queerreligion70-blog

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Queering Islam

I have very little experience with Islam. I am tempted to write that it is far outside of my own faith tradition and yet it is an Abrahamic religion, so not that far from my own Christian faith. I have been lucky to take some classes about Islam that have opened my eyes to my own ignorance, if not provided me with education on the Muslim religion.

Anything that I write here regarding the queering of Islam will be based on readings and study and therefore may be inaccurate due to misinterpretation. However, I hope to at least pose interesting questions to ponder regarding the queer community and Islam.

As with other Abrahamic religions, Islam is based on heteronormative ideals. Do the often homophobic ideas of the Abrahamic traditions affect the cultures they live in, or do the cultures affect how the religions are interpreted? Is it somehow related to the Abrahamic religions being patriarchal and therefore male centered? These are difficult questions to answer since there are Muslims practicing all over the world in all different cultures. As Jelena Čvorović writes, “’The Islamic world’ is much too complex to be reduced to a single cultural design.From Morocco in the West to Indonesia in the East, many countries have Muslim majorities. In these societies Islam can take many different characteristics, and there are many doctrinal differences within Islam as practiced there (p. 85).* 

There are queer Muslims, just as there are queer Christians and Jews. How will these religions adjust to the queer community?

* Čvorović, Jelena (2006). «Islamic Homosexuality.» Antropologija 1: pp. 85–103.

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Queering Judaism

Judaism is not my faith practice. When writing about queering Judaism, I am writing from the perspective of someone who has read the Hebrew Bible as the Old Testament and someone who has done some reading on the subject. I do not pretend to be an expert on the subject in anyway, but only desire to explore the idea of what it would mean to queer Judaism.

Just as with every religion, there are many ways to practice Judaism, with the Conservative and Reform being the most popular. When talking about queering Judaism, it is important to remember that this is really within context of time, culture, and type of practice. Some types of Judaism are more welcoming to the queer community than others. 

For Judaism as a whole, one thing that should be examined when we talk about queering is heteronormativity. Judaism is structured around a preconception of heteronormativity that is the antithesis of the queer. To queer any of the Abrahamic religions is to almost turn them inside out. If what we mean by “queering” is to step away from societal norms regarding sexual and gender identity, then queering the Abrahamic religions which are steeped in heteronormativity is a big task. 

Yet, Judaism has been able to do this for congregations that have wanted to be open to the queer community. By expanding their language and their ideas, these open congregations have been able to become inclusive, as Jay Michaelson writes, “ [T]o ‘queer’ (i.e., as rejecting the notion that binary gender and normative sexuality are natural categories) theology helps to undermine normative tendencies in theological thinking. Removing assumptions of Divine gender, speaking of permutations of gender fluidity that are quite removed from most of our experiences, denying that categories of gender even exist ultimately at all—all these are moves closer to the Infinity and Oneness of the Divine. The farther we get from our preconceived notions of what “identity” is supposed to be, the closer we are to realization.”*

The question then becomes are we fundamentally changing the nature of the religion by trying to queer it? If we are changing the religion, is that something that we can agree that we want to do? Should some congregations be free to change while others remain heteronormative? These are interesting questions that are best answered by those who practice the religion.

* Michaelson, Jay (2009). «On the Religious Significance of Homosexuality; or, Queering God, Torah, and Israel.» In: The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism, edited by Danya Ruttenberg. New York, NY: New York University Press, pp. 212–224.

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Queering Buddhism

I have studied some Buddhism, but do not practice Buddhism. I can only write here in this post regarding what I understand of the principles and context of Buddhism regarding its acceptance of the queer community.

My understanding is that Buddhism is one of the world’s oldest religions and that there are many different practices that change according to the culture (for example, a Buddhist in India will have a much different practice than an American Buddhist). There are also differences in the types of Buddhism practiced (the main three being  Mayāhāna, Theravāda, and  Vajrayāna). My understanding does run a little deeper than this from reading, but this is the basic knowledge that I have. 

