Reading the Bible Through Queer Eyes

The essential introduction or reconnection to the Bible for queer readers from the co-founders of QueerTheology.com. “As we dove back into the story of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, trying to look at it with fresh eyes, I realized I had visited the Garden of Eden before. It was as if, like Saul, the scales had fallen off my eyes and suddenly I could see what had been there all along. The Bible has always been queer.” When Brian Murphy and Shannon L. Kearns created Queer Theology, the longest-running LGBTQ+ Christian podcast and the online community QueerTheology.com, they defined a new genre in talking about LGBTQ+ identity and faith that has now reached more than 3 million people in over 200 countries across the world and on every continent. Reading the Bible through Queer Eyes encompasses all they’ve learned; it’s the resource they wish they had as they reconciled their faith with their identities. It looks for queerness in sacred Scripture not for the sake of representation, but with an eye toward liberation for all marginalized people. These readings anchored in the queer and trans experience make familiar Bible stories come to new life, offering powerful and liberatory insights that will change the way readers engage their bodies, their sexuality, and the world in their faith. A few examples of the inspiring multitudes contained in this book: discovering a new gay Garden of Eden in a suburban park; a connection between Palm Sunday and ACT-UP AIDS activism; queer bodies offered as living sacrifices and holy worship through activism, sex, and community care; understanding divine covenant through a lens of kink; and the story of Doubting Thomas as a reminder of the sacredness of transgender scars. With more and more people coming out, questioning binaries and boundaries, and searching for answers, Reading the Bible through Queer Eyes provides companionship along the way and to encourage people to live out their faith in public and for the transforming of themselves and the world.