I'm really pleased to bring you another interview. My guest today is Mae Forest Barnes, someone I've gotten to know remotely via social media for the last year or so. But as I watched her comment and interact, one thing really stuck out: she made various comments about queer theology. That was an area I knew nothing about, but had a growing sense that I needed to understand.
I grew up with the understanding that any kind of what I call "adjective theology" was very bad: feminist, Black, Hispanic, Catholic... there was only one real theology and of course all the others were wrong. And of course as an evangelical, anything related gay or lesbian or transgender was definitely evil in my view. So "queer theology" was doubly bad.
But now that I'm affirming, since 2022, and having increasingly encountered discussions of those other theologies - like the book I just finished reading about Black theology - I realized that there might actually be something of real value in queer theology, if I could get around my old evangelical ideas about it.
So when I saw what Mae was talking about, I realized that I would love to ask her about these ideas, and see what she had to say. I recognize, of course, that there are many people with many different views about theology of any kind, and I'm just asking one person here, but I still figured I'd learn a lot, and I certainly did in this conversation.
Enjoy!
