God, Gospel, and Gender: A Queer Bible Study for Teens

By Margie Baker

An introduction to what scripture has to say about the dignity of LGBTQ people.

In this bible study, Episcopal priest and former teacher Margie Baker shows teens how the Bible affirms and supports all of God’s beloved children. Beginning with an exploration of what it means to be made in God’s image and the ways that God is represented with a variety of male and female images and concluding with an examination of how love for all our siblings is central to God’s relationship with humanity, the study encourages youth to see how a thread of inclusion runs through the bible.

Each chapter of God, Gospel, and Gender includes an opening prayer, an activity, opportunities to delve into the biblical text, prompts to respond to the text, and a closing prayer. Designed for use by groups or individuals, this book calls youth to affirm the dignity in every person.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Church Publishing
• Release date: Jun 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9781640656963

Margie Baker

Margie Baker is a priest currently serving as Assistant Rector for Children, Youth, and Families at St. John's in West Hartford, Connecticut. Originally from Memphis, Baker lived and worked as a high school teacher in North Carolina before attending Virginia Theological Seminary, where she received a Master of Divinity degree. She has written articles for Building Faith, created and shared a free at-home pandemic VBS curriculum, and given presentations on formation and social justice issues. Baker lives in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Book preview

Cover pictureTitle page: Margie Baker, God, Gospel, and Gender (A QUEER BIBLE STUDY FOR TEENS), Church Publishing

Copyright © 2024 by Margie Baker

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Church Publishing

19 East 34th Street

New York, NY 10016

www.churchpublishing.org

Cover design by Ink Splatter Design

Typeset by Nord Compo

ISBN 978-1-64065-695-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64065-696-3 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number:

2024932176

This digital document has been produced by Nord Compo.

For anyone who has ever wondered if God loves them exactly as they are. God does.

CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 - How We See God, How We See Ourselves: Non-Gendered Images of God

Chapter 2 - Christ the Mother Hen: Maternal Images of God

Chapter 3 - God Loves All Families: Family Relationships in Scripture

Chapter 4 - God Loves the Whole Spectrum: Genesis 1

Chapter 5 - Made for Community: Genesis 2

Chapter 6 - God of Changed Names: Abram, Sarai, Jacob, and Simon

Chapter 7 - Love and the Law: Discerning What Matters

Chapter 8 - Jesus and the Tricky Questions: Responding in Love

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Justin Hoffman for inviting me to write this book and recognizing the need. Thank you to Anne Zaccardelli for shepherding me into all things marketing, and to Mark Powers and the rest of the editorial team at Church Publishing for helping to make this as good as it can be.

Thank you to Lisa Kimball, my formation role model and the person who got this whole project started by introducing me as, this is Margie. She should write a book for you; to Robert and Andrew, who both wondered with me about what a queer Bible study for teens could look like; and to my wife and parents, who never doubted my abilities, even when I did.

Thank you to the St. John’s Monday Night Bible Study crew, who served as my guinea pigs and offered wisdom and nuance; to the clergy and staff at St. John’s who supported my work, and especially to Ellen who heard my questions about process with grace; to the children and youth of St. John’s including my kids, whose curiosity and desire for God’s love and God’s justice spurred me on; for holy listening partners, and especially Randy, Dave, and Jenn; and to those who, having heard about this project, shared their excitement and hope for sharing God’s love with all God’s children, especially those who have been told that their gender identity and/or sexual orientation separated them from God.

And through it all I am grateful to God, whose voice is sometimes small and quiet but is just as often raucous, pointed, and a little frightening. God calls us to love and to justice—all of us. Thanks be to God.

INTRODUCTION

I could tell you that this book happened because of a joyful conversation with a beloved professor, and that would be part of the truth, but not the whole thing. I could tell you that this book happened because months before that conversation, I was complaining about the lack of a queer- and trans-affirming Bible Study for teens. There are books about queer theology, lovely memoirs, and lesson plans on acceptance, but something was missing. I wanted to engage with Scripture because the youth at my church like to dive into the Word. I could tell you that, but it still wouldn’t be the whole story.

