Courageous Conversations: Spiritual Violence Against LGBTQ People
Spiritual violence against queer people is so pervasive it is almost hard to see. These sessions will explore what spiritual violence is, why it hits queer souls so hard, and what faith communities can do about it. Join community experts from Anti-Violence Project, Trinity Church Wall Street, and our partners for this in-depth two-part conversation.
In case you missed either session or want to watch them again, recordings of both sessions are now available:
September 30: Stopping the Violence, Healing the Wounds
Moderator: The Rev. Matt Welsch, Trinity Church Wall Street
Faith Leader Panelists:
- The Rev. Clint Schnekloth, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Fayetteville, AR
- The Rev. Kyndra Frazier, KYND’s CEO and Founder
- Rabbi Marisa James, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST)
- The Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman, Anti-Violence Project board member
Learn more about the September 23 event here.
The Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman
Liz Edman is an Episcopal priest and political strategist. She is the author of Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity (Beacon Press, 2016). Liz has lived and worked on the front lines of some of the most pressing issues where religion and sexuality meet, serving as an inner-city hospital chaplain to people with HIV/AIDS from 1989 to 1995 and helping craft political and communications strategies for marriage equality efforts. In 2017, she partnered with Parity to create Glitter+Ash Wednesday, a project to increase the visibility of progressive, queer-positive Christians and to explore Christian liturgy through a queer lens.
The Rev. Kyndra Frazier
Kyndra Frazier is an ordained Baptist clergywoman, licensed clinician, and the Founder and CEO of KYND (Knowing Yourself In Need of Devotion) Consulting, Inc. KYND offers trauma-informed care through a variety of services from clinical therapy for individuals, families, and couples to trauma-informed training for corporate entities and ecclesial communities, and spiritual direction. KYND also offers executive listening sessions and coaching for organizations. Kyndra was most recently the Founding Executive Director of The HOPE Center, a free mental health facility located in Central Harlem of New York City, and formerly served as the Associate Pastor of Congregational Care and Wellness at First Corinthian Baptist Church. Known for her work in removing barriers to mental health access for communities of color, she was recently featured on the 2020 Root 100 list of most influential African Americans. She has also been featured in multiple print and digital publications including Vice,The New York Times, and Sojourners. She holds a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University, a Master of Social Work from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from North Carolina A&T State University.
Rabbi Marisa Elana James
Rabbi Marisa Elana James (she/her) is Director of Social Justice Programming at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi James has also been a college English teacher, a competitive ballroom dancer, an insurance broker, a student pilot, a bookstore manager, and a professional Torah reader. As a teenager growing up in Connecticut, she was a co-founder of her high school’s GSA, the second to be founded in the state. While living in Jerusalem for more than five years, Rabbi James worked for Encounter Programs, taught Introduction to Judaism classes in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, studied at a wide variety of schools (including Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, secular, and non-Jewish settings), and helped create and lead the rabbinical student program for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. She has also taught at the University of Connecticut and Rutgers and has served as cantor for communities in Israel and America. Rabbi James and her wife, contrabassoonist and translator Barbara Ann Schmutzler, live in New York City.
The Rev. Clint Schnekloth
Clint Schnekloth is the pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His church recently hosted Queer Camp, featured on NPR, the first of its kind in Arkansas and the south. Clint is the founder and chairman of the board of Canopy NWA, Arkansas’s refugee resettlement agency. A regular contributor to The Christian Century, Clint is the author of Mediating Faith: Faith Formation in a Trans-media Era. He blogs at Patheos, and when not causing good trouble in NWA, can be found running the trails or DMing sessions of Dungeons and Dragons with the kids.
The Rev. Matt Welsch
Matt Welsch serves as Priest for Youth & Family at Trinity Church Wall Street, where he uplifts the voices of congregational youth and walks with them in their journey of faith. His ministry is rooted in Jesus’s call to “make disciples,” specializing in the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity, youth development, and pop culture with the Gospel. With a decade of experience in community engagement and advancing social justice, he seeks to support the next generation in changemaking for good. Pronouns: he/him/his.
