Patrick Chang
not one single model of social justice
Roman catholic background / now outside church
rainbow theology (third book)
queer person of color -- stuck in the Oz doorway - never quite over the rainbow
Queer of Color Experience
rage -- not a bad thing -- channel it in a constructive way
false binary --- sexuality vs race
Queer people and people of color and the two will never meet
... always living in that middle ground -- where do I fit in in that dichotomy
.. really race and sexuality cannot be separated --- two sides of the same coin
use sexuality as a way to denigrate people of color -- african american community -- hyper masculinity
asian - hyper femininity version of sexuality
so race is always sexualized and sexaulity is always raced
one of NOMs strategies is to pit people of color against LGBT people
can be a place of isolation
people of color homophobia -- dadt style communities
queer racism - out magazine power 50 -- there were like two people of color. given that the world is 2/3 people of color, where are they drawing from?
what are images of beauty? asian face not represented
whiteness of queer theologies
"rethinking the western body" - as if eastern bodies aren't queer!
whiteness of queer churches
- all are welcome but where is everyone? wrong question to ask --
looking around and looking at the faces and are we really seeing the reign of God before us
Supreme court cases
- sadness of the voting rights act
the LGBT community has used discourse of civil rights, but how often do you hear about tying these issues together in a deeply intersectional way
Three Rainbow Themes
instead of seeing queer people of color as an issue to be dealt with, what if we did theology from our experience?
multiplicities - multiple identities -- what are you today? are you asian today or are you gay today? our society makes us pick one thing -- the resistance is about saying, "i'm all of the above" .. at the heart of our notion of God is the trinity .. but our own theologies do not reflect this multiplicity
middle spaces - occupying the middle space between two binaries -- metaphorically homeless .. not really at home with the asian american community becuase they don't get my queerness and I'm not at home with the queer community becuase they don't get my asian american-ness. Jesus is the ultimate middle space person .. but we aren't very good about claiming the metaphorical homeless .. how often are we willing to become volunterily homeless in terms of letting go of our priviledges
mediation - transnational backgrounds - bringing strains together. and also interfaith perspectives
covenant as Mediation - bringing together different strands
reimagine queer theology from the perspective of people of color
- multplicty
- middle spaces - volunterily took on a decentering - emptying of priviliedge
- mediation - live in contextualization of communities of color around the world
Delfin
- for the lesbian of color, the ultimate rebellion she can make to er chulture is through her sexual behavoir ..
.. I made the choice to be queer -- intersting path -- in and out of my head .. makes for locuria -- it's a path of knowlee - one of knowing and of learning the history of opression. way of mitigating duality
pauls letter to the gal = there is no longer jew or greek, slave or free -- all of you are one in christ jesus if you bleong to christ, then you are abrihams offrspring
neither greek or jew - neither male or female
paul was a theologian at the forntera - they are neither __ or ___ becuase they are both and people
we too dwell in the borderland -- greek and jew . male and female black and white -- messy intercoexistance
refusal to limit people to one label
mosaic of identities
labels limit htem to just being queer, etc.
all our identities interact and coexist
paul and the early christian communities were not advocating differences to be made or to be melted into an amorphous blob
rethink how we gather in groups
can there be spaces that affirm all of me and all of us
we are conditioned to be fearful of difference -- brainwashed to wanting the same car, etc.
yearning for conflict and tension and harmony
we're not the same -- that's ok -- borders and boundaries are not places of problematic divicsives but places to cross over and be with the other -- and for them to cross over
we must honor our differences -- knowing that we are united for our common passion for equality
Maya angelo -- each a rainbow in each other's clouds -- we are not alone -- we journey together -- where you go , I go ..
we dwell in the borderland in the company of witnesses who hve gone before us
limitations are also placed on the awesomeness of God
embrasing the border reminds us of the wildness of creation and the image and likeness of God
overing coming the OR is not easy
... clashes
despite the pain and brokenness , I have been able to weave together a colorful tapestry
to live in the boarder lands means to put chilli in the borch(?)
to survive in the boarder lands, you must live sin fronteras ..
we are called to savor the diverse ingredients that make us us
Jesus was an immeigrant, an exilee, and ..
