The Coming Out Conference had some great speakers, but the one who I felt really challenged my thinking was Lisa Usherwood, author of The Good News of the Body. Drawing on ther evaluation of a certain para-church mission, “True Love Waits”, Lisa gave us her evaluation of white male Christianity, and the general oppression of women.

I was utterly convinced by her excursus of contemporary Christian society’s ongoing project of subordniating women, and how the value of virginity over sexual freedom and integrity participates in it. What moved me, however, was her argument at how unchristian it actually is, and how unbiblical. First she mentions the call of James and John, who were not called to ministry and give money back to their father’s house, but to the poor. Likewise, the gospels do not claim a disdain on marriage per se, but a disdain for the “father’s house”, and how marriage is seen as the trade of women for its own upkeep.

Then she calls us to consider Song of Songs not just as a book of love, but one of freedom. She describes a woman, so comfortable in her own skin, gender and sexuality that she becomes the embarassment of her brothers, who see her only as an asset to be sold to other men. And she becomes God’s delight.

Throws into question why people like passages from this book read at their weddings.