Gods Memory of Suffering A Troubling and

God’s Memory of Suffering: A Troubling and Rejuvenating Challenge to Heteronormative
Theology and Heterosexual Theologians

Caleb M. Day • University of Notre Dame • Master of Theological Studies ‘16
Christian theology, particularly that of cisgender, heterosexual, married, evangelical males like me,1 is being
profoundly challenged by LGBTI people’s cries and critiques, arguments and interpretations, spiritualities
and sufferings. I focus on this last category: suffering. I attempt to listen to challenges to a hegemonic
gender and sexual system that privileges me, by considering how it causes others to suffer. I reflect on
sociological data about suffering linked to the global hegemony of heterosexuality, in light of theology
about the memory of suffering and the preferential option for the poor. After outlining my method and
the theology guiding it, and surveying social-scientific data, I briefly discuss how this data challenges
heteronormative theology and heterosexual theologians, when honestly faced in light of God’s preferential
memory for suffering oppressed people. I argue that it challenges us to better listening and deeper
solidarity with LGBTI people and others oppressed by the heteronormative status quo in theology and
society, to radical reexamination of that status quo in light of the suffering it causes, and to support of
those resisting that suffering.
My contextual theological method: counter-cultural, liberation-inspired
As Stephan Bevans—among others—explains, all theology is implicitly or explicitly contextual.2 To remain
orthodox, contextual theology must avoid, variously: capitulating to context; ignoring God’s present work
in context; or viewing context simplistically, without recognizing sociological complexity, social change, or
1 I identify as an evangelical Anglican. My home church, the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia, is
currently debating whether to adopt a (non-matrimonial) blessing for people in same-sex marriages or committed same-sex
relationships. Aotearoa New Zealand removed gender restrictions on marriage in 2013. Hughes, “Working Group Reports on
Motion 30.” The global Anglican Communion is deeply divided over questions of gender and sexuality, and is in danger of
schism or mass exodus of members and parishes, which has already happened in the U.S.A and Canada. Just days ago, a two-
thirds majority of the Communion’s primates placed three-year sanctions on the United States Episcopal Church for blessing
non-heterosexual relationships and marriages and ordaining people in them. Brown, “Archbishop of Canterbury Plans to
Loosen Ties of Divided Anglican Communion”; Goodstein and De Freytas-Tamura, “Anglican Church Disciplines U.S.
Episcopals Over Gay Marriages.”
2 Bevans, Models, 3–15.
Caleb M. Day • God’s Memory of Suffering: A Troubling and Rejuvenating Challenge • Page 1 of 19
the profound ambiguity of contexts.3 The most appropriate way to engage context depends on the
theologian’s context and social position.4 As a married heterosexual male, I am privileged in gender and
sexuality, and in other ways. Thus, this is not a queer liberation theology from a marginal perspective. For
my dominant perspective, the most suitable mode of contextualization is a self-critical counter-cultural
stance, resisting the temptation to ideologically support dominant systems that benefit me.5 However,
‘counter-cultural’ stances can also function to shore up dominant systems and silence their marginal
critics.6 I aim to be challenged by LGBTI experiences and claims, not defend my privilege against queer
critiques. To help attain this goal, I also seek to incorporate elements of liberation theology’s “see-judge-
act” method. 7 Firstly, the preferential option for the poor is central to my account.8 Secondly, I follow the
liberation method in theologically “working on” critical insights from the social sciences.9 Counter-cultural
theologians sometimes balk at drawing on secular knowledge, but I affirm with liberation and other
3 Ibid., 21–27, 60, 118–119, 125, 175n.

4 Ibid., 139–140.
5 Ibid., 117–137, 139–140. Classic examples of this stance are the Clapham Sect of privileged evangelical Anglicans in 18th-19th
century England, the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany, and Christian critics of apartheid in South Africa. Ibid., 119; Barth
and The Confessing Church, “The Barmen Declaration”; Dutch Reformed Mission Church in South Africa, “Belhar
Confession”; South African church leaders, “The Kairos Document.” The South African documents, initially issued by ‘colored’
and black churches, respectively, can also be classified as examples of liberation theology. The Kairos Document is particularly
marked by liberation themes, while the Belhar Confession was significantly influenced by the Barmen Declaration. Smit,
“Barmen and Belhar in Conversation – a South African Perspective.”
6 For example, note the interesting blog conversation about Barthian scholarship and the exclusion of marginal voices from
‘serious scholarship.’ Rees, “On Not Reading Barth”; Dugan, “On Reading Barth”; Kline, “On Not Reading Karl Barth
Anymore”; Daniels, “Un-Womanly Me?” While it is outside the purview of this paper to critique this scholarship, I believe this
criticism is applicable to much of the (so-called) ‘counter-cultural’ resistance to homosexuality, e.g.: Worthen, “Donald Trump
and the Rise of the Moral Minority”; Galli, “Is The Gay Marriage Debate Over?”; Reno, “Triumph of Desire”; Dreher,
“Benedict Option FAQ”; Gerson and Wehner, “How Christians Can Flourish in a Same-Sex-Marriage World”; Dreher,
“Coming to Terms with a Post-Christian World”; Holdren, “Pope Francis Warns West Over ‘Ideological Colonization’”;
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, “Don’t Mess with Marriage”; Mathewes-Green, “Why I Haven’t Spoken Out on Gay
Marriage--till Now”; Not Alone.
7 Bevans, Models, 70–87; Phan, “Method in Liberation Theologies”; Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, 3–12.
8 I discuss this doctrine below in my discussion of theological concepts. I believe the preferential option to the poor should be
central to all Christian theologies. As Pope Benedict XVI noted, it is a central implication of Christology. Pope Benedict XVI,
“Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI.”
9 Phan, “Method in Liberation Theologies,” 42–46, 50–57; Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, xxiii–xxv, 5. See also Pope Paul VI
and Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, para. 62 on the relationship between theology and the secular sciences.
theologians that creation is intelligible,10 and that we can find resources within context itself for
understanding context and counter-culturally resisting sin and ideology in context.11
Theology guiding my analysis: preferential memory of poor persons’ suffering
I ‘work on’ the social-scientific data using two theological concepts: Johann Baptist Metz’s discussion of
memory of suffering, and Gustavo Gutiérrez’s work on God’s preferential memory for the poor.12 Metz
suggests counter-cultural resistance to dominant systems requires politics inspired by memory of
suffering.13 This memory is “dangerously emancipatory,” shattering the self-evidence of the status quo by
remembering its human cost, and challenging the history and eschatology of the dominators.14 It demands
we side with the sufferers, against those responsible for their suffering.15 Christians, committed to
remembering the crucified Christ, are uniquely placed to perform memory of suffering.16 Christian
memory of suffering is also memory of resurrection, which enables hope that the winners’ history will be
10 Aquinas, ST, pt. I, Q. 1, Arts. 5–7.

11 Bevans notes that while the liberation (or ‘praxis’) model and the counter-cultural model seek to resist sin and oppressive
ideology in creation and context, the praxis model has a better record at holding this in tension with recognizing goodness and
truth in creation and context. Bevans, Models, 21–22, 75, 124–125. Some counter-cultural theologians may resist drawing on
resources outside revelation, particularly insofar as these resources are critical of standard interpretations of revelation, but such
resistance risks rejecting the intelligibility of God’s creation, to which specific Christian revelation testifies: Porter, “Natural Law
as a Scriptural Concept: Theological Reflections on a Medieval Theme”; VanDrunen, “Wisdom and the Natural Moral Order.”
Moreover, Sri Lankan liberation theologian Aloysius Pieris suggests the best way to be uniquely Christian is not to cling to what
is explicitly Christian and reject what is not, but to be in solidarity with Christ in the poor. This means finding common cause
with people outside Christian traditions who are poor or in solidarity with the poor, and resisting those inside or outside
Christian traditions who oppress the poor. Pieris, “The Option for the Poor and the Recovery of Christian Identity.”
12 I follow J. Matthew Ashley in linking these two memories and suggesting Christians should align our memory with God’s.
Ashley, Take Lord and Receive All My Memory, 47–74. Gutiérrez is a highly influential liberation theologian from Peru; in fact, he
coined the term ‘liberation theology.’ Metz and other 20th-century European political theologians are often characterized
alongside liberation theologians, and Metz’s work has been influential in liberation theology. However, his conscious response
to his German context, and his radical critique of it, suggest he is perhaps better described as an exponent of the counter-
cultural model.
13 Metz, “The Future in the Memory of Suffering”; Ashley, Take Lord and Receive All My Memory, 37–46, 49–65. Metz draws
heavily on Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt School critical theorists.

