The Courage to Be Queer. Jeff Hood
Heyward to Cheng, a broadening of queer theology has taken place. I would like to broaden it further beyond prescribed identities, binaries, and borders to the space of the queer individual.
I have found some of the writings of Chicana lesbian feminist Gloria Anzaldúa to be helpful in describing where I intend to take this project. Anzaldúa writes in This Bridge We Call Home,
Bridges span liminal (threshold) spaces between worlds, spaces I call nepantla, a Nahuatl word meaning tierra entre medio. Transformations occur in this in-between space, an unstable, unpredictable, precarious, always-in-transition space lacking clear boundaries. Nepantla es tierra desconocida, and living in this liminal zone means being in a constant state of displacement—an uncomfortable, even alarming feeling. Most of us dwell in nepantla so much of the time it’s become a sort of “home.” Though this state links us to other ideas, people, and worlds, we feel threatened by these new connections and the change they engender.17
I have found the space that Anzaldúa calls nepantla to be similar to the space I call queer. I feel like this is the space where all individuals are: somewhere between. The easily labeled normative binaries, dichotomies, and dualisms always fail, but when we dare go to the spaces between, we find the space of transformation, and this is also where we find the self and God. Thus, it is from my own nepantla, or queer space, that I write.
The Epiphany of the Queer
I developed a queer hermeneutic based on an understanding that human beings are created to be uniquely queer in the image of a God who is queer and also that resurrection comes through the discovery of the Queer within. I will explore the theology that flows from the use of such a hermeneutic from the pages of Genesis down through the present. Through exploration of the Queer in context, I will illustrate the presence of the Queer in a variety of individuals and contexts. The Bible and human history both reveal the overarching nature of the Queer within and without. I intend to explore the Queer or God in five parts.
The words within the “The Queering” give voice to my mystical experiences of the Queer. Using the developed queer hermeneutic, I intend to explicate moments when I have seen the Queer and encountered the power of God in my own queerness. Visions of love and the Queer have liberated me, and it is important to allow this queer hermeneutical theology to interact with the contextual realities where I discovered it. This space of queerness has served as a launching point for me to discover the God or Queer within myself. The experiences of the Queer within have granted me the ability to create a queer hermeneutical theology. I pray that interacting with the discovery of my queerness will help others discover their own queerness. Upon traversing the meaning of my own discoveries, I intend to bring this queer hermeneutic to consequence on the Scriptures.
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