University of Chicago’s newest academic nonsense: ‘Is God queer?’
Briana Oser
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“Can God be an ally in queer worldmaking? Is God queer? What does queerness have to do with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam?”
The University of Chicago’s Religious Studies Department considers these crucial questions to explore this fall. In her new course, “Queering God,” Professor Olivia Bustion will lead her undergraduate students through a semester-long effort to reinvent ancient truths and conform them to trendy LGBT ideology.
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A course about “queerness” in the Bible, the Qur’an, and the Torah might arouse some suspicion. One need not be an exegetical expert in order to understand that they explicitly condemn active homosexuality. Their teachings on sexuality and marriage have been clear for thousands of years.
The question, “Is God queer?” is nonsensical. In each of the major Abrahamic religions, God is regarded as an eternal being who rules over humanity. He is not a participant in human sexuality.
The subject of homosexuality in religion has only been contested to a major degree in academic circles over the past 20 to 30 years or so. The first religion, gender, and sexuality graduate program opened in 1995 at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Before that, religious studies departments were centrally focused on more essential themes in the sacred texts.
A course that covers Islam, Christianity, and Judaism is daunting enough for a group of young college students. Why introduce three of the world’s leading religions through the lens of “queer theory”? Don’t their texts already pose a sufficient set of challenges? Especially when the professor requires no prior knowledge of any of them, as she states in her course description: “There will be no presumption of previous acquaintance with any of the readings or topics discussed, or indeed with any academic theology or queer theory at all.”
The Qur’an, the Torah, and the Bible are global texts that attempt to define eternal truths. They answer great questions such as: “What is the meaning of life?” And, “Why do good people suffer?” Homosexuality, and sexuality, more generally, do not dominate in this divine atmosphere: They do not disappear from view, but they ought to be examined in their proper place.
If deep questions such as these are central to religion, why brush them to the side in an introductory class? Why introduce some of the world’s major repositories of wisdom through the lens of “queer theory”? Why should many students’ only experience of the Abrahamic religions serve the political interest of an academic cult?
To indoctrinate students in a progressive worldview. For the sake of fashionable politics.
Bustion’s course description is charged with political language. “Queer worldmaking” is a phrase that arose in the 90s from queer theorist José Estebon Muñoz, whose works envisioned a “queer utopia.” It means exactly what you think it means — deconstructing traditional society, which progressives call “heteronormative,” and transforming it into something centrally “queer.” The Oxford Research Encyclopedia includes “academic pursuits” as a means by which this is achieved. This helps to explain Bustion’s desire to promote it in her classroom.
Bustion exposes her agenda by asking if God can be an “ally” in this scheme. The answer is no, because, in the religions she aims to teach, God is an omnipotent being whose power cannot be subverted to an ideological plan. She is admitting that her course will attempt to use God as a political pawn. Bustion does not want to teach about God. She wants to invent a new god.
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Bustion’s course does not offer a serious handling of religion. By hyperfocusing on a minor theme, it dumbs down theology. It replaces major religious inquiries with new LGBT dogma. It has no place at an institution of higher learning.
Besides, haven’t we learned enough from people who try to convince us that God is on their side?
Briana Oser is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.