[Dialogue] 6/09/2022, Progressing Spirit, Rev. Mark Sandlin: Jesus – Queer Theology Incarnate; Spong revisited

Thu Jun 9 05:28:07 PDT 2022

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Jesus – Queer Theology Incarnate
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|  Essay by Rev. Mark Sandlin
June 9, 2022
In his book Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology, the Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng says, “God is the very manifestation of a love that is so extreme that it dissolves existing boundaries.” So, it seems to me, living a life that dismantles existing boundaries is the very definition of being in relationship with God.

In the life and teachings of Jesus, we are provided with part of a road map to growing this radical relationship of love with God. It even turns out that the person the Gospel writers and the early church understood Jesus to be contained the seeds of queerness.

Now, for those who might have been just a bit uncomfortable with me saying that about Jesus and “queerness,” let's very quickly talk about what I mean when I use the word "queer" like that.

Many of us grew up in a time when “queer” was an insult. The word felt wrong in our mouths and we avoided it. It was meant to hurt people and regardless of what the children's rhyme says, words can truly hurt you, because they frequently are loaded with piercing judgement and soul-crushing baggage.

Well, things have changed since then and much like the terms “gay” and “black,” “queer” has been reclaimed by the very people it initially intended to hurt. The way I see it, that's a beautiful thing.

The work came out of the LGBTQIA+ community itself, particularly in the field of Queer Theory which built on the work of Gay and Lesbian theory as well a Liberation theory and others. The important part, in terms of understanding how I'm using the word, is what the meaning of the word has expanded to contain.

In looking at how LGBTQIA+ folx were marginalized by a dominant society, themes began to emerge, particularly in regard to societal “norms” and expectations. Queerness, in part, became a critique of those false, binary boundaries that tried to normalize everything to the dominate society.

While it started off as primarily challenging traditional understandings of sex and sexuality, in conversation with other groups who experienced the the heavy-hand of false binaries that marginalized them (groups like Black Theology, Liberation Theology, Feminist Theology, and several others), it expanded to become a call to deconstruct those false binary narratives in all categories and to dismantle the systems that support them and it was built on a radical sense of love and inclusion.

With that understanding, let's go back to my statement that “in the person the Gospel writers and the early church understood Jesus to be contained the seeds of queerness.” Within the context of what I've just shared with you, hear my statement to say, in the person the Gospel writers and the early church understood Jesus to be you can clearly see an understanding that he was a person who sought to break through and to breakdown all of our assumed binary boundaries and barriers, opening us up to a more boundless faith.

In some small ways, it has allowed me to regain an appreciation for what are frequently considered foundational understandings of our faith. There are parts of our faith that we are to claim whose traditional understandings that fly in the face of modern, scientific minds. Things like Jesus being “God incarnate.”

Over the years, I've certainly developed my own understandings of how to incorporate these beliefs into my life. For me, the language of  “God incarnate” became symbolic language pointing to the Divine within all of us. It felt very true for me, but sometimes it felt like it was a bit overworked just to make it work. Queer Theology provides a much more satisfying theological approach to many of these “foundational understandings of our faith.”

For instance, it sees the story of Jesus as the beginning of a change to the understood boundaries between the Divine and humanity. Traditionally, the Church has understood the Gospels to tell the story of God incarnate, God came down, the Divine becoming human. Whether you believe it as literal or as symbolic, we are left with an understanding of a god that breaks one of the ultimate false binaries: divine and human.

As I understand it, within Queer Theology, the story of Jesus places the Human/Divine relationship on a continuum that has no 'either or' boundaries. It forever changes the relationship between humanity and the divine. They are no longer like oil and water. They mix and mingle together in the person of Jesus and open that potential, that reality, to us all. Among other things, it means God is no longer this ineffable thing so far removed from us that we can never be in full relationship with it. Rather, God is also within us, within humanity.

In our modern world, humanity can feel like it is working overtime to keep us all in a bound-up, meaningless place. There are so many deepening divisions and those divisions are almost always based on some kind of dividing line in the sand, some kind of defining boundary or border created by the dominant culture in an effort to implicate someone as “other,” dangerous, unworthy, “not like me,” in order to marginalize the “other” and to further protect the power of the majority.

