Religious Studies

On June 28, 2009, mere minutes after the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, police in Fort Worth raided a local gay bar know as the Rainbow Lounge. When one of the patrons was critically injured that night, the anger that erupted among the LGBT communities raced through the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, eventually reaching around the nation. In the climate that followed the police raid, a new voice emerged among the protestors: that of the prophetic. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to provide an historical account of events at the Rainbow Lounge on the night of June 28, 2009 and the following months, and (2) to examine the inherently queer nature of the prophetic tradition by considering the words and actions of individuals and institutions, both queer and straight, in the aftermath of the raid of the Rainbow Lounge. Composed of four primary sections, this paper begins with an introductory account of events at the Rainbow Lounge immediately prior to and during the police action. The second part engages in a consideration of what it means to be "prophetic," with the idea that the prophetic is inherently queer being explored in the third segment. In the final section, supporting examples of the words and deeds of ministers and theologians following the raid are considered.

for welcoming me and making me feel at home. My deep gratitude goes to my dear friend and role model Sizani Ngubane. Your dauntless spirit, indomitable courage, and beautiful joy have liberated thousands. Furthermore, I am indebted to the members of the Rural Women's Movement, who remind me that change is possible and that we, the women and the single mothers, can together bring liberation. Your hands are certainly not in your pockets! Likewise, I want to thank all the single mothers in the United States who bravely shared your stories with me. I hope I do your lives and stories justice. Finally, none of this would be possible without my friends and family-in particular, my Sarah, Jon, Alan, Billie, Christian, and SB. Thank you for all of the sacrifice, wisdom, hard work, laughter, comfort, encouragement, meals, running and surfing breaks, and unconditional love. "I thank my God every time I think of you." (Philippians 1:3) I hope I make you proud.

The female characters in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad have generally been interpreted by scholars in two opposing fashions: as fictional characters whose historicity can be dismissed or as representative of actual women in ancient India. Both of these interpretations, however, overlook the literary elements of this text and the role that these female characters play within the larger philosophical debate. This paper is an analysis of the various women who appear in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and their role in this text. Close attention is paid to their characterizations, their relationship to the doctrine discussed, and their functions in the larger narrative structure. The paper concludes with a discussion about the relationship of narrative to history and fundamental problems with the “woman question” based on this text.

This paper analyses the three genealogical lists found in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, not only as ascriptions of authority for the White Yajurvedic tradition, but as integral to the literary production of this text. I analyse the theme of ‘inheritance’ in Upaniṣadic narratives and in genealogical lists and show how a comparison of the two allows for a deeper understanding of the inclusion of genealogical lists in this text. In particular, I posit a new interpretation of the metronymic list found at the conclusion of Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 6, arguing that its ‘problematic’ form is not so problematic after all given its context.

One of the most popular stories found in the Upaniṣads centers around a debate between the ritualist and philosopher, Yājñavalkya, and a series of interlocutors about the nature of sacrifice, the self, and the cosmos. This story, from a textual–historical perspective, is unique in that the last interlocutor, Śākalya, is said to die by having his head shatter because he is unable to answer a question about the fundamental nature of immortality. In this paper, I analyze the interrelationship of these two main characters and argue that this relationship is one key to not only understanding the portrayal of these characters, but also the larger import of this debate about immortality. I provide an intratextual rationale for the head-shattering conclusion and discuss how character and doctrine are fundamentally intertwined in this text.

effectively contribute to a coherent body of work that investigates the ways that large, public, and regular festival performances in contemporary South Asia assist in the construction of individual, communal, and urban identities and in the building of modern nations.