Queer PoliFaith

Welcome to today's episode of Queer PoliFaith. Today, I decided to just talk about some things I have seen that disturb me that we need to deal with, particularly on the political left. To sum it up, I make three points: Words mean things Obsession with ideological purity is a very bad thing We need to be willing to take what we can get now and come back for more later I reference the episodes wit...

Welcome back to season 3 of Queer PoliFaith! We start off with a discussion about the future of the podcast. Then we start talking about the theme of the season: elections. We discuss the differences between primary and general elections and types of primary elections (including correcting a couple of errors I made on my  voting episode !). I then talk about the history of political parties in the...

Welcome to this episode of Queer PoliFaith. Today, we will be talking about the declaration Fiducia Supplicans put out by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith from the Roman Catholic Church. There have been a lot of articles and people saying that this is a massive and good thing or that it is the first step for the church to become fully welcoming for queer people. Unfortunately, these are...

Today, we have Part 2 of my conversation with Billie Hoard about fascism and Christian Nationalism. We bring queerness into the conversation and talk about how queerness and fascism use each other, how fascism and fascistic ideas have roots in the early US (and even before), fascism in different countries, how the Weimar Republic was friendly to queer people, and there are pop culture references t...

Today's episode is part 1 of an interview with Billie Hoard about fascism and Christian Nationalism in the United States. We talked about how and why they are intertwined, pick up on some threads from her first interview, and more. Our next episode will be part 2 of the interview. After that episode the podcast will be going on an indefinite hiatus until I figure out how to keep the podcast going....

Welcome to today's episode of Queer PoliFaith. Today we are talking all about voting. We talk about why it's important to vote, some myths around voting, some ways votes are suppressed, the importance of being an informed voter, and more. This really is an important topic and I hope you get a lot out of this. Our next episode will be an interview with Billie about fascism and Christian Nationalism...

Today history was made when Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the office of Speaker of the House of Representatives. The reason he was ousted was the Demorcats voted as a bloc for the motion. I think that this was a massive tactical blunder. In this episode, I talk about how we got here and why I think the Democrats vote was a mistake.  Our next episode, on October 12, will be about the importance of...

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Queer PoliFaith. I am calling this a Grabbag episode because I talk about a few different topics, all of which are important, but none of which would make a whole episode alone. So we are hitting a few things in one fell swoop. First up, we have a personal update followed by an update about the podcast and what will happen moving forward. Then we talk ab...

Today's episode is an interview with Billie Hoard. Billie is a trans woman, wife, and father. She is a high school teacher, an author, and something of an Anabaptist radical. A consummate generalist, she holds an MA in the liberal arts from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland and she writes on topics ranging from fairy tales and C.S. Lewis to Evangelical deconstruction, queer theology, the a...

Today, I am very proud to share my conversation with Jeff P. Crim about how churches and cishet pastors can support and wirk with marginalized people. It is a companion to the interview I had with Jenny a few months ago.  Jeff is a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA, a Hospital chaplain after 12 years as a pastor at the same parish (had been a pastor for 7 years before that), and has enter...

In today's episode, we will be talking about  Groff v. DeJoy , a case decided in 2023 that dealt with the threshold for employers to achieve while providing accomadations for their employees' religion. Since this decision was short and not particularly meaty (29 pages in total), I also decided to talk about how the current court has damaged the separation of the wall between church and state which...

Today's episode is about the 2023 decision  303 Creative v. Elenis , a case out of Colorado where a website designer claimed that she wanted to branch out into wedding announcements but that the wanted to post a notice that she wouldn't work with same-sex couples since marriage is (according to her religion) "between one man and one woman". We talk about how the case itself is narrow, but the impl...

Welcome to today's episode of Queer PoliFaith. Today we will talk about some technical aspects to the interviews, wrap-up the interviews in general, give some fun stats about the interviews (the most listened to episode blew the others out of the water in terms of numbers of downloads), and then I talk about the anti-trans laws that have been sweeping the country. Here is a link to the legislative...