14 Metz, “The Future in the Memory of Suffering,” 13–18; Benjamin, “On the Concept of History.”
15 Metz insists that true memory of suffering produces critical socio-economic awareness and a duty to act in unashamedly
partisan ways against those who cause suffering, even if they themselves also suffer. The loneliness and existential angst of the
rich and powerful do not excuse them “the suffering and oppression brought about by power and riches.” Metz, “The Future in
the Memory of Suffering,” 14–15, 18, 21–24. In other words, memory of suffering as Metz envisages it defies oppression by
declaring that ‘Black Lives Matter,’ rather than papering over the reality of injustice with the platitude ‘all lives matter.’ Garza,
“HerStory.”
16 Metz, “The Future in the Memory of Suffering,” 14.
rewritten, and even the forgotten dead redeemed.17 However, real-life memory of suffering rarely has the
liberating effect Metz envisages. We superficially grieve Syrian orphan Alan Kurdi while treating living
refugees as threats, or rail against abortion while blocking social services that we know save unborn
children’s lives.18 We privilege the suffering of the privileged; and selectively remember suffering from
abortion or abortion clinic attacks, police racism and murder or anti-police protest, Muslim terrorism or
anti-Muslim backlash and war.19 We are similarly self-serving in how we attribute responsibility for
suffering: we blame entire cultures, ideologies, and religions for Muslim terrorism, but treat white Christian
American terrorists as mentally ill outliers.20
17 Ibid., 19–24.
18 Fisher, “The Drowned Syrian Boy Photo Is Viral Social Media at Its Most Hollow and Hypocritical”; Troyan, “After Attacks
in Paris, Governors Refuse to Accept Syrian Refugees”; Smietana, “Meet the Filmmaker Exposing Planned Parenthood”; Finer
et al., “Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions”; Rosenthal, “Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare”; Whelan, “Abortion Rates
and Universal Health Care”; Cheng, “Rate of Abortion Is Highest in Countries Where Practice Is Banned”; Boonstra, “What Is
Behind the Declines in Teenage Pregnancy Rates?”; Saletan, “Does Contraception Reduce Abortions?”; Sutton, “Report: U.S.
Pregnancy Rate, Abortions Hit All-Time Low”; Campolo, “Pro-Life Democrats Call for an Abortion Reduction Plank”;
Grimes, “Obamacare and Religious Freedom”; Stone, “Thanks, Birth Control!”
19 Smietana, “Meet the Filmmaker Exposing Planned Parenthood”; Valenti, “Violent Anti-Choice Rhetoric Must End, or Anti-
Abortion Violence Never Will”; Nuño, Reyes, and Montoya, “Panel”; Brumfield, “Hate Incidents against American Muslims
Unabated; Political Rhetoric Not Helping”; Schwarz, “A Short History of U.S. Bombing of Civilian Facilities”; “About”; Reilly,
“Ted Cruz”; Wallis, “WATCH.” Metz argues that political action in the memory of suffering should be partisan: Metz, “The
Future in the Memory of Suffering,” 20. However, he does not discuss how easy it is for both sides of partisan debates to
invoke suffering in support of their views. Memory of suffering does not seem to shape our partisan commitments so much as
reflect our prior partisan stances.
In other situations, the selectivity of memory of suffering is perhaps less intentionally politically motivated, but tends to be
biased towards the privileged – the opposite of Metz’s intention. Facebook focused far more on the November 2015 Paris
attacks than the November 2015 Ankara terrorist attack, even though they have more total and per capital users in Turkey than
in France. Letsch, Khomami, and agencies, “Turkey Terror Attack”; “Europe Internet Stats - Population Statistics”; Pappas,
“French Flags on Facebook.”
20 The jihadist ideology motivating the San Bernardino murderers has been analyzed at great length, and has inspired political
proposals, rhetoric, and backlash violence against all Muslims. In contrast, the ideology that apparently motivated the Planned
Parenthood terrorist, which is much closer to mainstream American political positions, tends to be downplayed, and certainly
not blamed. The basic ingredients of this ideology are all highly visible in the rhetoric of many of the current Republican
presidential candidates. This includes a Christian anti-abortion stance, specific opposition to Planned Parenthood, opposition to
gun control, disdain for certain laws, opposition to government generally, and support for solving problems with aggression and
military action, while seeing illegal aggression as more effective than law in both foreign policy and domestic policing. While the
Republican candidates certainly did not support the attack, they seem to more supportive of political violence against civilians
more than the average American Muslim is. However, the candidates reject a link between their rhetoric and the Planned
Parenthood attacks, even while associating all Muslims with Islamic terrorism. King, “White Mass Shooters Are Never Called
Terrorists”; Brumfield, “Hate Incidents against American Muslims Unabated; Political Rhetoric Not Helping”; Siddiqui,
“Republicans Reject Link between Anti-Abortion Rhetoric and Colorado Shooting”; Legum, “Before Shooting, Cruz Touted
Endorsement From Activist Who Called For Execution Of Abortion Doctors”; “Most Muslim Americans See No Justification
for Violence.”
Far-right terrorists, typically white men, kill more frequently in the U.S. than jihadists, but reporting on such attacks tends to
emphasize individual factors such as mental illness (confirmed or hypothesized), rather than ideology – the reverse of the
pattern for jihadist attackers. Discussion of terrorists’ mental illness rarely discusses mental illness intersects with attackers’
identity characteristics and social positions. Kimmel and Leek refer to a phenomenon of “suicide-by-mass-murder” conducted
A possible solution may lie in uniting our memory of suffering with God’s “fresh and vivid memory of the
smallest and most forgotten ones.”21 This memory displays God’s preferential option for the poor, a key
theological and Christological concept.22 Gutiérrez traces the preferential option to God’s gratuitous and
universal love, responding first to those in greatest need: the materially poor, those subjected to economic,
ethnic, gender, or other oppression. 23 These “crucified people” are “privileged addressees of revelation,”
and solidarity with Christ entails solidarity with poor persons (Matt. 11:25-26, 25:31-46).24 “Incarnat[ing]”
God’s preferential memory25 prevents shallow memory, by remembering poor persons as the crucified
Christ. It resists selective focus on privileged and convenient suffering, by remembering the oppressed
first—but not exclusively. It avoids evasion of responsibility, by remembering and challenging all systems
and people responsible for oppression.
Suffering caused by hetero-patriarchal gender systems: social-scientific insights
The social sciences provide insights into suffering caused by the dominance of cisgender and heterosexual
expression. In the global North, queer people disproportionately suffer from “mental health disorders,
psychological distress, and suicidality.”26 LGBTI people, particular transgender and intersex people, are
disproportionately targeted in violent attacks—at least 22 gender-non-conforming Americans were
murdered in 2015.27 Non-heterosexual couples and their families have historically been denied the legal,
by white males who, they suggest, are unique in intending a “grandiose” destructive purpose for their suicides. New America,
“Deadly Attacks Since 9/11”; King, “White Mass Shooters Are Never Called Terrorists”; Kimmel and Leek, “The Unbearable
Whiteness of Suicide-by-Mass-Murder.”
21 Bartolomé de las Casas, quoted by Gutiérrez, himself quoted in Ashley, Take Lord and Receive All My Memory, 49, 73. Ashley
also draws on Benedict XVI’s observation that God’s love and memory is preferentially directed towards “the ones to whom
society … ‘forgets,’” as well as towards God’s covenant people. Ibid., 67–68.
22 Pope Benedict XVI, “Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI”; Latin American Bishops, “Medellín Document: Poverty of the
Church.”
23 Latin American Bishops, “Medellín Document: Poverty of the Church,” para. 4–5; Gutiérrez, On Job, xi–xix, 94–102;
Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, xvi–xvii, xxi–xxiii, 163–173; Goizueta, Caminemos Con Jesus, 175–190.
24 Gutiérrez, On Job, xi–xvii, 96; Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, 112–116; Goizueta, Caminemos Con Jesus, 177–178; Pieris, “The
Option for the Poor and the Recovery of Christian Identity.”

