A Tent of Meeting for Our Time

Lis K. Regula, PhD

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Quote

“The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When any of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.”

-Leviticus 1:1-2

Devotion

Parshat Vayikra begins not with thunder or lightning, but with a quiet moment: God calls to Moses from the Tent of Meeting. The Hebrew word vayikra — “and [God] called” — is written in the scroll with a small aleph, as if whispered. God’s call is not meant to overwhelm but to invite. It is the beginning of a conversation between heaven and earth, a call that beckons all of Israel into relationship and responsibility.

The instructions that follow describe offerings — animals brought from the herd or flock — each one an act of repair, restoring the connection between people and God. These offerings weren’t just about private devotion; they were communal practices, reminders that holiness was sustained through shared experiences.

That message feels urgent today. Across Ohio and the United States, we are seeing a surge of anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant rhetoric. These aren’t abstract problems; they are wounds to the body of our communities. When fear and suspicion are sown against one group, all of us suffer. When one member is targeted, the whole tent leans.

Vayikra reminds us that holiness requires collective offerings. It is not enough for some to show up — everyone is called to bring what they can, to keep the community upright.

The rabbis observed that the Tent of Meeting was not made of stone, but instead of cloth. A tent is fragile and flexible, portable and dependent on many hands to raise it. No single person can lift it alone.

So, it is with justice in our day. The “tent” of solidarity is fragile when neglected, but strong when we lift it together. When antisemitism rises, it is not “their” problem; it is the whole tent straining. When Muslims are vilified, when immigrants are scapegoated, when LGBTQ+ families are denied dignity — the poles bend, the fabric tears, and God’s presence trembles at the center.

The offerings in Vayikra are images of participation. Each Israelite brought what they could — some more, some less, but always something. Today, our offerings may not be bulls or lambs but presence: standing beside a Jewish neighbor when hate speech threatens, defending a Muslim colleague when bias surfaces, welcoming an immigrant family when rhetoric seeks to exclude. These are the sacrifices God desires now — offerings of courage, persistence, and love that bind us to one another.

The midrash also teaches that the fire on the altar was never allowed to go out. Day and night, it was tended by the people’s gifts. Justice works the same way: it is not sustained by a single grand gesture, but by the steady contributions of many. By showing up at vigils, at school board meetings, and at legislatures. By refusing to let division define us. By tending the fire of justice so it does not go cold.

The heart of Vayikra is this: we are called together. Each offering, each act of solidarity, strengthens the whole. And when one community is targeted, the injury is never isolated. My liberation is braided with yours, just as the fire rises in one column, no matter how many different offerings are placed upon it.

When Jewish neighbors are scapegoated, my dignity is diminished. When Muslim neighbors live in fear, my freedom is incomplete. When immigrants are excluded, my community is weakened. Our liberation is intertwined — not a collection of parallel struggles, but one rope, one fire, one tent that only stands if we tend it together.

Parshat Vayikra begins with God’s quiet invitation: Come near. Bring what you can. Restore what has been broken. That call still echoes today. It does not demand perfection, but participation. It asks us to bring our offerings of presence and solidarity, however small, and trust that together they will sustain the fire of justice.

Ohio faces urgent challenges — from maternal and infant mortality to healthcare deserts, to housing insecurity. We cannot afford to be divided. Scapegoating only distracts us, weakening our ability to face real problems. God’s call in Vayikra is to refuse division and to remember that the tent only stands when all of us lift it.

Our liberation is intertwined. Our offerings are shared. And our call is to tend the fire together, so that God’s presence dwells among us still.

Reflection

1. What does “bringing an offering” look like for me in my own life and community?

2. Where do I see division or scapegoating threatening to tear the “tent” of our community?

3. What small act of solidarity can I bring this week to help keep the fire of justice alive?

Action

I would be remiss in my duties as co-chair of Ohio Equal Rights if I did not highlight the importance of building a tent in Ohio by protecting our rights at the state level. Ohio Equal Rights is working alongside the Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity to pass a total of three citizen-led ballot initiatives:

1. The Ohio Equal Rights Amendment incorporating broad ERA language into Ohio’s Constitution and providing a path to recourse regardless of the status of federal protections.

   
   

2. The Right to Marry Amendment overturning the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage equality to align with current federal protections.

   
   

3. The Protecting Ohioans Constitutional Protections Amendment restricting the ability of governmental employees’ ability to avoid consequences when they cause harm while on the job.

   
   

If you haven’t yet, sign those petitions and reach out if you’d like to learn more.

🚨 Action Alert - HB249 - Drag Ban 🚨

TLDR - Ohio House Bill 249 (HB249), the Drag Ban, is up for opponent testimony on Wednesday, March 18, before the House Judiciary Committee. We need people to testify against the bill both in person and in writing. For instructions on how to testify see the bottom of this message.

HB249 - What is it?

HB249 is a near-complete ban on the artistic expression known as drag. Under the bill drag would only be allowed in age-restricted “adult cabarets.” However, the bill is vague and poorly written. Under this bill it is entirely possible that Transgender people could be charged simply for “exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers.”

What are LOVEboldly’s concerns?

HB249 not only criminalizes a legitimate art form with important social and historical meaning for the LGBTQIA+ community, the bill’s language is overly broad and vague. It could be used to criminalize the very existence of Trans people going about their lives.

In fact, HB249’s language would criminalize the public ministry of Transgender clergy and ministry leaders if people under the age of 18 were present in their congregations.

Don’t just take our word for it…

Our partners at Equality Ohio have put together a great set of guidelines and talking points for discussing HB249. You can find that document by clicking here.

What can you do to push back?

We need people to testify in-person against HB249 or to submit written testimony. The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 18, at 9:30am in Room 017 at the Statehouse.

