Usually, when someone becomes affirming, it is because they have seen the bad fruit of non-affirming theology. They know you can judge a tree by its fruit, and the fruit of the Spirit are useful tools for discernment. They usually know someone who is queer or know of them in some circle of proximity. They want to love their neighbors, and see that God is love, and can no longer support the theology of fear, hate, exclusion, suffering, and death they have previously been told is correct. They have usually had some sort of awareness (whether through gender or abuse or promises that never panned out or science or a thousand other things) that what is “traditional” in the church is not always what is faithful, best, or loving. At some point, they have to ask, “Is this really what the Bible says about LGBTQIA+ people? Is this really what God wants for his people and his church? If this is orthodoxy, what does that say about the gospel? Can I keep my faith and love my neighbor?”
Continue reading “Queer theology and the Bible”Tag: theology
Women of Valor – Mary Magdalene
I had the great privilege of joining my friend Kelly Wolfe on her blog, Let It Matter, this week discussing Mary Magdalene. We have a video of our conversation on her blog as well as a transcript for you to read. We discuss the way she’s been treated by church history, biblical interpretation, how fandom culture can help us with theology, and the way women of the Bible provide a unique perspective on the gospel story.
“These women that have been through hell that are the ones recognizing Him, not just as a man, and not just as a teacher, or as a leader, but as God.”
“The better you understand fandom culture, the better you can engage with theology. And Mary has been mythologized for 2,000 years so there’s an awful lot of fandom culture around Mary Magdalene to deal with. She has been a saint, a prostitute, a wife of Jesus, a preacher, to the feminine side of Christ, there’s all sorts of things that have her in very odd positions in France as a hermit.”
“This is why it’s so vital that we are examining our own biases. We’re examining our own agendas coming into the text, we’re engaging in scripture itself, and we have to question what we’re absorbing from, sermons, podcasts, books, cultural references, music, art, even very old art. Read what’s there and notice what’s not.”
Invisible Cake Society 