The Sexual Politics of Black Churches

by Josef Sorett (Editor)

Overview

Winner, 2022-2023 Virginia Ramey Mollenkott Award for chapter 5 "Everybody Knew He Was 'That Way': Chicago’s Clarence H. Cobbs, American Religion, and Sexuality during the Post-World War II Period" by Wallace Best

This book brings together an interdisciplinary roster of scholars and practitioners to analyze the politics of sexuality within Black churches and the communities they serve. In essays and conversations, leading writers reflect on how Black churches have participated in recent discussions about issues such as marriage equality, reproductive justice, and transgender visibility in American society. They consider the varied ways that Black people and groups negotiate the intersections of religion, race, gender, and sexuality across historical and contemporary settings.

Individually and collectively, the pieces included in this book shed light on the relationship between the cultural politics of Black churches and the broader cultural and political terrain of the United States. Contributors examine how churches and their members participate in the formal processes of electoral politics as well as how they engage in other processes of social and cultural change. They highlight how contemporary debates around marriage, gender, and sexuality are deeply informed by religious beliefs and practices.

Through a critically engaged interdisciplinary investigation, The Sexual Politics of Black Churches develops an array of new perspectives on religion, race, and sexuality in American culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231547772
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	02/08/2022
Series:	Religion, Culture, and Public Life , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Josef Sorett is professor of religion and African American and African diaspora studies at Columbia University, where he also directs the Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics, and Social Justice. He is the author of Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics (2016).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction, by Josef Sorett
Part I. A Call to Conversation
1. Religion, Race & Sexuality in American Culture: A Public Conversation, featuring Victor Anderson, Serene Jones, and Barbara Savage; moderated by Cathy Cohen and Josef Sorett
Part II. Sacred Texts, Social Authority, Sexual Difference
2. Jephthah’s Daughter and #SayHerName, by Nyasha Junior
3. An Inconsistent Truth: The New Testament, Early Christianity, and Sexuality, by Michael Joseph Brown
Part III. Historical and Cultural Formations of Black (Christian) Sexual Politics
4. “Have the Sons of Africa No Souls?” Manliness, Freedom and Power in the Cultural Roots of Afro-Phallic Protestantism, by Jonathan Lee Walton
5. Everybody Knew He Was “That Way”: Chicago’s Clarence H. Cobbs, American Religion, and Sexuality during the Post-World War II Period, by Wallace Best
6. Interrogating the Passionate and Pious: Televangelism and Black Women’s Sexuality, by Monique Moultrie
Part IV. Identity and Inclusion in Black Churches
7. The Self Interested Politics of Collective Religious Transformation: Issues of Family Definition and LGBT Inclusion in Black Churches, by Melynda J. Price
8. Intersectional Invisibility and the Experience of Ontological Exclusion: The Case of Black Gay Christians, by Valerie Purdy-Greenaway, Richard Eibach, and Nick Camp
Part V. Theological and Pastoral Visions of Inclusive Black Churches
9. Gay Is the New Black, Theologically Speaking, by Monica A. Coleman
10. Flesh That Needs to be Loved: Wounded Black Bodies and Preachin’ in the Spirit, by Luke A. Powery
11. Aiding and Abetting New Life: “Sex-Talk” in the Pulpit, Pew and Public Square, by Brad R. Braxton
12. An Experiment in Inclusion: A Conversation with Christine and Dennis Wiley, an Interview by Derrick W. McQueen
Epilogue by Josef Sorett
Notes
List of Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

The Black church is a complexly rich institution, and its sexual politics are even more complex. Yet the Black church has been caricatured as culturally monolithic and its sexual politics as dogmatically conservative. The Sexual Politics of Black Churches reveals the inaccurate and gross simplification of both of these characterizations. The interdisciplinary voices and varied approaches represented in this volume provide the kind of cultural, theological, historical, and political analyses that are necessary if one is ever to appreciate the intricate nature of Black churches and their sometime opaque sexual politics. For anyone who wants to move beyond the stereotypic tropes about Black churches as stubbornly homophobic, this volume is a must read. It does not simply build upon previous studies of Black church sexual politics; rather, it provides a new interdisciplinary approach that allows for a nuanced understanding of what has seemed too easily misunderstood and casually dismissed.

The Very Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas

The Sexual Politics of Black Churches is not only timely—even overdue—but especially rewarding intellectually, politically, and ethically. Advancing conversations on sexuality and Black Christianity, this work is essential reading for anyone interested in Black Christianity in general, in religion and sexuality, in studies of religion and race, and in accounts of theology and politics in the U.S. A wonderful achievement.

Anthony Petro

Josef Sorett and the team of scholars, practitioners, artists, and thinkers—blended at the intersections of their expertise—present readers with an invitation to explore and feel our way through important discussions of blackness, sexuality, and church/spiritual politics. Written and presented as a communal practice of listening, learning, and "reasoning together," this volume illuminates what matters today in black religious discourse.

Thelathia “Nikki" Young

Attitudes about LGBTQ rights have changed dramatically in the United States since the start of the twenty-first century and the legalization of same-sex marriage by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015. Communities of faith have both championed and challenged these changes. In this important and timely work, scholars explore Black churches’ responses to questions of gender, sexual identity, and marriage equality. It is a must-read for those doing ministry in the twenty-first century and those thinking about the future of Black religious faith and sexuality.

Marla Frederick

Combining the genres of dialogue and essay, Josef Sorett curates one of the most rigorous and riveting engagements with the state of the Black church and its political-cultural-sexual complexities. This collection overthrows theological and critical tables, providing essential and original close readings of the contemporary Black church, its pitfalls and possibilities. The Sexual Politics of Black Churches is a refreshing and welcomed contribution to Black church and sexuality studies!

Jeffrey Q. McCune

Black churches have been stalked by flat-footed depictions of civil rights mythology on one hand and homophobia on the other. Thankfully, this volume brings together leading scholars and thinkers to trouble those waters, helping all of us to see a history and present that is far more complex, interesting, and beautiful.

Lerone Martin

I am a Same-Gender Loving African American Woman, Pastor, Bishop, Teacher, Preacher, Mother and evolving-Pentecostal Justice Warrior! I find my whole self and my community deeply situated in The Sexual Politics of Black Churches…a collection of experiences and studies focused on The Black Church and Sexuality. It was a joy to be part of the conversations, and the finished product is filled with scholarship and liberation power! May the Black Church and all of Her beautiful Spirit-filled Children read and experience the Christ-Call to Radical Inclusivity & Extravagant Grace!

Rev. Dr. Yvette A. Flunder