Trip Lee’s Fourth album The Good Life dropped today. I have only been able to listen to it a couple of times through so far, but I’m feeling it. The production is high quality (as usual) and Trip once again delivers from a vocal standpoint. You should check it out as soon as you get the chance. This is the first video off of the album. It was created with cooperation from Voice of the Martyrs, and it was specifically developed in order to raise public awareness regarding persecuted Christians in foreign lands.
Wake Up Homie…Do Not Sleep on Swoope!
I have been expecting a lot from the High Society Collective. I love Amisho Baraka and JR, and although I have not heard a whole lot from the other three members of the Society (Swoope, Suzy Rock and Jamm) I suspect that two talented musicians like Amisho and JR would not have teamed up with them unless they too are extraordinarily skilled in their craft. Swoope’s brand new project Wake Up dropped today, and I tell you, it absolutely blew my mind! The production is outrageous, and Swoope is a force to be reckoned with lyrically. If you are a fan of Hip Hop, or even good music in general, you need to show this brother some love and purchase this album. You will not be disappointed!
The Makings of a Fresh Emcee
C. Alexander’s recent post at This is High entitled The Missing Art of the Emcee has moved me to ponder more deeply those things that I hold in high regard when it comes to my evaluation of Hip Hop music in general, and lyricists in particular. In fact, his post has provoked me to develop (or more accurately, to arrange with an intentionality) my very own grading system, through which I will infallibly determine which emcees are worthy of being numbered amongst the greatest of all time!
Right out of the gate, I have to admit that I am somewhat more of a purist than C. Alexander. I am certainly not a Hip Hop legalist, for I do believe that the genre is much broader than many purists allow for, but that said, I am also convinced that there is a certain spirit at work behind, in and through Hip Hop music. When this spirit is quenched, the power inherent within Hip Hop is lost, even though it’s form still remains to some extent.
Without further adieu, here are my 9 indicators of a dope emcee. They are loosely based on the Alexander balance, but modified according to my own preferences.
1) Production- What does beat production have to do with being a dope emcee? Pretty much everything. I am not convinced that you can separate the emcee and the producer in some sort of dualistic fashion, so as to pass judgment on the emcee in isolation. The two are inextricably intermeshed and the one would not be what she/he is without the other. The producer sets the tone or the mood for the emcee by furnishing the beat. In response, the emcee narrates with words the story that the producer is seeking to communicate through the instrumental. The producer’s beat provides the energy, emotion, and inspiration which spark the imagination of the emcee, enabling her/him to pen her/his literary masterpiece. When the emcee and the producer are out of sync, what you have is utter wackness. Is it possible for an emcee to be a strong lyricist despite the fact that her/his producer is manifestly bootie? Yes, but it is unlikely that she/he will make a very strong connection with her/his audience without the aid of a dope beat.
2) Personality- It should be obvious that a top-notch emcee can not be boring. I do not want to delineate this category too strictly, because there are many different ways in which a personality can be interesting. What is certain is that an emcee who is healthy in this area will possess a great deal of charm and/or charisma, both of which should be powerful enough to influence styles, trends and even thought patterns within the culture. As an entertainer, the dope emcee will always leave her/his audience begging for more.
3) Delivery and Flow- These two factors go together hand in hand. Broadly described, delivery has to do with the overall technique or approach to lyricism, while flow concerns the blending of the lyrical tempo with that of the instrumental. In my opinion, the greatest emcees will have a delivery and a flow which will keep the listener on the edge of her/his seat, while remaining coherent and logical with regard to the rhythm of the beat. An over-emphasis on innovation will likely lead to confusion, but placing too much stress on logic might give rise to a lackluster performance. It is imperative therefore that the emcee learn to exist within the delicate tension between rationality and irrationality, if she/he desires to make music that is both imminent within the hearts of human beings and transcendent with regard to Hip Hop’s status quo.
4) Story Telling- This category sets the most profound emcees apart from the average or mundane. Almost anyone can spit a verse that rhymes, but to be able to formulate a unified, intelligible narrative in rhyme form is a markedly more difficult task. The role of the producer becomes even more clear at this point, for it is the beat which is the soundtrack to the motion picture that the emcee is depicting with her/his words. Story is assuredly one of the most powerful forms of communication known to humankind. To master this facet of the art form is to attain to a whole new level of lyricism.
