“They Just Don’t Stand for Nothing”: LGBT Christians’ Definitions of Non-Religious Others

In this exploratory study, I examine how a group of LGBT Christians conceptualized non-religious others. Based on over 450 hours of fieldwork in an LGBT Christian church located in the southeastern region of the United States, I demonstrate how a group of LGBT Christians defined non-religious others...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Secularism and Nonreligion
Main Author: Sumerau, J. E. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] [2016]
In: Secularism and Nonreligion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / LGBT / Christian / Irreligiousness / Fremdgruppe
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
AG Religious life; material religion
Further subjects:B LGBT Christians
B Inequalities
B Non-Religious People
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Description
Summary:In this exploratory study, I examine how a group of LGBT Christians conceptualized non-religious others. Based on over 450 hours of fieldwork in an LGBT Christian church located in the southeastern region of the United States, I demonstrate how a group of LGBT Christians defined non-religious others as (1) morally suspect and untrustworthy, (2) in need of salvation and guidance, and (3) poor representations of the LGBT community. Although these LGBT Christians used “non-religious” as a catchall term without ever specifying exactly who it captured, they used the first two definitions to apply to non-religious people in general regardless of sexuality while explicitly focusing on non-religious sexual minorities in their third definition. Moreover, I show how these definitions echoed mainstream religious rhetoric in America used to marginalize both sexual and religious minorities. In conclusion, I draw out two central implications of this work: (1) how religious depictions of non-religious people may reproduce societal patterns of inequality; and (2) the importance of analyzing how religious people define and interpret non-religious others.
ISSN:2053-6712
Contains:Enthalten in: Secularism and Nonreligion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5334/snr.19