25 Ashley, Take Lord and Receive All My Memory, 71.
26 Mustanski, Garofalo, and Emerson, “Mental Health Disorders, Psychological Distress, and Suicidality in a Diverse Sample of
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youths”; Clements-Nolle, Marx, and Katz, “Attempted Suicide Among Transgender
Persons.”
27 Stafford and agencies, “Transgender Murders in US Have Nearly Doubled since Last Year, Activists Say.”
economic, social, and ecclesial benefits of marriage and adoption.28 This suffering is not the inherent cost
of a foolish lifestyle choice. Same-sex sex is common across various times, places, and even species.29
Homosexual attraction appears to have interacting biological and social causes; choice plays no significant
role.30 Moreover, research suggests gay and lesbian people’s mental health is better the more they and their
communities accept their gay and lesbian identities.31 One particularly chilling suffering happens to people
before they make any choices: surgery is frequently used to make babies’ genitalia look more clearly ‘male’
or ‘female,’ which can mutilate genitals, assign children to sex and gender categories they experience as
wrong, and curtail sexual pleasure and fertility in adulthood.32
Gender and sexual minorities also suffer in the global South. In former British colonies and Muslim-
majority regions of Africa, LGBTI people33 are often “fighting for their lives.”34 Sex between men is
28 Sometimes the different (though not necessarily contradictory) claim is made that children suffer from being raised in families
with same-sex parents, as opposed to being raised by opposite-sex parents. In 2012, sociologist Mark Regnerus prominently
found that the adult children of parents who had been in varying types of same-sex relationships suffered from considerably
more mental health problems than the adult children of parents in intact heterosexual marriages. Regnerus’ work says nothing
about stable same-sex marriages or relationships vis-à-vis their opposite-sex equivalents, as he could not find enough data on
the former. Regnerus, “How Different Are the Adult Children of Parents Who Have Same-Sex Relationships? Findings from
the New Family Structures Study”; Smith, “An Academic Auto-Da-Fé.” In the same volume of Social Science Research, another
sociologist found that the evidence does not yet warrant strong claims that there are or are not differences on outcomes for
children of same-sex and opposite-sex parents. Marks, “Same-Sex Parenting and Children’s Outcomes: A Closer Examination
of the American Psychological Association’s Brief on Lesbian and Gay Parenting.” In the same journal in 2015, other
sociologists re-analyzed Regnerus’ data and found that his conclusions derive from many “potential measurement errors … and
other methodological choices,” without which the observed differences become minimal. Cheng and Powell, “Measurement,
Methods, and Divergent Patterns: Reassessing the Effects of Same-Sex Parents,” 615. In the following volume, others revisited
the totality of research and argued that there has been scientific consensus since the 1990s on outcomes of same-sex parents’
children, and the consensus is “no differences on most examined outcomes.” adams and Light, “Scientific Consensus, the Law,
and Same Sex Parenting Outcomes,” 300. Another sociologist has recently published several articles that make similar claims as
Regnerus’s work, and have similar methodological problems, as well as being published in open-access journals without the
same recognition or rigorous peer review as Social Science Research. Sullins, “Emotional Problems among Children with Same-Sex
Parents”; Cohen, “Children in Same-Sex Parent Families, Dead Horse Edition”; Green, “Using ‘Pseudoscience’ to Undermine
Same-Sex Parents.”
29 Rutter and Schwartz, The Gender of Sexuality, 36–37.
30 Ibid., 36–41; Norris, Marcus, and Green, “Homosexuality as a Discrete Class.”
31 Frable, “Gender, Racial, Ethnic, Sexual, and Class Identities,” 150–154.
32 Holmes, “Rethinking the Meaning and Management of Intersexuality”; Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes, Revisited,” 20–22;
Greenfield, “Should We ‘Fix’ Intersex Children?”; Moss, “Intersexuality and God Through the Ages.”
33 While for brevity I refer to ‘LGBTI people’ in African societies, not all gender and sexual minorities in Africa employ these
originally Northern categories to describe themselves. For example, the most common term in Uganda for gender and sexual
minorities is “kuchu,” which roughly translates to the current usage of “queer.” However, some kuchus and other queer African
people do embrace the LGBTI terminology alongside or instead of local terms. For example, the Kuchu Times website, while
obviously including “kuchu” in its name, more commonly uses LGBTI language. This is perhaps because they aim to “provide a
voice for Africa’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community,” not just Uganda’s kuchu community.
A Ugandan blogger, GayUganda, suggests the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on homosexuality and queer theory
outlawed in 73-78 countries globally and 32-34 in Africa; the number is 25-30% lower for sex between
women.35 In some countries, these laws are not enforced, while in others, punishments can include more
than ten years prison time or execution.36 Harsh laws correlate with severe “anti-LGBT social animosity,”
and decriminalization with greater social and personal acceptance.37 In African countries, anti-LGBTI
attitudes do not reflect “age-old” “African prejudices” but combinations of internal and external, historical
and recent causes.38 Colonization and Abrahamic religions imposed binary gender systems upon societies
with often more complex gender systems.39 Globally and in Africa, homosexuality is disproportionately
criminalized in former British colonies, where penal codes targeted male homosexuality, seeking to
‘Christianize’ local customs.40 Today, less modernized Christian-majority countries typically outlaw sex
“capture[s] the essence of [kuchu] identities and differences so well.” Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and
Homophobia,” 888–891; Kuchu Times, “About”; GayUganda, “Kuchu Identities.”
34 Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 889; Kaoma, “The Paradox and Tension of Moral Claims,”
239; Jechura, “A Pearl of Great Price”; Blevins and Irungu, “Different Ways of Doing Violence”; Klinken, “Queer Love in a
‘Christian Nation’”; Hussain, “Response.” Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, suggests LGBT
people across Africa are fighting for “the right to life”—“The right to marry whom we love is far from our minds.” He bears
powerful witness to this struggle as it pertains to himself and fellow activists:
I remember the moment when my friend David Kato, Uganda’s best-known gay activist, sat with me in the small
unmarked office of our organization, Sexual Minorities Uganda. “One of us will probably die because of this work,” he
said. We agreed that the other would then have to continue. In January, because of this work, David was bludgeoned
to death at his home, with a hammer. Many people urged me to seek asylum, but I have chosen to remain and fulfill
my promise to David — and to myself. My life is in danger, but the lives of those whose names are not known in
international circles are even more vulnerable.
Mugisha, “Gay and Vilified in Uganda.” For an extremely moving account of David Kato’s funeral, see Kilborne, “The Funeral
of David Kato.”
35 Outside of the African continent, countries outlawing same-sex sexuality are mostly in Western, Central, Southern, and
maritime Southeast Asia; the Pacific; and the Caribbean along with Belize and Guyana. LGBTI people also face serious legal
challenges elsewhere, such as in Russia. The precise total of countries outlawing same-sex sexuality depends on whether partially
recognized states and regions are included. Hildebrandt, writing before June 2014, names 77. Wikipedia currently lists 78,
including Somaliland, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Gaza (Palestine), regions of Indonesia and the Philippines, the Cook
Islands (partly under New Zealand jurisdiction), and the Islamic State. I am also indebted to Wikipedia for the proportion of
countries that outlaw sex between men only; the precise numbers are 30.77% (25% in Africa) if the aforementioned
countries/regions are included and 30.14% (27.27% in Africa) if not. Hildebrandt, “Christianity, Islam and Modernity:
Explaining Prohibitions on Homosexuality in UN Member States,” 270; Wikipedia, “LGBT Rights by Country or Territory.”
36 Han and O’Mahoney, “British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality,” 268–271; Wikipedia, “LGBT Rights
by Country or Territory.”
37 Han and O’Mahoney, “British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality,” 269, 274.
38 Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 888–890; Ireland, “A Macro-Level Analysis of the Scope,
Causes, and Consequences of Homophobia in Africa”; Kaoma, “The Paradox and Tension of Moral Claims.”
39 Hildebrandt, “Christianity, Islam and Modernity: Explaining Prohibitions on Homosexuality in UN Member States,” 855–
856; Nanda, Gender Diversity; Mark, “Nigeria’s Yan Daudu Face Persecution in Religious Revival.”
40 Han and O’Mahoney, “British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality”; Hildebrandt, “Christianity, Islam and
Modernity: Explaining Prohibitions on Homosexuality in UN Member States,” 853–854; Kaoma, “The Paradox and Tension of
Moral Claims,” 230–232, 236–237; Evaristo, “The Idea That African Homosexuality Was a Colonial Import Is a Myth.”
between men, and most Muslim-majority countries criminalize both male and female homosexuality.41 In
parts of Africa, cultural and legal opposition to homosexuality is increasing, contrary to global trends.42
This is largely influenced by U.S. American Christian Right activists who, for example, were instrumental
in “swaying legislative opinion” in Uganda in support of harsher legislation against practicing, accepting, or
promoting homosexuality in 2009-2014.43 This legislation led to a “tenfold rise” in violence against kuchus
(queer Ugandans), including torture, “an attempted lynching, mob violence, homes burned down … and
suicides.”44
The dominance of heterosexuality, or particular expressions of it, also affects non-queer people. The
Southern African concept of ubuntu implies that when one LGBTI person suffers, we all suffer;45 even in
the individualistic North, each LGBTI suicide leaves dozens of directly impacted survivors.46 Less
obviously, homophobia is often linked to sexism and nationalism; homophobia in African societies
“maintains the privilege of a certain class of men” at the expense of others in those societies.47 In the U.S.,
many remaining inequalities between men and women directly result from the dominant expression of
heterosexual relationships. The gender pay gap is now largely a motherhood pay gap, and mothers are
41 The correlation between Christianity and anti-homosexuality laws reduces with modernization, especially in Protestant
countries. For this reason, there is the most diversity in legal status in Protestant societies: “In the southern hemisphere, many
countries with a predominantly Protestant population continue to criminalise gays,” while in many predominantly Protestant
countries in the global North, “gays and lesbians have the right to marry and to adopt children.” Hildebrandt, “Christianity,
Islam and Modernity: Explaining Prohibitions on Homosexuality in UN Member States,” 852, 865–866 and passim.
42 Ireland, “A Macro-Level Analysis of the Scope, Causes, and Consequences of Homophobia in Africa,” 49; Hellweg, “Same-
Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 887.

43 Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 891; Kaoma, “The U.S. Christian Right and the Attack on Gays
in Africa”; Kaoma, Colonizing African Values; Kaoma, “The Paradox and Tension of Moral Claims”; Kaoma, “How Anti-Gay
Christians Evangelize Hate Abroad”; Williams, God Loves Uganda.
44 Bowcott, “Uganda Anti-Gay Law Led to Tenfold Rise in Attacks on LGBTI People, Report Says.” See footnote 33 above for
the term “kuchu.”

