In an effort to alter the general perception that religions, especially Christianity and Islam, are fundamentally hostile to anyone who doesn't fit their strict definitions of sexuality and conform to their strict rules on permitted sexual relationships, a couple of Christian theology professors have founded a new 'Journal' which will concentrate on publishing articles and papers exploring 'the full range of rich and complex connections between religion, gender, and sexuality'.
The journal, to be called QTR: A Journal of Queer and Transgender Studies in Religion, has been founded by Melissa M. Wilcox, a religious studies professor from University of California, Riverside (UCR) and Joseph Marchal, a religious studies professor at Ball State University in Indiana.
According to the UCR news release:
The first papers published in the journal will be selected from presentations at a dedicated conference to be held at UC Riverside in May.The pair, who both seem to be oblivious of the fact that the different sects of Christianity are not the only religions to be openly hostile to homosexuality and transgender people, have their work cut out because, not only is the Catholic Church openly hostile to homosexuality and gender mobility but invariably preaches and campaigns against any extension of human rights to include the LGBTQ community. In addition, almost all evangelical Christian churches in the USA, Africa and elsewhere are openly and aggressively hostile to homosexuality, even advocating the death penalty for homosexuals and 'conversion therapies' which include shaming and blaming, based on the notion that homosexuality is a 'sin', a lifestyle choice, a mental illness and/or some sort of subconscious rebellion against God with dire consequences to follow.
[…]
Every time we write for a mainstream journal we have to do either Queer Theory or Religious Studies 101 to explain our theoretical background. There’s no go-to journal if you want to read this specific field of work. There’s no place those of us who do queer and trans studies in religion can talk directly to each other. This journal will be that place.QTR will be the first journal dedicated to expanding both scholarly and public knowledge about the full range of rich and complex connections between religion, gender, and sexuality, including the various ways trans and queer people create their own religious spaces.
Many scholars in these areas of research are working with little to no grant money. Some are working outside academia. Fee-free open access will help these scholars, as well.
When we say a particular religion hates queer people we’re erasing the queer people in that religion. We’re reducing it to one particular take or one particular branch and to a certain set of elites who have claimed the right to say what they want by silencing everyone else.
Professor Mellisa M. Wilcox.
[…]
QTR will be the first journal dedicated to expanding both scholarly and public knowledge about the full range of rich and complex connections between religion, gender, and sexuality, including the various ways trans and queer people create their own religious spaces.
[&hellp;]
Wilcox and Marchal believe this approach will not only help scholars ask better, more robust research questions, but by making the work freely available, it will help those struggling with the relationships between gender, sexuality, and spirituality.
It’s true that some have used religious argumentation to target queer and trans people, and that many are traumatized by religious narratives, but it’s equally true that many queer and trans people are religious and find community and affirmation in religions
The new journal starts off with a candid understanding of a more complicated terrain to actually get at these lifeworlds, thus bringing more people into conversations about religion, gender, and sexuality.
Preachers of hate such as Hank Kunneman, Steven Anderson and Greg Locke frequently use their packed megachurches and social media presence, to preach virulently hate-filled anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, citing the Bible to justify their hatred. The Bible, of course, notoriously calls for the death of homosexuals who practice same-sex sex with:
The new journal starts off with a candid understanding of a more complicated terrain to actually get at these lifeworlds, thus bringing more people into conversations about religion, gender, and sexuality.
Professor Joseph Marchal
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination (Leviticus 18: 22).Then of course there is the tale of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, from which we get the terms 'sodomy', 'sodomite', etc, any reading of which shows it to be homosexuality which so enrages God that he destroys everyone in the cities save only for Lot and his daughters. Lot offering his virgin daughters to a mob to be used as they wished was not regarded as sin enough to destroy Lot too, nor was his forthcoming incestuous sex with his daughters. Rape and incest were fine, so long as it wasn't homosexual rape and incest, apparently.
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them (Leviticus 20: 13).
The problem for churches that preach Bible literalism, or that the Bible is the sacred word of a god, is that it takes real creativity to interpret these passages as anything other than an attack on homosexuality and a prohibition of it as a mortal sin for which death is the appropriate punishment. Some progressive churches, eager to retain homosexuals in their dwindling congregations have discerned a 'new covenant' which came with Jesus and which effectively abolished all the OT laws, including those in Leviticus, claiming that the OT is only still included in the Bible for historical context and all Christian theology derives from the NT. Unfortunately, that also abolished the notion of original sin, the need for redemption and the whole reason for Jesus, and is contradicted by what Jesus allegedly said with, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil" (Matthew 5:17) and other passages such as "But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Peter 1:25) which bluntly contradict claims of some sort of new covenant.
So, with so much theology on which the preachers of hate can draw, and not even the notion of s new covenant that can be cited to excuse the virulent anti-LGBTQ passages in the Qur'an, the creators of the new, supposedly LGBTQ-friendly journal have their work cut out. The biggest problem they have is that they are still struggling to fit a brutal Bronze Age Middle Eastern tribal moral code into a modern, evolved society which has mostly turned its back on these primitive ideas from what Christopher Hitchens called, the fearful infancy of our species.
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