5) Word Play- This indicator focuses on the emcee’s use of literary devices, such as similes, metaphors, puns, alliteration, allegories, parables and even apocalyptic. These techniques can make ordinary words spring forth with light and life. They reveal yet conceal, instruct and yet puzzle, simplify and yet challenge. In the minds of many a Hip Hop connoisseur, this is the most fundamental characteristic of the dope emcee. I would largely agree, for I do not believe that an individual can rightly be classified as a fresh emcee without having an adept ability to employ literary devices in her/his rhymes. Having said that, this feature is much more potent when it is appropriated as an adornment to the emcee’s narrative capabilities, as opposed to being the principal distinguishing characteristic of the artist.
6) Content- This characteristic asks the question, what is the artist attempting to communicate? This is the property where my Hip Hop Puritanism shines through most brightly. I believe that Hip Hop originated as the cultural, political and religious expression of an oppressed black community in the United States. While I do not believe that Hip Hop music must remain solely within the black community, nor that it must remain faithful to one particular style or sound, I do believe that it must continue to represent, in one way or another, the fundamental spirit of Hip Hop. In other words, Hip Hop is truly Hip Hop only inasmuch as it is a narrative reflection on the experiences of oppressed peoples and their personal struggles for freedom. Does what the emcee is verbalizing contribute to the liberation of oppressed peoples? Or, does it reflect the ideas, attitudes and desires of the oppressive world system? The most important and influential emcees will be those who manage to retain a prophetic edge in their music; speaking truth to power as well as to the powerless.
7) Communication- This attribute rides in on the coattails of the last one, for what good is the message if the emcee is unable to convey that message to her/his listeners? Do people understand what the emcee is actually saying? Does what she/he articulates become a catalyst for real change and/or does it stimulate momentum or perchance a movement within society? A fresh emcee will not merely get the message out, but she/he will furthermore make a difference in the lives of individual persons, in entire communities and possibly even in the culture at large. The crowds will be astonished at the wisdom of the dope emcee, for she/he will speak as one who has authority, unlike the Hip Hop scribes.
8) Originality- A genuinely fresh emcee will desire to be unique and inventive; to do things that no one else has done before. You can not be a dope emcee and a biter at the same time. It is (of course) not wrong to have been influenced by the pioneers of Hip Hop. Actually, it is a noble labor indeed to aspire to honor our foremothers and forefathers by learning from and building upon the foundation that has been laid down for us. Still, the emcees of the future must learn to push the envelope, to test new approaches and to find new ways to express their messages, rather than simply recycling the deliveries, flows, narratives and word play of previous generations of emcees. Ultimately, while the old wineskins might have done their job for a time, you can not put new wine into them, lest they burst.
9) Consistency- This final indicator of a dope emcee can manifest itself in several ways. The first of these is longevity. In other words, a superior emcee can not be a one-hit-wonder. If the emcee is more than just a passing fad, she/he should have a body of work which demonstrates her/his freshness over an extended period of time. This does not necessarily mean that every track that they ever released went either platinum or gold, that all of their albums were critically acclaimed, or that they were decorated with numerous awards from the music or entertainment industry. What does it mean then? This question leads us to the second manifestation; loyalty. The truly dope emcee will develop a fairly large and loyal following over the span of her/his vocation. I would also argue that the artist should have at least one project that people who would not be counted amongst the emcee’s most faithful listeners still keep in rotation after a number of years. The third and final manifestation of consistency can be subsumed under the heading classic. The freshest emcee should have at least one album which could arguably be considered a classic by a sizeable portion of the Hip Hop community.
Last Things: Horizon of Radical Love
The final topic in this book is eschatology. Cheng describes it as the horizon of radical love because the emphasis of the doctrine is on the ultimate dissolution of identities that will occur at the end of time (to which all of humanity is oriented). Included in eschatology are matters such as the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Last Judgment, heaven and hell. This doctrine is not addressed by many LGBT theologians in their theologies, due to the fact that most of them have been assured from childhood that their sexualities and gender identities would eventually land them all in hell. Cheng is actually anxious to tackle this issue, because he believes that this doctrine could perhaps be the queerest of them all, given that it has to do with humanity’s consummate return to the radical love from which we all came.
