Tag Archives: Religion

Thoughts on Identity

Ethics phd Religion Theology 3 Comments

I am neck deep in writing the dissertation, and the issue of identity has emerged:  who am I?  I was talking with a colleague friend the other day and I exclaimed:  ”I think I’m a Philosophical Theologian who does and thinks about Ethics.”  She agreed.  This propelled me to continue my thinking around identity, and specifically who really am I as a scholar.  My degrees have all come from Schools of Theology and I have been taught to think theologically and philosophically about all things.  Now, as I move to finish my Ph.D. I wonder what this all means, and how my identity continues to become.

As I ponder this, I think about the tradition of European Continental Philosophy and my own exposure to the tradition of Social Ethics.  I’ve been inclined to identify with European Continental Philosophy and various Latin American Thinkers–both seem to want to challenge existing ideologies and offer ‘new’ ways of thinking.  So, who does this make me?  A child who was born in the State of Texas in the United States who grew into an adult in West Texas at a Baptist University, then flourished in a seminary in Chicago, now completing a dissertation in the West, Colorado.  My physical and intellectual nomadism–that particular type of movement between places–has birthed an identity.  I call it:  Philosopher-Theologian-Ethicist.  I write philosophy, some say.  I do Ethics, others claim.  I think theologically on most days, and find a particular rhythm that is almost liturgical in my thinking.

Identity is challenging.  There is no clear-cut stable identity that emerges.  It is always a negotiated identity, an unstable identity–an identity that irrupts in the borderlands and becomes in between points of contact.  It is a nomadic identity  whose subjectivity carefully unfolds while moving in between certain points along the way.

I do not seek to categorize this identity as a ‘something,’ but rather allow it to unfold and become whatever it may.

Remembering Ada María Isasi-Diaz

Ethics Feminism Religion Theology No Comments

Today is a sad day for so many.  I was just notified that Ada passed away this morning.  While I knew she was struggling, a common theme in her Mujerista theology, to battle the cancer and infections that were destroying her body.  She ended her life en la lucha–in the struggle–yet not so in deep struggle, since she passed away in her deep sleep, and I am grateful for her pioneering a way for me, a Queermestiz@ to participate in the fullness of life.  While my life is not free from struggle, I have been able to look to Ada and her work (including her kinship among Womanist scholars) as a way to imagine queer\Ethics.  Thank you Ada for giving us a way to think and explore and imagine Hispanic/Latina Liberation Theology & Ethics.

I am not alone as a mujerista, a queermestiz@.  I am surrounded by the Hispanic Theological Community who proudly recognizes your contribution to Liberation Theology.  Your memory and theological imagination and commitment to la lucha remains with me and others this day, and will as we continue to take steps for liberation.

While I enflesh loads of doubt, I cannot help but call you a theological gift helping to pluralize women’s experience in theology and ethics.  You will be missed, eternally.

The What-ness of Social Media

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Robyn Henderson-Espinoza
21 April 2012
Social Media Praxis, Iliff School of Theology

“The What-ness of Social Media in 140 Characters”

Obviously, my title is a bit mis-leading. I will not attempt to digest social media in 140 characters. If I did, it would be this: Social media, as a relational practice, is the beginning of our ability to truly relate, which is always mediated by virtual differences.

What do I mean by social media being a relational practice?

Let me answer this question by situating myself in the discourse. I am an Ethicist. I like to think about our moral imagination, moral agency and ethics; and so, when I assert the notion that social media is a relational practice, I also am suggesting that there are ethical implications here.

There has long been the question that Scholars have raised regarding the relationship between human bodies and virtual bodies. With social media, you have many bodies engaging with each other: from actual human bodies, machine bodies (like computers), and virtual bodies, like avatars and so forth. This creates a web of relating practices that indeed raises the question of the “what-ness” of social media, and especially so for today’s church.

For me, I created iRobyn. I was living in Chicago, and Twitter was all the hype. iRobyn is on Twitter as a politically queer voice, and iRobyn.com is a WordPress blog where I seek to work at the multiple intersections of religion, theology, race, queerness, sexuality, and ethics. In fact, when I have attended the American Academy of Religion, I have had conversations with people who call me iRobyn. What does this tell me about the power of creative possibilities and my own ability to create a voice, how ever virtual it is? I’ve discovered that social media is a relationship across many and multiple differences.

What might all this mean for today’s church?