45 Jechura, “A Pearl of Great Price,” 923–927. Kuchu Times invokes ubuntu in describing their work for “equality and freedom”
for “African LGBTI communities,” saying “[t]ogether we can bring UBUNTU back to our continent.”
46 Berman, “Estimating the Population of Survivors of Suicide.”
47 Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 891–892. One example of how heterosexism damages societies
is the fact that, in African societies, stronger opposition to homosexuality is correlated with higher HIV infection rates both
among LGBTI communities and in general populations. Ireland, “A Macro-Level Analysis of the Scope, Causes, and
Consequences of Homophobia in Africa,” 50–51. Nationalism has also been linked to hetero-patriarchal masculinity elsewhere,
such as in India, where post-colonial hetero-patriarchy similarly “paradoxically reproduces British categories in the name of
repudiating the West.” Gamson and Moon, “The Sociology of Sexualities,” 55–56; Bacchetta, “When the (Hindu) Nation Exiles
Its Queers”; Nagel, Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality, 140–176. There may be very early evidence of connections between nationalism
and hetero-patriarchal gender systems; Martti Nissinen suggests the Levitical prohibitions on male same-sex sexuality are tied up
with Israelite nationalist concerns. Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World, 37–44.
systematically disadvantaged in hiring, pay, promotions, and performance assessments, while men benefit
at work for being fathers.48 There are also significant gender inequalities in unpaid housework.49 Both
relate to gendered expectations about childrearing and housework responsibility in heterosexual
relationships. These inequalities start early: in families with heterosexual parents, girls do more chores, and
are less likely to be paid for them.50 Finally, almost all sexual violence perpetrators are men, and all women
are at risk (as are gender-non-conforming men).51 Sexual assault remains tragically common, and it is
directly linked to the way men are constructed in heterosexual relationships as dominant and “sexual
aggressors.”52
The social sciences suggest hegemonic gender/sex systems cause this suffering. ‘Gender,’ describing social
phenomena, and ‘sex,’ classifying reproductive organs, are both social constructs building on biological
differences, similar to sexual orientation.53 Gender is a “social structure” shaped by social processes on
individual, interactional, and institutional levels, with significant geographical and historical diversity.54 Our
sex categories are also socially constructed—societies impose a simple male-female binary onto more
complex physical realities.55 To perpetuate this binary, we symbolically erase or surgically maim the bodies
48 Budig, “Male Advantage and the Gender Composition of Jobs”; England, “Gender Inequality in Labor Markets”; Correll,
Benard, and Paik, “Getting a Job”; England, “The Gender Revolution”; Rippeyoung and Noonan, “Is Breastfeeding Truly Cost
Free?”
49 Hook, “Women’s Housework and Quadratic Associations”; Ullmann and Maldonado, “Differences in Unpaid Household
Work between Men and Women”; McClintock, “Occupational Sex Composition and Gendered Housework Performance”;
Gupta and Sayer, “Constraint, Necessity and the ‘Time Available’ for Women’s Housework.”
50 Raley and Bianchi, “Sons, Daughters, and Family Processes”; Wade, “Children, Chores, and the Gender Pay Gap at Home.”
51 Uggen and Blackstone, “Sexual Harassment as a Gendered Expression of Power.”
52 Armstrong, Hamilton, and Sweeney, “Sexual Assault on Campus.”
53 Social and biological scientists examining gender often suggest it is produced by interactions between biology and social
processes, yet further research is required to analyze exactly how these interactions work. Doing such research well is difficult,
as it requires in-depth knowledge of both human biology and the sociology of gender. Existing attempts to study ‘biosocial’
determinants of gender have not always met this high standard, and have often opened themselves up to criticism. See, for
example, the following exchange: Udry, “Biological Limits of Gender Construction”; Miller et al., “Comments and Replies.”
54 West and Zimmerman, “Doing Gender”; Acker, “From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions”; England, “The Impact of
Feminist Thought on Sociology”; Lucal, “What It Means to Be Gendered Me”; Bettie, “Women without Class”; Coontz,
“Historical Perspectives on Family Studies”; Nanda, Gender Diversity; Lorber, “Night to His Day”; Pyke and Johnson, “Asian
American Women and Racialized Femininities”; Thorne, “Boys and Girls Together ... But Mostly Apart”; Risman, “Gender as a
Social Structure”; Anderson, “Orthodox and Inclusive Masculinity”; Acker, “Inequality Regimes”; Beasley, “Rethinking
Hegemonic Masculinity in a Globalizing World.”
55 Butler, Gender Trouble, 10–11; Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough”; Fausto-Sterling,
“The Five Sexes, Revisited”; Holmes, “Rethinking the Meaning and Management of Intersexuality,” 164, 175.
that belie it.56 Gender functions as a structure of oppression, intersecting with race, class, and other axes of
oppression.57 Earlier gender systems took gender hierarchy for granted. Industrialized societies have
increasingly romanticized gender, seeing it as expressing men’s and women’s equal-and-opposite,
‘complementary’ biological essences: men are from Mars, and women are from Venus.58 This
‘complementarian’ perspective gave rise to the concept of essentialist sexual orientation in the 19th
century.59 Initially, homosexuality was seen as a mental illness—a ‘failure’ of essentialist gender
complementarity. This ‘complementarian’ view has been adopted by Christians, and is now the most
common “moral logic” Catholics and Protestants use to oppose homosexuality.60 However, secular
societies have partially moved on. Psychologists no longer classify homosexuality as pathological, and the
public increasingly accepts romantic relationships other than ‘complementary’ heterosexual ones. The basis
of complementarianism—the social construct of binary, essentialist, opposite gender identities—remains
dominant, and continues to cause and justify suffering of women and LGBTI people.61 However,
increasing acceptance of homosexuality may contribute to wider gender-based justice, as patriarchal
masculinity and homophobia are linked.62
56 The frequency of these bodies is probably between 1 in 50 and 1 in 500. A team of researchers at Brown University surveyed
medical literature from 1955 to 2000 and estimated that 1.728% of live births “deviate from a [false] Platonic ideal of sexual
dimorphism” by exhibiting some kind of intersex condition, though they also provided a range of 0.2% to 2.0% for the actual
figure. A later researcher objected to some of their methodological moves and recalculated their data, estimating 0.37326%.
Blackless et al., “How Sexually Dimorphic Are We?”; Hull and Fausto-Sterling, “Letter to the Editor; Response.”
57 West and Fenstermaker, “Doing Difference”; Hill Collins et al., “Symposium”; West and Fenstermaker, “Reply”; Baca Zinn
and Thornton Dill, “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism”; Bettie, “Women without Class”; Acker, “Inequality
Regimes.”
58 Charles and Bradley, “Indulging Our Gendered Selves?”; Coontz, “Historical Perspectives on Family Studies,” 291.
59 Frable, “Gender, Racial, Ethnic, Sexual, and Class Identities,” 150; Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World, v–vi, 1, 6;
Nanda, Gender Diversity, 2–3, 5.

60 Some examples and discussions of this argument are Pope John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them; Grecco, “Recent
Ecclesiastical Teaching”; Salzman and Lawler, The Sexual Person, 124–161; Grudem, Countering the Claims of Evangelical Feminism,
13–17; Brownson, Bible, Gender, Sexuality, 16–38. The phrase “moral logic” comes from Brownson.
61 Charles and Bradley, “Indulging Our Gendered Selves?”
62 Anderson, “Orthodox and Inclusive Masculinity.” Cf. also Audre Lorde’s comment about misdirected fear of homosexuality
in a context of patriarchal heterosexuality: “it is certainly not Black lesbians who are assaulting women and raping children and
grandmothers on the streets of our communities.” Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” 122.
Challenges to heteronormative theology and heterosexual theologians
This data, interpreted through preferential memory of suffering, reveals serious challenges to
heteronormative theology, and to heterosexual theologians seeking to be self-critically counter-cultural.
Simply rejecting “gender theory,” as recent popes have done, is not viable.63 Preferential memory cannot
deny the evidence of suffering, and rejecting a theory requires arguing that another theory explains this
evidence better.64 A ‘purely’ Christian or biblical view of gender avoiding all worldly gender systems is
impossible. Biblical texts assumed and partly challenged the dominant patriarchy of their contexts,65 and
Christians opposing LGBTI equality today rely on 19th-century ‘complementarian’ ideas. We must discern
between competing gender visions in culture rather than capitulating to any, granting hermeneutical
preference to the oppressed in this discernment.
Preferential memory of suffering is neither shallow nor self-servingly selective, but demands deep
solidarity with the suffering, beginning with the oppressed, whom we must see as Christ. We cannot write
off the suffering of—for example—a “tiny number of newborns,”66 as preferential memory of suffering
leaves the ninety-nine binary-sexed bodies and remembers the marginalized, potentially mutilated one
(Matt. 18:12-14). We must prioritize particular people, beginning with oppressed people, over particular
family forms, especially family forms that are historically conditioned and do not always advantage women
or children.67 We must remember kuchus and other queer people in the South, not just dominant interests
63 Fullam, “‘Gender Theory,’ Nuclear War, and the Nazis.”

