cosmicbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
In "Outside the Lines," Mihee Kim-Kort, a Presbyterian minister who identifies as queer, explores how adopting a queer mindset can transform one's faith. Despite positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, along with a recommendation from a friend and a forward by Rachel Held Evans, my expectations for the book were not met.
While I appreciated the author's personal story and found some topics interesting, certain aspects didn't align with my language preferences. For example, the chapter titled "Blessed Are the Promiscuous" uses language that might be considered alarming, though the application is different from what one might expect. Kim-Kort's use of the term "queer" also extends beyond my own interpretation of the word. The book seemed somewhat repetitive at times and, in some instances, meandered off course.
I believe the marketing of the book could be reconsidered to avoid potentially alarming Christians who might be deterred by the expected content. The central theme of embracing differences resonates with me, and I agree with the importance of fostering acceptance of others.
hereistheend's review against another edition
This was.... very weird. I didn’t read half way, so Im sure I’m missing essential elements, but I’d hoped that a book about queerness would at least be written by a queer person (okay, sure, the author looks back on childhood relationships and now thinks she had some bi crushes.) Not to mention that in the “body matters” section, she begins by talking about race/skin tone. Black people aren’t queer. They aren’t weird and they aren’t “the other.” Queer doesn’t simply mean “weird” and “different.” This made me very uncomfortable and I stopped reading.
madisonboboltz's review against another edition
3.0
Hmmmm. On the one hand, this book is very accessible, and it was refreshing to read something that goes beyond apologetics. Kim-Kort is not concerned with the "is being gay a sin" debate. She instead focuses her work on celebrating the ways queerness enriches faith.
On the other hand, much of the theology she presents is way underdeveloped and even problematic. There is some really great potential, but her transitions are unclear and she tends to rely on fictional accounts of queer representation rather than rooting her arguments in the actual embodied experiences of queer individuals. Her own personal anecdotes are helpful, and her identity as a Korean-American contributes to discussions about intersectionality, yet they themselves are limited. I finished several chapters thinking there was some beautiful writing and interesting points, but it was difficult to discern the intended takeaway.
Overall, I'm eager to discover more developed on queer theology.
On the other hand, much of the theology she presents is way underdeveloped and even problematic. There is some really great potential, but her transitions are unclear and she tends to rely on fictional accounts of queer representation rather than rooting her arguments in the actual embodied experiences of queer individuals. Her own personal anecdotes are helpful, and her identity as a Korean-American contributes to discussions about intersectionality, yet they themselves are limited. I finished several chapters thinking there was some beautiful writing and interesting points, but it was difficult to discern the intended takeaway.
Overall, I'm eager to discover more developed on queer theology.
rfish0615's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
karibaumann's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed this. It was a little bit different than I expected (and a little less cohesive than I wanted it to be) but it was ultimately an exploration of a faith that transgresses boundaries and expectations in surprising and joyful ways. I think it should be read slowly and probably more than once.
emeelee's review against another edition
2.0
From its beginnings, Christianity was characterized by transgressive encounters, the crossing of boundaries. […]A queer spirituality today continues that legacy by challenging and dismantling the kind of purity that locks people out, locks people in their bodies, or locks people out of the fullest expression of faithfulness we are called to and created for in God. (172)
Outside the Lines was not the book I expected it to be. Firstly, this is not a book about the legitimacy of LGBTQ+ identities from a Christian view... or at least, it's mostly not. Kim-Kort has produced a book that is more like a collection of essays-- a little bit theology, a little bit memoir-- about breaking down categorization of identities and relationships altogether.
Imagine the reality of identity as the meeting point of all different Kinsey scales. Queerness engages whose measurements—but also liberates us from them, because queerness acknowledges that identity cannot be so easily defined or categorized. […]A queer spirituality allows for loving pandemonium—the challenge of shifts and transitions, the realization that we are shaped by each other, and the emergence of new identities, new creations within each relationship. (41)
The reference to "queerness" in the title is not about gender and/or sexuality, but rather about non-traditionalism, progressiveness, and thinking beyond binaries. While a valid interpretation, it did feel like something of a bait-and-switch. In practice, there was little actually said on the subject of sexuality itself, and what was said was couched in anecdotes and flowery speech. There were some moments of really interesting insight, but it felt like they got lost amongst the less engaging ideas. For example, there was this intriguing line:
But once we let go of the pressures of purity—this unrealistic expectation to “love unconditionally”—we might find ourselves more and more empathetic and concerned for the other. (140)I wanted to hear more about how loving unconditionally is unrealistic, maybe some interrogation of biblical scripture, but instead this was the only sentence on the topic. It was brought up and then just dropped without any exploration, and Kim-Kort moved on to some utterly unoriginal ponderings about the importance of kin who aren't blood relatives. The whole book felt like that: endless ruminating on well-tread topics, but never lingering on anything thought-provoking. I did like the chapter on drag, though.
Performing, passing, playing—none of this negates the authenticity of our words, actions, and relationships. Yet recognizing that we are all “playing”—acting and passing—helps us see the insidious scripts that penetrate all of our lives. (123)
Oh, but the chapter on purity was so frustrating! Kim-Kort spends the entire chapter basically regurgitating research and ideas from other authors, and then never goes anywhere new with it! She writes about the innate racism of how "purity" is always linked to "whiteness." She argues that purity is not what "purity culture" has turned it into, and that virginity is not the same as purity. But then what is it? What does the Bible actually mean when it talks about purity? For a minister, Kim-Kort does precious little to root her arguments in actual scripture.
