35 research outputs found
Difficult Dialogues: The Technologies and Limits of Reconciliation
Projects known as dialogue or reconciliation build on the common ground between members of historically adversarial groups to help overcome vicious cycles of retaliation. This chapter compares observations from two studies of religious and religio-ethnic communities. The more recent is a qualitative study of American Jews\u27 understandings and experiences of anti-Semitism and how it relates to politics, particularly around the IsraeliâPalestinian conflict. It compares some of the findings from this study with findings that emerged in earlier ethnographic research on debates about homosexuality within the United Methodist Church. The chapter explores the intersection of politics with the self, which sociological theories of the self have generally ignored
Beyond the Dichotomy: Six Religious Views of Homosexuality
Using published theological and scholarly evidence, this article disrupts the stereotypical âborn gayâ/âsinful choiceâ dichotomy widely assumed to characterize religious views of homosexuality in the United States. It argues that we need to keep moral questions separate from questions about the fixity or fluidity of sexual orientation. Rather than two, American Christian and Jewish views of homosexuality can been seen on a range from the âGod Hates Fagsâ view through âLove the Sinner, Hate the Sin,â âWe Donât Talk About That,â âThey Canât Help It,â âGodâs Good Gift,â and a queer-theological view of the âGodly Calling.
The Sociology of Sexualities: Queer and Beyond
We identify three trends in the recent sociology of sexuality. First, we examine how queer theory has influenced many sociologists whose empirical work observes sexuality in areas generally thought to be asexual. These sociologists also elaborate queer theory\u27s challenge to sexual dichotomizing and trace the workings of power through sexual categories. Second, we look at how sociologists bring sexuality into conversation with the black feminist notion of âintersectionalityâ by examining the nature and effects of sexuality among multiple and intersecting systems of identity and oppression. A third trend in the sociology of sexuality has been to explore the relationships between sexuality and political economy in light of recent market transformations. In examining these trends, we observe the influence of globalization studies and the contributions of sociologists to understanding the role of sexuality in global processes. We conclude with the contributions sociologists of sexuality make toward understanding other social processes and with the ongoing need to study sexuality itself
Review of \u3cem\u3eQueer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms\u3c/em\u3e, by Kathleen T. Talvacchia, Michael F. Pettinger, and Mark Larrimore
Book Review of \u3cem\u3eGay on Godâs Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities\u3c/em\u3e, by Jonathan S. Coley
Humility: Rooted in Relationship, Reaching for Justice
Scholars who study humility tend to think of it in highly individualized terms, such as an absence of vanity or an accurate self-assessment. Individuating definitions can lead to such jarring concepts as the âhumble white supremacistâ (Roberts and Wood 2007). Qualitative sociological research in the (predominantly North American) evangelical movement to accept and affirm lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) identities, same-sex marriage, and sex/gender transition reveals that humility is not simply the awareness that âI could be wrong.â That awareness is rooted in what we have found to be humilityâs defining element, concern to foster relationship. These findings prompt us to define humility as a fundamentally social disposition, as concern to protect the kinds of intimate connection with others that can transform the self. Recognizing the social nature of humility reveals why humility is incompatible with injustice
Alpha, Omega, and the Letters in Between: LGBTQI Conservative Christians Undoing Gender
Sociologists studying gender have debated West and Zimmermanâs premise that âdoing gender is unavoidable,â seeking to ascertain whether people can âundoâ or only âredoâ gender. While sociologists have been correct to focus on the interactional accomplishment of gender, they have neglected one of Garfinkelâs key insights about interaction: that people hold each other accountable to particular narratives. Neglecting the narrative aspect of doingâand undoingâgender impedes our ability to recognize processes of social change. Based on a qualitative study, we show how the movement for LGBTQI acceptance within U.S. conservative Protestant churches works to make gender not âomnirelevantâ by challenging conservative âcomplementarityâ narratives that posit two complementary, opposite sexes as a commandment preceding the Ten Commandments in time and importance. We explore this movementâs ambivalent relationship with homonormativity, highlight three ways this movement resists projecting binary gender narratives into scripture, and examine how some in this movement see the pursuit of social justice as a Christian mandate. The efforts of LGBTQI conservative Christians exemplify how reshaping sex/gender/sexual narratives can create possibilities for undoing gender
Sunsets and Solidarity: Overcoming Sacramental Shame in Conservative Christian Churches to Forge a Queer Vision of Love and Justice
Drawing from our interdisciplinary qualitative study of LGBTI conservative Christians and their allies, we name an especially toxic form of shameâwhat we call sacramental shameâthat affects the lives of LGBTI and other conservative Christians. Sacramental shame results from conservative Christianity\u27s allegiance to the doctrine of gender complementarity, which elevates heteronormativity to the level of the sacred and renders those who violate it as not persons, but monsters. In dispensing shame as a sacrament, nonaffirming Christians require constant displays of shame as proof that LGBTI church members love God and belong in the community. Part of what makes this shame so harmful is that parents and pastors often dispense it with sincere expressions of care and affection, compounding the sense that one\u27s capacity to give and receive love is damaged. We foreground LGBTI Christian movements to overcome sacramental shame by cultivating nonhubristic pride, and conclude by discussing briefly their new understandings of love and justice that could have farâreaching benefits
The politics of shame in the motivation to virtue: Lessons from the shame, pride, and humility experiences of LGBT conservative Christians and their allies
Philosophical views defending shame as a catalyst for moral virtue are at odds with empirical data indicating that shame often yields psychologically unhealthy responses for those who feel it, and often motivates in them morally worse action than whatever occasioned the initial shame experience. Our interdisciplinary ethnographic study analyzes the shame experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) conservative Christians and the church members who once shamed them but are now allies. In this context, shame, humility, and proper pride work together amid hierarchies of social power to influence peoplesâ motivation, ability, or lack thereof to love and care for others. Shame may catalyze virtue, but not where it has been imposed as a chronic disposition