October 12-14

The CLGS OutFront Program takes the Center's resources and expertise to where they are needed most - to local and regional networks of clergy, congregations and activists around the country. OutFront weekends cover a variety of topics, from the Bible and sexuality and pastoral care to transgender issues, and race and ethnicity. CLGS is pleased to be working with a variety of partners for OutFront San Diego on the weekend of October 12-14. The conference will take place at Mission Hills United Church of Christ, 4070 Jackdaw Street and will feature Rev. Chris Glaser and Prof. Mary Ann Tolbert as plenary speakers. Our partners include: Mission Hills United Church of Christ Disciples Center; The United Church of Christ; New Creation UCC; Southern California - Nevada Conference of the UCC; the San Diego Partnership Churches; and Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Workshops will be offered by CLGS, HRC and GLAAD (The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). The registration fee is $15.00 and online pre-registration is strongly recommended.

Be sure to save these future dates for an OutFront weekend near you:

• OutFront Portland, Oregon: April 3-6, 2008
• OutFront Denver, Colorado: April 19-20, 2008
• OutFront Walla Walla, Washington: May 9-10, 2008
• OutFront in API Communities, San Francisco Bay Area: May 30-31, 2008

Queering Campus Ministry
CLGS Lavender Lunches are an opportunity to hear from a variety of leaders and pioneers working at the intersections of LGBT communities and religious issues. This fall CLGS will welcome two campus ministers to PSR to discuss their work and to highlight the opportunities for LGBT people to engage in various types of ministry at those critical intersections. On Thursday, November 1 we will welcome Rev. Joanne Sanders, who works in the Office of Religious Life at Stanford University, and on November 29 we will welcome Rev. Donal Godfrey, S.J., who works at the University of San Francisco and is the author of "Gay and Grays: The Story of the Inclusion of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco." These events are free and open to the public - invite your friends! Bring your lunch to the Mudd Building, Room 100 starting at 12:30 on those days, and CLGS will provide dessert!

Dale Martin, Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University

In 1983 John Boswell published his path-breaking and agenda-setting work, "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality." Twenty-five years later CLGS hosted a conference on the PSR campus to mark that important work and to chart the future of this important scholarship. On that occasion CLGS was pleased to establish the John E. Boswell Lectureship Fund, which will support excellence in LGBTQ religious scholarship by bringing pioneering scholars to the PSR campus to share their latest research. CLGS is pleased to announce that the inaugural Boswell Lecture will be delivered by Dale Martin, the Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University. Professor Martin is the author of, among other books, "The Corinthian Body," "Inventing Superstition: from the Hippocratics to the Christians," and most recently, "Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation." The lecture will be offered in late April or early May, 2008. Look for further information soon. Learn more about the Boswell Lectureship Fund.

January 2008

In cooperation with the National Center for Transgender Equality, CLGS will host the second Transgender Religious Leadership Summit on the PSR campus next January 20-21. The first summit, this past January, drew more than sixty participants and garnered the attention of a variety of news media reporters (for more information on the first summit, click here).This year's invitation-only summit will focus on denominational policies concerning transgender people and immediately precedes the annual Earl Lectures and Pastoral Conference at Pacific School of Religion. For more information on the summit, please contact Bernard Schlager at bschlager@clgs.org. For more information on the Earl Lectures, please go to http://psr.edu/page.cfm?l=84,

Religious Controversy at the Folsom Street Fair

The Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco is billed as the largest and "best loved" annual leather gathering. This year it also provoked some religious controversy. One of the posters created to advertise the fair seems to be evoking an image of the Last Supper styled after da Vinci's famous painting. But this depiction includes leatherfolk as the disciples and the table replete with not only bread and wine but also sex toys and various leather paraphernalia. It includes a shirtless African American "Jesus" with an outrageous drag queen on his right and a harnessed leatherman on his left. What should Christians think about such an image? Is it just playful marketing or the height of bad taste? Could it be sacrilegious? Jay Johnson at CLGS believes it might actually capture an important insight about the good news of the Gospel. Read more...

This past summer several key staff members left the Center to pursue a variety of other ministries and callings. As we welcome back Mary Tolbert, the Center's Executive Director, from her year-long sabbatical, CLGS is pleased to welcome several new staff members as we celebrate our seventh anniversary as a Center: Pauline Guillermo-Togawa now serves as the Center's Development Director; Jen Gall is the Center's Administrator; and Gina de Vries has just begun as the Center's Receptionist and Administrative Assistant. We're also pleased to welcome back Johari Jabir as the Coordinator of the Center's African American Roundtable. We're glad that Elizabeth Leung continues to volunteer her services to the API Roundtable and that Bernard Schlager and Jay Johnson will continue to direct both the Center's programs and various aspects of its administration. Together this newly constituted staff is poised to engage the Center's mission with renewed energy and commitment. Let us hear from you about your own work in LGBT religious issues and how the Center can help! Contact us at clgs@clgs.org.

God Comes Out, by Olive Elaine Hinnant

"Revolutionary Reading" is an occasional feature in this e-newsletter that seeks to link scholarship and advocacy - a key aspect of the CLGS mission. In this issue we're featuring the latest book in the CLGS series published by Pilgrim Press, God Comes Out: A Queer Homiletic, by Olive Elaine Hinnant. This is the third volume in the CLGS series. The first, by Justin Tanis, focused on transgender communities of faith, theology and ministry. The second volume, by Cheri diNovo, considered a queer approach to evangelism based on her congregation's experience in Toronto. (For more information on the CLGS/Pilgrim Press book series, click here.) In this third volume, Hinnant analyzes a variety of sermons and homiletical styles that emerge from LGBT or otherwise "queer" perspectives. As Hinnant observes, just by standing in a pulpit LGBT people speak a "bold word even before we open our mouths." We do much more than that, of course, and as the title of this volume suggests, LGBTQ preaching brings God "out" in new and prophetic ways in the preaching of the marginalized and our allies. The book offers ten sermons and thoughtful analysis of those texts concerning the Bible, theology, and the homiletical task itself. This book will be helpful for both the novice and experienced preacher alike. It also provides helpful suggestions concerning how, and in a variety of ways, one might address issues of sexuality that are both gently pastoral and socially liberating. As Hinnant notes, this book is just the beginning in charting unexplored terrain. It is, however, an excellent beginning and offers key insights not just for LGBTQ people of faith but for every community seeking to give voice to the God who comes out in our lives of justice-making. (If you order this book through the Amazon portal on the CLGS website, CLGS will receive a portion of your purchase price!)