What if the church embraced social media as a liturgical practice? If liturgy is the work of the people, and people of a local church began to engage with their own communities’ practices, then church might look a lot different–we might be able to live into the relational practices of our communities call to: care for the poor, feed the hungry, and so forth. Our churches might look less like a non-profit and more like a cathedral of hope, rooted in (insert here your religious practice): the call of Christ or the Divine, or what have you. What we can imagine is the ability for us all to develop a voice that lives as a social media voice.

The iRobyn voice is not necessarily the most academic voice; it is a public voice that is informed by culture, society, politics, and mediated by social media. When I blog, I write in the voice that makes most sense to me: an honestly engaged voice that is concerned about social practices that are often harming to multitude of communities. This ranges to a political voice that hopes for some political change. When I blog about theological issues or religious concerns, I write in a voice that has long-been acquainted with the practices of a local church, how ever agnostic I am these days…

What has been most helpful is that I quickly learned that for me I needed to have a multiplicity of voices. I run in circles that cut across many and multiple differences, so I needed to be able to speak to a variety of people, and sometimes my iRobyn voice merges. An example os this is when I blogged on Easter Sunday and posted an Oscar Romero quote and tied it to the murder of Trayvon Martin. It was titled: “Rise Again.” Now, I have no interest in being overly theological or affirming any sort of Resurrection of the Dead (sorry Orthodox Theologians). What was of interest to me here is to expose the intersections of theology, religion, sexuality, and race. It is in the multiple voices that iRobyn continues to exist and engage in a meaningful way.

The potential that today’s church has continues to open in multiple ways. From using social media to organize a group within a faith community or church to using Twitter to dialogue about a sermon’s content, a book study, or what have you. There seems to be no limit on what we can do with social media!

Faithful Conversations: Envisioning Our Future as the LGBTQ Community and Allies | Denver

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The struggle for inclusion, justice, and care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals in religious communities is a struggle that continues today. An upcoming event hopes to shed light on this issue. “Faithful Conversations: Building Support for LGBTQ People and Allies in Religious Communities” will be held from 1–8 pm. Registration begins at 1 pm and conversations will be held from 2–8 pm.

The conference is a gathering for LBGTQ people of faith, goodwill, and allies to build relationships, engage in challenging conversations, enhance and build skills for advocacy, and empower faith communities to support LGBTQ inclusion. Keynote speakers are: Jay Michaelson, author of the recently-released God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, and Dr. Kate Ott, Assistant Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Drew University Theological School.

There is a $25 registration fee for the event, which includes dinner. Please register by April 17. For more information, please call 720-524-1100.

The event is presented by the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, One Colorado Education Fund, Keshet, and Nehirim.

Rise again?

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“I have frequently been threatened with death. I must say that, as a Christian, I do not believe in death but in the resurrection. If they kill me, I shall rise again in the Salvadoran people.”—Archbishop Oscar Romero

Here, today, we are reminded of the martyr, Oscar Romero.  Much has happened in 2012 already:  from the War in Afghanistan to the Trayvon Martin tragedy.  We all are frequently threatened by death, and perhaps Oscar Romero is a bright light in the midst of tragic darkness:  let us all rise together in arms of justice.

Queer Christianities: A Conference at The New School

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Check this out! Some of my friends are on this panel doing some really interesting and compelling stuff!

Queer Christianities: A Conference at The New School
Both queerness and Christianity challenge received notions of the good and the natural. While these terms are often depicted as mutually exclusive, queer Christians have been quietly constructing new identities, articulating new understandings of faith, and creating new religious communities. With speakers from across the country, the conference focuses on the history and lived experience, religious practice and theology of three apparently incompatible modes of queer Christian life: Celibacies, Matrimonies, and Promiscuities.

Friday, March 23, 4:30-8:30

Panel of Undergraduate and Alumnae/i Research
The New School, 66 West 12th Street, Room A510
Karen Bray (Eugene Lang College ’05, Drew University), Respondent

Here, Queer, Christian
First Presbyterian Church of New York, 12 West 12th Street, Great Hall
Jon Walton (Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church), Queer in the Church: Opening Up the Closet
Winnie Varghese (Priest in Charge, Church of St. Mark in the Bowery), Respondent

Saturday, March 24, 10:00-5:30
Theresa Lang Center, 55 West 13th St, 2nd Floor

Keynote: Victor Anderson (Vanderbilt University)
Sex was Good until it became Natural, and then it became Moral