According to queer theology, there is only one identity which will be secure enough to hope in at the end, and that is being a baptized member of the body of Christ. Each and every socially constructed identity, including sexuality and gender, will be erased before the throne of grace where only the garment of baptism will remain. To put it another way, everyone will be transgender in the end. Cheng does not mean to insinuate that humanity will be entirely absorbed into God at the eschaton or that individual selves will cease to exist. Humanity is forever involved in a process of continual journeying towards God. While we will approach the perfection of God, we will never fully attain to any sort of climactic picture of perfection; even at the eschaton. The fundamental distinction between creator and creature will be maintained at the end, yet still, God and humanity will eternally be drawing nearer to one another in relationship.
Gay men were faced with the issues of life and death on an almost constant basis during the period of time beginning in the 1980′s and extending into the mid-1990′s, when HIV/AIDS was devastating the gay male community. This disease actually forced all of humankind to face up to the veracity of our own mortality. There were some queer theologians who explicitly addressed these issues at that time. The assured and certain hope of the resurrection was considered essential for persons to cope with the reality of AIDS. It was noted that while many heterosexual couples have the capability of satisfying the basic human urge to transcend their own finitude through reproduction, this choice is usually not available to LGBT people. Thus they are left with only two options for life; they can either despair or they can find hope in the resurrection of the dead. Queer theologians claimed that it was the spiritual peace, joy and trust that many patients with AIDS possessed which prepared and enabled them to hope in the resurrection, and it was this hope which empowered them to give themselves over to celebrating life and enhancing its quality for themselves and others.
Queer theologians additionally wrestled with the notion of heaven, and contemplated what it might be like. LGBT people were assured that they would not feel excluded in heaven, even though they were not (and in many places still are not) permitted to marry; for in heaven, marriage will not exist. Traditional depictions of heaven were compared to gay pride events. Queer theologians moreover sought to answer the question of whether or not there would be sex in heaven. This question was answered in the affirmative, since heaven represents the satisfaction of the desires of the human heart, and because sex is one of the deepest and most profound human motivations. Interestingly, some queer theologians believe that sex in heaven will be neither an orgy nor polyamorous. Paradoxically, the couple will be the ideal relationship, since truly great sex will inevitably lead to wanting more of it with the same person. It has furthermore been suggested that because sex is not physical in heaven, that you can actually enter into the whole person. It will be as if you are in fact merging and truly becoming one.
Queer theologians differ over the issue of punishment and reward when it comes to the Last Judgment. Some posit that it will be a matter of self-judgment. This view can be compared to C.S. Lewis’ depiction of the reaction of creatures to the lion Aslan. They either dash away from him (into the darkness), or they sprint towards him (into the light). The creature’s response depends upon whether they loved him or hated him during their own lifetimes. Cheng considers this position to be unsatisfactory, principally because there is no acknowledgement of the ultimate eschatological erasure of all boundaries. He instead follows Origen of Alexandria in his doctrine of apokatastasis, or the restoration of all things (a form of universalism which is so broad that even Satan is included as an object of God’s salvation). While those who hold to this teaching confess that all creatures will have to go through some form of purification process prior to reaching their final destination, they are persuaded that everyone will eventually enter into heavenly bliss. The notion that all things will be restored as a result of God’s ultimate triumph over evil and death is central to this doctrine. Thus the sinful boundaries which humanity has erected (including those which stand between differing religions, as well as those between male and female, life and death, guilt and innocence, punishment and reward) will finally be erased.
Sacraments: Foretaste of Radical Love
There are seven sacraments in Roman Catholicism and only two in Protestantism. Patrick Cheng will introduce us to each of the seven as he explicates a queer understanding of the sacraments. What is a sacrament? They have traditionally been defined as visible signs of God’s invisible grace. They are both a foretaste of and a means through which the Holy Spirit of God transports us to our ultimate eschatological destiny; when we will be reunited in fullness with the radical love of God. The sacraments generally consist of physical elements, reminding us that spirituality is not some sort of out-of-body experience. Queer theologians posit that coming out should be considered the predominant sacrament for queer people. This is because it is through the course of coming out that the invisible grace of God is made visible to queer people, and also because it frees them to be in authentic relationship with the rest of the queer community.
Baptism is the very first sacrament. It is basically the welcoming or initiation rite. It is bestowed either by immersing a person in water or by pouring water over the individual’s head. It is a symbol of dying to the old life and being born again into a new life. Coming out is similar in that LGBT people allow their old closeted lives to die and are born into a new out life. Theologians of the queer persuasion argue that baptism is profoundly queer because it erases all identity markers, including those of sexuality and gender. The only marker that truly matters is a person’s membership in the body of Christ. Church sanctioned exclusions on the basis of sexual or gender identity stand in blatant contradiction to this sacrament, which is a testimony to the radical equality that results from the fact that all of humanity exists by the grace of God alone. Baptism reminds us that all forms of identity other than an individual’s identity in Christ are inadequate.
