February 5, 2025
Trump's Executive Order to restore "biological truth" is a will to power that expresses his desire to be saved from "immutable" biological reality. It gives renewed meaning to David M. Halperin’s argument, made in *Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography*: Whenever we (i.e., bodies that incarnate different truths) hear the Trump Administration “invoke the notion of ‘truth,’ we reach for our revolvers."
October 23, 2024
In this essay, I argue that Mary is a figure of the Spirit of God. Matthew defines the Spirit in and through Mary, described in and through a tradition of maternal rebellion and survival. Matthew's Jesus, who is of Mary, of the Spirit, incarnates a non-standard, "feminine" messianism. And we will, too—if we are of Jesus.
October 8, 2024
Traditional gay male Christian theology is a post-Stonewall (1969) theological movement that unapologetically embraces gay male difference from straightness as a legitimate starting point for Christian theological reflection. Gay theologians define gay male difference in and through theories of androgyny. Androgyny is a flawed theory of gayness. The future of gay theology depends on reinterpreting gay male difference as identification with devalued femininity.
September 12, 2024
Adam Phillips’s book, Monogamy, is a collection of 121 (think 1 to 1, the logic of a certain kind of relationship) provocative aphorisms. Monogamy has activated my curiosity (see here, here and, here) by highlighting what we so often ignore (and, manifestly, at our peril): the problem of (the promise of?) infidelity. Here is my try at aphorism making: #101 Heterosexuals say they are happily married, but one can never be sure because they always declare their matrimonial bliss with a straight face. Homosexuals also say they are happily married, but not without having a laugh.
September 9, 2024
II am no apologist for monogamy. Yet, most people desire it for themselves. And most people, even those for whom it seems to be working out well, don't seem to love monogamy. I think that is interesting. Most people don't love monogamy, but yet they still believe in it. So, it is worth asking: What promises to make loving monogamy promising? My answer is irony. Irony is the key to loving monogamy. Or so I will argue in this essay.
June 17, 2024
A sermon based on the Gospel of John 19:25-29 (FYI: the word “home” is NOT in the Greek text): * As Jesus is dying on the cross, the disciple he loves—the boy he loves—the one, we are told, who is responsible for the Gospel of John, is on his mind. In the final moments of Jesus’ life, his beloved’s future is his ultimate concern. We don’t know the identity of the man Jesus loved, but what we do know is that he is the only disciple Jesus is explicitly said to have loved. We also know that he is the
May 3, 2024
Lori Lightfoot’s tenure as Chicago mayor is the subject of Gregory Pratt’s The City Is Up For Grabs, which critiques her leadership as chaotic and ultimately bad for the City of Chicago. Using Lightfoot’s ill-fitting suits as a metaphor, this analysis examines her portrayal as a complex political figure, both empowered and constrained by intersecting social perceptions of gender, race, and authority.
April 12, 2024
* In a recent dream, I was surprised by the appearance of the Greek word for S/spirit, πνεῦμα. It was a well-planned move, coming just after what was a disturbing scene. Another surprise: the ν and εῦ of πνεῦμα reversed places. A third surprise: the meaning of the new word, πεῦνμα, was explicitly spelled out in the dream. In the lexicon of the dream, πεῦνμα means companionship. ** In dreams, unconscious thoughts are translated into consciously recognizable/acceptable forms. The goal of the dream is not to disturb consciousness (because the purpose of dreams is to keep us asleep). If consciousness
March 24, 2024
* In her recent book, Who Is Afraid of Gender?, Judith Butler asks us to think critically about gender. Thinking critically about gender entails actually reading texts that seriously investigate and explore the (dis-)contents of gender. Butler explicitly defines what is at stake in the practice of reading, namely “democratic life”: Reading is not just a pastime or a luxury, but a precondition of democratic life, one of the practices that keep debate and disagreement grounded, focused, and productive. Judith Butler, Who Is Afraid of Gender? (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024), 18-19. The specific point Butler is making
March 20, 2024
A Gay Sermon based on Exodus 32:1-14 and Matthew 22:1-14 *** I started preaching when I was 17 years old. I preached with some regularity at a small church, in a small town, in Oregon, close to the Idaho border. There was a retired pastor in that church, and by that time he had lost his eyesight entirely. One Sunday he approached me after worship. He had brought his robe, his Geneva gown, to church. He had brought it with him that Sunday because he wanted to give it to me. He knew that one day I would become a
April 16, 2026
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April 14, 2026
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April 8, 2026
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