A website supporting my switchingview YouTube Channel

Across history and across continents there have been a huge number of reports of intermediate type people being closely involved in a spiritual vocation, as priests, shamans, counsellors, or other forms of spiritual leadership.

It is not my assumption that every intermediate type person had this spiritual calling. Many intermediate type people without such a vocation may have faded into anonymity, and only those with an active ministry will have been documented by travellers, or appear in historical records. Nevertheless, the huge worldwide spread and quantity of such Queer Ministry reports must raise profound questions for our modern scholarship - should we choose to address them.

I think there are two benefits to studying such Queer Ministry lives.

• Firstly, right across the world it is affirming for modern LGBTQIA+ people to look back within their own cultures, and to find examples where, before colonisation, intermediate type people had positions of value and respect.
• Secondly, we can study how the newly developing Jewish and Christian faiths came into conflict with religions containing Queer Ministry expressions. This may help to explain how anti-homoerotic and anti-gender variant teachings became part of Christian and Jewish life.

In these videos I will be exploring two issues which may provide an explanation for this conflict. The first is Edward Carpenter's Reformation Thesis. He wrote this:

Just as, according to Darwin, the sharpest rivalry occurs between a species and the closely allied species from which it has sprung, so in any religion there is the fiercest theological hatred against the form which has immediately preceded it. Early Christianity could never say enough against the Pagan cults of the old world . . . . . .

the Jews established their worship of Jehovah as a great reaction against the primitive nature-cults of Syria - and in that way to become in time the germ of Christianity - the first thing they did was to denounce the priests and satellites of Baal-Peor and Ashtoreth as wizards and sorcerers, and wielders of devilish faculties. . . . . . . .

Similarly the early Protestants could never say malignant things enough against the Roman Catholics; or the Secularists in their turn against the Protestants. In all these cases there is an element of fear - fear because the thing supposed to have been left behind lies after all so close, and is always waiting to reassert itself. [Intermediate Types Chapter 2]

I will be arguing that Christian and Jewish teachings against Queer Ministry arose simply out of the fact that such behaviour was integrated into the religious traditions that Christianity and Judaism regarded as their predecessors and enemy

The second key issue is the place of the Sexual and Erotic within spirituality and religion. It is clear that many expressions of Queer Ministry contained erotic and sexual acts within the rituals. This was a key complaint from the newly developing patriarchal Jewish and Christian faiths, and especially a Christian faith that valued celibacy. Much Jewish and Christian criticism of Queer Ministry is a polemic against these sexual rituals, which are often labelled prostitution.

It is vital that we can make sense of this conflict around the place of the sexual and erotic within religion.

When one looks at many reports of religious rituals, especially those related to shamanism, then one common theme is the use of various 'techniques of ecstasy' or 'techniques of transcendence'. Such techniques might be:

• The use of psychoactive drugs..
• The use of music, rhythm and dance..
• The use of the sexual and erotic.

These expressions of eroticism and sexuality should be seen as carefully calibrated religious rituals designed to produce a spiritual and transcendent benefit. They are no different to other techniques using music, dance and various natural psycho-acive intoxicants. Such sexual and erotic rituals and writings were in common use right across the world. For modern Christian scholars to label them as prostitution (the provision of the sexual gratification for paid reward) is to channel ancient Christian polemic. Such arguments can no longer be sustained within modern academic research.

I think the Christian faith has got lost around the issues of sex and sexuality, perhaps as a result of its teachings being produced by celibate men. Can we undo 2000 years or erotophobia? There is a lot that can be updated and challenged by paying careful attention to modern scholarship and to ancient texts and source documents. Can we learn from other religious traditions in which the sexual and erotic is a joyful gift from God, and even a route towards God, and not a threat? This will be to the benefit of all people, not just those of us who are LGBTQIA.

In the switchingview project, Theme 1 - Queer Ministry will look at the history of Intermediate Type people as religious leaders. In Theme 4 - Sexuality in Church and Bible I will explore these much wider questions around sexuality, history, spirituality and religion.

The first video in the Queer Ministry Theme is a sort of 'prologue' which carefully defines key concepts and introduces some new research into Patriarchy. The next video will explore Queer Ministry in pre-patriarchal, pre-Christian cultures to see how such vocations were lived out within communities undistorted by prejudice. The third video will take this learning into the study of Queer Ministry interacting with the newly developing Jewish and Christian faiths.

For more information - the Definitions and Laws webpage lists, defines and explains the various ideas used in the project in significant detail, and with supporting references.

QM1. QUEER MINISTRY Part 1. How Patriarchy suppressed LGBT and Third Gender Priests and Spiritual Leaders. YouTube Video (Re-edited and re-uploaded January 2025) INTRODUCTION - The first of a four part series of recordings. I explore key concepts and definitions, and then discuss how recent research into Patriarchy can inform our understanding of LGBTQIA+ history. Texts and Resources Document - Listing the texts and references used in the recording, and recommendations for further reading.

Future planned recordings QM2. QUEER MINISTRY - Gender Variant Priesthood and Shamanism Across the World A survey of Homoeroticism and Gender Variance linked to Spirituality and Priesthood right across the world. Planned for upload - Summer 2025 QM3. QUEER MINISTRY in Judah and Christian Rome Taking the learning from the previous video into a detailed study of Queer Ministry in Judah and Pagan Rome, and exploring how Judaism and Christianity interacted with Queer Ministry within the surrounding culture. Planned for upload - Autumn 2025 QM4. QUEER MINISTRY - How Jacob and Joseph in the Hebrew Bible are stories of gender variance. Despite much religious anti-gay teaching, modern scholars are increasingly willing to argue that many Bible stories have a Queer Ministry origin. This video looks at the stories of Jacob, Joseph, and the Ethiopian Eunuch to describe these ideas. Planned for upload - Winter 2025

Finally, can I ask you a favour. I put a lot of work into these recordings, and it would be good if they can be seen by the largest number of people. If you have a friend or colleague who you think would benefit from knowing about these issues, please do pass it on. TELL A FRIEND! - SPREAD THE WORD! I would welcome comments and suggestions on this work - Contact Me. Thank You