Once upon a time, the word "queer" simply meant strange, odd, or peculiar. In the 20th century, however, the word was used pejoratively to refer to those considered more than strange, odd, or peculiar, but also sexually deviant. As we enter the 21st century, the word is being reclaimed and embraced by those who see themselves on the margins of what might be considered normal or typical.
Christians have never worshipped a "typical" God. Christians worship a God who can be known personally but who is also strange, odd, peculiar, and even unknowable. Could we also ask the question, "Is God Queer?"
The question is meant to facilitate creative conversations that will help foster understanding and appreciation of encounters with friends and strangers, especially things that deviate from our expectations for them, including (and perhaps especially) God. Join a conversation with ministers, academics, and theologians in The Chapel. Coffee and dessert reception at 6:30 p.m. Free and open to all.
Continuing the Conversation: After the panel event, we are making space to continue the conversation from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on three consecutive Mondays (2/26, 3/5, and 3/12). They are opportunities for people to further discuss matters arising from the Friday event. Each of the panelists will have two reading suggestions that we may use as a starting point for discussion.
For more information, email John Boopalan: john[@]fbcnewton.org
Our Three Panelists
Dr. Angela Bauer-Levesque is Harvey H. Guthrie, Jr. Professor Emerita of Bible, Culture, and Interpretation of the former Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. She has contributed to The Queer Bible Commentary (Book of Jeremiah) and to the lectionary site Out in Scripture. Her other publications include The Indispensable Guide to the Old Testament (The Pilgrim Press) and Seeing God in Diversity: Exodus and Acts, coauthored with Elizabeth Magill (Church Publishing). Professor Bauer-Levesque received her PhD and MPhil from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and her MDiv from the Universität Hamburg, Germany. In her teaching and writing Professor Bauer-Levesque has emphasized various aspects of social location (gender, race, sexual identity) and their impact on interpretation. She and her wife live in Cambridge, MA.
Dr. Cody J. Sanders serves as the pastor of Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Harvard Square and American Baptist Chaplain to Harvard University and teaches on the adjunct faculty in pastoral care at Andover Newton Theological School. Cody grew up a gay, Southern Baptist kid in South Carolina with an early sense of call to ministry, not quite knowing how his faith and sexuality would merge or if a vocation in ministry would ever be possible. He now cultivates denominational community within the Alliance of Baptists where he co-coordinates the Racial Justice & Multiculturalism Community and within the American Baptist Churches USA. Dr. Sanders is the author of A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth (Westminster John Knox, 2017) and co-author of Microaggressions in Ministry: Confronting the Hidden Violence of Everyday Church (Westminster John Knox, 2015).
Dr. Megan DeFranza is a Christian theologian, author, speaker, and facilitator of challenging conversations especially around Christianity, sex, gender, and sexuality. She is producing a documentary “Stories of Intersex and Faith” with Lianne Simon and Paul Van Ness and serves as a Research Associate at the Center for Mind and Culture in Boston and as a Visiting Researcher, Boston University School of Theology. She is best known for her book, Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female, and Intersex in the Image of God (Eerdmans, 2015) and has contributed to other dialogical volumes, including Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations (InterVarsity Press, 2014). In all her endeavors she works to contribute thoughtful and humble reflections on the mysteries of God and human being in the hopes that, together, we can build a more just, reverent, and loving world.