Where Are the Faces of Queer and Liberal Christianity? – Advocate.com

Liberal-Academic-Methodist-Midwestern-Public School Proud-Steel Mill Salary Educated-Lesbian Mom-Tell Me Again About My Bubble. This was my sign at the 2017 Womens March in Chicago.

I grew upMethodistin a southern Illinois steel mill town, the kind where my wife and I still dont really feel comfortable holding hands. Nonetheless, I was amazed to discover that following the United Methodist Churchs 2019 vote to affirm a proposed Traditional Plan, one which kept in place and strengthened bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage, the vast majority of young and middle-aged parishioners abandoned my childhood church in protest. Perhaps less surprisingly, simultaneous to that small-town exodus, the social justicedriven, queer-inclusive Chicago churches Ive called home ones I chose for their rainbow flags and pink triangles railed against the UMC machinein the face of an institutional decision they saw as antithetical to their very beings.

Where are these stories? Buried somewhere beneath headlines about Kanyes performance alongside anti-LGBTQ speakers and Trumps promise for big action in promoting prayer in schools (the same schools where his administration rolled back protections for LGBTQ students), are untold stories of queer and queer-friendly liberal Christians. Sure, the 24-hour news cycle briefly latched onto the January 3 announcement ofthe UMC's proposed split, a separation that would leave the more progressive and queer-friendly faction of the denomination at the center, with the regressive traditionalists as aseparated side-denomination.But this kind of pro-queer action within the Christian community is not new. News outlets that clamor for the most regressive talking heads just make it seem so.

Where are the faces of queer and liberal Christianity? When I came out in the 1990s, Mel Whites Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America gave me peace. But hes not the full story (and had he not been a former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell, there may have been no story). Sure, the mainstream news found Mayor Pete, but to them hes an unavoidable and attractive unicorn: a queer Christian Midwestern veteran. Where are the queer and queer-friendly talking heads?As a queer media scholar and liberal Christian, Ive been watching headlinesclosely, wondering yet again why an image of Christianity driven by hate and exclusion continuously controls the frame.

We liberal Christians are out there fighting for LGBTQ+ rights,immigrant rights,reproductive rights, and everything painted by the right as blasphemous and hedonistic. Yet progressive Christianstill doesnt exactlytrip off the tongue (let alone queer Christian).

Althoughreligioncommonly makes its way into the political beat, whether through George Conways anti-Trump Lincoln Project releasing ascathing videojuxtaposing evangelicals praise of the president with the commander in chiefs most egregious anti-Christian statements or the president launching his Evangelicals for Trump reelection coalition or trottingBilly Grahams granddaughter Cissieonstage during a Miami campaign rally to rebukeChristianity Todays call for his ouster, seldom dothe protests or progress of liberal Christians make the cut. For this reason, the UMC story has been an extraordinary wrinkle in the dominant conservative Christian narrative.

For decades, the hyperpresence of a vocal Christian right has driven liberals (including LGBTQ parishioners) away from the church. At a time when American churches are seeing declining numbers in general and surveys asking about religion note a rise in nones, queer congregants areneeded. And just as the UMC needed its queer parishioners and their queer-friendly allies to drag church doctrine into the 21stcentury, American politics and the impending election cycle need to hear from progressive Christiansand those who support LBGTQ rights.

According to the most recentPew Research Center surveylinking political ideology and religious affiliation, in the categories of both Mainline Protestant and Historically Black Protestant, the combined classifications of moderate and liberal far outweighed those of conservative. Nevertheless, its the conservative talking heads who cork off during the 24-hour news cycle, and its conservative politicians who wave the banner of Christianity while painting Christians with broad regressive strokes. They dont speak for all of us.

The story of the UMC is much more reflective of the current American religious landscape than are the talking points spewing forth on cable news, talk radio, and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Evangelical legacy Franklin Graham (who gives Vladimir Putin props for protecting his nations children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda) and megachurch preachers like Joel Homosexuality Is a Sin, But Repentance Leads to Heaven Osteen, cramming50,000 worshippers into the old Houston Rockets stadium and reaching another 10 million weekly via TV, may have the cash, flash, Pepsodent smiles, and coiffures to sell the show. But they only speak for a subset of contemporary Christianity, one that unfortunately carries disproportional weight when it comes to headlines.

We are notKim Davisrefusing marriage licenses to Kentucky same-sex couples, religiousColorado bakersrefusing to bake queer wedding cakes, orHobby Lobbys Green familydenying Plan B or IUDs to their employees. As long as we allow them, the Grahams, the Osteens, and President TrumpsProsperity Gospel darlingand faith whisperer, multimillionaire Paula White, to be the face of American Christianity, we not only lose the public relations battle, but allow religion to be used as a weapon by the political right not just against us but all progressive Christians.

Only a visible and vocal presence of the Christian left can help combat this cultural fallacy.

By no means would I suggest that queer liberal or any liberal Christian voices form a monolithic Christian base. Surely demographic overlap exists between Christians and those who seek to withhold birth control, ban abortion, prevent same-sex couples from adopting, and bar transgender Americans from usingtheir chosen bathroom, but settling in on this view of Christian America is counterproductive. In fact, data pulled from a 2018Cooperative Congressional Election Studyshows that the religious left, although obscured by the media, is the mostpolitically activereligious group in the United States. And queer Christians are driving the fight for social change.

Queer Christians and their allies need to come out of yet another closet and make their voices heard. It shouldnt take tragedy or Jim J. Bullock and Tammy Faye Bakker teaming up for queer and religion to find their way into the same sentence. For decades we have fought to make ourselves and the LGBTQ community visible and valued; heres one more step to take. Make your voices heard not just in your churches but in the media, in local politics, and while canvassing for your candidates. Take away the taboo union of progressive politics, queerness, and Christianity.

We need to publicly prove that we too are part of the force driving positive and inclusive social, cultural, and political movements in this country. Dont let the pundits and politicians defineChristian. WWJD? Drive the story.

Kelly Kessler, a public voices fellow with The OpEd Project, teaches media and cinema studies at DePaul University in Chicago. Her teaching and scholarship often focus on the intersection of mainstream media, queer audiences, and queer images. All the while, shes doing her best to make her twins into good humans.

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Where Are the Faces of Queer and Liberal Christianity? - Advocate.com