Biography
André S. Musskopf is a lay theologian, raised in the Lutheran tradition in
Brazil from Sunday school to seminary. He has been denied ordination by the
Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil. He has subsequently focused
on articulating a gay/queer theological discourse that rises from the experience
of being gay/queer, struggling to open up church settings but mostly to claim
and exercise the religious citizenship of LGBT people despite the excluding
discourses of churches.
André holds bachelors and masters degrees in theology and is currently
pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the Graduate Ecumenical Institute of the Escola
Superior de Teologia (São Leopoldo, Brasil). His research is called "Itineraries
for a Queer Theology - Contributions for a New Latin American Sexual Theology".
His main field of research and study is systematic theology. He is a member of
the Gender Research Group (NPG) developing studies in the areas of feminist
studies, gender and queer theories, masculinities, homosexualities and sexual
diversity, in relation to theology and religion. With the NPG he has been part
of the organization of the I and II Latin-American Congress on Gender and
Religion (2004 and 2006). He is also a member of the Brazilian Association of
Studies of the Homoculture (ABEH) and of the American Academy of Religion (AAR).
André has done volunteer work in the area of HIV/AIDS at ASPA (Support,
Solidarity and Prevention to AIDS) since 1997, a nongovernmental organization
founded by Lutheran seminarians. In 2002, he was one of the founders of the
Ecumenical Inclusive Worship Group at ASPA, which has had a partnership with
Lutherans Concerned/North America. He has been the coordinator of this group and
also coordinator and facilitator of the meetings of the LGBT Christian Groups of
the South Cone of Latin America. In 2006, he also coordinated the Center for
Sexual Diversity at ASPA that organized the 2nd Gay Pride Parade in São Leopoldo
and approved anti-discrimination laws in the city.
André has also been guest lecturer and facilitator at several meetings and
congresses in Brazil and Latin America while also working with grassroots groups
and social movements. He was invited to speak on gay theology at the 7th
Theological Journey of CETELA (Community of Ecumenical Theological Education in
Latin America and the Caribbean), being the first continental event in which gay
theology was acknowledged as an emergent theological discourse in Latin America.
He attended the 8th Journey as a guest in 2006. He has also been invited to
speak on religion and the LGBT community at several meetings of the LGBT civil
rights movements, including the XII Brazilian Meeting of GLT People in Brasília
in 2005.
He is the author of “Uma brecha no armário – Propostas para uma Teologia Gay”
(A Gap in the Closet – Proposals for a Gay Theology), the first publication in
Portuguese to name itself in this field of studies in Latin America, and “Talar
Rosa – Homossexuais e o Ministério na Igreja” (Pink Robe – Homosexuals and the
Ministry in the Church). He is also co-organizer and author of “À flor da pele –
Ensaios sobre gênero e corporeidade”, “Corporeidade, etnia e masculinidade –
Reflexões do I Congresso Latino-Americano de Gênero e Religião” (Embodiment,
Ethnicity and Masculinity – Reflections on the I Latin American Congress on
Gender and Religion) and “A graça do mundo transforma deus – Diálogos
latino-americanos com a IX Assembléia do CMI” (The Grace of the World Transforms
God – Latin American Dialogues with the 9th Assembly of the World Council of
Churches), among many other publications.
(This biographical statement provided by André Musskopf.)
Biography Date: February 2007
Tags
Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession (Brazil) | AIDS | Author/editor | Ordination/clergy | Theology | Brazil
Remembrances