LGBTQ
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Emancipation is not a pie: Imagining better metaphors for liberation
As I write this, my country (the UK) sits under the shadow of a red flag alert for genocide against trans and intersex people.[1] This is a situation that has not come about by accident but has been driven intentionally, including by groups and individuals who claim to be motivated by a Christian faith. Often, theology which seeks liberation is directed at injustices within the church. This is, of course, desperately needed and by no means a misguided goal. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, trans and intersex exclusion and many more systemic injustices still have a grip on the church and need to be dealt with. However, the consequences of warped theologies…
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Theory That Can Be Lived: In Conversation about (with) Lived Experience
Heather Walton’s recent Practical Theology Beyond the Empirical Turn presses practical theology to rethink what counts as theory.[1] Rather than treating theory as an abstract system or a critical tool applied from outside, she invites us to see it as something that condenses and circulates through shared stories, images, practices, and felt worlds. She argues that practical theology has overlooked the way that theory functions as “collective sentiment” and “shared narrative”.[2] Taking that provocation seriously, we place our research projects into conversation. One of us (Chris) works on liturgy and symbolic action. The other (Giorgio) studies LGBTQ+ Catholic identity. In both contexts, lived experience is treated not as illustrative material…
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Can you do theology on TikTok?
As theologians, we are used to being on established social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and many of us will have featured on a webinar or lecture series uploaded to YouTube. Why then are so few of us practising theology on TikTok – the world’s most popular social network? Given that the church is desperate to reach a younger demographic and will often criticise the decline in religious literacy, why are we not alongside the people we so desperately want to reach? In this article I argue that theologians need to see TikTok as more than a place for ethnographic study but rather as a legitimate space in…
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What would Christ tweet? Being a Christian on social media
Over the past month the Bishop of Oxford – and other Church of England bishops – spoke out in support of same-sex marriage. Those of us on Twitter who are LGBT+ and dare to speak up for LGBT+ people have received a torrent of homophobic abuse. Indeed, as I write this, I am on day three of receiving homophobic abuse on Twitter for speaking in favour of same-sex marriage. The response has been deeply unpleasant. Trolling is too kind a word. It’s abuse and it has been relentless. What has surprised me the most is that the overwhelming majority of people sending me abusive messages appear to be Christians. A…