This book exists because of that conversation in the Chapel at Virginia Seminary, fueled by an earlier conversation with a fellow parent about just how to grapple with LGBTQ issues in a faithful way. But this book also exists because when I realized I was gay decades ago, I knew for absolutely certain that God loved me, even if the church wasn’t ready. I knew it in my bones. That sense of my own belovedness gave me courage to be myself and to challenge the status quo. It gave me the courage to step away from my denomination when internal divisions erupted because of human sexuality, as well as the hope to return and make a place for myself in that denomination a few years later. That deep awareness of God’s love also kept me away from Scripture for a while because I thought I knew what I would find there.

There are several so-called clobber verses in Scripture; these passages specifically name homosexuality as an abomination and a sin. I knew those were there, and I had heard them as part of an argument to keep queer people (or at least openly queer people in loving relationships) out of the church. You won’t find those verses in this book, but you’re welcome to search for them. They’re easy to find.

As my faith grew and matured, and especially as I began reading the Bible (a little reluctantly, if I’m being perfectly honest) a strange thing happened: I found out just how wrong I was about what I would find in Scripture. Sure, the clobber verses are in there. But you know what else there is? Stories about God’s love and mercy. Stories about humans messing up and God forgiving. Stories about humans making rules and God saying, yeah, that’s not what I want. Stories about love and justice. Stories about how God is on the side of the oppressed. Stories about how God cares more about right action than saying the right words, being from the right place, or worshipping the right way. And again and again: stories of God caring about the people and calling them into loving relationship. The Bible tells the story of God, whose love is so big and vast and wild and transformative that God created the whole world and all that is in it, called the whole thing good, and lived and died among us to show us the way.

I had always believed that God loved me. Now I was beginning to see how the Bible upholds what I already knew to be true while also challenging me to live a life immersed in God, a life following Jesus.

So yes, this book exists because of a beloved professor, and because I wanted a resource that did not yet exist, but mostly this book exists because God loves you, you, exactly as God made you, and we can read Scripture together in a way that helps you see and feel and name God’s love for exactly who you are, beautiful and unique and imperfect and beloved.

Intended Audience

You’ve probably figured out by now that the intended audience for this book is teens and tweens. The activities and discussion questions are based on the life of a middle or high school student, and the language is appropriate for that group. Having said that, this book isn’t just for adolescents. There’s plenty for a curious adult to learn.

Beyond age, this book is intended for Christians who yearn for full inclusion and protection of queer and trans folk. This book is for queer and trans youth who need to hear that God loves them, or who, like me, know that God loves them but yearn for a place in the church. This book is for allies and family members who want to support, affirm, and empower their beloved queer friends, siblings, cousins, fill-in-the-blank. And this book is for churches, camps, schools, and other places where teens and tweens hope to find a safe place to ask big questions about God and themselves.

This book probably won’t convince someone who feels strongly that queer and trans people are a threat to the church, and let’s be honest, those people exist, and they believe that they speak out of love and from a place of authority. This book probably won’t convince them, but that isn’t the goal. What we offer is a message of love, acceptance, and justice from Scripture. This serves as a sort of antidote to some of the poison queer and trans folk, especially youth, are dealing with these days. You are loved, deeply, just as you are. You are enough. You are called.

Chapter Structure

Each chapter begins with an introduction to the topic, a prayer, and an ice-breaker activity. The activities work best with a partner, but they can be reflective as well. These three elements work together to initiate the wondering process and prepare us to enter into a deep, imaginative, faithful reading of Scripture.

The majority of each chapter is devoted to one or more passages of Scripture along with context, language notes, and questions to guide your reading. The questions are designed to make space for wonder and to invite connections between Scripture, your own life, and the wider world. There are no right or wrong answers. We have allotted physical space to annotate and jot down reactions to what you read.

After the Scripture section are several broader questions, a Going Deeper section, and options for response. These discussion questions invite you to imagine how God is speaking to those of us committed to the inherent worth and dignity of all people, no matter their orientation or gender identity. The Going Deeper section takes one idea from the chapter and examines it more closely. For instance, in the chapter about the Garden of Eden, the Going Deeper is about the name Adam, what it means,