[T]he value of a human being is love, not morality, not virginity, and not whiteness or proximity to whiteness. (184)
In the end, I think Outside the Lines just wasn't what I wanted it to be. It didn't hold my attention, and felt too broad and shallow to really say much of anything. It wasn't bad, and I agree with the general thesis, but I didn't really enjoy it.
lukenotjohn's review against another edition
2.75
This is a difficult book to review because I don't entirely know what I think about it, even after finishing. Like many others have noted, it was really different from what I'd anticipated, not just in content but even at a foundational level regarding the understanding of "queerness" that it operates from. Within the framework of the book, queerness is a conceptual conglomerate connected to (1) a posture of expansiveness that transgresses norms and boundaries, (2) an experimental spirit of playfulness, and (3) an embodied ethic that is practiced by our identities and within political and social realities. Within that understanding, then, there is of course an inclusion of people who hold identities more commonly regarded as queer, but it seems to stretch that umbrella far wider than that too.
However, I think you could argue, it runs the risk of losing the umbrella altogether in its movement away from particularity towards abstraction and generalization. And I can see how that's fitting with Kim-Kort's logical trajectory, where queerness moves us (all of us) away from clearly marked boundaries and binaries of "in" and "out" but at the same time, I don't know if enough work was done on the front end to avoid the framework being co-opted as problematically appropriative. In fact, I received the book from a friend of mine who is queer and, expecting to feel represented in her identity (which is so rarely the case, especially within Christian publishing) got so frustrated with the looseness of the term's usage that she gave up halfway through. I have some familiarity with queer theory and that definitely helped me to follow her train of thought around the inherent connection between "queer" and "transgressive" but if this was my introduction, I think those waters would be more muddied than clear. From what I can remember, there was still of sense of centeredness regarding those with identities explicitly outside of cis/heteronormativity, and I can see how people feel this book moves away from that. For example, she explores drag performances and fictive kin, both of which are directly connected to experiences of those with queer identities, but then seems to open that up for others in relating them to wearing garments as a priest or prioritizing friendships in general. At another point, she associates her Asian identity as a marker of her queerness, and while I've certainly seen commentary on the intersection of racial and queer identities, I have never encountered a conflation of the two.
With that said, it's not like I disliked the book. Kim-Kort is a terrific writer who gives herself room to dip into some more poetic writing while still clipping along at a pace that's easy to follow. More importantly, she's offering a vision of a faith and a church that's really beautiful and compelling. I loved her exhortations to practice hospitality, expand the boundaries of family, and embrace a transgressive faith that traverses unhealthy boundaries and disrupts oppressive binaries. All of that is genuinely great! And at a personal level, I especially enjoyed the chapter on prioritizing friendship as its own meaningful end in relationship, as well as her exploration of Jesus's conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. There's plenty here worth reading, it's just a little less cohesive and a lot less clear than I had hoped going in.
However, I think you could argue, it runs the risk of losing the umbrella altogether in its movement away from particularity towards abstraction and generalization. And I can see how that's fitting with Kim-Kort's logical trajectory, where queerness moves us (all of us) away from clearly marked boundaries and binaries of "in" and "out" but at the same time, I don't know if enough work was done on the front end to avoid the framework being co-opted as problematically appropriative. In fact, I received the book from a friend of mine who is queer and, expecting to feel represented in her identity (which is so rarely the case, especially within Christian publishing) got so frustrated with the looseness of the term's usage that she gave up halfway through. I have some familiarity with queer theory and that definitely helped me to follow her train of thought around the inherent connection between "queer" and "transgressive" but if this was my introduction, I think those waters would be more muddied than clear. From what I can remember, there was still of sense of centeredness regarding those with identities explicitly outside of cis/heteronormativity, and I can see how people feel this book moves away from that. For example, she explores drag performances and fictive kin, both of which are directly connected to experiences of those with queer identities, but then seems to open that up for others in relating them to wearing garments as a priest or prioritizing friendships in general. At another point, she associates her Asian identity as a marker of her queerness, and while I've certainly seen commentary on the intersection of racial and queer identities, I have never encountered a conflation of the two.
With that said, it's not like I disliked the book. Kim-Kort is a terrific writer who gives herself room to dip into some more poetic writing while still clipping along at a pace that's easy to follow. More importantly, she's offering a vision of a faith and a church that's really beautiful and compelling. I loved her exhortations to practice hospitality, expand the boundaries of family, and embrace a transgressive faith that traverses unhealthy boundaries and disrupts oppressive binaries. All of that is genuinely great! And at a personal level, I especially enjoyed the chapter on prioritizing friendship as its own meaningful end in relationship, as well as her exploration of Jesus's conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. There's plenty here worth reading, it's just a little less cohesive and a lot less clear than I had hoped going in.
bscott3's review against another edition
4.0
An appreciated reflection on the intersections of faith, the Asian-American experience, and queerness. Queer spirituality is one that necessarily shatters the categories and expectations we have been pushed into & places us into the hands of a God who embraces it all and allows us to be co-creators of our bodies & experiences.
starklinqs's review
fast-paced
2.75
I thought this was going to be more of an analytical/theological deep dive into queerness and Christianity but it turned out to be moreso of a memoir. I normally wouldn’t hold it against the book except for the fact that it sounds more like the former in both name and description, so I wish that were more clear.
Edit: Also upon thinking about it, there were connections to race and queerness that were a little…odd to me? I don’t think anything was ill intended at all but I don’t think the point the author was trying to make was all the way present.
Edit: Also upon thinking about it, there were connections to race and queerness that were a little…odd to me? I don’t think anything was ill intended at all but I don’t think the point the author was trying to make was all the way present.