The second sacrament is the Lord’s supper or the Eucharist. Despite the fact that the various Christian traditions disagree over what the Eucharist is, they are all in agreement that participation in this sacrament signifies that an individual belongs to the body of Christ. This sacrament is similar to coming out as well in that both of them involve an offering and a sacrifice which generate communion with God and others. Queer theologians suggest that the Eucharist is fundamentally queer because it wipes away binary distinctions in gender. The sex of the Roman Catholic priest is erased because the priest and the congregation are facing the same direction. Through the consecration of the bread and wine, the body of Christ is transformed into something sexless. Furthermore, following the theology of Gregory of Nyssa, who proposed that human beings will return to their pre-fall, sexless, angel-like state in the general resurrection, queer theologians argue that the Eucharist renders all sexual and gender identities non-ultimate; inasmuch as it anticipates the eschaton.
The third sacrament is confirmation, which establishes an individual’s place in the church. This sacrament is a manifestation of radical love because it dissolves the boundary between insiders and outsiders. There are similarities between this sacrament and coming out as well. When LGBT people come out, they choose to become a part of the larger queer community, and through confirmation, LGBT people begin to affirm their faith in the fact that they are citizens of God’s commonwealth. Both actions therefore confirm the place of LGBT people within the realm of God. Queer theologians have suggested that the significance of this sacrament (as the formalization of an LGBT person’s membership within the queer community) is that through this initiation ritual, the LGBT person enters into a shared erotic power for justice with other LGBT Christians.
The fourth sacrament is reconciliation, or penance. Reconciliation is concerned with the forgiveness of sin, and it typically involves some form of confession as well as an act of penance. This sacrament dissolves the boundaries between guilt and innocence. It is related to coming out in at least a couple of ways. First of all, when LGBT people come out, they repent of the closet and its myriad of sinful expressions, such as dishonest behavior and the exploitation of others. Positively, they accept God’s gift of their sexuality and begin being honest with others about who they are. Secondly, reconciliation is not merely concerned with repentance on the part of LGBT people, but it also provides justification for the refusal of queer Christians to be reconciled to those churches who decline to repent of their heterosexist oppression and compulsory heterosexuality.
The fifth sacrament is matrimony, or marriage. This is a sacred covenanting of two persons before God and community which is sealed by the promise of fidelity in love to one another. It displays radical love in that it eradicates the dividing line between the self and the other. It is related to coming out because coming out is what makes same-sex marriages conceivable. Queer theologians contend that same-sex marriages are sacred because they often exist without the conjugal stereotypes or the heterosexist power relations which are characteristic of heterosexual marriage. They are sacramental because the union is acknowledged as sexual action which is committed to the reign of God. There are numerous theological writings concerned with this topic. It has been documented that there was a surprising medieval tradition which depicted Jesus and John the beloved disciple as the unnamed couple who were married at Cana. There is at present an ongoing debate amongst queer theologians over whether or not same-sex marriage serves to reinforce patriarchy. Additionally, it has been recommended that queer fidelity should be treated as the ethical norm for marriage; a concept which challenges the assumption that monogamy is to be the sole pattern for this institution.
The sixth sacrament is holy orders. It involves the ordination of an individual to the service of God through the ministry of the word and the celebration of the sacraments. Taking into consideration the mediating role of the minister or priest, holy orders dissolves the borders which stand between human and divine. In this way, it is a demonstration of radical love. Queer theologians declare that this sacrament is a total rejection of power and domination over others. The authority which is granted through holy orders is to be exercised in a way that is symmetrical and egalitarian. Queer ministers are called to make love and to do justice. This sacrament is related to coming out because they each involve a ministry of presence which bears witness to the inclusive love of God, God’s creative diversity, spiritual-sexual integrity and harmony amongst sexual orientation. It is also claimed that, through their particular priesthood, LGBT people bring an assortment of gifts to the body of Christ. These gifts include but are not limited to being a blessing to themselves and to others, being a strange sort of minority, being sexual, being friends, being family and being alive in the face of death.
