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The greater acceptance and political support of the LGBTQ community is a source of growth as well as change in liberal religious groups, according to two reports. In the Jewish magazine Tablet (June 26), Erica Silverman reports that Reform Judaism has seen a significant increase in members and conversions to Judaism, especially in urban areas. In a trend accelerated by the pandemic, a significant number of these converts belong to the LGBTQ community. According to Rabbi Eli Freedman, “Judaism is becoming increasingly attractive to those seeking a new spiritual home at a time when people can transition between identities like never before—including religion and gender.” The Reform community was active in receiving seekers online during the pandemic, with introduction to Judaism classes run on Zoom. “Online access was a lower barrier of entry for many and a safer way to begin to explore Judaism, without physically entering a synagogue. Being more inclusive—around questions of who is Jewish, as well as a diversity of family structures and gender identities—has helped attract people to the Reform community in particular,” Silverman writes. There are no national figures on conversions recorded in Reform Judaism apart from individual congregations.
Various Jewish LGBTQ advocacy and activist organizations have also mushroomed. Keshet, an advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ equality, has grown extensively since 2019, growing from four to six regions. About 700 synagogues, including about 300 rabbis from across denominations, have participated in Keshet programs and training over the last five years. Silverman writes that “Some converts say once they had explored their own sexuality or gender identity, exploring their faith became much easier. Transitioning connects to a spiritual conversion, as well.” One synagogue member and convert from Lutheranism, who recently had a “nonbinary” wedding, said that Reform Judaism allows “queer and trans people to create their own rituals within the Jewish framework and life cycle.” The national Reform rabbinical organization, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, with about 2,200 members, “runs year-round programming supporting the LGBTQ+ community and clergy, such as training for inclusive worship life cycle events, like gender-affirmation ceremonies.” Silverman notes that many Reform Jews “prefer to attend services without membership, and may attend virtually, even post-pandemic, making geographic limitations less of a barrier.”
Meanwhile, progressive Christian churches are reported to be moving beyond “gay rights, even beyond transgender acceptance, and venturing into the realm of ‘queer theology.’ Rather than merely settling for the acceptance of gender-nonconforming people within existing marital norms and social expectations, queer theology questions heterosexual assumptions and binary gender norms as limiting, oppressive and anti-biblical, and centers queerness as the redemptive message of Christianity,” reports John Murawski in Real Clear Investigations (June 13). While these theories are not new in academia and theological education, they are just now filtering into congregational life. Murawski writes that “queer theology is a mature, established theological subject of scholarship now in its third decade and armed with well-honed arguments that queerness is grounded in biblical texts and classic commentaries.” Ellen Armour of Vanderbilt Divinity School said that “Most newly minted ministers coming out of mainline divinity schools today have some exposure to queer theology, either through taking a queer course, reading queer authors in other courses, or through conversations with queer students and queer professors,” Murawski reports.
Courses that are offered at the leading progressive divinity schools have a congregational emphasis, such as Harvard Divinity School’s spring 2023 catalog listing “Queering Congregations: Contextual Approaches for Dismantling Heteronormativity.” Murawski writes that one emerging area that shows the potential for queer theology to be put into practice in congregational life is “polyamory,” which refers to non-monogamous relationships involving three or more people. “It’s already an emerging legal and moral issue and a potential culture war, now that some municipalities and states are beginning to pass anti-discrimination laws that expand parenting rights and housing rights to multi-partner unions.” The Metropolitan Community Church denomination, formed in 1968 and ministering to gay and lesbian congregants, now offers itself as a “spiritual home” to polyamorous unions.
(Tablet, https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/new-spiritual-home-lgbtq-converts-reform-judaism; Real Clear Investigations, https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/06/13/queering_jesus_how_its_going_mainstream
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