https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8899-1157
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ABSTRACT
LGBT Christian activism in Indonesia was initiated by progressive wings within ecumenical denominations, while backlashes were mostly voiced by evangelical groups. Disrupting such a binary, we interviewed affirming Pentecostal church leaders and members (both LGBT persons and allies) to explore theological, discursive, and congregational resources that were drawn upon to constitute an affirming evangelical position. While previous studies in the West have paid significant attention to theological reinterpretations of texts and traditions, our findings demonstrated that there are other contextual resources to explore, both at the personal, communal, and institutional levels which may support an affirming subjectivity for allies and LGBT persons themselves. Three resources were identified in this study, namely, a strong sense of personal moral agency, the tight-knit church community, and the self-governed, market-driven church institution. The implications of the study are discussed in relation to Pentecostal theologies and LGBT Christian activism in contemporary Indonesia.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Platt, Davies, & Bennett, “Contestations of Gender, Sexuality”.
2 Weintraub, “Morality and Its (Dis)Contents”.
3 Laurent, “Sexuality and Human Rights”; Suvianita, “Human Rights and the LGBTI”
4 Alfikar, Christian-Islam Progressive Interpretations.
5 Suvianita, “Human Rights and the LGBTI”
6 Garcia Rodriguez, “Who are the Allies”; Garcia Rodriguez and Murtagh, “Situating Anti-LGBT Moral Panic”; Thajib, “The Making and Breaking”.
7 Handoko, “Rethinking Homosexuality”.
8 Fuist, Stoll, and Kniss, “Beyond the Liberal-Conservative Divide”.
9 Bean and Martinez, “Evangelical Ambivalence Toward Gays”.
10 Burrow-Branine, “Community of Counter-conduct”; Stell, “Queerly Evangelical”.
11 Jung, “Does Transnational Experience”.
12 Chan, “Desexualizing Sexual Identity”; Sumerau, “Somewhere between Evangelical and Queer”; Thumma, “Negotiating a Religious Identity”.
13 Natividade and de Oliveira, “God Transforms”; van Klinken, “Queer Love”; Yi, Jung, Segura, Phillips, and Park, “Gay Seouls”.
14 Clifton-Soderstrom, “Common Sense, Plain Sense”; Gushee, “Reconciling Evangelical Christianity”; Stell, “Queerly Evangelical”.
15 Larsen, “Defining and Locating Evangelicalism”.
16 Anderson, An introduction to Pentecostalism.
17 Hunt, Handbook of Megachurches, 1.
18 Fer, “Pentecostalism”; Larsen, “Defining and Locating Evangelicalism”.
19 Smith, Thinking in Tongues.
20 Stell, “Queerly Evangelical”.
21 White, Strangers at the Gate.
22 Gushee, “Reconciling Evangelical Christianity”.
23 Bean and Martinez, “Evangelical Ambivalence”.
24 Pew Research Center, Most U.S. Christian Groups.
25 Burrow-Branine, “Community of Counter-conduct”.
26 Thumma, “Negotiating a Religious Identity”, 39.
27 Stell, “Queerly Evangelical”, 62.
28 van Klinken, “Queer Love”, 54.
29 Yi, Jung, Segura, Phillips, and Park, “Gay Seouls”.
30 See for example, Sayler, “Beyond the Biblical Impasse”; Gushee, “Reconciling Evangelical Christianity”; and Clifton-Soderstrom, “Common Sense, Plain Sense”.
31 Braun and Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis”.
32 Bartelink, “The Personal is Political”; Fer, “Pentecostalism”.
33 van Klinken, “Queer Love”.
34 See for example, Natividade and Oliveira, “God Transforms”; Wijaya Mulya, “From Divine Instruction”.
35 Bird and Thumma, A New Decade; Sumerau, “Somewhere between Evangelical and Queer”.
36 Thumma, “Negotiating a Religious Identity”; Yi et al., “Gay Seouls”.
37 Burrow-Branine, “Community of Counter-conduct”.
38 Bird and Thumma, A New Decade; Hunt, Handbook of Megachurches
39 Udampoh, “Included, Affirmed, and Empowered”.
40 Bennett, “Patterns of Resistance”; Wijaya Mulya, “From Divine Instruction”.
41 Stell, “Queerly Evangelical”.
42 Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 22.
43 Smith, Thinking in Tongues, 74.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Teguh Wijaya Mulya
Teguh Wijaya Mulya is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology, the University of Surabaya, Indonesia. He holds a doctorate from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His interests include theology, sexuality, gender, religion, and critical education. Through his research, Teguh sought to navigate his conservative Pentecostal background and his poststructuralist training in the field of sexuality and religious studies.
Amadeo Devin Udampoh
Amadeo Devin Udampoh works at Jakarta Theological Seminary Center for Gender, Sexuality and Trauma Studies. As a Pentecostal himself, he is also a Pentecostal theology enthusiast. His thesis at Jakarta Theological Seminary is entitled “Desire and Embodied Spirit” in which he offers an erotic-pneumatological basis for a Pentecostal church organization's participation in the public sphere. He lives in Jakarta, Indonesia.