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In this CLGS Lavender Lunch, Rev. Dr. June Hee Yoon begins with the long-standing question within Christian traditions: “Can queer be holy?” This short question has taken a long time to be answered in theological discussions in various Christian denominations.

The United Methodist Church started the debate to answer the question in 1972 and just finalized the answer at the General Conference in 2024. Did United Methodists come to a conclusion, then? Yes and No. Yes, the denomination finally affirmed its Christian identity that embraces queer and holiness together. No, this decision created another Methodist denomination that was created by those who refused the holiness of queer people of faith.

Now is the time for Christians to think about our Christian identity in relation to our understanding of holiness and queerness. Not just to defend a group of people and their idea of holiness but to responsibly answer the question and reaffirm the Christian identity that we can carry on to our future.

Join us for this exploration of some ways to answer the question by examining the core meanings of holiness in Wesleyan tradition and its relationship with the concept of queer in queer theology.  This presentation argues Christians can embrace holiness as a marker of their spiritual wholeness and moral health only when lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) members can be spiritually nurtured and communally supported to express their authentic selves.

This communal holiness would then require a safe space for LGBTQ Christians where they can recognize their sacred worth as Christians with LGBTQ identity in a manner fully equal to heterosexual members. I call this ideal ethical community a community of queer holiness where the communal holiness is continuously realized as the community deepens the meaning of holiness according to the reclaimed meaning of queerness.

Rev. Dr. June Hee Yoon

Rev. Dr. June Hee Yoon (she/her/hers) is Adjunct Professor of Theological Ethics and coordinator of the Asian Theological Institute at the United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She is also the pastor of Waterloo United Methodist Church in Stanhope, New Jersey.

As a Christian social ethicist, Rev. Dr. Yoon aspires to provide a Christian ethical lens to future church leaders and believes the moral health and well-being of the existing Christian communities largely depend upon the Church’s sensitivity to the outcries of the people who have been neglected and silenced.

Therefore, Rev. Dr. Yoon believes that the lens for the marginalized is a prerequisite for theological education. Yoon believes that such theological education equips church leaders to implement their understanding of God and human society to be built upon a firm ground of liberative theo-ethical perspective.

A CLGS Spring 2025 Lavender Lunch