Come focus on justice work with nourishing food, an insightful lecture, and inspiring conversations.
About this event
Title: “Must I behave? : Unorthodox disruptions as queer faith practice.
Thinking critically about how queerness can transcend faith practice and the ways in which we are compelled into certain styles of practice that foreclose on the prophetic potential of queer spirituality
Pulpit+ Exchange Series
During an April 17, 1960, “Meet the Press” interview, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours, if not the most segregated hours in Christian America.” Sadly, Dr. King’s speech sounds like it was delivered yesterday. In large part, this shameful tragedy remains in 2023. Iliff’s Pulpit+ Exchange Series (supported by the Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative from Lilly Endowment Inc.) is designed to help ordained clergy and lay leaders interrogate this continued status in American churches. It is also designed to place new foundations for education, dialogue, action, and growth within and between congregations.
About the Evening’s Agenda
Join other clergy and lay leaders for a light meal from 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm (MST). The lecture will begin at 5:30 pm. An opportunity to ask Dr. Vázquez López questions and engage in discussions with colleagues will follow.
About the Lecturer
Dr. Jared Vázquez López is a freelance diversity and inclusion consultant. He earned his Ph.D. in Theology, Philosophy, and Cultural Theory at the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver. His scholarly interests lie in bodies, sexuality, identity, culture, language, and religious experience. His primary fields of study include continental philosophy, cultural and queer theory, Latinx studies, critical race theory, and Pentecostal studies. He has been a fellow at the Human Rights Campaign Summer Institute of the Religion and Faith Program and the Hispanic Theological Initiative at Princeton. Jared has over 10 years of experience in leading, facilitating and developing dialogue around diversity, equity and inclusion in both religious and non-religious spaces. He has taught in formal and informal settings as both faculty and consultant. As an adjunct professor at the Iliff School of Theology Jared teaches a diverse population of students how to better engage and lead their churches and communities with regard to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. This work reflects Jared’s passion of bringing people together to have dialogue that matters across differences, as well as his academic work, which has focused on theologies of inclusion and the effects of religious and social politics on the lives of queer folk and people of color.