Patrick S. Cheng - Rainbow Theology: Bridging Race, Sexuality, and Spirit

ADVANCE PRAISE forRainbow Theology

This is a landmark book. It not only brings to the center of theological reflection the silenced but vibrant voices of LGBTIQ persons of color, but it charts ground-breaking directions for religious thought, church practices, and social and political analysis. This book is innovative, passionate, and challenging. With his rainbow theology Patrick Cheng provides for us piercing insights into God, the world, and ourselves that have been hidden from us because of our monochromatic views of the world and God. It is a must read for anyone committed to a more just world.

Kelly Brown Douglas, Goucher College

Author of Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective

With characteristic grace, Cheng not only turns the complex categories of race and sexuality into accessible speech, he links them to spirit without missing a beat. Tracing commonalities while deeply respecting differences, he challenges readers to allow queer of color lived experiences of multiplicity, middle spaces, and mediation to form a more viable framework for constructive theology.

Laurel C. Schneider, Vanderbilt University

Author of Beyond Monotheism: A Theology of Multiplicity

Patrick Cheng is one of the first theologians to substantively engage queer of color critique, thus fundamentally challenging the parameters of not only queer theology, but theology as a whole. This amazing book combines reader accessibility with theoretical sophistication. Cheng does not homogenize queer of color theology, but provides a comprehensive analysis of its multiple strands. The book is truly groundbreaking.

Andrea Smith, University of California, Riverside

Author of Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances

In a world dominated by a binary, either-or, monochromatic approach to diversity, Rainbow Theology challenges us to recover and reclaim a theological framework that has been there from the beginning of Christianity a place where a multiplicity of experiences and identities are held in creative tension. A place where we can create a truly inclusive beloved community of Christ.

Eric H.F. Law, Kaleidoscope Institute

Author of Holy Currencies: Six Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries

RAINBOW THEOLOGY

Bridging Race, Sexuality, and Spirit

PATRICK S. CHENG

Copyright 2013 by Patrick S. Cheng

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cheng, Patrick S.

Rainbow theology : bridging race, sexuality, and spirit / Patrick S. Cheng.
pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59627-241-5 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-59627-242-2 (ebook) 1. Church and minorities. 2. Homosexuality--Religious aspects--Christianity. 3. Multiculturalism--Religious aspects--Christianity. 4. Ethnicity--Religious aspects--Christianity 5. Race--Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title.

BV639.M56C44 2013
230.08--dc23

2013000911

Cover design by Laurie Klein Westhafer
Typeset by Denise Hoff

Seabury Books
445 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10016

www.churchpublishing.org

An imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated

To queer of color theologians,
past, present, and future.

T his book would not have been possible without the support of the Episcopal Divinity School community, including my faculty colleagues Angela Bauer-Levesque, Stephen Burns, Christopher Duraisingh, Suzanne Ehly, Miriam Gelfer, Bill Kondrath, Joan Martin, Kwok Pui-lan, Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, Ed Rodman, Susie Snyder, Fredrica Harris Thompsett, Larry Wills, and Gale Yee. Special thanks goes to the EDS and Sherrill Library staff, especially Chris Carr, Aura Fluett, Jamie Glass, Scott Kinkade, Jeffrey Perkins, and Stephanie Nelson.

I am grateful to those who have commented on the draft manuscript in whole or in part, including Darren Arquero, Mike Campos, Vincent Cervantes, Hugo Crdova Quero, Thomas Eoyang, Joe Goh, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Pamela Lightsey, Catherine Owens, Andy Smith, Lai Shan Yip, and Nikki Young. I am also grateful to those people who have given me feedback about the ideas in this book, including individuals from the following communities: Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry; Chicago Theological Seminary; Episcopal Divinity School; Human Rights Campaign Summer Institute; Pacific School of Religion; Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York; Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning; and Wellesley College. Of course, all errors in the book are my responsibility alone.

During the writing of this book, I have been sustained by my friends in the following communities: American Academy of Religion Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Group; American Academy of Religion Committee on the Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession; American Academy of Religion Gay Men and Religion Group; Boston Queer Theology Forum; Christ Church Cambridge; Emerging Queer Asian Religion Scholars; Emmanuel Church in the City of Boston; Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts; Metropolitan Community Churches Theologies Team; National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance; Queer Asian Spirit; and Society of Christian Ethics. I am grateful for a 2012 summer fellowship awarded by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning that partially funded my work on this book.

In addition to the persons and communities mentioned above, I am grateful for the friendship, support, and inspiration of the following queer of color theologians, religion scholars, and allies: Victor Anderson, Margaret Aymer Oget, Rudy Busto, Monica Coleman, James Cone, Shawn Copeland, Miguel De La Torre, Aman De Sondy, Kelly Brown Douglas, Orlando Espn, Ibrahim Abdurrahman Farajaj, Horace Griffin, Jen Harvey, Rene Hill, Zayn Kassam, Eric Law, Benny Liew, Leng Lim, Irene Monroe, Su Pak, Laurel Schneider, Roger Sneed, Emilie Townes, and Traci West. I am also thankful for the ongoing friendship and wisdom of Faith Cantor, Kitt Cherry, Jessica Greenleaf, Kim Leary, Mary McKinney, Christine Pao, Amy Revell, Joe Robinson, Tom Shaw, Bob Shore-Goss, Geoffrey Tristram, Renee Ward, and Pam Werntz.

As always, I am grateful to the wonderful folks at Seabury Books, including my editor, Davis Perkins, and his colleagues Nancy Bryan, Mark Dazzo, Bill Falvey, Ryan Masteller, Deirdre Morrissey, Lillian Ort, Lorraine Simonello, and Laurie Westhafer.

I give thanks to my family, including Deanna Cheng, Andrew Cheng, Abi Karlin-Resnick, Jordan Cheng, and Noah Cheng. Last but not least, I could not have written this booklet alone pursued my vocation as a theologian, seminary professor, and ordained ministerwithout the steadfast love and support of my husband, Michael Boothroyd, and our dog, Chartres.

W hen I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s and 80s, I looked forward each year to the annual network television broadcast of The Wizard of Oz. My favorite part of the movie was when it transitioned from black and white to dazzling Technicolor. The first part of the movie, when Dorothy and Toto are in Kansas, was shot in black and white. After Dorothy and Toto are transported over the rainbow, however, they step out of their monochromatic house into the multicolored hues of Munchkinland. Dorothy is greeted by Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, and Glinda urges the Munchkins to come out, come out, wherever you are.