Conversation with Rebecca Voelkel

9/17

Rebecca Voelkel is director of the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce’s faith program, the Institute for Welcoming Resources. She is a UCC pastor, theologian, activist and mom.

How has your personal journey to this calling and moment in life strengthened or challenged your faith?

My relationship with God and my faith are strengthened every day. My relationship with the institutional church is challenged every day by the way it so often gets it wrong.

What settles that paradox is one memorable encounter I had when I was young. I had the privilege of serving as a volunteer in El Salvador during their civil war and talking, in particular, with one mother whose five children had been killed. She witnessed the torture and killing of her son and showed me the way in which faith can be necessary for survival.

She said to me, “I know that, in the person of Jesus Christ, God knows what it is to be tortured to death. So I know my son was not alone. And I know that life is always more powerful than death. Just as God was with my son in death, so also God raised my son to new life. And God will do the same for me. So it does not matter what they do to me.”

Her power borne of courageous faith strengthens and challenges me every day to make similar choices.

What is one of the defining moments in your life as a Christian?

There is the moment I just described with the wise woman in El Salvador.

There was the healing process after date rape. And there was when I came out as lesbian. Both of these happened because I took her challenge and invitation to live my life in power and authenticity.

Do you have a story of a person who embodies Christ’s teachings?

What is so moving to me and what gives me energy for ministry is that there are countless people who, in small and large ways, are embodying Christ.

In your mind, what are the Biblical foundations for LGBT inclusion in the church?

What I see as central to the Bible is what Walter Wink calls its singular love ethic. Justice is God’s love distributed equally amongst all God’s creation. Throughout Scripture boundaries are busted “between us and them” in ever widening circles. Jesus’ ministry and the expansion of the early church in Acts is all about this kind of love.

What would you say to those Christians who have a different view on inclusion?

I make a distinction between the radicals where hatred is virulently dangerous (so that I kick the dust off my sandals and move on) and those who are seeking to walk with Jesus.

More often than not, I try to ask questions and hear their stories to get a sense of why they believe what they believe. Through mostly listening we can usually find a human connection by which we can hear and see each other. I am usually invited to share after I have listened.

What can we do to foster dialogue and build bridges with people with different views on inclusion?

At The Task Force’s IWR, we regularly do trainings on leading a welcoming process in churches (http://www.welcomingresources.org/). The first thing we teach is how to sit down to listen first and then share. People get talked at in so many arenas. One great resource is Building an Inclusive Church (which is also available for download at www.WelcomingResources.org)

P.S. If you are fired up about building an inclusive church, consider registering for the Believe Out Loud Power Summit organized by the Institute for Welcoming Resources for Oct. 9-11 in Orlando. Rebecca will be there. Peace, Janet