The seventh sacrament is the anointing of the sick, formerly known as last rites. It is a sacrament of healing which eradicates the boundaries between sickness and health. It is connected with coming out in that both are concerned with healing; whether it be the healing of human bodies, internalized homophobia or broken relationships. Queer theologians recognize a correlation between the anointing of the sick and the queer community’s outreach to people who are HIV-positive. It has been asserted that God is HIV-positive, which is no less than a declaration of God’s solidarity with marginalized and suffering HIV-positive people. Some queer theologians have been very critical of the silence and lack of action demonstrated by many churches when it comes to their responses and reactions to HIV/AIDS. Due to their dire shortage of concern, these churches have been branded morally bankrupt.
Saints: Breaking Through of Radical Love
For queer Christians, the veneration of Saints is not just a vestige of old-world religion and its superstitious practices. This is because the Saints dissolve a number of seemingly fixed boundaries; like past and present, ordinary and miraculous, history and mythology, reality and fantasy, and human and divine. Included amongst the special persons whom queer people venerate are traditional Saints who are perceived as having been either sympathetic to the queer cause or perhaps even same-sex oriented themselves, as well as contemporary martyrs and s/heroes who lived and died in service to the LGBT community. The Saints traverse the borders of space and time, so as to have an impact on the lives of queer people in our own day. As is true of the Spirit, the Saints help people return to the radical love of God.
According to Cheng, the Saints are the breaking through of radical love. They do this first off by expunging erotic boundaries. Although same-sex desire is explicitly condemned by and within the Roman Catholic church, the practice of venerating Saints has opened up a space wherein such a desire is actually encouraged, leading to an erotic fixation upon the Saints. In light of this, queer theologians have submitted a variety of queer readings of the Saints and have consequently crossed the dividing line between the holy and the erotic (along with some of the other aforementioned boundary markers). In addition, these queer theologians have begun to apply Roman Catholicism’s three categories of Saints (martyr, confessor and doctor) to members of the LGBT community. Queer saints are acknowledged as individuals who have been virtuous, consecrated models of queerness, and who have also served as role models for LGBT people.
The Saints are furthermore the breaking through of radical love because they eradicate literary boundaries. There are queer theologians who have mused over the relationship between Saints and the erotic within the context of hagiography (or biographies of the Saints). By weaving together queer theory with their own imaginative readings of the lives of the early Christian Saints, these theologians have effectively collapsed the literary genres known as histories and queer romances. They have also challenged the dualistic view which separates celibacy from sexuality. They contend that eroticism was not erased in the cases of those Saints who remained celibate, and rather that it was intensified as a result of the restraint shown by these people. Moreover, there are some queer theologians who have argued that there are homoerotic elements permeating the genre of hagiography, but that these elements have routinely been suppressed in liturgical retellings of these narratives.
Finally, the Saints are the breaking through of radical love because they erase social boundaries. Although non-Christians in the Roman empire venerated the dead, they did not cross any precious metaphysical boundaries in terms of claiming intimacy with the divine. The Christian cult of the Saints was scandalous because it challenged the presumably immovable boundaries between earth and heaven, the living and the dead, and divinity and humanity. Roman veneration of the dead was also restricted to a person’s own ancestors, family or kinship group, but Christian veneration of the Saints allowed for these family lines to be crossed. The dead belonged to the worldwide community of Christians; to everyone, and not strictly to the martyr’s own biological relatives. The boundary between family and strangers was thus dissolved. This practice transcended a vast array of social boundaries, and presented a challenge to all social and family relationships (which are grounded in patriarchy). To venerate the Saints is therefore to follow in the tradition of the early Christian Saints, who redefined the boundaries of the family. This is what stands at the heart of both queerness and radical love. One significant way that saints in our own day and age can cross social boundaries and follow in the footsteps of the s/heroes of the faith is to minister to and advocate for LGBT people.
Church: External Community of Radical Love
Patrick Cheng has defined the church as an external community of radical love. In other words, it is a new family or body that dissolves traditional boundaries which keep people apart, such as biological relationships, social class and physical attributes. It is a rehearsal for the new heavens and the new earth, when the human body with its physical features will be raised as a pneumatikos soma. Cheng contends that the families of choice that queer people have created, which cut across traditional boundaries that separate, are similar to the church and can also be viewed as communities of radical love. In Cheng’s assessment, the church is a gathering of people who will not exclude anyone on the basis of sexuality, gender identity or any other differences for that matter. This diverse community is the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is a means by which we are returned to the radical love that was sent by the first person of the Trinity and recovered by the second person of the Trinity.
