
The Gospel of Pura Luka Vega: Queer Love, Irreverent Life, and Indecent Faith in the Margin
The Gospel of Pura Luka Vega: Queer Love, Irreverent Life, and Indecent Faith in the Margin
- 한국민중신학회
- Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology
- 제40권
- 2023.12
- 51 - 68 (18 pages)
In this particular historical epoch described by many as a time of hypermasculinity and fascist populism, how do we think of emancipatory resistance and decolonizing spirituality that disrupts the patriarchal logic and destabilizes imperial structures that supply blood to the capillaries of our neoliberal order? Where do we locate and source the nerve impulse for our theological task to animate emancipatory praxis of our time? Moving away from the heterosexual theological discourse of emancipation, I suggest that queer life in the margin offers us a different theological vision and, importantly, better provides us with a theological voice that talks back to the system of domination and embraces the marginalized collective selves excluded in our time. Taking lessons from a drag performance, here I argue for a queer spirituality of resistance, one that is particularly angled at the hetero-patriarchal system. Channeling the blasphemous and rebellious spirit of Pura Luka Vega, a Filipino trans drag performer, I lay out a picture of why and what this could mean for people’s theology and I conclude this paper with a proposal for a new theological militant subject: an indecent and irreverent outlaw/outlawed.
Ⅰ. Pura Luka Vega: The Persona Non Grata
Ⅱ. The Axis of Evil: The Collusion of Heterosexual Religion and the Patriarchal State
Ⅲ. Performing Jesus: Spirituality of Unplugging and Loving of Oneself
Ⅳ. Indecent and Irreverent Spirituality: Life and Living in the Time of Neoliberalism
Ⅴ. Conclusion: Queer Life and Experience of the Minjung
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