Gay Religion

(Paperback)

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Description

While homosexuals continue gaining acceptance in other arenas of American culture, only a tiny minority of religious groups accept gays and lesbians as full members and potential clergy. Serious conflicts over homosexuality threaten to break apart several large U.S. denominations. Yet these heated theological debates can often obscure what religious gays and lesbians are actually doing. Gay Religion is the first book to objectively present the spiritual lives, practices and expressions of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered. Drawing from a wide range of religious traditions, new and established scholars explore the range of gay religious expression in denominations, sects, and in areas outside recognized religious institutions. And these scholars ask what these religious innovations mean to the continually evolving religious environment of North America. With its helpful section introductions and an appendix providing profiles of organizations involved, Gay Religion is a useful and a compelling resource for anyone interested in homosexuality and American religion. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Reviews

This collection of essays can inform an issue that has too much divided religious folk in recent decades. Perhaps if we knew more about the subject we seem determined to debate so fiercely we might make some progress toward actually hearing one another. Thumma and Gray have given us a source of information which has heretofore been entirely missing. Now, if we will use it the church might return to its more ancient work. -- Rev. Michael S. Piazza, Dean of the Cathedral of Hope, Dallas
Gay Religion, with its valuable and insightful array of articles, maps an uncharted terrain of translesbigay spirituality in contemporary American religious culture. The authors provide insight into the diverse strategies that translesbigays use to negotiate between institutional religion and their sexual orientation identities. It also highlights creative, innovative forms of rainbow spirituality, from queer appropriation of Catholic saints, to reconciling congregations to the spiritual experiences of leather spirituality, evangelical gospel drag, and circuit parties. The volume testifies to the vibrant spirituality of a community, often oppressed by religion. -- Robert Goss, MCC Pastor/Theologian and author of Jesus ACTED UP and Queering Christ.
Gay Religion provides a valuable resource, both as a text and a typology, to continue studying and documenting the relationship between homosexuality and religion in the United States in the twenty-first century. It will be a valuable resource in the classroom to enable students to see the complexity of the LGBT lifestyle both in American religion and society. Furthermore, Gay Religion will spur current students to become scholars of the emerging field of gay religion. -- Craig This * Journal Of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality *
Putting a human face on what is too often contested as an abstract concept, Thumma and Gray and their contributors do not so much debate the possibility of gay religion as portray its reality. In vivid accounts of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Santeria, neo-Pagan and other LGBT communities, readers will encounter much that is comfortingly familiar alongside that which is new and startling. The collection and the realities it depicts testify to the inexhaustible adaptability and diversity of American religion. This is an important and timely book. -- R Stephen Warner, professor of sociology, University of Illinois at Chicago

Author Bio

Scott Thumma is professor of sociology of religion and web and distance education at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary. Edward R. Gray is visiting assistant professor of religion at Emory University and the executive director of YouthPride, a community based youth service and advocacy organization in Atlanta.