64 Selectively using and ignoring science and theory to support one’s prior convictions is no better. Michael Hannon does
exactly this, using queer theorists’ observations about the social construction of sexual orientation to oppose LGBTI
acceptance, while ignoring the social construction of gender, which the same theorists (and many social scientists) also
emphasize. While the social construction of orientation undermines some LGBTI claims insofar as they are based on
“orientation essentialism,” the social construction of gender undermines arguments for gender-based restrictions on valid sex or
marriage partners, which are based on gender essentialism. Hannon, “Against Heterosexuality.” Many LGBTI activists also
reject essentialism. Carter Heyward, for example, does not argue for LGBTI acceptance on the basis of essential identities that
LGBTI people “cannot help,” but because all people deserve “basic conditions of human worth and self-respect … regardless
of sexual preference.” Heyward, “Notes on Historical Grounding: Beyond Sexual Essentialism,” 8–9.
65 Cahill, “Sex, Gender and Early Christanity”; Webb, Slaves, Women & Homosexuals; Nissinen, Homoeroticism in the Biblical World.
66 Reno, “Triumph of Desire.”
67 Coontz, “Historical Perspectives on Family Studies,” 286–288.
in some Southern societies.68 We cannot simply stipulate concern for LGBTI people while focusing
primarily on our own interests.69 Christians opposed to homosexuality may suffer as their views lose
ground globally, but a preferential memory of suffering first remembers those deprived of safety, justice,
family, or church, before those losing privilege and discrimination rights.70
Counter-culturally remembering oppressed persons’ suffering first means holding accountable all systems
responsible for suffering, including gender systems traditionally supported by Christian tradition. The
churches and heteronormative theologies are clearly implicated in dominant patriarchal, binary, essentialist
gender systems that oppress people. Christian capitulation to these dominant systems bears “bad fruit”
(Matt. 7:15-20) of great suffering.71 This remembered suffering must challenge heterosexual theologians to
reinterpret our theological-ethical sources,72 honestly asking how we can remain faithful to both Christian
tradition and Christ in the oppressed person, and whether it is possible to reconcile genuine solidarity with
the oppressed with heteronormative theologies and practices. If we continue to say “leave your life of sin”
to people having non-heterosexual sex, we must do so while saving their lives, as Jesus did (John 8:2-11).
We must avoid the normal pattern of ignoring suffering if we believe it results from sin;73 God’s
68 Ramachandra, Subverting Global Myths; Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 887–888, 892; Kaoma,
“How Anti-Gay Christians Evangelize Hate Abroad.” Ramachandra warns against equating the dominant interests in a society
with the interests of that entire society, which is similar to Bevans’ aforementioned warnings against simplistic monolithic
understandings of contexts. Audre Lorde points out that in a United States context, when we avoid criticizing Black men for
sexism because of “the false accusation that anti-sexist is anti-Black,” it is Black women who suffer. The equivalent could be
said for sexual and gender minorities in Africa. Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex,” 120.
69 For example, this document opens with a general affirmation of concern for LGBTI people suffering “unjust discrimination,”
but its primary concern is for the (claimed) sufferings of anti-homosexuality Christians. It is also a good example of the self-
serving selective use of science, discussed at footnote 61. Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, “Don’t Mess with Marriage.”
70 Muder, “The Distress of the Privileged.” See footnote 6 above for examples of Christians opposed to LGBTI acceptance who
focus on their own suffering rather than that of globally marginalized LGBTI people.
71 As gender systems change and increasingly accommodate homosexuality (see the last paragraph of the previous section),
opposition to homosexuality is increasingly an attempt to return to formerly-dominant gender systems, rather than to retain
currently-dominant systems. This means opposition to homosexuality can be called ‘counter-cultural’ in one sense. However, I
argue that this is an example of a counter-cultural method employed against the marginalized, in order to maintain the privilege
of the historically dominant. My counter-cultural method, chastened by the preferential option for the poor, does not seek to be
counter-cultural for its own sake, but to counter-culturally challenge and resist dominant systems insofar as they are oppressive.
The controlling motivation is not to be counter-cultural but to be in solidarity with the poor in their struggle for justice. Slavery,
for example, should be opposed because slavery is unjust; this was the case in 19th-century U.K. and U.S. when opposition to
slavery was counter-cultural, and it remains true today, when it would be counter-cultural to support slavery. This method
suggest we counter-culturally oppose the status quo for its continued gender essentialism and oppression of women LGBTI
people, not for its increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage and Caitlyn Jenner.
72 Scharen, “Experiencing the Body: Sexuality and Conflict in American Lutheranism,” 37.
73 Douglas, “Black and Blues: God-Talk/Body-Talk for the Black Church,” 58–59.
preferential memory is based on need, not merit. I suspect, however, that honest reinterpretation of our
sources means retiring the notion that gender attributions are enough to make a marriage or sex act
sinful—though arguing this goes beyond this paper’s purview.74 Regardless of our conclusions, we must
support liberation movements analyzing and resisting the suffering of God’s non-heterosexual, non-
cisgender, and non-male children. Privileged people must respect oppressed people’s leadership of these
struggles, assisting only in ways that are useful and wanted.75
Conclusion
This paper does not attempt to answer all theological questions related to LGBTI people and their gender
and sexual expressions, though it could be a foundation for such explorations. Rather, in line with this
conference’s theme, it explores how preferential memory of suffering challenges heteronormative
theologies and the people they benefit, like me. We are challenged to honest listening and genuine
solidarity with oppressed people, to radical criticism of heteronormative churches and theologies for their
culpability in causing suffering, and to support of those resisting it. These challenges are troubling to
theologians like me. Yet they are also rejuvenating if they can provoke us to work together on theologies
and practices that no longer privilege some while causing others to suffer, but are truly good news to all.
74 I outline my position in relation to the major Christian ethical arguments surrounding homosexuality in the following draft
paper: Day, “‘A Time to Throw Away’?”
75 This is especially vital when people in the global North are seeking to resist oppression in the global South, or in other
situations where people seeking to challenge oppression are themselves in an oppressor relationship towards those they seek to
challenge. Northern interventions in African countries, such as criticisms of anti-homosexuality laws or making financial
assistance contingent on changing those laws, often backfire by contributing to the association of LGBTI claims with Western
imperialism. Kuchus and other queer people are often the pawns and “collateral damage” of “U.S. sexual politics” being played
out in parts of Africa, Russia, and elsewhere. Kaoma, “The Paradox and Tension of Moral Claims”; Onishi, “U.S. Support of
Gay Rights in Africa May Have Done More Harm Than Good”; Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,”
891; Jechura, “A Pearl of Great Price.” The most successful efforts for improved rights and conditions for LGBTI people on
the African continent have been led by local queer activists. Hellweg, “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 887–
888, 892; Kaoma, “How Anti-Gay Christians Evangelize Hate Abroad.” A cursory perusal of Twitter reveals many LGBTI
activists in African countries, such as @SMUG2004; @HOLAAfrica; @Far_Uganda; @KuchuTimes; @Prideuganda2015;
@Galck_ke; @galzinf; and @CALAdvocacy (organizations) and @frankmugisha; @DenisNzioka; @KashaJacqueline;
@Opimva; @Brbzy; @EricGitari; and @semugomanp (individuals).
References:
“About the Black Lives Matter Network.” Black Lives Matter. Accessed December 17, 2015.
http://blacklivesmatter.com/about/.
Acker, Joan. “From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions.” Contemporary Sociology 21, no. 5 (September 1, 1992): 565–69.
doi:10.2307/2075528.
———. “Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in Organizations.” Gender and Society 20, no. 4 (August 1, 2006): 441–64.
adams, jimi, and Ryan Light. “Scientific Consensus, the Law, and Same Sex Parenting Outcomes.” Social Science Research 53
(September 2015): 300–310. doi:doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.06.008.
Anderson, Eric. “Orthodox and Inclusive Masculinity: Competing Masculinities among Heterosexual Men in a Feminized
Terrain.” Sociological Perspectives 48, no. 3 (September 1, 2005): 337–55. doi:10.1525/sop.2005.48.3.337.
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Internet Sacred Texts Archive,
1947. http://sacred-texts.com/chr/aquinas/summa/index.htm.
Armstrong, Elizabeth A., Laura Hamilton, and Brian Sweeney. “Sexual Assault on Campus: A Multilevel, Integrative Approach
to Party Rape.” Social Problems 53, no. 4 (November 1, 2006): 483–99. doi:10.1525/sp.2006.53.4.483.
Ashley, J. Matthew. Take Lord and Receive All My Memory: Toward an Anamnestic Mysticism, 2015.
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. “Don’t Mess with Marriage: A Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops of Australia
to All Australians on the ‘Same-Sex Marriage’ Debate,” 2015. https://www.sydneycatholic.org/pdf/DMM-
booklet_web.pdf.
Baca Zinn, Maxine, and Bonnie Thornton Dill. “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism.” Feminist Studies 22, no. 2
(July 1, 1996): 321–31. doi:10.2307/3178416.
Bacchetta, Paola. “When the (Hindu) Nation Exiles Its Queers.” Social Text, no. 61 (1999): 141–66.
Barth, Karl, and The Confessing Church. “The Barmen Declaration.” In Karl Barth: Theologian of Freedom, edited by Clifford J.
Green, 148–51. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1988.
Beasley, Christine. “Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity in a Globalizing World.” Men and Masculinities 11, no. 1 (October 1,
2008): 86–103. doi:10.1177/1097184X08315102.
Benjamin, Walter. “On the Concept of History.” Translated by Andy Blunden, tr. 2005 1940.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm.
Berman, Alan L. “Estimating the Population of Survivors of Suicide: Seeking an Evidence Base.” Suicide and Life-Threatening
Behavior 41, no. 1 (February 1, 2011): 110–16. doi:10.1111/j.1943-278X.2010.00009.x.
Bettie, Julie. “Women without Class: Chicas, Cholas, Trash, and the Presence/Absence of Class Identity.” Signs 26, no. 1
(October 1, 2000): 1–35.
Bevans, Stephen B. Models of Contextual Theology. Revised and expanded edition. Faith and Cultures. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
2002.
Blackless, Melanie, Anthony Charuvastra, Amanda Derryck, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Karl Lauzanne, and Ellen Lee. “How
Sexually Dimorphic Are We? Review and Synthesis.” American Journal of Human Biology 12, no. 2 (March 1, 2000): 151–
66. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6300(200003/04)12:2<151::AID-AJHB1>3.0.CO;2-F.
Blevins, John, and Peter Irungu. “Different Ways of Doing Violence: Sexuality, Religion, and Public Health in the Lives of
Same-Gender-Loving Men in Kenya.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83, no. 4 (December 1, 2015): 930–46.
doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv072.
Boonstra, Heather D. “What Is Behind the Declines in Teenage Pregnancy Rates?” Guttmacher Policy Review 17, no. 3 (Summer
2014): 15–21.
Bowcott, Owen. “Uganda Anti-Gay Law Led to Tenfold Rise in Attacks on LGBTI People, Report Says.” The Guardian, May
11, 2014, sec. World news. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/12/uganda-anti-gay-law-rise-attacks.
Brown, Andrew. “Archbishop of Canterbury Plans to Loosen Ties of Divided Anglican Communion.” The Guardian, September
16, 2015, sec. World news. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/archbishop-of-canterbury-urges-
breakup-of-divided-anglican-communion.
Brownson, James V. Bible, Gender, Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013.
Brumfield, Ben. “Hate Incidents against American Muslims Unabated; Political Rhetoric Not Helping.” CNN, December 9,
2015. http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/09/us/anti-muslim-attacks-sentiment/index.html.
Budig, Michelle J. “Male Advantage and the Gender Composition of Jobs: Who Rides the Glass Escalator?” Social Problems 49,
no. 2 (May 1, 2002): 258–77. doi:10.1525/sp.2002.49.2.258.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York, NY ; London: Routledge, 1999.
Cahill, Lisa Sowle. “Sex, Gender and Early Christanity.” In Sex, Gender, and Christian Ethics, 121–65. New Studies in Christian
Ethics. Cambridge ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Campolo, Tony. “Pro-Life Democrats Call for an Abortion Reduction Plank.” Sojourners, July 9, 2008.
https://sojo.net/articles/pro-life-democrats-call-abortion-reduction-plank.
Charles, Maria, and Karen Bradley. “Indulging Our Gendered Selves? Sex Segregation by Field of Study in 44 Countries.”
American Journal of Sociology 114, no. 4 (January 1, 2009): 924–76. doi:10.1086/595942.
Cheng, Maria. “Rate of Abortion Is Highest in Countries Where Practice Is Banned.” The Independent, January 19, 2012, sec.
Health News. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/rate-of-abortion-is-highest-
in-countries-where-practice-is-banned-6292070.html.
Cheng, Simon, and Brian Powell. “Measurement, Methods, and Divergent Patterns: Reassessing the Effects of Same-Sex
Parents.” Social Science Research 52 (July 2015): 615–26. doi:doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.04.005.
Clements-Nolle, Kristen, Rani Marx, and Mitchell Katz. “Attempted Suicide Among Transgender Persons.” Journal of
Homosexuality 51, no. 3 (October 11, 2006): 53–69. doi:10.1300/J082v51n03_04.
Cohen, Philip. “Children in Same-Sex Parent Families, Dead Horse Edition.” Family Inequality, February 13, 2015.
https://familyinequality.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/children-in-same-sex-parent-families/.
Coontz, Stephanie. “Historical Perspectives on Family Studies.” Journal of Marriage and Family 62, no. 2 (May 1, 2000): 283–97.
Correll, Shelley J., Stephen Benard, and In Paik. “Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty?” American Journal of Sociology
112, no. 5 (March 1, 2007): 1297–1339. doi:10.1086/511799.
Daniels, Brandy. “Un-Womanly Me? (A Post About, and Full Of, Paradoxes).” Women in Theology, September 9, 2013.
http://womenintheology.org/2013/09/09/un-womanly-me-a-post-about-and-full-of-paradoxes/.
Day, Caleb M. “‘A Time to Throw Away’? Rethinking the Gender Requirement for Legitimate Christian Sex.” unpublished, May
2015. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6KkKNjL39z5bVZOTXdsUnM4b3M.
Douglas, Kelly Brown. “Black and Blues: God-Talk/Body-Talk for the Black Church.” In Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for
Theological Reflection, edited by Marvin M. Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas, 2nd edition., 48–66. Louisville, KY:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.
Dreher, Rod. “Benedict Option FAQ.” The American Conservative, October 6, 2015.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/benedict-option-faq/.
———. “Coming to Terms with a Post-Christian World.” Christianity Today, November 2, 2015.
Dugan, Kait. “On Reading Barth: Another Form of Feminist Resistance (A Response to Janice Rees).” Kyrie Eleison, September
2, 2013. http://kaitdugan.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/on-reading-barth-another-form-of.html.
Dutch Reformed Mission Church in South Africa. “Belhar Confession.” Reformed Church in America, 1986.
https://www.rca.org/resources/confession-belhar.
England, Paula. “Gender Inequality in Labor Markets: The Role of Motherhood and Segregation.” Social Politics: International
Studies in Gender, State & Society 12, no. 2 (June 20, 2005): 264–88. doi:10.1093/sp/jxi014.
———. “The Gender Revolution: Uneven and Stalled.” Gender and Society 24, no. 2 (April 1, 2010): 149–66.
———. “The Impact of Feminist Thought on Sociology.” Contemporary Sociology 28, no. 3 (May 1, 1999): 263–68.
doi:10.2307/2654137.
“Europe Internet Stats - Population Statistics.” Internet World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics, 2015.
http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa2.htm.
Evaristo, Bernardine. “The Idea That African Homosexuality Was a Colonial Import Is a Myth.” The Guardian, March 8, 2014,
sec. Opinion. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/08/african-homosexuality-colonial-import-
myth.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. “The Five Sexes, Revisited.” The Sciences 40, no. 4 (August 2000): 18–23. doi:10.1002/j.2326-
1951.1993.tb03081.x.
———. “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough.” The Sciences 33, no. 2 (March 4, 1993): 20–24.
doi:10.1002/j.2326-1951.1993.tb03081.x.
Finer, Lawrence B., Lori F. Frohwirth, Lindsay A. Dauphinee, Susheela Singh, and Ann M. Moore. “Reasons U.S. Women Have
Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 37, no. 3 (September
2005): 110–18.
Fisher, Max. “The Drowned Syrian Boy Photo Is Viral Social Media at Its Most Hollow and Hypocritical.” Vox, September 3,
2015. http://www.vox.com/2015/9/3/9256925/aylan-kurdi-drowned-syrian-boy-viral.
Frable, Deborrah E. S. “Gender, Racial, Ethnic, Sexual, and Class Identities.” Annual Review of Psychology 48, no. 1 (1997): 139–
62. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.139.
Fullam, Lisa. “‘Gender Theory,’ Nuclear War, and the Nazis.” Commonweal, February 23, 2015.
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/gender-theory-nuclear-war-and-nazis-
0?utm_source=Main+Reader+List&utm_campaign=d2fd06751c-
Feb24_Now_at_Commonweal7_1_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_407bf353a2-d2fd06751c-92358421.
Galli, Mark. “Is The Gay Marriage Debate Over?” Christianity Today, July 24, 2009.
Gamson, Joshua, and Dawne Moon. “The Sociology of Sexualities: Queer and Beyond.” Annual Review of Sociology 30 (January 1,
2004): 47–64. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.30.012703.110522.
Garza, Alicia. “A HerStory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.” Black Lives Matter. Accessed December 17, 2015.
http://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/.
GayUganda. “Kuchu Identities.” GayUganda, October 25, 2007. http://gayuganda.blogspot.com/2007/10/kuchu-
identities.html.
Gerson, Michael, and Peter Wehner. “How Christians Can Flourish in a Same-Sex-Marriage World.” Christianity Today,
November 2, 2015.
Goizueta, Roberto S. Caminemos Con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.
Goodstein, Laurie, and Kimiko De Freytas-Tamura. “Anglican Church Disciplines U.S. Episcopals Over Gay Marriages.” The
New York Times, January 14, 2016, sec. Europe. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/15/world/europe/anglican-
archbishops-sanction-us-episcopal-church-over-gay-marriages.html.
Grecco, Richard. “Recent Ecclesiastical Teaching.” In John Paul II and Moral Theology, edited by Charles E. Curran and Richard A.
McCormick, 137–48. Readings in Moral Theology 10. New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1998.
Green, Emma. “Using ‘Pseudoscience’ to Undermine Same-Sex Parents.” The Atlantic, February 19, 2015.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/using-pseudoscience-to-undermine-same-sex-
parents/385604/.
Greenfield, Charlotte. “Should We ‘Fix’ Intersex Children?” The Atlantic, July 8, 2014.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/should-we-fix-intersex-children/373536/.
Grimes, Katie. “Obamacare and Religious Freedom: What Are Catholic Colleges Fighting For?” WIT, March 14, 2014.
http://womenintheology.org/2014/03/14/obamacare-and-religious-freedom-what-are-catholic-colleges-fighting-for/.
Grudem, Wayne. Countering the Claims of Evangelical Feminism: Biblical Responses to the Key Questions. Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books,
2006.
Gupta, Sanjiv, and Liana C. Sayer. “Constraint, Necessity and the ‘Time Available’ for Women’s Housework.” In Session 30: New
Research on Gender and Housework, 7. San Diego, CA, 2015. http://paa2015.princeton.edu/sessions/30.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.
———. On Job: God-talk and the suffering of the innocent. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.
Han, Enze, and Joseph O’Mahoney. “British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality.” Cambridge Review of
International Affairs 27, no. 2 (2014): 268–88. doi:10.1080/09557571.2013.867298.
Hannon, Michael W. “Against Heterosexuality.” First Things, no. March 2014 (March 2014): n.p.
Hellweg, Joseph. “Same-Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia: Challenges, Complexities, and Progress for LGBTIQ
Liberation in Africa.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83, no. 4 (December 1, 2015): 887–96.
doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv076.
Heyward, Carter. “Notes on Historical Grounding: Beyond Sexual Essentialism.” In Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological
Reflection, edited by Marvin M. Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas, 2nd edition., 6–15. Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2010.
Hildebrandt, Achim. “Christianity, Islam and Modernity: Explaining Prohibitions on Homosexuality in UN Member States.”
Political Studies 63, no. 4 (2015): 852–69. doi:10.1111/1467-9248.12137.
Hill Collins, Patricia, Lionel A. Maldonado, Dana Y. Takagi, Barrie Thorne, Lynn Weber, and Howard Winant. “Symposium on
West & Fenstermaker’s ‘Doing Difference.’” Gender and Society 9, no. 4 (August 1, 1995): 491–506.
Holdren, Alan. “Pope Francis Warns West Over ‘Ideological Colonization.’” National Catholic Register, January 20, 2015, sec.
Daily News.
Holmes, Morgan. “Rethinking the Meaning and Management of Intersexuality.” Sexualities 5, no. 2 (May 1, 2002): 159–80.
doi:10.1177/1363460702005002002.
Hook, Jennifer L. “Women’s Housework and Quadratic Associations: An End to Gender Deviance Neutralization?” In Session
30: New Research on Gender and Housework, 40. San Diego, CA, 2015. http://paa2015.princeton.edu/sessions/30.
Hughes, Michael. “Working Group Reports on Motion 30.” Anglican Taonga, September 12, 2015.
http://anglicantaonga.org.nz/News/General-Synod/Working-group-report-on-Motion-30.
Hull, Carrie L., and Anne Fausto-Sterling. “Letter to the Editor; Response.” American Journal of Human Biology 15, no. 1 (January
1, 2003): 112–16. doi:10.1002/ajhb.10122.
Hussain, Syed Adnan. “Response: Civilizational Sexualities.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83, no. 4 (December 1,
2015): 965–76. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv088.
Ireland, Patrick R. “A Macro-Level Analysis of the Scope, Causes, and Consequences of Homophobia in Africa.” African Studies
Review 56, no. 2 (September 2013): 47–66. doi:10.1353/arw.2013.0038.
Jechura, Chet Mitchell. “A Pearl of Great Price: Reframing a Queer Critique of Sexual Norms within Postcolonial Uganda.”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83, no. 4 (December 1, 2015): 916–29. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv074.
Kaoma, Kapya. “How Anti-Gay Christians Evangelize Hate Abroad.” Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2014, sec. Opinion.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kaoma-uganda-gays-american-ministers-20140323-story.html.
———. “The Paradox and Tension of Moral Claims: Evangelical Christianity, the Politicization and Globalization of Sexual
Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Critical Research on Religion 2, no. 3 (December 1, 2014): 227–45.
doi:10.1177/2050303214552571.
———. “The U.S. Christian Right and the Attack on Gays in Africa.” Political Research Associates, December 1, 2009.
http://www.politicalresearch.org/2009/12/01/the-u-s-christian-right-and-the-attack-on-gays-in-
africa/#sthash.VDNiGnW6.dpbs.
Kaoma, Kapya John. Colonizing African Values: How the U.S. Christian Right Is Transforming Sexual Politics in Africa. Somerville, MA:
Political Research Associates, 2012. http://www.politicalresearch.org/resources/reports/full-reports/colonizing-
african-values/#sthash.cOxnvrwM.euPEmhGf.dpbs.
Kilborne, Sarah S. “The Funeral of David Kato: How Uganda’s Leading Gay Activist Was Laid to Rest.” Slate, January 26, 2015.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/01/26/david_kato_s_funeral_how_uganda_s_leading_gay_activist_was_
laid_to_rest.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top.
Kimmel, Michael, and Cliff Leek. “The Unbearable Whiteness of Suicide-by-Mass-Murder.” The Huffington Post, December 23,
2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-kimmel/the-unbearable-whiteness-_2_b_2350931.html.
King, Shaun. “King: White Mass Shooters Are Never Called Terrorists.” NY Daily News, December 3, 2015, sec. Crime.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/king-white-mass-shooters-called-terrorists-article-1.2454528.
Kline, Peter. “On Not Reading Karl Barth Anymore: A White Male’s Perspective.” Faith and Theology, September 5, 2013.
http://www.faith-theology.com/2013/09/on-not-reading-karl-barth-anymore-white.html.
Klinken, Adriaan van. “Queer Love in a ‘Christian Nation’: Zambian Gay Men Negotiating Sexual and Religious Identities.”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83, no. 4 (December 1, 2015): 947–64. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfv073.
Kuchu Times. “About.” Kuchu Times: Our Voices, Our Stories, Our Lives. Accessed February 1, 2016.
https://www.kuchutimes.com/about/.
Latin American Bishops. “Medellín Document: Poverty of the Church.” Theology Library at Spring Hill College Department of
Theology, September 6, 1968. http://www.shc.edu/theolibrary/resources/medpov.htm.
Legum, Judd. “Before Shooting, Cruz Touted Endorsement From Activist Who Called For Execution Of Abortion Doctors.”
ThinkProgress, November 30, 2015. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/11/30/3726326/before-shooting-cruz-
touted-endorsement-from-activist-who-called-for-execution-of-abortion-doctors/.
Letsch, Constanze, Nadia Khomami, and agencies. “Turkey Terror Attack: Mourning after Scores Killed in Ankara Blasts.” The
Guardian, October 11, 2015, sec. World news. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/10/turkey-suicide-
bomb-killed-in-ankara.
