The Community United Church of Christ hosted Queering Faith 8 on Friday night, providing an affirming space for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The event is part of a series that invites LGBTQ+ writers, artists and activists to share how they practice their faith through a queer lens. This year’s guest speaker, Rev. Malcolm Himschoot, delivered a keynote address and read excerpts from his upcoming book, “Reading Secrets: A Queer Inheritance of Life and Scripture.”
As Himschoot began his address, he acknowledged the impacts of the current political climate on transgender people.
“In these times, it seems like trans folks are getting an extra-heavy dose of the carbonate of hatred, all wrapped up in a bigger project,” Himschoot said. “So if we’re paying attention, we know these are dire times, and we know that what we do in response is critical.”
Himschoot has lived as a proud transgender man for more than 20 years. He was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Christ in 2005, the same year the church co-produced the documentary film “Call Me Malcolm” about his transition.
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While the documentary had a basic message about transgender people’s existence, Himschoot now seeks to take that further.
“What I want to do with this speaking circuit related to launching my book is really evoke the conversation that’s at the intersection of spirituality for all people … and journeys of harm and healing that can transform not just ourselves, but all of society,” Himschoot said.
Himschoot read from small sections of his writing, conversing with the ghost of his father through the Bibles he inherited from him. The cuts between powerful Bible verses and childhood memories examined his and his father’s experiences with faith and identity.
Himschoot grew up with a father who had authoritarian beliefs about gender and sexuality. His fundamentalist interpretation of scripture led to a strained father-son relationship that never fully healed before he died in 2017.
“Interpretation is always a very human endeavor, and it’s influenced by who you’re with and what kinds of lives people lead,” Himschoot said. “There was a template laid down where all kinds of things led to death and doom and just self-hatred. My father, for instance, never escaped those templates.”
Himschoot looks forward to what his book can do for others like him, especially in today’s polarizing political climate.
“Everything about this political moment is designed to divide us,” Himschoot said. “And if my book is an alternative, it’s because I’m taking a symbol that my father and I had in common, the same Bible he read and I read.”
Pastor Nicole Havelka, director of Campus and Youth Ministries, spoke about the theological beliefs of UCC and what they aim to achieve with events like these.
“I think what this particular church does is really tries to be a safe haven and a place of reconciliation and liberation for people in the LGBTQ+ community,” Havelka said. “Knowing that many of those people have had negative and in some cases really harmful experiences of churches that were not only not welcoming of them and their identities, but may have actively sought to change (them is part of it).”
This year, it was particularly important they highlight a transgender voice of faith, given that “trans lives are really under attack,” as Havelka said.
For D.J. Thomas, senior in LAS, Queering Faith provided an opportunity to connect with another transgender person in a similar situation to herself.
“There’s always people out there trying to do the right thing, and this Christian tradition of defending the poor, downtrodden, the marginalized — I think that’s what really makes the Christian faith special,” Thomas said. “I want to be a part of that. The church helps my own sanity, and I wish to perpetuate that. I wish to bring a little more sanity to the world.”
As people left the church, student volunteers handed out stickers emblazoned with the words “You are loved.”
“I’m wondering if, as a way of taking this experience out into the world, you might take a sticker or two and pass that along to someone you notice needs it,” Havelka said.
For those who would like to explore queer theology further, the Community UCC will be hosting a “Queering the Bible” study from 3-4 p.m. at the University YMCA on Mondays starting Feb. 18.
