The Rev. Dr. Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan, president elect of the Claremont School of Theology, responded on Wednesday to news of the U.S. Supreme Court’s twin rulings in defense of same-sex marriage.

He applauded the high court’s decision to strike down part of 1996’s Defense of Marriage Act and to dismiss an appeal supporting Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriages in California.

“This is a landmark day in the history of our nation and the global struggle for human rights,” Rev. Kuan expressed in a release. “I am proud to stand and rejoice with my LGBT sisters and brothers as we celebrate today, while recognizing the work yet to be done on the long arc toward justice.  As we continue to determine what this means for the Church, we join with communities of faith across the country and around the world to seek justice, love and mercy, and walk humbly with our God, together and forever.”

Rev. Kuan will officially take the helm of the Claremont School of Theology on Saturday, July 1. He is succeeding Jerry D. Campbell, who held the position of CST president for 7 years and who will remain president of Claremont Lincoln University as the new university continues to develop.

Rev. Kuan is an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church who since 2011 has served as dean of Drew University Theological School. Previously, he spent nearly 20 years on the faculties of the Pacific School of Religion and Graduate Theological Union teaching in the areas of Hebrew Bible and Asian and Asian-American hermeneutics.

Ordained in the UMC’s California-Nevada Annual Conference, Rev. Kuan currently chairs the Commission on Theological Education of the UMC University Senate and recently completed two 4-year terms on the UMC General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, where he served as vice president. Rev. Kuan also serves on the boards of the Reconciling Ministries Network and Asian American and Pacific Islander United Methodist Clergywomen Association, and chairs the Member Council of the Hispanic Theological Initiative Consortium.

Rev. Kuan is author, co-author and editor of numerous publications related to biblical history, interpretation and theology, with recent emphasis on interpretation in Asian and Asian American contexts. He is co-editor of Ways of Being, Ways of Reading: Asian-American Biblical Interpretation (Chalice, 2006) and authored a number of entries in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception and New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, of which he was an editor from 2006-2009. He is currently working on a commentary on the book of Joshua and is researching the history of biblical interpretation in Asia.

Rev. Kuan earned a PhD in Old Testament from Emory University, an MTS. from Perkins Theological School and a Bachelor of Theology from Trinity Theological College in Singapore.

—Sarah Torribio

Claremont-courier.com