Panel I: Celibacies
David Hunter (University of Kentucky), On the Emergence of Celibacy as an Ideal Among the Earliest Christians
Anthony Petro (New York University), Contemporary Christians and Celibate Desire
Sister Carol Bernice (Community of the Holy Spirit), How Queer is “Celibate”?
Kathleen Talvacchia (New York University), Moderator

Panel II: Matrimonies
William E. Smith III (Indiana University), Christian Monogamy, What’s That?
Heather White (New College of Florida), Gay Rites and Religious Rights: New York City’s First Same-Sex Marriage Controversy
Teresa Delgado (Iona College), Marriage Beyond Procreativity: Solidarity Between LGBTIQ Catholics and their Catholic Heterosexual Allies
Mark Larrimore (Eugene Lang College), Moderator

Panel III: Promiscuities
Michael Pettinger (Eugene Lang College), A Queer Theology of Sin
Elijah Nealy (Columbia University), Transgender Realities, Theologies and Mutualities
Boon Lin Ngeo (Boston University). Blessed are Those Who are Horny: Rethinking Christian Sexual Ethics
Karen Bray (Drew University), Moderator

Closing Reflection
Kathryn Lofton (Yale University)

For registration and further details, see http://www.newschool.edu/lang/queer-christianities-conference/

Queer Christianities: A Conference at The New School

Queer Religion No Comments

Queer Christianities: A Conference at The New School

Both queerness and Christianity challenge received notions of the good and the natural. While these terms are often depicted as mutually exclusive, queer Christians have been quietly constructing new identities, articulating new understandings of faith, and creating new religious communities. With speakers from across the country, the conference focuses on the history and lived experience, religious practice and theology of three apparently incompatible modes of queer Christian life: Celibacies, Matrimonies, and Promiscuities.

Friday, March 23, 4:30-8:30

Panel of Undergraduate and Alumnae/i Research
The New School, 66 West 12th Street, Room A510
Karen Bray (Eugene Lang College ’05, Drew University), Respondent

Here, Queer, Christian
First Presbyterian Church of New York, 12 West 12th Street, Great Hall
Jon Walton (Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church), Queer in the Church: Opening Up the Closet
Winnie Varghese (Priest in Charge, Church of St. Mark in the Bowery), Respondent

Saturday, March 24, 10:00-5:30
Theresa Lang Center, 55 West 13th St, 2nd Floor

Keynote: Victor Anderson (Vanderbilt University)
Sex was Good until it became Natural, and then it became Moral

Panel I: Celibacies
David Hunter (University of Kentucky), On the Emergence of Celibacy as an Ideal Among the Earliest Christians
Anthony Petro (New York University), Contemporary Christians and Celibate Desire
Sister Carol Bernice (Community of the Holy Spirit), How Queer is “Celibate”?
Kathleen Talvacchia (New York University), Moderator

Panel II: Matrimonies
William E. Smith III (Indiana University), Christian Monogamy, What’s That?
Heather White (New College of Florida), Gay Rites and Religious Rights: New York City’s First Same-Sex Marriage Controversy
Teresa Delgado (Iona College), Marriage Beyond Procreativity: Solidarity Between LGBTIQ Catholics and their Catholic Heterosexual Allies
Mark Larrimore (Eugene Lang College), Moderator

Panel III: Promiscuities
Michael Pettinger (Eugene Lang College), A Queer Theology of Sin
Elijah Nealy (Columbia University), Transgender Realities, Theologies and Mutualities
Boon Lin Ngeo (Boston University). Blessed are Those Who are Horny: Rethinking Christian Sexual Ethics
Karen Bray (Drew University), Moderator

Closing Reflection
Kathryn Lofton (Yale University)

For registration and further details, see http://www.newschool.edu/lang/queer-christianities-conference/

The Transgender Roundtable @ Pacific School of Religion’s Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion & Ministry

Queer Religion No Comments

Well, I’ve just had my 1st conference call with members of the CLGS’s Transgender Roundtable.  I’m honored to be a apart of this very engaged group and look forward to the work we will do together.  If you are reading this blog, then perhaps you can leave a comment on what work this Roundtable should do!  I’d like to hear from folks in the community who have concerns about the visibility of Transgendered folks, how ever Trans is materialized.

Please consider commenting, and keep in touch on this blog to hear of what the Roundtable will do!