Queer I Stand: An Introduction

On all of these matters, there are no easy answers, no straightforwardly clear and unproblematic positions, and no definite solutions that will appear to be fair and just to all parties on all sides at all times. It is not always the place of theology, however, to give answers, so much as it is to pose useful, or even sometimes uncomfortable, questions.

The issue of "theology" itself within modern Paganism is, according to some, inappropriate to this particular religion, tied as closely as the term "theology" often has been with Christianity. Whether it would be considered "queer" or not to do theology within paganism, I will only say the following: Plato, Aristotle, and Varro all used and defined the term "theology" before Christianity ever existed, and when later Christian writers like Tertullian and Augustine of Hippo began to innovate in terms of Christian theology, they adopted the ready-made terminology of Varro and others. Theology, whether it is queer to assert so or not within modern Pagan religions, is not something that Christians own or created; it is something that pre-Christian classical Pagans invented, and for us as modern Pagan religious practitioners to reclaim it is, therefore, entirely appropriate.

So, in the weeks, months, and (hopefully!) years to come in this column, you will get "queer" matters; you will get "theological" matters; and you will often get "queer theological" matters. You may not like all of what you read here, whether in tone or in content.

You may not appreciate nor sympathize with the positions from which what is written was reasoned. You may not be comfortable with some of the implications that result from the writings in this column. And, you don't have to be or do any of those things. But, it will be my own responsibility to put my own viewpoints, based on my own positions, across as clearly and as understandably as possible in my writings here, and I do most certainly commit to doing that to the best of my ability on every occasion that I will do so in the future.

Whether you stand with me or not, whether you agree with me or not, whether you like it or not, Queer I Stand, and I can do no other, by the gods.