Palgrave Pivot Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care

This book, written with hospital spiritual care providers in mind, investigates how to expand the field and scope of compassion within the hospital context, for the spiritual care and safety of transgender patients.  Written by a law-educated pastoral counselor, it advocates for chaplain legal literacy, and explains the consequences of spiritual care providers not knowing more about the law. It explores the current political and legal situation transgender hospital patients find themselves in, and especially how these new policies put transgender people at risk when they are in a hospital setting. Pamela Ayo Yetunde offers Buddhist-Christian activist interreligious dialogue methods to promote deeper understanding of how spiritual practices can cultivate empathy for transgender patients. Review “This overtly political practical theology provides chaplains and other healthcare workers with concepts and practices to hate-proof hospitals on behalf of trans people. Writing with a theologian's heart, a lawyer's mind, and a bodhisattva's compassion, Yetunde identifies the constitutional and legal literacies chaplains can develop to help protect the civil and religious rights of trans people as they are deliberately erased and exposed to harm by the Religious Right in collusion with the Trump regime. Yetunde draws on the Christian New Testament, Buddhist sacred texts, and womanist theology to articulate the Parable of Our Collective Survival as a touchstone for effective public pastoral theology and trans advocacy. The book makes important contributions to spiritual care for trans communities and to the emerging pastoral literature of Buddhist-Christian studies. No other scholar could have written this text.” –Duane Bidwell, Professor of Practical Theology, Spiritual Care, and Counseling, Claremont School of Theology, USA “Integrating passionate socio-political engagement and legal acumen with spiritual insight from Buddhist and Christian traditions, the author makes a convincing case for welcoming and full inclusion of the vulnerable among us who tend to be despised by many in society, making an appeal for disobedience, resistance, and eventual transformation of oppressive laws designed to exclude "the least of these (Mt. 25:40)."–Ruben L.F. Habito, Professor of World Religions and Spirituality, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, USA  From the Back Cover “This overtly political practical theology provides chaplains and other healthcare workers with concepts and practices to hate-proof hospitals on behalf of trans people. Yetunde draws on the Christian New Testament, Buddhist sacred texts, and womanist theology to articulate the Parable of Our Collective Survival as a touchstone for effective public pastoral theology and trans advocacy.” –Duane Bidwell, Professor of Practical Theology, Spiritual Care, and Counseling, Claremont School of Theology, USA “Integrating passionate socio-political engagement and legal acumen with spiritual insight from Buddhist and Christian traditions, Pamela Ayo Yetunde makes a convincing case for welcoming and full inclusion of the vulnerable among us who tend to be despised by many in society, making an appeal for disobedience, resistance, and eventual transformation of oppressive laws designed to exclude ‘the least of these (Mt. 25:40).’”–Ruben L.F. Habito, Professor of World Religions and Spirituality, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, USA  This book is a response to the Trump-Pence Administration’s reversal of transgender rights. Pamela Ayo Yetunde offers an intersectionally-robust turn in pastoral and spiritual care―pastoral and spiritual care as religious freedom law literacy, public advocacy, East-West integration, and systems agitation.   In this book, Yetunde draws on the works of Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn; black queer Buddhists Rev. angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Dr. Jasmine Syedu