It's been a while since Charles and I have updated. Never to fear; I am back once more to enlighten you as to the goings-on of grad school (aren't you lucky?). My schedule this semester is packed. By "packed," I mean pretty much the same as always except streeetched out. Yes, I did a terrible job scheduling classes. I have 1-2 hour gaps between classes and because grad students are not allowed to live on campus, I do not have time to go home. Nor do I have enough time to get anything constructive accomplished.
Speaking of "constructive," one of my classes this semester is Constructive Christian Theology I. This class is supposed to get us acquainted with the nuts and bolts of theology, other theologies throughout the church's history, and provide us with the theological tools we need to develop theologies of our own. We have two lectures a week (Monday and Wednesday), a colloquy session on Friday, and we've been asked to form a reading group outside of class just because we don't have enough time to discuss the readings during lecture.
I'm also taking a class on Mondays and Wednesdays entitled Religion and Social Movements. We study the role of religion in (guess what?) social movements--both the role religion can play as an antagonizing factor but also how religion provides the impetus to fight for social justice. A theology we've been reading in Constructive that I'm particularly in love with is known as liberation theology. In it, Jesus is seen as a liberator and provides the model we must follow to free our brothers and sisters from oppression.
Another class: Pastoral Care and Theology. I am not a touchy-feely person. Hopefully this class will get me in touch with the warm fuzzies needed to be a good listener/caregiver. I'm looking especially forward to one of the reads in the class: Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality by Jack Rogers. Rogers came to Drury campus a couple of years ago (I believe either via ALLIES or the religion department). He even mentions the speech he gave, the amazing Dr. Peter Browning and my good pal Jolie Cave (who was vice-president of ALLIES at the time) in the foreword.
Speaking of ALLIES, my final class this semester is my seminar on ministry and field education. All students in this seminar are enrolled in some kind of field education work. Most are in ecclesial settings, but some of us (like myself) are working in more secular environments. I am serving as divinity intern for the K.C. Potter Center for LGBTQI life on the Vanderbilt campus. I will act as a religious resource to students, faculty and staff and hopefully learn just as much from them as they learn from me. So far, I am acting as the KCPC's liaison for GABLE (the divinity school's gay-straight alliance), the divinity school's Office of Women's Concerns, and the Human Rights Campaign on the Vanderbilt campus. I have also been enlisted in organizing the visit of Reverend Mel White, an openly gay pastor who formerly ghost-wrote for Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. White is the author of Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America and Religion Gone Bad. His experiences in trying to reject his homosexuality due to his belief that it was "sinful" culminated in the proverbial dark night of the soul in which White reconciled his sexual and spiritual identities. He co-founded Soulforce, an organization emphasizing nonviolence that campaigns for LGBTQI rights and the freedom from political and religious persecution.
Needless to say, this semester will be busy and stressful; however, I have high hopes. I think these experiences will all be enriching, maybe even transformative, and I think that if I do survive the semester, I will come out all the better for them.
