Lesbian Collage Pharisee to Teach “Queering the Bible” Course

Gwynn Kessler – Associate Professor of Religion

Romans 1:22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:”

Background and Areas of Interest

I received my Ph.D. in Rabbinics, with a specialization in midrash, from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2001. I have taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and at the University of Florida in Gainesville. My research focuses on rabbinic interpretation of Scripture, (she is a Pharisee)  or midrash, and more specifically on rabbinic theology and rabbinic constructions of gender and identity. I am also interested in the broader field of Religious Studies, and in exploring the place(s) of Jewish interpretation and Judaism within this larger discourse. Finally, my work is situated within, and suffused with, postmodern, feminist, and queer theoretical approaches. 

Teaching

My teaching interests and experience encompass classes on the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, Talmud, Jewish History, Jewish Literature, Judaism and Gender, Judaism and Ecology, Ritual and Performance Studies, Feminist Theology, Religion and Gender, and Method and Theory in Religious Studies. Many of my courses draw upon, and integrate, literary, historical, anthropological, and comparative approaches to the study of religion and textual traditions.

In other words she knows NOTHING about True Christianity and has succumbed to doctrines of demons, knows about God, but does NOT really know him in her heart and soul. She believes God is a woman as you will see in the article below.

2nd Timothy 3:1-7 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy ,3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

College course teaches students about ‘queering the Bible’ from The Collage Fix

Class ‘destabilizes long held assumptions’ about what’s in the Bible; university refuses to comment

Swarthmore College is offering a course next year that will survey “queer and trans* readings of biblical texts” by using “queer and trans* theoretical approaches,” with faculty staying silent on the specifics of the course material.

“Queering the Bible” is set to launch next fall and will be instructed by Gwynn Kessler, an associate professor of religion, according to Swarthmore’s course catalog.

The course, which is being offered through Swarthmore’s Religion Department, promises to “[introduce] students to the complexity of constructions of sex, gender, and identity in one of the most influential literary works produced in ancient times.”

“By reading the Bible with the methods of queer and trans* theoretical approaches,” the catalog advertises, “this class destabilizes long held assumptions about what the bible–and religion–says about gender and sexuality.”

It appears that the Swarthmore Religion Department will offer no other Bible-centric courses next fall apart from this one. Out of around ten listed courses that explicitly involve Bible study at Swarthmore, “Queering the Bible” appears to be the only one taking place in fall of 2018. Only one other Bible-related course, a class teaching the grammar and vocabulary necessary to read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew, is offered during that time.

Repeated attempts by The College Fix to learn more about the course, and whether or not any additional Bible courses would be offered at Swarthmore next year, were met with silence. Multiple emails to Gwynn Kessler and the Swarthmore Religion Department, as well as phone calls to both, were not returned.

According to her faculty profile, Kessler’s research focuses in part on “rabbinic constructions of gender and identity.” Her work is also “situated within, and suffused with, postmodern, feminist, and queer theoretical approaches.”

In addition to “Queering the Bible,” Swarthmore College’s religion department also offers “Queering God: Feminist and Queer Theology,” a course that “examines feminist and queer writings about God, explores the tensions between feminist and queer theology, and seeks to stretch the limits of gendering-and sexing-the divine.”

“If we can point out places in traditional writings where God is nurturing, forgiving, and loving,” the course description asks, “does that mean that God is feminine, or female?”

Source: Collage Fix