizing is that this passage makes clear is that actually you need the Hebrew scriptures in order to understand the Christian ones. You need to understand the captivity of the Hebrew people, and their escape, and exile. You need to understand all of these about Jericho and Rahab, this forms the foundation of what the Christian authors are talking about. Then, they take it a step forward and repackage it and make new meaning out of it. But if you don’t understand the foundation, you’re not going to get sturdy walls, my guess is. What I would say. There’s this need to not just take everything at face value and think like, “I can just flip open to any page of the bible and read it, and that’s all that i need to know in order to understand this.” Or that being alive is all that you need to do to make sense of this ancient text. FS: Yeah. And we’re gonna be launching a course really soon here about how to read the bible and how to really understand it. You know, I went to seminary and spent years, and years, and years studying the scripture. I think that that was a fantastic experience and also, I think that there’s a lot of things that you can learn by being in community with other people. By dipping into resources that exist, and dipping into the resources that we are going to provide. That will help you get a really much sense of how to read the bible even without going to seminary. So we are super excited to be launching that course really soon. B: Yeah. So if you’re interested in that, you can hop on the waitlist, be the first to find out about it at queertheology.com/biblewaitlist. And Shay, can you just give us one example, from this passage, what you might learn in this course would help you understand this passage a little bit better. FS: I mean, you were talking earlier about needing to understand like exile. I think that that’s one of the big things that we’re gonna talk about in this course about how the political experiences of the Hebrew people, and also of the early Jesus followers. The historical context that they were living in drastically shaped their understanding of themselves, of their communities, of their approach to the divine. You have to understand those historical realities in order to really get at some of the things that people are talking about. So when we talk about Jericho or the time of the prophets, you really have to understand what’s happening historically and politically in those times to understand the spiritual implications. B: So I’m super excited that that course is starting very soon. Again, you can find out more and be the first to find out how to sign up at queertheology.com/biblewaitlist. [outro music plays] B: The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at QueerTheology.com which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters. FS: To dive into more of the action, visit us at QueerTheology.com. You can also connect with us online: on Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, and Instagram. B: We’ll see you next week. This episode’s highlights: The importance of understanding historical and political experiences of Hebrew authors Learning how to read and understand the Bible (join our course, coming soon!) How knowing and learning the context of the text builds a stronger foundation in understanding the scriptures We are launching a How to Read the Bible course, really soon. Be the first to know about it, including special discount, by hopping on the waitlist at queertheology.com/biblewaitlist. Hebrews 11:29-12:2 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if they were on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were drowned. By faith Jericho’s walls fell after the people marched around them for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute wasn’t killed with the disobedient because she welcomed the spies in peace. What more can I say? I would run out of time if I told you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, brought about justice, realized promises, shut the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, escaped from the edge of the sword, found strength in weakness, were mighty in war, and routed foreign armies.  Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured and refused to be released so they could gain a better resurrection. But others experienced public shame by being taunted and whipped; they were even put in chains and in prison. They were stoned to death, they were cut in two, and they died by being murdered with swords. They went around wearing the skins of sheep and goats, needy, oppressed, and mistreated. The world didn’t deserve them. They wandered around in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground. All these people didn’t receive what was promised, though they were given approval for their faith. God provided something better for us so they wouldn’t be made perfect without us. So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God’s throne. Photo by Nicole Honeywill The post Context Matters – Hebrews 11:29-12:2 appeared first on Queer Theology.