Lorber, Judith. “‘Night to His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender.” In The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race,
Class, Gender, and Sexuality, edited by Tracy E. Ore, 54–65. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Lorde, Audre. “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference.” In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 114–23.
Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1984.
Lucal, Betsy. “What It Means to Be Gendered Me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System.” Gender and Society
13, no. 6 (December 1, 1999): 781–97.
Mark, Monica. “Nigeria’s Yan Daudu Face Persecution in Religious Revival.” The Guardian, June 10, 2013, sec. World news.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/10/nigeria-yan-daudu-persecution.
Marks, Loren. “Same-Sex Parenting and Children’s Outcomes: A Closer Examination of the American Psychological
Association’s Brief on Lesbian and Gay Parenting.” Social Science Research 41, no. 4 (July 2012): 735–51.
doi:doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.006.
Mathewes-Green, Frederica. “Why I Haven’t Spoken Out on Gay Marriage--till Now.” Frederica Mathewes-Green, April 22, 2015.
http://frederica.com/writings/why-i-havent-spoken-out-on-gay-marriage-till-now.html.
McClintock, Elizabeth. “Occupational Sex Composition and Gendered Housework Performance: Compensation or
Conventionality?” In Session 30: New Research on Gender and Housework, 62. San Diego, CA, 2015.
http://paa2015.princeton.edu/sessions/30.
Metz, Johann Baptist. “The Future in the Memory of Suffering.” In New Questions on God, edited by Johann Baptist Metz.
Concilium 76. New York, NY: Herder and Herder, 1972.
Miller, Eleanor M., Carrie Yang Costello, Ivy Kennelly, Sabine N. Merz, Judith Lorber, Barbara J. Risman, J. Richard Udry, and
Glenn Firebaugh. “Comments and Replies.” American Sociological Review 66, no. 4 (August 1, 2001): 592–621.
doi:10.2307/3088924.
Moss, Candida. “Intersexuality and God Through the Ages.” The Daily Beast, November 9, 2014.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/09/intersexuality-and-god-through-the-ages.html.
“Most Muslim Americans See No Justification for Violence.” Gallup.com. Accessed November 20, 2015.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/148763/Muslim-Americans-No-Justification-Violence.aspx.
Muder, Doug. “The Distress of the Privileged.” The Weekly Sift, September 10, 2012. http://weeklysift.com/2012/09/10/the-
distress-of-the-privileged/.
Mugisha, Frank. “Gay and Vilified in Uganda.” The New York Times, December 22, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/opinion/gay-and-vilified-in-uganda.html.
Mustanski, Brian S., Robert Garofalo, and Erin M. Emerson. “Mental Health Disorders, Psychological Distress, and Suicidality
in a Diverse Sample of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youths.” American Journal of Public Health 100, no. 12
(December 1, 2010): 2426–32. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2009.178319.
Nagel, Joane. Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Nanda, Serena. Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 2000.
New America. “Deadly Attacks Since 9/11.” The International Security Program, 2015.
http://securitydata.newamerica.net/extremists/deadly-attacks.html.
Nissinen, Martti. Homoeroticism in the Biblical World: A Historical Perspective. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2004.
Norris, Alyssa L., David K. Marcus, and Bradley A. Green. “Homosexuality as a Discrete Class.” Psychological Science, October 23,
2015, 0956797615598617. doi:10.1177/0956797615598617.
Not Alone. YouTube video. catholicvote, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6PPk2NOQXs.
Nuño, Stephen A., Paul Reyes, and Montoya. “Panel: GOP Debate Reflects Security Issues, Rubio and Cruz Clash.” NBC News,
December 16, 2015. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/panel-gop-debate-reflects-new-realities-rubio-cruz-clash-
n480816.
Onishi, Norimitsu. “U.S. Support of Gay Rights in Africa May Have Done More Harm Than Good.” The New York Times,
December 20, 2015, sec. Africa. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/world/africa/us-support-of-gay-rights-in-
africa-may-have-done-more-harm-than-good.html.
Pappas, Stephanie. “French Flags on Facebook: Does Social Media Support Really Matter?” LiveScience.com, November 18, 2015.
http://www.livescience.com/52837-french-flags-on-facebook-does-it-matter.html.
Phan, Peter C. “Method in Liberation Theologies.” Theological Studies 61, no. 1 (March 2000): 40.
Pieris, Aloysius. “The Option for the Poor and the Recovery of Christian Identity: Toward an Asian Theology of Religions
Dictated by the Poor.” In The Option for the Poor in Christian Theology, edited by Daniel G. Groody, 271–89. Notre Dame,
IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007.
Pope Benedict XVI. “Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI.” presented at the Inaugural Session of the Fifth General
Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, Conference Hall, Shrine of Aparecida, Aparecida,
Brazil, May 13, 2007. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2007/may/documents/hf_ben-
xvi_spe_20070513_conference-aparecida.html.
Pope John Paul II. Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Translated by Michael Waldstein. Boston, MA:
Pauline Books and Media, 2011.
Pope Paul VI, and Second Vatican Council. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World - Gaudium et Spes. La Santa Sede,
1965. http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-
et-spes_en.html.
Porter, Jean. “Natural Law as a Scriptural Concept: Theological Reflections on a Medieval Theme.” Theology Today 59, no. 2 (July
1, 2002): 226–43. doi:10.1177/004057360205900205.
Pyke, Karen D., and Denise L. Johnson. “Asian American Women and Racialized Femininities: ‘Doing’ Gender across Cultural
Worlds.” Gender and Society 17, no. 1 (February 1, 2003): 33–53.
Raley, Sara, and Suzanne Bianchi. “Sons, Daughters, and Family Processes: Does Gender of Children Matter?” Annual Review of
Sociology 32 (January 1, 2006): 401–21.
Ramachandra, Vinoth. Subverting Global Myths : Theology and the Public Issues Shaping Our World. Downers Grove, IL: IVP
Academic, 2008.
Rees, Janice. “On Not Reading Barth: My Measly Resistance.” Women in Theology, September 1, 2013.
http://womenintheology.org/2013/09/01/on-not-reading-barth-my-measly-resistance/.
Regnerus, Mark. “How Different Are the Adult Children of Parents Who Have Same-Sex Relationships? Findings from the
New Family Structures Study.” Social Science Research 41, no. 4 (July 2012): 752–70.
doi:doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.03.009.
Reilly, Ryan J. “Ted Cruz: Black Lives Matter ‘Literally’ Celebrates Dead Cops.” The Huffington Post, October 14, 2015, sec.
Politics. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-black-lives-matter_561ea191e4b0c5a1ce619a8f.
Reno, R. R. “Triumph of Desire.” First Thoughts, August 19, 2013.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/08/19/triumph-of-desire/.
Rippeyoung, Phyllis L. F., and Mary C. Noonan. “Is Breastfeeding Truly Cost Free? Income Consequences of Breastfeeding for
Women.” American Sociological Review 77, no. 2 (April 1, 2012): 244–67.
Risman, Barbara J. “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism.” Gender and Society 18, no. 4 (August 1, 2004):
429–50.
Rosenthal, Elisabeth. “Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare.” The New York Times, October 12, 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/12abortion.html.
Rutter, Virginia, and Pepper Schwartz. The Gender of Sexuality: Exploring Sexual Possibilities. 2nd edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011.
Saletan, William. “Does Contraception Reduce Abortions?” Slate, September 1, 2015.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/09/contraception_abortion_and_planne
d_parenthood_debate_long_acting_birth_control.single.html.
Salzman, Todd A., and Michael G. Lawler. The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology. Moral Traditions.
Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2008.
Scharen, Christian. “Experiencing the Body: Sexuality and Conflict in American Lutheranism.” In Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources
for Theological Reflection, edited by Marvin M. Ellison and Kelly Brown Douglas, 2nd edition., 34–47. Louisville, KY:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.
Schwarz, Jon. “A Short History of U.S. Bombing of Civilian Facilities.” The Intercept, October 7, 2015.
http://theintercept.com/2015/10/07/a-short-history-of-u-s-bombing-of-civilian-facilities/.
Siddiqui, Sabrina. “Republicans Reject Link between Anti-Abortion Rhetoric and Colorado Shooting.” The Guardian, November
29, 2015, sec. US news. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/29/colorado-springs-shooting-planned-
parenthood-mike-huckabee.
Smietana, Bob. “Meet the Filmmaker Exposing Planned Parenthood.” Christianity Today, July 30, 2015.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/july-web-only/meet-filmmaker-exposing-planned-parenthood.html.
Smit, D. J. “Barmen and Belhar in Conversation – a South African Perspective.” Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif 47,
no. 1&2 (June 2006). doi:10.17570/ngtt.2006.v47n1.a27.
Smith, Christian. “An Academic Auto-Da-Fé.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 23, 2012. http://chronicle.com/article/An-
Academic-Auto-da-F-/133107.
South African church leaders. “Challenge to the Church: A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa (The
Kairos Document),” 1985. http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/challenge-church-theological-comment-political-
crisis-south-africa-kairos-document-1985.
Stafford, Zach, and agencies. “Transgender Murders in US Have Nearly Doubled since Last Year, Activists Say.” The Guardian,
November 6, 2015, sec. Society. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/06/transgender-murders-double-
2015-united-states.
Stone, Rachel Marie. “Thanks, Birth Control!” Sojourners, November 10, 2015. https://sojo.net/articles/thanks-birth-control.
Sullins, D. Paul. “Emotional Problems among Children with Same-Sex Parents: Difference by Definition.” British Journal of
Education, Society & Behavioural Science 7, no. 2 (January 10, 2015): 99–120. doi:10.9734/BJESBS/2015/15823.
Sutton, Scott. “Report: U.S. Pregnancy Rate, Abortions Hit All-Time Low.” Chicago Sun-Times, December 11, 2015, sec. National
& World News. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/588932643.
Thorne, Barrie. “Boys and Girls Together ... But Mostly Apart: Gender Arrangements in Elementary School.” In Masculinities:
Interdisciplinary Readings, edited by Mark Hussey, 79–91. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Troyan, Mary. “After Attacks in Paris, Governors Refuse to Accept Syrian Refugees.” USA TODAY, November 16, 2015, sec.
Politics. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/11/16/alabama-refuses-syrian-refugees-paris-terror-
attack/75857924/.
Udry, J. Richard. “Biological Limits of Gender Construction.” American Sociological Review 65, no. 3 (June 1, 2000): 443–57.
doi:10.2307/2657466.
Uggen, Christopher, and Amy Blackstone. “Sexual Harassment as a Gendered Expression of Power.” American Sociological Review
69, no. 1 (February 1, 2004): 64–92.
Ullmann, Heidi, and Carlos Maldonado. “Differences in Unpaid Household Work between Men and Women: Recent Trends
for Latin America from Time Use Surveys.” In Session 30: New Research on Gender and Housework, 40. San Diego, CA,
2015. http://paa2015.princeton.edu/sessions/30.
Valenti, Jessica. “Violent Anti-Choice Rhetoric Must End, or Anti-Abortion Violence Never Will.” The Guardian, November 29,
2015, sec. Opinion. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/29/planned-parenthood-colorado-
springs-shooting-no-more-baby-parts.
VanDrunen, David. “Wisdom and the Natural Moral Order: The Contribution of Proverbs to a Christian Theology of Natural
Law.” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 33, no. 1 (2013): 153–68.
Wade, Lisa. “Children, Chores, and the Gender Pay Gap at Home.” Sociological Images, March 16, 2015.
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/03/16/children-chores-and-the-gender-pay-gap-at-home/.
Wallis, Jim. “WATCH: Survey Reveals a Startling Truth About White Christians.” Sojourners, January 14, 2016.
https://sojo.net/articles/watch-survey-reveals-startling-truth-about-white-christians.
Webb, William J. Slaves, Women & Homosexuals : Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity
Press, 2001.
West, Candace, and Sarah Fenstermaker. “Doing Difference.” Gender and Society 9, no. 1 (February 1, 1995): 8–37.
———. “Reply: (Re)Doing Difference.” Gender and Society 9, no. 4 (August 1, 1995): 506–13.
West, Candace, and Don H. Zimmerman. “Doing Gender.” Gender & Society 1, no. 2 (June 1, 1987): 125–51.
doi:10.1177/0891243287001002002.
Whelan, Patrick. “Abortion Rates and Universal Health Care.” New England Journal of Medicine 362, no. 13 (April 1, 2010): e45.
doi:10.1056/NEJMp1002985.
Wikipedia. “LGBT Rights by Country or Territory.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, January 30, 2016.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory&oldid=702499370.
Williams, Roger Ross. God Loves Uganda. Documentary. Full Credit Productions, 2013. http://www.godlovesuganda.com/.
Worthen, Molly. “Donald Trump and the Rise of the Moral Minority.” The New York Times, September 26, 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/opinion/sunday/donald-trump-and-the-rise-of-the-moral-minority.html.

