“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...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
[publisher not identified]
[2016]
|
In: |
Secularism and Nonreligion
Year: 2016, Volume: 5, Pages: 1-12 |
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 |
Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
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 |