Frequently, religious texts (or, at least, religious contexts) are used to justify those mostly binary boundaries of division – “if you aren't like us, you are bad.” At times, they are even backed by scripture, but rarely is that scripture ever taken fully in context within the larger theology of the overall text.

Those of us who attempt to follow the teachings of Jesus should take particular offense to this. These binary boundaries of division are the defining lines of injustice and the use of our sacred texts to try to justify injustice is unjustifiable. As a matter of fact, it is downright blasphemy.

It's interesting, looking at the life of Jesus through a queer lens has also helped me in my understanding of “sin.” Up until now, my best understanding of sin had involved the concept of “missing the mark” when it came to expressing love through my words and actions.

That's not a bad understanding, but it does call into question what those “actions” might look like. I believe Queer theology gives us a more pragmatic understanding to work from. I do still see sin as  “missing the mark” of expressing love, but now I see it as being specifically done by refusing to dismantle or reinforcing borders and boundaries that separate us from others.

Dismantling borders and boundaries in response to and as a result of radical love is at the heart of Queer Theology and at the heart of what it looks like to follow the life and teachings of Jesus. Dr. Cheng says, “God is the very manifestation of a love that is so extreme that it dissolves existing boundaries.”

As it turns out, that solves another one of those “foundational understandings of our faith” that I've struggled with: being “saved.” There's really no theology about it that I can get completely onboard with. As a matter of fact, I find most of them to be somewhat ghastly. Until now.

Now my understanding is that pulling down the boundaries that have separated us from each other, Creation, and God is how Jesus “saves” us.

And that is not only a theology I expect we can all get behind, but it is also the way we begin to save each other and the world.~ Rev. Mark Sandlin
Read online here

About the Author
Rev. Mark Sandlin is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) from the South. He currently serves at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Mark also serves as the President and Co-executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org. He is a co-founder of The Christian Left. His blog, has been named as one of the “Top Ten Christian Blogs.”  Mark received The Associated Church Press’ Award of Excellence in 2012. His Podcast The Moonshine Jesus Show is on Mondays at 4:30pm ET. Follow Mark on Facebook and Twitter @marksandlin.  |

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Question & Answer

Q: By Amy

“My church says they are progressive and “Open and Affirming” but as a queer person, I don’t see any real progressiveness. Do you have any advice?”

A: By Rev. Deshna Shine
 Dear Amy,Yes, I understand and as a queer person myself, I have seen this way too often. This is a fascinating moment in time when churches are either dying or they are transforming. Is your church open to transforming? You can find out pretty quickly if you bring your concerns and desires to the leadership. Do they get defensive and talk about all the ways they are progressive or some major change or some social justice movement they participated in many years ago? Or are they curious and want to know more? Do they ask you questions and for your ideas? Do they ask for you to share your experience and do they affirm and try to understand your experience?Unfortunately, many churches put a rainbow flag out, say they are progressive, march in a couple of marches, add a feminine pronoun for God and think they are done. They are not. To be progressive means to continually grow and progress. To continually rethink and re-ask how can we be more radically inclusive the way Jesus taught us? How can we offer a radical welcome to anyone who comes through our doors? Do they want you to conform to what they think a christian should be, look like and act like, or do they celebrate you in all your authentic uniqueness, just as you are?If they are open, I suggest sharing with them what you are experiencing. Use “I” statements and be clear about what you need. For example, “when I walk into this church, I feel like an outsider and lonely. I need this church to have liturgies that represent me as well, to have images that represent me as well, and to be a learning community open to change.” Keep pushing for the liturgies to evolve, the symbols, the language. Ask the church to center, listen and learn from black, brown, indigenous women of color and queer folx. Ask the church to be honest and accountable to the harm it has caused so they don’t repeat the same white supremacist patterns. Ask for contemporary inclusive music and for the leadership to reflect the diversity and inclusion the church claims to have or want.At the heart of Christianity is a wild hope and I believe in your ability to see clearly and make a positive change in your community. And, if they are not willing to change, well, let them go and begin your search for a community that is willing to grow and to love, accept and celebrate you just as you are. There are some gems out there, it is possible.~ Rev. Deshna Shine

Read and share online here

About the Author
Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum.  She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens.  |

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Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited

A Salute to the United Church of Christ

Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong
July 26, 2012Sometimes, as one goes about the normal duties of one’s professional life, a pattern of activity slowly becomes visible until one wonders why this had not been seen before.  When that happens, it is good to stop, to notice, to put the pieces together, to seek to understand and then to formulate the new insight so that it can become common knowledge.

