Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith
God's love for us breaks every boundary. So should our love for each other.
Mihee Kim-Kort is a wife, a mom, and a Presbyterian minister. And she's queer. As she became aware of her queer sexuality, Mihee wondered what that meant for her spirituality. But instead of pushing her away from God, her queerness has brought her closer to Jesus and taught her how to love better.
In Outside the Lines, Mihee shows us how God, in Jesus, is oriented toward us in a queer and radical way. Through the life, work, and witness of Jesus, we see a God who loves us with a queer love. And our faith in that God becomes a queer spirituality -- a spirituality that crashes through definitions and moves us outside of the categories of our making. Whenever we love ourselves and our neighbors with the boundary-breaking love of God, we live out this queer spirituality in the world.
With a captivating mix of personal story and biblical analysis, Outside the Lines shows us how each of our bodies fits into the body of Christ. Outside the lines and without exceptions.
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Mihee Kim-Kort is an ordained Presbyterian minister (PCUSA) and lives with her family in Indiana. She is author of Making Paper Cranes (2012), editor of Streams Run Uphill (2014), and coauthor of Yoked (2016). Her writing can be found in the Christian Century, Sojourners, and On Being. She is pursuing a PhD in Religious Studies at Indiana University (Bloomington).
"As someone raised in traditional Christian culture regarding sexuality, I applaud Mihee Kim-Kort's new book, Outside the Lines. It invites us all, whatever our sexual self-understanding, to ponder afresh the wonder of what it means to be embodied humans with attractions and desires. It presents queerness as a needed theological viewpoint with unique gifts to offer. And beyond that, this book is beautifully, clearly, courageously written." --Brian D. McLaren, author of A Generous Orthodoxy, The Great Spiritual Migration, Seeking Aliveness
"Mihee Kim-Kort's Outside the Lines is a work of critical importance. She not only theorizes queerness as a site of theological possibility, she also models how to best craft a book whose form is queer--exceeding the boundaries of discipline and style. Outside the Lines is about the specific and expanded forces of love, intimacy, hospitality, pleasure, grace and the Divine. And Mihee expertly--with immense beauty and care--blends the personal, the political, and the theological in a way that models pastoral care and scholarly inquiry. She wrote a book I wish I had access to as an inquisitive seminarian." --Darnell Moore, activist, speaker, and author of No Ashes in the Fire
"Mihee Kim-Kort does a beautiful, sacred thing in calling us back to love--love for our bodies, love for one another, but above all, God's relentless love for us. With grace, elegance, and vulnerability, she weaves together elements of theology, church history, and her own story. With the heart of a pastor and the kindness of a friend, she demystifies queerness, opening up expansive possibilities for a liberated, whole life of faith." --Jeff Chu, author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?
"I needed Outside the Lines more than I knew. This book made me face so many assumptions about God, others, and myself that I was unaware of. This is a book that offers insight and clarity around queerness, around faith, and around what it means to be human. I can't recommend it enough." --Mike McHargue, co-founder of The Liturgists and author of Finding God in the Waves
"In this moving celebration of queerness, Mihee Kim-Kort casts a vision for the church to become a place of generosity, hospitality, and expansive love. Her reflections on theology and identity help us imagine a church where every person--with all their questions, quirks, and insecurities--is affirmed as a gift. With vulnerability and compassion, Mihee welcomes us into a faith that is vibrant and liberating--a faith where we can exhale and find rest. Outside the Lines gives me hope for who we can become." --Julie Rodgers, writer, speaker, and advocate for LGBTQ Christians
"Kim-Kort's work is as personal as her own skin. She sees a thing, sees a body, sees a way of being and calls it by a name, queer. What was once a term of insult is now an honorary, a benediction, a name. In a time of 'othering, ' her voice insists on naming--warmly, fiercely, pastorally." --Nadia Bolz-Weber, author of Accidental Saints
"This book pulses with passion, a vibrant faith, calling every reader to see beyond convention and embrace the radical love of Jesus. Let Mihee Kim-Kort's words into your heart, and you will never be the same." --Diana Butler Bass, author of Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks
"Outside the Lines is a spectacular provocative journey of self-discovery that explores the image of the church as the body of Christ and the concept of love as we experience it. Her open, vulnerable self-disclosure invites us to explore our own sexuality, love and desires. This theological extravaganza is imaginative and accessible, and for all who seek to love ourselves, others and God." --Grace Ji-Sun Kim, author of Embracing the Other
