-Thing to watch if you’re interested in my conversation with Andre Rabe as we talk about Rene Girard and our upcoming Ag 19th conference (which you can find on Eventbrite.)
-Thing to read if you’re looking for my response to the Nazarene Theological Seminary president regarding human sexuality.
-Thing to go to if you’re looking to hang out with me at BrewChurch (and Fabian Gonzales) on Sunday night, June 4.
The latest Affirming Naz book has catalyzed lots of dialogue around matters LGTBQ+ lately (although my friend and theologian, Katelynn Carver, rightly poses a question about how much we’re helping by lumping all these different identifies together in a series of letters. Sigh… yes, I think we’re so far behind on these things that people like me have their hands full just playing general catch-up. Undoubtedly, the identities, questions, and realities around transgender folks, for example, are much different than those who find themselves to be asexual, are different than those who are simply––as if any of this is simple––identifying as gay. Moving forward, I hope to do better understanding the nuances of these good human beings.)
Anyhow, the conversation that’s been stirred up is good, but honestly, the whole thing is weird for me. There are a lot of emotions given that the Nazarenes deemed me “out of alignment with their theology” as they requested I surrender my credentials. This, following their statement that they didn’t exactly know what the bible was saying about sexuality, which means, they deemed me out of alignment with a theology that they didn’t understand! Ha, classic. I tried to point out how untenable it was to be so certain about an uncertain theology but to no avail. Ultimately, I guess it wasn’t all that surprising, for gatekeepers will not easily part with their keys.
Some days I think it’d be best to go full-on anti-mimetic and pull myself out of the conversation entirely. I don’t know how healthy it all is … then I think, good grief; it’s not really about me … it’s about those who have been marginalized and rendered powerless by the church for a very long time. So, I usually take a big breath and then figure out ways to stay engaged.
And it motivates me to stay engaged when I discover people saying less than helpful things, which is why I felt compelled to respond to the NTS Seminary President recently (btw, for those keeping score at home, my response to his response is a classic example of someone like me being motivated by mimetic desires). I’m not sure if what I wrote will help anyone––though my website tells me that traffic was up by 400% over the course of a few days there––but it helped me to type it out, think through a couple of the issues again, and be reminded of the expansiveness of love.
I kind of don’t get religious gatekeepers. I mean, I get the general idea that organizations have guidelines or rules or whatever, you know, things they need to communicate. But I don’t get how a religious organization that rallies around the most gracious person of all time can lack so much grace when thinking about sexuality (or any number of things, for that matter).
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