This was my experience in the first part of this year when I was invited to a number of churches in what might be called the heartland of America.  In every incidence, the church to which I was asked to deliver lectures stood out in its community like a beacon of light.  It was always the church in that community that engaged the issues of the day.  It was the congregation in that community that encouraged people to think and to study.  It was a church more interested in genuine education than it was in ecclesiastical propaganda.  It was a congregation willing to be controversial, willing to stand up for truth in the public marketplace.  It was a church that did not require that the brains of its people be checked at the door prior to worship.  It was a congregation whose members cared about their world, their community, themselves and their pastor.  These churches also projected vitality and they were all growing.  The revelation that ultimately emerged, however, was that each one of these congregations was a part the United Church of Christ-Congregational denomination.  This fact was so consistent that I concluded it could not be just a coincidence and that something about the United Church of Christ must be at least in part responsible and so my appreciation for this denomination soared.

Perhaps, I thought, this church can be the one Christian denomination that will inspire, bring about and participate in the necessary reformation required to break the Christian faith out of its dying patterns, its no longer believable theological understandings and its medieval worship practices.  Maybe this can be the church that will break the traditional Christian paradigm based on human depravity and transform it to a paradigm based on human wholeness.  Until these aspects of Christianity are faced, engaged and changed, there is, I believe, little realistic hope for a Christian future.

Let me briefly tell you, my readers, the story of these four individual UCC congregations:

The first one was the Plymouth United Church of Christ in Wichita, Kansas.  Under the enlightened and competent leadership of its senior pastor, Donald Olsen, and his able staff, Plymouth Church has gathered to itself a group of members who are individually and corporately stepping beyond traditional religious formulas to build a church for tomorrow.  Gifted young adults, well-educated and in positions of local and national authority, are finding the integrity of a new religious dimension for themselves by their participation in this church’s life.  No one is fighting yesterday’s wars against Darwin, the equality of women or the oppression of gay and lesbian people.  The Bible is not seen as a cudgel to be used in debate to shore up the conclusions of a long dead past.  They appear to enjoy their life together and, during the time I was there to deliver these lectures, they also brought in a spectacular aCapella male singing group named Cantu for the joy and entertainment of those attending the lecture series.  Cantu was magnificent and the combination of lectures and entertainment was a memorable experience for me and for that congregation.

The second one was the First Congregational-United Church of Christ in Greeley, Colorado.  This small Colorado city, founded by Horace Greeley in the 19th century, is the home of a community college that has grown into being the University of Northern Colorado and is now the third or fourth largest university in the state of Colorado.  In a state where Colorado Springs has become the national headquarters for many right wing fundamentalist groups such as James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family,” this church in Greeley has accepted the vocation of speaking to this university with an understanding of the Christian faith that is well informed and not dedicated to the perpetuation of biblical ignorance.  Its senior pastor, Nathan Miller, is respected as a leader in the entire community and one of this church’s most active members is the recently retired president of the University of Northern Colorado.