Gods Memory of Suffering A Troubling and

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Gods Memory of Suffering A Troubling and

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

God’s Memory of Suffering: A Troubling and Rejuvenating Challenge to Heteronormative

Theology and Heterosexual Theologians

those resisting that suffering.

My contextual theological method: counter-cultural, liberation-inspired

As Stephan Bevans—among others—explains, all theology is implicitly or explicitly contextual.2 To remain

my dominant perspective, the most suitable mode of contextualization is a self-critical counter-cultural

3 Ibid., 21–27, 60, 118–119, 125, 175n.

understanding context and counter-culturally resisting sin and ideology in context.11

Theology guiding my analysis: preferential memory of poor persons’ suffering

suggests counter-cultural resistance to dominant systems requires politics inspired by memory of

10 Aquinas, ST, pt. I, Q. 1, Arts. 5–7.

heavily on Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt School critical theorists.

American terrorists as mentally ill outliers.20

and people responsible for oppression.

Suffering caused by hetero-patriarchal gender systems: social-scientific insights

disproportionately targeted in violent attacks—at least 22 gender-non-conforming Americans were

Option for the Poor and the Recovery of Christian Identity.”

wrong, and curtail sexual pleasure and fertility in adulthood.32

Gender Desire, Religion, and Homophobia,” 887.

the term “kuchu.”

relate to gendered expectations about childrearing and housework responsibility in heterosexual

increasingly romanticized gender, seeing it as expressing men’s and women’s equal-and-opposite,

of complementarianism—the social construct of binary, essentialist, opposite gender identities—remains

increasing acceptance of homosexuality may contribute to wider gender-based justice, as patriarchal

masculinity and homophobia are linked.62

Nanda, Gender Diversity, 2–3, 5.

heteronormative theology, and to heterosexual theologians seeking to be self-critically counter-cultural.

preference to the oppressed in this discernment.

63 Fullam, “‘Gender Theory,’ Nuclear War, and the Nazis.”

family, or church, before those losing privilege and discrimination rights.70

struggles, assisting only in ways that are useful and wanted.75

conference’s theme, it explores how preferential memory of suffering challenges heteronormative

You might also like