MELANIN: The Good…The Bad…and the Sacred
Bishop Tonyia Rawls
Thursday, 16 April 2026 | 4pm (Pacific Time) | ONLINE
Click here to register in advance for this online lecture!
We are living in a day and age where the amount of God-given melanin in one’s skin can literally determine what jobs you have access to, what quality of education you can receive, what types of money and other resources you have access to and even how much shorter your life-expectancy will be than that of non-melanated people.
Melanin can be an accurate indicator of how likely it is for you to be arrested and disappeared. Melanin has even been used,by some, as a litmus test for holiness and acceptance by God. This lecture will shine light on the varied ways these behaviors have impacted our nation and the church itself. God did not make a mistake when choosing a young, Black, unwed teenager, to carry Jesus, the proclaimed Son of God.
We will discuss some of why that matters.
Bishop Tonyia Rawls
Bishop Tonyia Rawls, Founder of The Freedom Center for Social Justice, Chancellor of The Black Mountain School of Theology and Community and Pastor of Sacred Souls UCC.
She is also a member of The College of Affirming Bishops and a Sr. Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.
The CLGS John E. Boswell Lecture
Praised and critiqued, lauded and contested – John Boswell’s scholarship continues to provoke questions, inspire new academic work, and, in
many ways, set the bar high for LGBTQ religious scholarship. In February, 2006, CLGS brought together some of the leading voices in both academic and activist circles to consider the legacy of Boswell’s scholarship and the path it continues to chart for so much work that still needs to be done. CLGS was pleased to make that conference the occasion for establishing a special endowment fund to honor John Boswell’s life and scholarship by creating the annual CLGS John E. Boswell Lecture, which brings leading scholars in LGBTQ religious studies to the PSR campus each spring semester
In 1980 John Boswell published a book that historian of sexuality Michel Foucault called “a truly groundbreaking work.” Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century charted bold territory in both historical and religious scholarship, setting a new benchmark of academic excellence for gay and lesbian studies. Equally significant, if not more controversial, was his 1993 book, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, in which he tried to show historical precedence for the religious blessing of same-sex relationships.
In 1975 Dr. Boswell joined the Yale University faculty as an assistant professor after studying at the College of William and Mary and Harvard University. In 1990 he was named the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History at Yale where he later served a two-year term as the chair of the history department. In 1987 he also helped organize the Lesbian and Gay Studies Center at Yale.
Martin Duberman, founder of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City University of New York, considered Dr. Boswell “one of the major innovative figures in gay and lesbian scholarship. John was very brave and pioneering. And very brilliant.”
Although John Boswell died from AIDS-related illnesses in 1994, his trail-blazing efforts in historical scholarship continue to shape and inspire academic, activist and faith communities of all traditions. The annual John E. Boswell Lecture honors that pioneering legacy.
Click here for a list of past CLGS Boswell Lecturers.