Queer Easter and the Age of Pisces
A few weeks ago, I had the great privilege of sitting down (virtually, as we are still in the midst of a global pandemic) with a dear friend to record an episode for her podcast. Natalie Copeland runs the podcast Cosmologies, about the intersections of science, spirit, and the human condition. I first met Natalie…
Beyond Shame: Resurrection and Restorative Justice
The researcher Brené Brown makes a distinction between feelings of guilt and shame. Guilt focuses on one’s actions — “I did a bad thing.” Shame translates those actions into self-identity — “I am bad.” Brown tells the story of her daughter, Ellen, as a kindergartener. One day at school, Ellen was playing with glitter, sending…
Science and Religion
When I was a teenager, it was popular for Christians to put a fish symbol on their cars as a marker of their faith. Sometimes, the fish contained the Greek word ΙΧΘΥΣ (“fish,” also an acrostic for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”). In response, someone created a similar car magnet showing a fish with…
The Eyes of the World Are Upon Us
Around the year 1640, Peter Bulkeley preached a sermon to fellow Puritans in Boston entitled “The Gospel-Covenant.” He claimed a particular mission for these settlers in the Americas, saying that “for ourselves here, the people of New England, we should in a special manner labor to shine forth in holiness above other people; we have…
Queer Pandemic Time
As I write this, in mid-March 2021, most of us have been living under some form of lockdown for a year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. These stay-at-home orders have changed the way I move through life, including how I perceive time. I began saying “time is a farce” any time I looked at…
King David versus Captain America
We Americans like our comic books, and Captain America is the quintessential hero. Standing up for what is right and good against all that is evil in the world, Captain America remains pure and faithful. Like many cultural stories, Captain America both reflects and shapes our worldview. He has a clear notion of right and…
Stigmata of the Detention Center
In the core of my city is an immigration detention facility. A local activist group has been fighting the presence of this privately-run facility. In the past year, since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation has gotten even more dire. In December, a University of Washington report found that “there are endemic health…
Lessons of the Desert Transcestors
Earlier this week, I told the stories of two gender-non-conforming monks of the early church. If you haven’t read about Marinos and Hilarion yet, you can do so here. In both stories, the actions of these gender-non-conforming monastics reveal a commitment to their broader community. Marinos and Hilarion became fully incorporated into the communal life…
Introduction to the Desert Trancestors
Previously on this blog, I’ve alluded to the presence of non-conforming, possibly queer, figures, in Christian scriptures and history. This week, we’ll look more closely at two stories of gender-non-conforming monks from the early church. In this post, I’ll tell the stories of Marinos and Hilarion; in my next post, I’ll examine how their lives…
The Power of Transgression
In many stories which seem to assume or advocate gender binaries and heterosexuality, transgression of those norms is often hiding just below the surface. Is this because queer folks existed in the society, and no matter how hard an author might try, he (male pronoun used intentionally here) could not quite make them go away?…
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Religious Queer-ies 