Just another SMU Blog System Sites site
Judges 3:12-30 accounts for the triumph of a Ehud, a Benjaminite, over King Eglon of Moab through an act of deception. However, three distinct elements of this story appear providing a worthy queer hermeneutic. First, Ehud is described as being left handed, a queer characteristic. Second, the word “hand” (yad) itself is open to multiple interpretations including “penis.” Finally, the […]
Read moreThrough the study of Queer Biblical Hermeneutics, I have found freedom from the heteronormative, imperialist, marginalizing and essentialist interpretation of the scripture which allow me to dance across the intersectionality of my identities. Coming out in the early nineties to my family and Christian community was a liberating and heart-breaking time. I was in college in California where one might […]
Read moreIt has been a week since the United Methodist General Conference in Saint Louis. The main debate was on human sexuality, with delegates voting to determine whether or not to allow people on the LGBTQ spectrum to be ordained and serve as clergy in The UMC. The other debate was whether clergy can officiate at same-gender weddings in their local […]
Read more
Queer theologians must address current events, such as the recent Jussie Smollett case, to challenge hegemonic, heteronormative white supremacist society in the United States. For example, on January 29, 2019, Jussie Smollett, an openly gay, Black television star from the popular TV series Empirewas assaulted on the streets of Chicago. He was barraged with racial and homophobic slurs, dowsed with […]
Read moreRitual transitions in human life always involve festival attire. Commencements, birthdays, baptisms, weddings, and in liturgical Christian traditions: worship services. In Exodus 28 the story of flamboyant priests is encountered. This text expresses queerness on the basis of how detailed the descriptions for garments are in addition to precise instruction on rituals. This essay seeks to identify how Exodus 27-30 […]
Read moreMichel Foucault in The History of Sexuality Volume 1: An Introduction explains power and ultimately demonstrates that sexuality is a construct created by discourse. To begin to understand Foucault’s argument, we must start by learning why he believed that our widely held theory on sexuality was erroneous. The repressive hypothesis is a prevalent theory that analyzes how our current notions […]
Read moreHistorically, humans living outside of the heteronormative construct are silent and tyrannized. These marginalized “Other” suffer under the oppression of structures of tradition, culture, religion, politics, economics and education. They function within an androcentric-heteronormative construct. The term queer “refers to anything outside the norm,” according to Laurel C. Schneider.[i] Within this oppression a queer community rises up and with it […]
Read more