Outing the Bible: the new queer "theologians".

Berkeley, Cal. -- The front cover of the February 11-17, 2004, issue of a paper called the East Bay Express had a huge picture of Jesus with the headline, "Outing the Bible: The New Queer Theologians Don't Need Your Approval," by Malcom Gay. His article began,

"One thing is clear: 2003 was without a doubt the Year of the Queer. The year's crowning moment came on November 2, 2003, when the Episcopal Church ordained Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop.... But this didn't appear out of thin air. Its intellectual and physical roots have been grating just beneath the surface for years. In seminaries across the country, at both the parish level and within whole dioceses, homosexuals have been preaching, studying, and remaining sexually active.... 'What's the difference between a Jesuit rec room and a gay bar?' asks former Jesuit Robert Goss, who said his sexual experiences at bathhouses mirrored his early days at Harvard Divinity School. Answer: 'Only the location.' {Goss believes that} Christianity is changing, and [that) nowhere is this change more apparent than at Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union."

The lengthy article is described as mostly about the "Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry" at the GTU, whose "mission," according to the article, "is to advance the acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in communities of faith" (Crux News, June 17, 2004).