My Latest: Trans and Christian in Nashville
My Latest: Trans and Christian in Nashville
I talked with Roberto Ché Espinoza, transqueer Christian scholar and activist, about living in Nashville, and trying to follow Jesus, right now.
Dear friends,
As promised, I’m back with something very different—and every bit as urgent and essential to our common humanity as the latest IPCC report.
Last Tuesday, the day after the horrific mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, I was already scheduled to interview Dr. Roberto Ché Espinoza — a Nashville-based transqueer Christian scholar and activist — for a longer Nation feature I’m writing on Christianity and politics. After we talked, I felt an overwhelming need to share his words with the world as soon as possible, and quickly sent excerpts to my editor, Don Guttenplan, who immediately saw their importance. (And many thanks to Jack Mirkinson at The Nation for shepherding the interview to publication on short notice.)
Roberto has what some of us call a “prophetic voice.” I don’t expect everyone to relate to his theology or his politics—I have friends and family who may find it difficult to read—but I'm certain that his liberationist, compassionate, and yes, Jesus-centered message is needed in this moment. As Roberto said to me,
we are radically interconnected with those who oppose us. We are a body. It’s not just me, it’s not just you, but we collectively are a body. We are an ecosystem. And right now there is a disease in the ecosystem, and it’s manifesting as violence toward those who are different.
I hope you’ll read the rest of the interview at TheNation.com.
And if you feel inclined, I hope you’ll consider donating to support a mobile food bank organized by Roberto and the Activist Theology Project to help members of the trans community in Nashville who are scared to leave their homes and are sheltering in place.
Thanks for reading.
-Wen
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that."
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.