ZACHARY DAVIS, MTS ’19 As a Mormon from southern Utah, Zachary Davis learned that divinity schools were “places of dangerous speculation on the road to atheism.” After working on HarvardX online courses for HDS professors Laura Nasrallah and Diane Moore, though, he found himself drawn to the critical study of religion—and to HDS’s commitment to knowledge for the betterment of the world. At HarvardX, he also saw the power of technology, which inspired him as a new student to create “Ministry of Ideas,” an educational program that The Guardian calls “simply the best podcast out right now.”
“We need to have a better grasp of where our ideas come from and how they are manipulated by other forces, so that when we are called to evaluate something, we’re ready to do the duty of a citizen. Being a citizen is a sacred calling, and we can’t be faithful to it if we don’t have the historical knowledge and intellectual tools to exercise good judgment.”
ETHAN FALLEUR, MDIV ’19 Ethan Falleur grew up Catholic and gay in the heart of America’s Bible Belt. He came out while a student at Dartmouth College, where he studied religion and music. His family was supportive, but many friends back home were not. “I remember posting on Facebook for National Coming Out Day,” he says, “and watching the number of friends go down because people were not comfortable associating with me as an out gay man.” Falleur came to HDS to pursue ordination in the Episcopal Church, where he wants to serve as an example for LGBTQ youth.
“As a queer man in the church, I hope that I can be what trans actress Laverne Cox calls a ‘possibility model.’ She’s a black trans woman, phenomenal actress, and she said, growing up as a black trans person, she didn’t see people like her on TV or in books and movies. We’re starting to see a lot more queer clergy and LGBT-affirming churches, but that fight is not over. So if I can be, to use her words, a possibility model for somebody, then that’s the best I could hope for.”
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