Voices in the Wilderness: An Introduction to Black Queer Hermeneutics and Homiletics

Monday, September 16th, 2024, 6:30 PM
at Memorial Church -Harvard

Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley, Senior Pastor, Myrtle Baptist Church, Newton, MA

The emerging field of Black queer theology calls for a shift beyond mere inclusion in traditional church spaces toward celebrating the divine within Black queer communities themselves. In this lecture, Rev. Dr. Brandon Crowley introduced the concepts of Black Queer Hermeneutics and Black Queer Homiletics, interpretive and preaching methods that center the lived experiences, spiritual imagination, and liberation of Black LGBTQ+ Christians.

Drawing from his work Queering Black Churches and his upcoming book, Rev. Dr. Crowley examined the history and influence of Black queer religious spaces, tracing the legacy of figures like Rev. Elder Darling Garner, Rev. Dolores Berry, Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy, Marsha P. Johnson, and James Baldwin. He explored the ways Black queer preachers challenge oppressive theological traditions, create affirming worship spaces, and reclaim the sacredness of the erotic, the body, and self-acceptance in faith communities.

With a compelling blend of scholarship, storytelling, and cultural critique, this lecture provided a powerful vision for how Black queer theology continues to shape the broader religious landscape—creating spaces of radical welcome, truth-telling, and transformation.

[Click here for the lecture recording]

“Truth and Lies at the Foot of the Cross: The Church and God’s LGBTQ+ Children”

Monday, September 11, 2023, 6:30PM CT
A 50th Anniversary Reception, featuring cake, will follow the lecture.
at Wilshire Baptist Church, Dallas, TX

Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Susan Shaw, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Oregon State University

We’ve all heard how everyone’s equal at the foot of the cross. That doesn’t seem to apply to LGBTQ+ people, however, according to many Christians. In fact, the disgust and hatred of LGBTQ+ people among many Christians is so great that they eagerly accept, tell, create, and repeat lies and falsehoods about the queer community and work actively to limit, roll back, and deny civil and human rights to LGBTQ+ people. Surely, however, of all places, the foot of the cross is a place for truths. On the cross, Jesus sided with the marginalized, oppressed, and despised. The resurrection was God’s affirmation of that choice, and, in his “coming out” of the tomb, Jesus offered hope, possibility, love, and welcome. We’ll explore truths and lies at the foot of the cross, drawing from the latest headlines, biological, medical, and social sciences, gender studies, and theological and biblical studies and make a specific case for Baptist welcome of God’s LGBTQ+ children.

Click here for the lecture recording

STRENGTHEN WHAT REMAINS: QUEER APOCALYPTIC HOPE

Monday, September 26th, 2022 6:30 PM
at St. Luke’s Missionary Baptist Church
1600 Norris Ave., Charlotte, North Carolina

Lecturer: Rev. Dr. Cody Sanders

The age in which we are living and dying is one of myriad endings and edges. The planetary climate, the political climate, the composition of our everyday lives and communities are all filled with possibility and peril. Christian faith traditions hold a resource of visionary potential for living at the edges of life and the endings of the world as we know it: apocalyptic imagination. This lecture will explore the potential of holding together three concepts – queer, apocalyptic, hope – known to cause trouble and provoke revolutionary imagination, asking: What potential does queer apocalyptic hope offer to faith communities to awaken us from our captivity to the status quo, sustain us in cultivating communities of compassion and justice, and nurture our capacity to “strengthen what remains and is on the point of death” (Rev. 3:2).