I know I link to him
all the time (it's because he's awesome), but the very reverend Mr
John Shore has
a new book out. It's called Wings on a Pig: Why the
“Christian” View of Gays Doesn't Work,
and you all who are able should definitely buy it, because it is a
most excellent collection of Shore's refreshingly direct essays on
the topic of homosexuality and Christianity (ending with the
clearest, most brilliant, most faithful and biblically-sound
refutation of the clobber passages I've ever read), interspersed with
letters of testimony from gay Christians, one of which may or may not
be – well, they're anonymous...
(BUT
YOU GUYS I TOTALLY WROTE ONE OF THEM)
Aside
from the excitement of seeing words what I wrote
in eInk, I think it is a super-important book. (Did I mention that I
contributed to it?) On the ground, the issue of Teh Gays really is
causing major upheaval in America's churches (and to a lesser extent,
if only because of the vastly lesser role of religion in UK society,
in Britain's).
This
makes me think there's a very striking disconnect between the
theologies of my queer progressive Bay Area seminary and the
theologies of Middle America. Here, we don't talk about whether God
has a problem with gays, because we're all gay or gay-adjacent. Here,
admitting “actually I believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and
fully human and that he died for my sins” is tantamount to outing
yourself as a paid-up member of the Religious Right. Here, being a
far-leftist as well as a Christian does not make you a *~~*special
snowflake*~~* (you should see the amount of activism and support on
our campus toward the Occupy movement).
And
yet, during my two years in a conservative Christian church, being a
far-leftist gay Christian did make me a *~~*special
snowflake*~~*; and, for tons of people all across this country, the
same is true. The testimonies in John's book assure me of that.
Even
so, I do have hope for the future of Christianity in this country.
While I was living across the Pond, getting all my US news from The
Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Rachel Maddow Show,
and AlterNet, I very much got the impression that the Religious Right
was the primary – if not only – vocal Christian movement in the
States. Progressivism, of course, went hand-in-hand with secularism –
a universal extrapolation I, like many others (including prominent
theorists who really should know better), made from the example of
Western Europe.
But
that's not how things are going in America. Religion is still a
hugely powerful force in this country, uniquely so among industrial
nations, and that's not changing anytime soon. (Did you know how much
effort and money the '08 Obama campaign put into religious outreach?
Because it was a lot.)
What
could – and, I hope, will – change soon is the tide of religious
feeling. Contrary to the messages of much of the media, the religious
left is a dynamic force in the United States, and I believe it's on
the rise. It may still be a smallish force, but it's gaining momentum
among the young people and on the internet and in the
queer-progressive-heretical seminaries and everywhere that people are
having the courage to consider the issues for themselves, seek out
resources like John's book, and defy the party line of Christian
conservatism.
The
religious left is here, it's queer(-friendly), and it's not going
away.