According to the Nicene Creed there are four marks of the church. Cheng has decided to cover each of these marks from the perspective of the queer experience in order to show how each one dissolves the boundaries that separate people. The first of these marks is oneness. It has been argued by queer theologians that Christians are called to a condition of permanent porousness in terms of opening ourselves up to others. They have critiqued the institution of marriage by asserting that these sorts of relationships imply a degree of possession and permanence which is contrary to the porous character of the church. Additionally, they have noted that monogamous sexual relationships (like marriage) tend to become entities unto themselves that withdraw from the larger body of Christ. It has been proposed that desire (defined as longing for an ever-closer relationship with others) is a much more apt descriptor for the church than is the traditional metaphor which compares the church to a heterosexual marriage (i.e. the bride of Christ). A variation in metaphor may well eliminate the impression that monogamous heterosexual marriage is the only natural or even the foundational form of relationship for the church. It is believed that the oneness of the Christian community would be significantly strengthened by the incorporation of queer relational configurations (for example platonic friendships, one-night stands and life partners) into the life of the church.
The second mark of the church is holiness. Holiness is when the divine meets the human or where God’s grace is made manifest on earth. It occurs when humans attempt to give back to God what God has done for humanity, and given that what God has done for us is characterized as a gift of pure grace, it can only be “repaid” by our own generosity and hospitality to other people. Some queer theologians have argued that an ethic of hospitality should be the overriding norm for all issues (including sexuality) in light of the fact that the early church was recognized by its proclivity for welcoming outsiders. Thus they believe that sexual acts such as anonymous sex and communal sex should not be forbidden per se, but rather judged according to the degree to which these actions are hospitable or welcoming. It is also reasoned that all genders are collapsed into Christian by this ethic. Therefore the only distinction between people that actually matters is whether or not a person is working towards the new creation (the church) or not (the world).
The third mark of the church is catholicity, or unity in difference. There is of course only one body of Christ, but this body is composed of all believers and therefore includes a wide assortment of gender identities, sexes, sexualities, races, cultures, ages and abilities. To the degree that the church accurately personifies Christ’s body, it is catholic. Cheng is critical of the Roman Catholic church for not being catholic enough when it comes to matters concerning sexuality and gender identity. He goes on to proclaim that a genuine catholicity which is becoming of the body of Christ is demonstrated most faithfully in queer churches. These churches are welcoming of people from an extensive variety of backgrounds, including a broad diversity of sexualities and gender identities. They furthermore provide a space where people can participate in varied forms of prayer, worship and liturgy as well as a variety of justice-seeking ministries. Included amongst these ministries are some which are common to a number of denominations (homeless shelters and food pantries) as well as others which are more distinctive of queer communities, for instance providing care for individuals with HIV/AIDS, pursuing marriage equality, contesting ex-gay movements and resisting anti-gay violence worldwide.
The fourth mark of the church is apostolicity. The church is an institution which stands in a dynamic tradition and in a communion of saints. It is important that the church exhibit a positive and deep engagement with the Christian tradition, as well as a humility which is manifested in a willingness to consider the possibility that the tradition could be wrong. The term apostolicity is derived from the Greek word apostolos, meaning that which is sent forth. This is a significant detail which highlights the mission of the church, that being the sending forth of the gospel. Cheng speaks of the magnitude of technological advances and cyberspace for the spread of the gospel and for the formation of ecclesial communities. In the fluid world of cyberspace, linguistic divisions, as well as sexual, gender and class borders vanish. As a result of these developments, queer people from around the world who had, in the past, been isolated with respect to physical geography are now increasingly able to connect with like-minded people in order that they might practice radical love in cyber-community.
Cheng closes this section by touching upon one final aspect of the doctrine of the church; the subject of pastoral care. Through and within the church, LGBT people can discover spiritual, emotional and physical healing as they minister to the needs of one another. There are a number of difficult issues, many of which are unique to the queer community, that LGBT people are facing (including the increasing rate of HIV/AIDS as a result of barebacking, which is unprotected anal sex). As such, it is imperative that churches begin to educate themselves with regard to how they might create a welcoming space for and also how they might assist LGBT people in the midst of their trials. Those church communities that vigorously practice pastoral care can facilitate the dissolution of the dividing line between segregation and community by bringing LGBT people out of isolation and into an external community of radical love.
