CLGS

Bernard Schlager, PhD

CLGS Executive Director

Contact: 510/849-8278 (office phone); bschlager@clgs.org

Expertise: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)issues in Christian history; LGBT families and parents; LGBT religious history; pastoral care of LGBT people

Bernard Schlager, CLGS Executive Director and Visiting Associate Professor of Historical and Culture Studies at Pacific School of Religion, is an expert on LGBT issues in Protestant and Catholic Christianity and LGBT religious history in general. Holding a PhD from Yale University in the History of Christianity, where he studied with internationally-renowned LGBT religious historian John Boswell, Schlager has taught at Trinity College(Hartford), Middlebury College, University of New Hampshire and Yale University. His most recent book is Ministry Among God's Queer Folk: LGBT Pastoral Care, published in 2007 by Pilgrim Press.

Jay Johnson, PhD

Senior Director, Academic Research and Resources

Contact: 510/849-8235 (office phone);jjohnson@clgs.org

Expertise: LGBT issues and religion; Protestant denominations’ considerations of LGBT issues (e.g. ordination, marriage, and blessing of same-sex relationships); queer theology

Jay Emerson Johnson, a theologian and Episcopal priest, is a noted national commentator on issues of sexuality and religion. Rev. Johnson has been quoted in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press, and has appeared in Bay Area broadcast and print news outlets. In addition to his work with CLGS, he teaches courses at Pacific School of Religion and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, both member schools of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, where he earned his PhD. His first book, Dancing with God: Anglican Christianity and the Practice of Hope, was published in 2005.

Roland Stringfellow

Coordinator, CLGS Bay Area Coalition of Welcoming Congregations

Contact: 510/849-8934 (office phone); rstringfellow[at]clgs[dot]org

Expertise: LGBT issues at the congregational level; political and religious activism on same-sex marriage; African-American churches and LGBT issues

Roland Stringfellow, a United Church of Christ minister, has become one of the state’s most quoted sources on the political and religious intersection of same-sex marriage, and LGBT issues in black churches. In his role as lead organizer of much of the pro-LGBT religious response to the Proposition 8 campaign and vote, and subsequent California Supreme Court hearing, he has been interviewed on public radio (including KALW San Francisco and KCRW’s “Which Way L.A.?”), on broadcast television (including ABC News and Fox News), and in numerous print outlets regionally and nationally. Rev. Stringfellow has a Master of Divinity degree from Pacific School of Religion, and has worked as a pastor in Indiana and California.

Irene Monroe

Coordinator, CLGS African-American Roundtable

Contact:617/513-8471 (home office); imonroe[at]clgs[dot]org

Expertise:African-American religion and LGBT issues; “coming out” as LGBT in religious communities; women’s issues in religion

Irene Monroe is a Cambridge, MA-based syndicated columnist on LGBT issues in religion. Her work has appeared in the Huffington Post, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and the Advocate. She has been a guest on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, profiled in O, The Oprah Magazine, and CNN's Paula Zahn Now. She was recently named one of MSNBC’s “Ten Black Women to Watch.” She appears in the 2007 documentary film, For the Bible Tells Me So, a groundbreaking documentary on LGBT issues and religion that was released nationally and has been shown in churches across the country. She has a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and is completing her PhD at Harvard University. 

Mary A. Tolbert, PhD

CLGS Founding Executive Director

Contact: 510/849-8225 (PSR Dean’s Office); mtolbert[at]psr[dot]edu

Expertise: LGBT issues and the Bible

Currently serving as Vice President and Dean Academic Affairs and George H. Atkinson Professor of Biblical Studies at Pacific School of Religion, Mary Tolbert is a leading voice on LGBT issues and biblical scholarship. Holding a PhD from the University of Chicago, Tolbert’s teaching and writing focuses on feminism, biblical interpretation and social location, and queer theory and gender construction. Her books include: Sowing the Gospel: Mark’s World in Literary-Historical Perspective and Teaching the Bible: the Discourses and Politics of Biblical Pedagogy, which she edited with Fernando F. Segovia.