Yes Gawd!: How Faith Shapes LGBT Identity and Politics
Thursday, June 13, 2024
5:00pm Pacific/7:00pm Central/8:00pm Eastern
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The Rev. Dr. Jim Miltulski will interview Royal G. Cravens on his newly published: Yes Gawd!: How Faith Shapes LGBT Identity and Politics in the United States (Temple University Press 2024). In this work Cravens explores how faith impacts the politics of LGBT people, detailing how the queer community creates, defines, and experiences spirituality and spiritual affirmation as well as the consequences this has for their identity, socialization, and political development. In order to demonstrate the mobilizing power of faith for LGBT people, Cravens explains how factors such as coming out, race, and LGBT-affirming churches influence political attitudes and behavior and how the development of LGBT politico-religious activism provides opportunities for LGBT people to organize politically.
Rev. Dr. Jim Mitulski is a pastor, activist, community organizer, and fundraiser. He has pastored churches in the United Church of Christ and the Metropolitan Community Churches. He served as the denominational Director of Development and Clergy Vocations for the MCC Churches and taught courses at the Pacific School of Religion and currently at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. He is currently pastor of the Congregational Church of Belmont (California).
Royal G. Cravens, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center. He is a previous recipient of the Bailey and Cynthia Weber Awards from the American Political Science Association and has held fellowships with the Social Science Research Council and Public Religion Research Institute.