"Coming Out Theology": Is It Necessary for Pagans?

April 07, 2011 by P. Sufenas Virius Lupus

Continued from Page 3

It is an entirely other conversation to pursue the issue, of course, but I note it here not only because it is amusing, but because I think it highlights something that often gets lost when queer theology ends up just being coming out theology: it becomes too much about one's self, and not enough about all of the other wonderful things and wonderful beings that there are to be encountered in being queer. Any queer theology that doesn't fully deal with the reality of "shagging blokes/birds," as it were, does not go beyond coming out theology enough. But, as our esteemed chair would have preferred it, can one really be serious about who one shags before being serious about what that means for one's overall identity? It's a difficult balance to maintain, but any efforts toward doing so are positive, in my view.

We, as modern Pagan practitioners who are queer, and those who are also queer-supportive and queer allies, can do as much as possible to make our communities welcoming and affirming so that people from outside of modern Pagan religions can find acceptance there, and individual modern Pagan practitioners can also feel comfortable within their religion with having their sexual orientations known, accepted, and treated with respect. While there is a great deal more to be done in queer theology than only this, having this basis in a solid coming out theology for modern Pagan religions would be a very good starting place.

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4/7/2011 4:00:00 AM

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About P. Sufenas Virius Lupus

P. Sufenas Virius Lupus is a metagender and a founding member of the Ekklesía Antínoou (a queer, Graeco-Roman-Egyptian syncretist reconstructionist polytheist religious group dedicated to Antinous, the deified lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and other related gods and divine figures). E is a contributing member of Neos Alexandria and a Celtic Reconstructionist pagan in the filidecht and gentlidecht traditions. Follow Lupus' work on the Aedicula Antinoi blog.

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