The third church was in Norman, Oklahoma, the location of the University of Oklahoma, where former Democratic Governor and Senator, David Boren, is now the highly-regarded president.  A small group of people led by an urologist formed a new Congregational Church to fill a vacuum in Norman, where fundamentalists and evangelical Protestants are the overwhelming majority.  They were assisted in this birth by the UCC pastor at the Mayflower Church in Oklahoma City, Robin Meyers, who is one of America’s brilliant new religious leaders.  They contracted with a retired UCC minister on a part time basis to lead this new congregation, which has no more than twenty-five members.  Undaunted by their newness and their smallness, they organized a public lecture on progressive Christianity to be held in the University of Oklahoma’s Museum of Natural History.  This was their way of announcing their presence in the city.  I was invited to deliver that lecture and also to speak to the members of this congregation at their regular meeting place on Saturday morning.  The public lecture attracted over 400 people.  It was also the first time I have ever spoken with a mastodon on display immediately behind me!  In their own worship space on Saturday, which seated less than seventy people, the two lecture seminar was sold out and every available chair was filled.  This new congregation is dedicated to finding ways to serve the larger community and even the world.  One program, organized by the urologist and including his two sons, both of whom are planning careers in medicine, has them volunteering for medical missionary duty in some of the deprived parts of the world.  Vitality and the hope of good things to come mark this congregation.

Finally, there was the First Congregational-UCC Church of Hendersonville, North Carolina, served so ably by its senior pastor, Richard Weidler.  Hendersonville is a small town in the mountains of Western North Carolina, about 30 minutes south of Asheville.  Calls to repent, invitations to be saved and warnings to prepare to meet your God are painted on signs on almost every nearby highway.  Three crosses adorn the countryside in more than one field.  A visit on the radio dial will reveal a steady diet of evangelical preaching, punctuated only by the ranting of Rush Limbaugh.  Yet because of Hendersonville’s wonderful summer climate, it has attracted many retirees to that area who are left looking mostly in vain for a church if they do not want fundamentalism.  Into that vacuum, this church has moved led by its former, now retired, pastor, David Kelly.  About a decade ago a layman, named Walter Ashley, taught an adult Bible class in that church and it had been an erudite and transformative experience for many. A “Classics Scholar” with a degree from Oxford University in the UK, he had opened that congregation to a whole new way of being a Christian.  They became the one church in town that was a haven for thinking Christians.  When Walter died, his widow Jo Ann, an attorney well into her eighties, endowed a lectureship in memory of her husband. Twice each year, a well-known Christian scholar is invited to do the Ashley Lectures in this church in Western North Carolina.  John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Amy-Jill Levine and I have all been among those visiting lecturers.  The event attracts people from miles away and has helped to identify this church as something quite different.

Recently in North Carolina, there was a statewide referendum to ban gay marriage by a constitutional amendment. It seemed like every preacher in the state from Billy Graham on down came out in support of this amendment, identifying it with the Bible and the will of God.  This was not true, however, of the First Congregational-United Church of Christ in Hendersonville. Instead they bought and ran a large advertisement in the local newspaper every other day for a period of time prior to that vote stating their opposition to North Carolina’s “Marriage Amendment.” In this ad they stated first the historical tradition of the United Church of Christ as a supporter of social justice and civil rights.  They reminded readers that their forebears were Pilgrims who came to this country in 1620 seeking freedom from restrictions imposed in Europe. They recalled the history of their denomination, telling the newspaper’s readers that in 1785 the UCC ordained Lemuel Haynes, America’s first African-American pastor; in 1853 the UCC ordained Antoinette Brown, America’s first female pastor; in 1972 the UCC ordained Bill Johnson, America’s first openly-gay pastor. Now this church, representing this denomination, called on all to reject this prejudiced marriage amendment.  This ad dramatically lifted this church into public awareness causing them to be attacked and ridiculed by almost every other church in the area, but it also caused the religiously disenfranchised to discover a new possibility for their religious lives.  So, new people began to show up at their doors on Sunday Mornings.

These four churches I have described so briefly had several things in common. They each had a well-trained and well-educated senior pastor.  Each was linked to a national denomination that encouraged them to press the edges.  Each had drunk deeply of that denomination’s courage in the public arena on the right side of the cultural issues of our day.

If the United Church of Christ is represented locally by the churches I have encountered in Wichita, Greeley, Norman and Hendersonville, they must be doing something right.
So to these churches and to the leadership of the National United Church of Christ, I first raise my hand in salute for your courage and your dedication.  Second, I stand before you in awe for what you have meant in my life and in the life of Christianity itself.  Third, I bow my head and my heart in thanksgiving for your witness to the Truth.~  John Shelby Spong  |

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