Spiritual violence against queer people is so pervasive it is almost hard to see. These sessions will explore what spiritual violence is, why it hits queer souls so hard, and what faith communities can do about it. Join community experts from Anti-Violence Project, Trinity Church Wall Street, and our partners for this in-depth two-part conversation.
In case you missed either session or want to watch them again, recordings of both sessions are now available:
September 30: Stopping the Violence, Healing the Wounds
Moderator: The Rev. Matt Welsch, Trinity Church Wall Street
Faith Leader Panelists:
- The Rev. Clint Schnekloth, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Fayetteville, AR
- The Rev. Kyndra Frazier, KYND’s CEO and Founder
- Rabbi Marisa James, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST)
- The Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman, Anti-Violence Project board member
Learn more about the September 23 event here.
The Rev. Elizabeth M. Edman
Liz Edman is an Episcopal priest and political strategist. She is the author of Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How It Can Revitalize Christianity (Beacon Press, 2016). Liz has lived and worked on the front lines of some of the most pressing issues where religion and sexuality meet, serving as an inner-city hospital chaplain to people with HIV/AIDS from 1989 to 1995 and helping craft political and communications strategies for marriage equality efforts. In 2017, she partnered with Parity to create Glitter+Ash Wednesday, a project to increase the visibility of progressive, queer-positive Christians and to explore Christian liturgy through a queer lens.
The Rev. Kyndra Frazier
Kyndra Frazier is an ordained Baptist clergywoman, licensed clinician, and the Founder and CEO of KYND (Knowing Yourself In Need of Devotion) Consulting, Inc. KYND offers trauma-informed care through a variety of services from clinical therapy for individuals, families, and couples to trauma-informed training for corporate entities and ecclesial communities, and spiritual direction. KYND also offers executive listening sessions and coaching for organizations. Kyndra was most recently the Founding Executive Director of The HOPE Center, a free mental health facility located in Central Harlem of New York City, and formerly served as the Associate Pastor of Congregational Care and Wellness at First Corinthian Baptist Church. Known for her work in removing barriers to mental health access for communities of color, she was recently featured on the 2020 Root 100 list of most influential African Americans. She has also been featured in multiple print and digital publications including Vice,The New York Times, and Sojourners. She holds a Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology at Emory University, a Master of Social Work from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from North Carolina A&T State University.
Rabbi Marisa Elana James
Rabbi Marisa Elana James (she/her) is Director of Social Justice Programming at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi James has also been a college English teacher, a competitive ballroom dancer, an insurance broker, a student pilot, a bookstore manager, and a professional Torah reader. As a teenager growing up in Connecticut, she was a co-founder of her high school’s GSA, the second to be founded in the state. While living in Jerusalem for more than five years, Rabbi James worked for Encounter Programs, taught Introduction to Judaism classes in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, studied at a wide variety of schools (including Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, secular, and non-Jewish settings), and helped create and lead the rabbinical student program for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. She has also taught at the University of Connecticut and Rutgers and has served as cantor for communities in Israel and America. Rabbi James and her wife, contrabassoonist and translator Barbara Ann Schmutzler, live in New York City.
The Rev. Clint Schnekloth
Clint Schnekloth is the pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His church recently hosted Queer Camp, featured on NPR, the first of its kind in Arkansas and the south. Clint is the founder and chairman of the board of Canopy NWA, Arkansas’s refugee resettlement agency. A regular contributor to The Christian Century, Clint is the author of Mediating Faith: Faith Formation in a Trans-media Era. He blogs at Patheos, and when not causing good trouble in NWA, can be found running the trails or DMing sessions of Dungeons and Dragons with the kids.
The Rev. Matt Welsch
Matt Welsch serves as Priest for Youth & Family at Trinity Church Wall Street, where he uplifts the voices of congregational youth and walks with them in their journey of faith. His ministry is rooted in Jesus’s call to “make disciples,” specializing in the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity, youth development, and pop culture with the Gospel. With a decade of experience in community engagement and advancing social justice, he seeks to support the next generation in changemaking for good. Pronouns: he/him/his.