By Leland Spencer
It's been several months since my friend Joy Watts gave me a copy of Voices from Kingdom by Beverly Cole. Now that I'm done with graduate school for the summer, I finally had a chance to pick up the book, and once I did, I couldn't put it down. Herein, I will provide a brief overview of the book, describe what I believe to be the book's strengths, and then talk about my few reservations.
Overview: Cole's first book, Cleaning Out Closets, tells the story of her discovery that her son was gay. As she worked on that book, she realized that interviews are a great way to hear people's stories, so she decided to interview several United Methodists who were somehow affected by the church's position on human sexuality. Bishops, laity, clergy, individuals, and couples are all included in the book.
Here's what I liked about the book:
1. Stories! If you know me, you know I love people, and I especially love people's stories. I consider myself someone who is rooted in narrative, so I really appreciate the book's focus on hearing each person or each couple's story. Cole introduces each interview briefly, and then she reproduces each interview transcript to allow each person in the book to tell her or his own story. As I have said elsewhere, I think the focus our movement has on storytelling is healthy because stories create such a profound opportunity for hearts and minds to change. These stories will move you, so read the book with a pen in hand and a box of tissues within reach.
2. Scriptures! As a gay Christian, one of my favorite things to talk about is the Bible. People are sometimes surprised to hear me allude to or reference a Bible passage since the assumption exists that progressive Christians have a low view of the Bible. I reject that view and find the Bible beautifully liberating in many ways. That is why I am thrilled that Cole asks all of the people she interviews--whether LGB or ally--if they have favorite scriptures. It's great to hear LGB Christians and allies talking about the Bible, and I think you'll notice some interesting themes about the kinds of passages people select.
3. Background. Another question Cole asks each person is what that person's faith background is and whether that person can recall hearing anti-gay messages from the pulpit in her or his home church. Interestingly, very few people report hearing explicit anti-gay preaching in their home churches, yet almost all of them say they just knew it was wrong to be gay and impossible to be both gay and Christian. As someone who studies communication, I'm fascinated by the power of religious rhetoric. Even when people never heard their pastors condemning LGB people, they still had a sense that the church did not approve. Could that mean the condemnatory voices are few in number but great in volume and strength? It at least invites a pause for thought.
4. Issues. If you carefully juxtapose some bits of the interviews, you'll notice that the book actually offers a few perspectives on some issues that are controversial within the reconciling movement. Cole asks several people about the "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors" campaign, and people react to that very differently (some love it, some hate it, some are neutral, and all provide great reasons for their responses). A few of the interviewees also take on the issue of whether congregations should or need to adopt reconciling statements and officially align themselves with the movement, and the perspectives offered within the book seem to jive with the conversations I've heard about that topic in my personal experience. Most interesting, I think, is comparing Sue Laurie's and Greg Dell's positions on whether the church should consider dividing ("an amicable split"). Cole does not frame any of these issues as debates, but for a reader interested in a variety of perspectives on these issues, the arguments aren't difficult to find and piece together.
As wonderful and powerful as the book is, I would be remiss if I did not point out two serious drawbacks and one not-as-serious nuisance:
1. Sexist language. I'm not a fan of the word "Kingdom," and although Cole defends her use of the term in the last chapter of the book, I'm not convinced that a patriarchal word with all kinds of oppressive entailments is necessary, especially in the book's title. In fact, without a strong recommendation from such a trusted friend, I probably would not have read the book, simply based on the sexist title. I was also distracted in the preface to the book by Cole's use of gendered pronouns to refer to the divine, and I'm actually surprised her publisher let her get away with that. Finally, I regret that in the three chapters about heterosexual couples, Cole puts the man's name first every time (i.e., Fritz and Etta Mae, Jerry and Maudell, Bruce and Virginia). There's no excuse for that.
2. Limited scope. You may have noticed that throughout this review, I have used the acronym LGB when referring to the people interviewed. I left out the T and Q intentionally because the book only includes stories from people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or straight allies. Over and over again, the movement for LGBT rights (generally, and within the church) finds itself being less inclusive than it hopes to be, and this book is an unfortunate example of that.
3. Punctuation? I get annoyed when my undergraduate students cannot use apostrophes and commas correctly, but in published writing, I have no tolerance for that. It's distracting, but the errors are rare enough that most people probably won't notice.
On the whole, I am glad I read the book, and you should as well. Let me know what you think!
Reconciling Ministries Network mobilizes United Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities to transform our Church and world into the full expression of Christ’s inclusive love.
