We are aware that The Reformation Project has become more public over its rejection of Queer Theology in favor of “affirming theology.” As much as TRP has been instrumental in many people’s journeys, including our own, this step is not only wrong, but harmful to many who do not find their home in white, evangelical theology. Acceptance by an oppressive system will never remove the oppressive system. Affirmation is not and will never be enough.
Thank you for getting to this before I could. Like you, the Reformation Project was helpful in communicating to others how to make such a journey (I came out decades before God & the Gay Christian, and I was at Harvard Divinity learning about Queer theology before Vines was born). I even made a donation to them 10 years ago (as they reminded me a little while ago). I also wonder at Vines' concept of Queer Theology as one thing with boundaries as rigid as those around his own theology and morality. Not every queer theorist, nor people who draw on the insights of queer theory in conjunction with other theologies (liberation theology, womanist theology, as people do) need to be branded as sexual transgressors or seeking license for sexual transgression. Some do. And more power to them. But using his rigid sexual ethic as a way of discounting an entire school of theology is the exact type of dishonesty used against him and why he neded to write his book.
Thank you for getting to this before I could. Like you, the Reformation Project was helpful in communicating to others how to make such a journey (I came out decades before God & the Gay Christian, and I was at Harvard Divinity learning about Queer theology before Vines was born). I even made a donation to them 10 years ago (as they reminded me a little while ago). I also wonder at Vines' concept of Queer Theology as one thing with boundaries as rigid as those around his own theology and morality. Not every queer theorist, nor people who draw on the insights of queer theory in conjunction with other theologies (liberation theology, womanist theology, as people do) need to be branded as sexual transgressors or seeking license for sexual transgression. Some do. And more power to them. But using his rigid sexual ethic as a way of discounting an entire school of theology is the exact type of dishonesty used against him and why he neded to write his book.