This is a bonus episode of Queer PoliFaith. In this episode, I have decided to share the sermon I gave at my church for our Pride Prayer Service. In addition to the sermon, you will hear the reading the sermon was based on (Matthew 25: 31-46) as well as a letter that Bishop Leila Ortiz, the bishop of the Metro DC Synod of the ELCA, released regarding the wave of anti-transgender and anti-queer leg...

Today's episode is an interview with a friend of mine named Jenny. Jenny is an ELCA Seminarian, writer, public theologian, Awen of Stories (wait until you hear this one explained! it's fascinating!), Enneagram 2, Follower of the Way, and Nonbinary trans woman whose pronouns are She/Ella (pronounced eh-yah, Spanish for "she")/They. Jenny is a friend who I met through QueerTheology.com . We talk abo...

Today's episode is an interview with Ross Murray, a Vice President at the GLAAD Media Institute, which provides activist, spokesperson, and media engagement training and education for LGBTQ and allied community members, the media industry and advocacy organizations desiring to deepen their media impact. Ross uses the best practices perfected by GLAAD to train a new generation of advocates in order...

Today's episode is the final episode in our series interviewing activists and how faith affects their activism. Today's guests are Brian G, Murphy and Fr. Shannon TL Kearns of queertheology.com and hosts of the Queer Theology podcast. Brian and Fr. Shay met in New York in one of those friend of a friend serendipitous moments. Through a couple years of Skype conversations, text messaging, and perso...

Today, we have an interview with independent journalist and trans activist Erin Reed. Erin reports on legislation across the United States that affects queer and trans people. In this conversation we talk about her work, what keeps her grounded, and so much more. Her TikToks and tweets are very informative and well worth the follow. You can follow Erin on TikTok or Twitter (@erininthemorn) or on I...

Today, we have an interview with Cynthia Vacca Davis, author of Intersexion: A Story of Faith, Identity, and Authenticity . We talk about the book, why she wrote it, and how her faith journey has impacted and been impacted by the book and here experiences. This was a really fun interview and we both really enjoyed ourselves. I really hope that you'll enjoy it too. Cynthia is on Instagram (@cynthia...

Tonight, we have a special epsiode about what President Biden should do when a court makes an illegitimate decision, as happened last week in Texas. I have been making this argument for some time (as have others) and it is nice to see more people realizing that something has to be done. We talk about how the courts get their power, why there is a legitimacy crisis, what the President should do, an...

Today, we have an interview with Lee Blinder. Lee   Blinder  (they/them) is the executive director of Trans Maryland, and a co-founder of the Maryland Trans Resilience Conference.  Lee  is an Maryland State LGBTQ+ Commissioner, and they sit on LGBTQIA+ advisory boards around the state. They are an openly nonbinary transgender and queer Marylander. They facilitate transgender 101 and gender affirmi...

In our seccond interview episode, we are talking with Robin Lombard about her work with youth, how we can help youth, the effect people coming out can have on youth (including people beiong thrown out of the closet), and much more. Robin (she/her) works with the MoCo Pride Center and Montgomery Country Public Schools. She visits GSAs in Montgomery County, helps run the Pride Prom, maintains a wide...

Today we have the first interview in a series of interviews with activists about how their faith has influenced their activism. Today's guest is Mycroft Masada (they/them). Mycroft is a nonbinary trans and queer Jewish and interfaith leader with more than 30 years of experience, particularly called to pursue LGBTQ+, fat and illness/disability justice and liberation.  Mycroft is a Fat Torah board m...

Today we talk more about how faith and politics affect each other, focusing mainly on the more progressive form of Christianity and left-wing politics. We do some compare and contrast with more conservative forms of Christianity and also talk about a few Biblical stories. I also explain why the podcast focuses more on Christianity than other religions. In two weeks, we'll start our series of inter...

Welcome back to season 2 of Queer PoliFaith! I am really excited to be back and hope you enjoy the show as it evolves. Today, I talk a little about how the show came to be and what to expect from Season 2 up until June. Then, we talk about how right-wing politics and faith have affected each other for centuries and how that has morphed into a merging of the two where they are inseparable from each...