The High Society Collective’s Fountain of Youth
I came across this new single by the High Society Collective. I was diggin’ it, so I figured I would bless all y’all with it as well. If you enjoy the track, you can purchase it from your I-tunes store. 100% of the proceeds will go toward the construction of a well in order to provide safe, clean water for children in Guatemala. You can find more information regarding High Society’s charities here.
Holy Spirit: Pointing Us toward Radical Love
Cheng now turns to Pneumatology, or the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. It helps humanity return to the radical love from which we all originated. The Spirit maintains the trajectory which was initiated by God in God’s sending forth of radical love and which was subsequently sustained through Jesus Christ’s repossession of the radical love which humanity rejected. The ultimate return of creation to radical love can be understood as apokatastasis or the restoration of all things. This return to radical love can also be described by the word sanctification. Sanctification is a term which refers to humanity’s eventual reunion with God and all creation when the barriers that keep humans separate from God and creation will be destroyed. While humanity will require some form of purification by fire before we arrive, all people will assuredly get there with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
Cheng contends that the Holy Spirit’s leading or directing towards radical love corresponds to what queer people refer to as gaydar, which is the ability to detect all others in the room who are queer by reading the subtle, unspoken signals that are transmitted by queer people. The Holy Spirit guides people in unexpected ways in order that they might fall in love with other people, which is not typically something that is planned out in advance or something that can be forced onto another party. In these ways, the Holy Spirit can be viewed as a sort of queer super glue that dissolves the boundaries which normally keep people separate and bonds together persons who are brought together in radical love. Additionally, queer scholars have identified a fundamental correlation between the ekstasis of human sexual passion and the desire for God in deep prayer (when control is radically ceded to the Spirit).
Cheng lists four boundaries that are dissolved by the Holy Spirit. The first of these is the dividing line which stands between sexuality and church. These two subjects are rarely discussed in the same breath, for they are normally treated as mutually exclusive categories. The formation and development of the Metropolitan Community Churches (a denomination that was established by LGBT people but which is welcoming of all) is one example of the ways in which the Spirit has broken down this barrier. Second, the Holy Spirit crosses the dividing line betwixt public and private conversations concerning human sexuality. These two categories are likewise regarded as mutually exclusive. In general, discussions of non-normative sexualities and their associated practices are limited to the private sphere. An illustration of the Holy Spirit’s dissolving of this category is the event when a queer person comes out of the closet. The Spirit inhabits locations of shame and toxicity with such gentleness that queer people are released from these feelings. The Spirit therefore enables them to do and to be what God has called them to do and to be, collapses their closets and frees them to come out.
Thirdly, the dividing line positioned between unity and diversity is vaporized by the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost (when the Spirit was first poured out upon the church) There was a unity in purpose and location, but there was also diversity in the ways that the Spirit was manifested and in the ways that God’s message was shared. As is true of the wind, the Spirit blew wherever it chose, and the gospel was communicated in accordance with the needs of each individual hearer. In light of the unity in diversity which was disclosed on Pentecost, queer theologians have postulated that it is the Holy Spirit of God who is leading their resistance against heteronormative patterns of relationship. Moreover, they contend that the diversity that is conveyed both by and within the LGBT community is something that is always to be celebrated; and that regardless of the space that they are inhabiting. Fourth, the line between law and lawlessness is expunged by the Spirit. Some queer theologians suggest that the Holy Spirit operates by both law and freedom. The Holy Spirit’s work is an expression of the faithfulness of God in raising Jesus from the dead. Employing marriage as an example, they declare that marriage (whether same-sex or opposite-sex) is to be ruled by the Holy Spirit. This rule is not antinomian (or without law) in nature (as some might allege) for the Holy Spirit itself works in agreement with a rule; the rule of faithfulness. It is in this way that the Spirit manifests itself in both fidelity and freedom.
Json’s Goodbye to St. Louis
Lampmode recording artist Json is releasing his third album, Growing Pains, on February 21, 2012. This is the first video from that project. I thought that his last album, City Lights, was pretty dope. Json has his feet planted firmly in the neo-Puritan camp, and this is reflected in is lyrics, but even if you would disagree with some aspects of his theology, you can still find some encouraging words and solid production in his art. At least, you could on his last album; but I am expecting no less from this one. Check it out next Tuesday and lend some support to our brother.
