Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity, and CommunityFor many Christians, "homosexuality" is an issue. It is often considered a matter of "us" versus "them," or worse, for gay men and women, a question of their behavior, not something intrinsic to their identity. Coming Out in Christianity examines this conflict from the point of view of a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians. It focuses on current and former members of two Metropolitan Community Churches in California that serve predominantly LGBT Christians. Based on original research, including more than 70 in-depth interviews, the book explores life histories, current beliefs, cultural settings, and community influences to learn what helped each forge an identity as both gay and Christian. These powerful case studies will help to deepen our understanding of both religion and personal identity. |
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Popular passages
Page 139 - a means of performing the way things ought to be in conscious tension to the way things are in such a way that this ritualized perfection is recollected in the ordinary, uncontrolled course of things.””
Page 153 - The object of social science is a reality that encompasses all the individual and collective struggles aimed at conserving or transforming reality, in particular those that seek to impose the legitimate definition of reality, whose specifically symbolic efficacy can help to conserve or subvert the established order, that is to say, reality. —Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice
Page 42 - or wrongness of samegender relationships, but recognizing that a person's affectional or sexual preference is not legitimate grounds on which to deny her or his civil liberties, the Tenth General Synod of the United Church of Christ proclaims the Christian conviction that all persons are entitled to full civil liberties and equal protection under the law.
Page 5 - The light of God surrounds us. The love of God enfolds us. The power of God protects us. The presence of God watches over us. Wherever we are, God is. And all is welL
Page 139 - learned by body' is not something that one has, like knowledge that can be brandished, but something that one is.”
Page 190 - 19. Diana Fuss, Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference (New York. Routledge, 1989).
Page 190 - Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity(New York. Routledge, 1990); and The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997).
Page 5 - Love can build a bridge between your heart and mine, Love can build a bridge, Don't you think it's time, Don't you think it's time?
Page 194 - Derrick Sherwin Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition (London: Longmans, Green, 1955);
References to this book
Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement Tanya Erzen Limited preview - 2006 |
Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-gay Movement Tanya Erzen Limited preview - 2006 |
Bibliographic information
| Title | Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity, and Community |
| Author | Melissa M. Wilcox |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Indiana University Press, 2003 |
| ISBN | 0253216192, 9780253216199 |
| Length | 219 pages |
| Subjects | › › Religion / Christian Life / Social Issues Social Science / Gay Studies Social Science / Lesbian Studies |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |