An Author's Response

Abstract

Honored by the colleagues who celebrate Jesus ACTED UP with their reflections on the book's twentieth anniversary of publication, I respond briefly to each other them in turn. I frame my response with recollection of the trauma of the 1980s and both governmental and ecclesial homophobia and AIDSphobia at the beginning and a brief portrait of ways I am still “ACTing UP” in partnership with my husband Joe and the members of MCC in the Valley, especially in relation to ecology and US–Mexican border violence. With Michaelson, I reflect on the necessity of confrontational activism in the pursuit of social justice reforms. With Cheng, I consider the role of Jesus ACTED UP in inspiring the continuing development of queer theology. With Jordan, I emphasize the interdependence of silence and the speech of protest, of spiritual disciplines and social activism. Finally, with Hunt, I recognize my own journey of spiritual development and growth in relation to the diversity of LGBTQ communities and the intersectionality of the structures of dominance against which we contend.

KEYWORDS:

• silence = death
• action = life
• ACT UP
• MCC
• AIDSphobia trauma
• Michaelson
• Cheng
• Jordan
• Hunt

Notes

1 See Clark, Beyond Our Ghettos; Comstock, Gay Theology without Apology.

2 Hirshman, Victory.

3 Shore-Goss, “Silence = Death, Action = Life: ACT UP”.

4 Goss, Jesus ACTED UP, 149.

5 Cheng, Radical Love; Cheng, From Sin to Amazing Grace; Cheng, Rainbow Theology.

6 Email from Gordon Althaus-Reid to the author (26 February 2009).

7 Goss, Jesus ACTED UP, 111.

8 Ibid.

9 From Tetlow, Making Choices in Christ, quoted in James Martin, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, kindle loc. 2504.

10 See, for example, chapter 4 of Goss, Jesus ACTED UP; Goss and West, eds., Take Back the Word; Guest, West, Goss and Bohache, eds., The Queer Bible Commentary.

11 Jordan, Convulsing Bodies, 121.

12 See Rofes, Dry Bones Breathe.

13 Loughlin, “Introduction,” 10.

14 McCarthy, “Desirous Saints,” 307.

15 Over a two year period as we discerned about becoming a dually affiliated congregation with the United Church of Church, we scored 73 on the UCC scale of “Becoming a Green Justice Congregation.” By the time MCC United Church of Christ in the Valley was installed as a dually affiliated church we scored over 1475, an incredibly high rating for a Green Justice Church. See: http://www.ucc.org/environmental-ministries/just-green-congregations.html.

16 To support or join this critical ministry, see the website of Tucson Samaritans at http://www.tucsonsamaritans.org/ (accessed on 28 July 2016).

17 Goss, Jesus ACTED UP, 180.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Shore-Goss

Robert “Bob” Shore-Goss is a pastor, an activist, and a scholar. He is the author of Jesus Acted Up: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto, which this issue of Theology and Sexuality celebrates on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its publication, among his many books, scholarly articles and pastoral resources. He now serves as pastor of MCC United Church of Christ in the Valley in North Hollywood, California. His newest work in which he constructs an ecological theology is in production for publication later this year; it is entitled God is Green: An EcoSpirituality of Incarnate Compassion.