Good Faith Media’s Faithful Pride Initiative (FPI) revealed its new logo today. This logo is part of the initiative’s current effort to enhance its visibility online and in the public square as Good Faith Media expands its work. Kali Cawthon-Freels, who leads the Faithful Pride Initiative, explains the multi-layered symbolism of the design.
“We wanted something that speaks to both queerness and faith,” Cawthon-Freels said. “We chose Celtic imagery because Celtic spirituality pre-dates Christianity, in the same way that gender and sexual diversity pre-dates our modern conversations about them. There’s an ancient lineage we come from, even if that history has been largely suppressed by mainstream culture since the advent of European colonialism.”
She continued by saying, “But that’s not just any Celtic symbol. That specific Celtic knot is a symbol that means ‘peace.’ Those of us who profess the Christian faith know that the word for peace in the Hebrew Bible also means ‘completeness’ and ‘wholeness.’ It’s a word that speaks to the integration of our various parts into a cohesive whole—mind, body, and spirit. ”
“By using the Celtic knot that represents peace, we aim to communicate the message that queer people of faith should be able to bring our whole selves into both religious spaces and public life. We should be able to do so without fear, and at FPI, we will keep working towards that reality until it is our lived reality.”
“Finally, we used a rainbow gradient to make it abundantly clear to anyone who comes across our work that the Faithful Pride Initiative is unashamedly pro-LBGTQ+. The queer community kind of comes with its own rainbow branding, so it made sense for us to embrace that well-known imagery.”
Good Faith Media launched the Faithful Pride Initiative earlier this year to give dedicated attention to the rich spiritual lives of queer people and to provide resources, advocacy, and connection across the queer community. As religiously-inspired violence against queer people continues to escalate in the current sociopolitical climate, GFM felt the need to make its faith-based pro-LBGTQ+ stance undeniably clear.
Over the next several months, FPI will be rolling out new resources and content that speak to queer people of faith, welcoming their whole, integrated selves. These resources will include columns, videos, and even a book about how examining the queerer aspects of Jesus’s life can help us better understand both Christ and ourselves.
Additionally, the Faithful Pride Initiative will be on the road soon. You can see them at the Q Christian Fellowship conference in Portland, Oregon, January 22-25. There, Cawthon-Freels will lead a breakout session entitled “Reclaiming the Clobber Passages.”
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A bivocational pastor, writer and spiritual director based in Williamsburg, Virginia, she currently works as a Spiritual Director at Reclamation Theology. Cawthon-Freels is the author of Reclamation: A Queer Pastor’s Guide to Finding Spiritual Growth in the Passages Used to Harm Us (Nurturing Faith Books), and a contributing correspondent at Good Faith Media.