Jesus taught the disciples how to lembrace their own baorderlands --
like Jesus we are called to celebrate the fontreras within and among us -- flow and ripple with the waters of Justice
give birth to the devine in our words, deeds, thoughts, and minds -- invitation to be our whole selves and to help others live authentically whole
we are no longer made to feel ashamed for existing
it will be loud and messy but it will reclaim the wonders of creation
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Let Justice Roll Down Like a river
a few thoughts on building an intersecitonal movement for justice
lesbian pastor - with six you old daughter
UCC
our context and our social location matter
the people I have know,the stories I have heard have shaped my cells and my conciousness and my convictions
movent rooted in the richeness of each of our traditons and our individual and collective bodies
interpretation of Micah 6:8 - what does god require of you bot to do justice, ... walk humbly with your God
perhaps the text is better read -- do justice, love kindness, and to walk PREPARED with your god
part of walking prepared with God is to draw upon the wisdom of social movement theorists
5500 protestant and welcoming LGBT organizations
welcoming mosques and prayer ciricles
all of these movements are growing exponentially
different kinds of power
- cultural power - the power of the mores and the ways in wich our patterns of behavoior , belife systems
vs
political power -
movements are necessary for folks with no poltical power -- oterhwise ther wouldn't be a need -- we'd be able to use the systems in place
use the transformation of cultural power to impact political systems from the outside
four faces of Power
- interrconnected - not linear -- important to working at all four faces
3rd face - creating and sharing a vision of how the world ought to be
vision of a world of intersectionality --
repair of the world -- way for us to dream about what we are working for
write the vision large and put it on a banner
the vision that we are looking for is this deeply intersectional, embodied vision
infrastucture building
- have to have organizations and communities that have people in them
good thing to come together and work together -- network and infrastucture
we gotta get people to actually do something -- mass mobilzation
- leverage large amounds of people to do something together
- oppoorunity to build your list but also an oporuntity to preach how your world ought to be
what's the largest campaign you've ever done around being pro-queer intersectional catholics
what are some of the mass mobilizations that we might do?
980,000 1:1 conversations for MN marriage equality
fourth face of power - we often operate as crabs in a bucket - if one speaks to escape, the rest of them pulll it down
hurt people hurt people
-- it doesn't do us much good to have the other faces of power if we're eating eachother for breakfast
movement waves
- when your vision of how the world ought to be is shared by many people, it's a heck of a lot easier to get things doen
how much our vision resonates is like a wave
the wave under which we have been doing much of our work started in the 20's ...
universal declaration of human rights
1964, 68 ... #1 issue was rights
by 72 rights was 8th
76 - it was off the list altogether
conservative - individualism, values
-- depending upon where you are with how your vision ougt to be, there are different peices that you ought to be doing to help build your movement
we are just past the nadir of the last progressive wave --
the next wave has to do with all the stuff we're tlaking about -- common good, intersectionality, multiplicity and middle grownd
we ought to be having conerstation of how do we alrticulate this dream of an intersectinal world that honors all?
also playing around with who is the we
universal design - who needs to get in the door
- if you think about who is the we that needs to get in the door -- not just a question of people with disabilities -- it's also parents and people with packages
voter id - impacts - trans, seniors, homeless, military becuase those ids weren't going to be allowed -- and students
that we is a very broad we
conversation time:
how do we help people thourgh the doorway into Oz?