Regarding the queer community, Buddhism has been largely neutral, taking on the culture of the location as  José Ignacio Cabezón writes in 1998: Buddhism has been for the most part neutral on the question of homosexuality. The principle question for Buddhism has not been one of heterosexuality vs. homosexuality but one of sexuality vs. celibacy […]. The fact that Buddhism has been essentially neutral in this regard does not imply that the cultures in which Buddhism arose and flourished have always been neutral. Some, at certain times, have been tolerant of same-sex relations; others have not. However, because of the essential neutrality of the Buddhist tradition in this regard, it has adapted to particular sociocultural norms, so that throughout its history we find a wide gamut of opinions concerning homosexual activity, ranging from condemnation (never to the point of active persecution) to praise (p. 30)*

For Buddhism, the question is usually not so much about sexuality or sexual identity per se, but rather about healthy relationships. There is also an element of sexual purity involved in enlightenment that is not dependent on sexual identity. 

* Cabezón, José Ignacio (1998). «Homosexuality and Buddhism.» In: Queer Dharma: Voices of Gay Buddhists, volume 1, edited by Winston Leyland. San Francisco, CA: Gay Sunshine Press, pp. 29–44.   

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Queering Christianity

Because my own faith tradition is rooted in Christianity, I feel most comfortable speaking to this subject regarding what it means to queer Christianity. Within Christianity, God has always been seen as male, creating a “normal” within Christian society. Jesus was also a male, the son of God, portrayed as virile and masculine in artistic rendition. Jesus is what we as Christians aspire to be, but what about those of us that could not possibly fit into that strict paradigm?

For me, queering Christianity is about more than just making Christianity welcoming to the LGBTQIA+ community, it is about exploring all that we are missing that is outside of that strict conformity. Just reading the gospels, it is easy to see that without careful reading and understanding of context, we miss a lot of what Jesus did that itself would have been considered “queer.” Who Jesus ate with, who Jesus taught, and who Jesus healed were all beyond the bounds of normal social behavior of that time and culture. And yet so often we desire to put Jesus into a box and create a conformist God.

Beyond the idea of Jesus as nonconformist, is also the idea of both God and Jesus as being gender fluid. To state with certainty that God is male seems ridiculous at best. The Divine certainly must encompass feminine and masculine attributes in order to be complete. Jesus, though certainly male from all accounts, can be understood to have “classic” feminine qualities from the gospel stories. I personally do not believe that a particular quality is either masculine or feminine, but I understand that in our culture, there are qualities that are considered more masculine and feminine. Jesus was nurturing, caring, and sympathetic, all qualities often attributed as feminine.

It seems to me more surprising that for so many years, Christianity has been closed to the queer community when it should have always been open and welcoming.

[queerreligion70-blog]

World Religions

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Queering Religion: What is it?

When we talk about queering religion, what do we mean? Is it a process of taking religions that are either actively against the LGBTQIA+ community or ambivalent and expanding them so that they are queer friendly? Or is it about finding the queer that is already existent in religion and bringing it to awareness? 

First, let’s figure out what the words themselves even mean. For the purposes of this blog, religion really refers to any belief system. Generally, when the word “religion” is used here, it will have the typical common meaning. Unless it is specified, the word religion does not refer to a specific belief system, but rather religion in general.

Defining the term “queer” might be a bit more complicated. Queer can mean different things to different people. Some people still consider the term to be deragatory and are uncomfortable with its use. I personally see myself as queer because I don’t easily fit into a clear LGBTQIA+ definition. As an aromantic pansexual, it is often easier to use the blanket term “queer.” I also believe that the term queer is easier than the ever expanding alphabet soup that the community has struggled with for a number of years. 

There is another reason for using the term queer.  Claudia Schippert writes on page 91 of her journal article Queer Theory and the Study of Religion, “’Queer’ is thus not defined around an identity, but as dissent from and defiance of dominant meanings of sex and gender.”* The idea with this use of the word queer is that it expands the definition of queer to include anything that explodes common sexual and gender identities. 

The question then becomes whether religion can be queered or if some religions have already been queered. This is what this blog hopes to explore.

* Schippert, Claudia (2005). «Queer Theory and the Study of Religion.» REVER: Revista de Estudos da Religião 4: pp. 90–99.