You must submit your testimony (in-person or written) no later than Tuesday, March 17 at 9:30am (24 hours prior to the hearing). Submit your testimony via email to OHRJudiciaryCommittee@ohiohouse.gov along with a witness slip (click here to download the witness slip).

Please send a copy of your testimony to us at admin@loveboldly.org.

We are particularly looking for clergy to testify in person and in clerics if possible.

ALSO, please consider including this information in your announcements on Sunday or discussing it with your congregations during another part of your Sunday activities.

Have questions?

Contact Rev. Dr. Ben at bhuelskamp@loveboldly.org.

Testimony in Opposition to HB531

Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, LOVEboldly's Executive Director, was unable to testify in person today against HB531 (the School Chaplain Bill). He submitted written testimony instead.

Introduction

Chair Fowler-Arthur, Vice Chair Odioso, Ranking Member Brennan, and members of the House Education Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony in opposition to House Bill 531 (HB531), the School Chaplains Act. My name is the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, and I serve as Executive Director of LOVEboldly, an Ohio faith-based nonprofit whose mission is to create spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish within Christianity. I write to you today not as an opponent of faith, but as a person of faith, one who believes precisely because of that faith that HB531 should not become law.

I have followed this legislation since its predecessor was introduced in the 135^th General Assembly in 2023. The substantive concerns I raised then have not been resolved. HB531 introduces volunteer chaplains into Ohio’s public K-12 schools with inadequate training standards, no meaningful supervision framework, and no protections for the most vulnerable students those schools serve. I urge this committee to not allow HB531 to move beyond these hearings.

The Bill’s Premise Is Unexamined

Ohio faces a genuine shortage of school counselors. The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor per 250 students; Ohio’s current ratio is approximately 1:380. That is a real problem worthy of legislative attention. But the answer to a counselor shortage is not to place untrained volunteers with religious authority into schools. The question the bill’s sponsors have not answered, and that this Committee should press, is: why chaplains specifically?

Sponsor testimony pointed to chaplaincy programs in universities, hospitals, prisons, and the military. These are contexts populated overwhelmingly by adults who have consented to the environment they are in. K-12 public education is categorically different. Children are compelled to be there. They are more vulnerable. They deserve more protection, not less.

The Bill Lacks Adequate Supervision and Accountability

 

HB531 requires only that chaplains pass a criminal background check and receive endorsement from a recognized ecclesiastical agency. Beyond those minimal thresholds, the bill offers no guidance on supervision, who provides it, how often, or to what standard. This is not a framework. It is an absence of one.

Consider what this absence means in practice. Will already-stretched school administrators absorb supervisory responsibility for chaplains with no additional resources or training to do so? Will districts be liable for the conduct of volunteers operating under religious endorsement but school authority? The bill creates these conditions while offering districts no tools to manage them. That is not permissive flexibility, it is structured neglect.

Professional chaplaincy, the kind practiced in hospitals, the military, and prisons, requires extensive clinical training, supervised fieldwork, and ongoing accountability to professional standards. An ecclesiastical endorsement is not a substitute for that preparation. I am a trained pastor with both a masters degree and a doctorate in education, and I would not consider myself qualified to serve as a chaplain in a K-12 school. The bill asks less of its chaplains than my own credentials would suggest is minimally appropriate.

LGBTQIA+ Students Face Particular and Serious Risk

 

HB531 contains no requirement that chaplains treat sexual orientation and gender identity as legitimate aspects of student identity rather than as pathologies to be corrected. In the absence of that requirement and in the absence of meaningful supervision a chaplain holding non-affirming theological views could expose LGBTQIA+ students to harmful, pseudoscientific practices. This is not a hypothetical: conversion practices have been documented in religious volunteer contexts in schools in other states. Ohio should not create the conditions for that harm here.

Sponsor testimony cited a statistic from the National School Chaplain Association claiming no suicides in schools with chaplains present for two or more years. If accurate, that is worth examining carefully. But we also have robust research demonstrating that LGBTQIA+ students who feel affirmed and supported by their school community experience significantly lower rates of suicidal ideation. The path to that outcome runs through affirming school cultures — not through unregulated volunteer chaplains whose theological commitments regarding LGBTQIA+ identity are nowhere addressed by this legislation.

It is worth noting that HB531 is moving through the legislature alongside several bills that would restrict the rights and recognition of LGBTQIA+ students in Ohio schools. The cumulative effect of this legislative environment is to increase risk for some of the most vulnerable students in our public schools. This committee should weigh that context.

The Bill Creates Risk for Religious Minority Students

Ohio’s school districts vary enormously in their religious demographics. In rural communities, available clergy may represent a very narrow range of traditions. Even in more diverse communities, a chaplain drawn from one tradition will face genuine limits in their capacity to serve students from other faiths or from no faith. The bill provides no guidance on how chaplains should navigate this reality, and no requirement that they be equipped to do so.

Public schools serve all students. Structures embedded in those schools must be accountable to that same breadth. HB531 falls well short of that standard.

Conclusion

 

I am a person of faith. I believe deeply in the capacity of faith communities to support people, including young people through difficulty. That belief is precisely why I oppose HB531. This bill does not create a robust, accountable, well-trained chaplaincy program in Ohio schools. It creates a permission structure for religious volunteers to operate in proximity to vulnerable children with minimal standards, minimal supervision, and no explicit protections for students whose identities many religious traditions do not affirm.

If this legislature wishes to address the school counselor shortage in Ohio, I urge investment in actual school counselors, trained mental health professionals who are accountable to educational and clinical standards, and who are equipped to serve every student regardless of faith, identity, or background.

I respectfully urge this Committee to oppose HB531 and stop it at this point in the legislative process.

Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp

Executive Director, LOVEboldly

bhuelskamp@loveboldly.org

www.loveboldly.org