... maybe it's not always about getting through the door -- could be value in being stuck in some ways
- rinity of issues - trama of the past - harms that we've exprience, the shame of the present , the dispair of the future - hopelessness ... those are some ways in which communities migth be able to focus on
how can we practically celebrate, claim, live in that inbetween space between pride and rage?
theological strategies to how we might theologize from a querr people of color experience?
the best antidote to channel rage is to be in community with people who are like me
.. realize your'e not crazy
what is the purpose of church? how are we the body of christ?
how does it feel to be in a 154 year relationship?
boundries are places of encounter - source of revelation - ..
- judiasm - the inbetween space - dusk and dawn are considered to be sacred - moments for god to reveal godself
see borders as those inbetween spaces - we are in a sacred spot - holy pace where there is an opportunity about becoming vulnerable and putting oneself out there and taking a risk - being ale to be in a different space and cross the threashold
to be in that space - mutual thing - -- bring someone with you .
mutual crossing over -- we were created to be in community
when we cross boundaries, it's an opportunity to embrace wholeness
decentering english- decentering language liturgically
- spanglish - being able to use the words but also capture their power
stop and think "what is it that we're saying" what is the context of that song, word etc was birthed in -- and how can I relate and connect to it?
langauge - a way of inviting individuals into something new
theological world is beyond the white german world that we percieve
when we talk about intersectionality - it sometimes is code for only the people of color have multiple identities -- but always have multiple identities -- and any time we are asked to chop of some portion of ourselves, we lose
so this intersectional world vision impacts and benefits all of us
our history is filled with trans and people of color --
LGBT/ queer aging issues
part of the opportunity in our movement is to have corss generational dialogue and rfecognize that one of the pieces of intersectionality can learning from each other in different generational contexts
disconnect between theory and practice
we are called to be about building a movement to transform the world towards intersectional justice
some of the highest levels of spiritual longing and desire to be connected to community
- so we might have a languaging issues -
we're in a space that has been a communication issue as oopposed to an essence issue -- what we are ab out is needed but we neeed to speak about language in different ways
what's declining is a monotheistic abrahamic god -- we need to diaglue in terms of interfaith notions ..
not just a matter of being pc, but how do we talk to parts of the greater body ... so extend our notion and still be good catholics
forming a community with a diversity of cultures
- there is a need to create spaces where an identity group can gather and have that safety
there needs tro be a third way
ok to have these identity groups, but we can also have a group that is mixed
the law of prayer is the law if beliefs -
use liturgical calendar to speak deeply to people
what are the spaces in wich we find ourselves -- what is church
creating change conference - practice spirit, do justice --
... having working groups that seak to create spaces within the conference that are at least one shared portion of our identities and worship form a particular tradiotn and have paces for multiplicity and diaglogue
and places for interfering with one another
how do we get a communit to understand and embrace trhe inherent discomfort of the boundires and we try to grow a community of mutiple cultures etc
.... hard being the only ___ becuase you're always put in a position of educaiting people
- storytelling is important - when we tell our stories
create spaces where we can tell our stories from our wounds .. might be one way to share that
really important that we not tip toe around power dynmaics
in what language things are spoken is a power dynamic
- in wholese space are we doing what we like to do together
where will we meet? what language will we meet in?
also needs to ber an environment of graciousness and patience -- bloopers will happen -- use mistakes as teachable moments
acknoweldge that those with priviledge are trying
being patient with each other -- how acan we grow together
value of flattening one's multiple identities and ranking one's multiple identities
how do you decide what's my most important identity?
... multiplicity is multiplicity .. you don't need to flatten
depending on the context, one of our identities may be brought out but it's important to not flatten our multipicity
strategic essentialism-- sometimes you need to do that for strategy
advice for local communities that may struggle with woundedness?
one of the paradoxes of our chrsitianity being such a source of killing etc but there's also a lot about healing in the tradition -- one of the most important pieces as spiritual and religious communities are providing spaces for that storytelling ... desahogar -- undrwon ourselves -- act for us to do tegher -- be in spaces of healing with each other
sanctuary and activism together is critical
in our spaces, we walk together, but we may be at different points of the journey