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ABSTRACT
Taking purity culture as a framework for understanding evangelical approaches to sexual ethics, this article examines the connection between the recent emergence of queer evangelical celibacy narratives and the rhetoric of purity as a form of personal freedom. To do so, we approach the construction of queer celibacy through a theology of sexuality and narratives of celibacy within purity culture. We constellate stories from gay- and lesbian-identifying evangelicals to question the limits of queer celibacy. How is evangelical celibacy queer? Can evangelical celibacy claim queerness when it depends on White heterosexist logics? To answer these questions, we explore a series of texts written by evangelical authors who have chosen celibacy as a method for their spiritual commitments while identifying as gay or lesbian. We work with these texts as examples of queer narratives that interanimate paths between evangelical belief and sexual identity.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Exodus International.
2 Ethridge and Arterburn, Every Young Woman's Battle, 390.
3 Evangelicalism is a slippery category. Some choose to draw the lines theologically: evangelicals are those who believe in the significance of evangelizing, personal conversion, the inerrancy of the Bible, and atonement through the crucifixion of Jesus. See the Bebbington Quadrilateral used on the website of the National Association of Evangelicals (“What is an Evangelical?”). Others define evangelicalism as a historical phenomenon, arising out of the Second Great Awakening and facing a variety of iterations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. For the purposes of this project, we understand evangelicalism as a conservative sect of Protestant Christianity with ties back to turn-of-the-century fundamentalism. Evangelicalism is a global and multiracial religion, though we focus primarily on White evangelicals in the United States for how they espouse purity rhetoric.
4 Coles, Single, Gay, Christian; Perry, Gay Girl, Good God.
5 Kristeva, Powers of Horror, 11.
6 Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives, 19.
7 Gearhart, “The Womanization of Rhetoric,” 195.
8 Ibid., 196.
9 Foss and Griffin, “Beyond Persuasion,” 5.
10 Muñoz, Cruising Utopia, 1.
11 Halberstam, In a Queer Time and Place, 1.
12 See Ehrlich, Regulating Desire.
13 See Dowland, Family Values, 14.
14 Although himself not evangelical but Anglican, C.S. Lewis is somewhat of a patron saint among 20th and 21st century evangelicals.
15 Muñoz, 1.
16 Ethridge and Arterburn, Every Young Woman's Battle, chapter 11.
17 Coles, Single, Gay, Christian, 98.
18 Augustine, The City of God, 495–54.
19 In Callaway, Breaking the Marriage Idol, 201.
20 Ibid., 203.
21 Rees, The Romance of Innocent Sexuality, 198; See Linn Tonstad's response to and expansion of Rees's work in Tonstad, “The Perils and Promises of Imagining Otherwise.”
22 Burrus, Jordan, and MacKendrick, Seducing Augustine, 98.
23 Muñoz, Cruising Utopia, 1.
24 Burrus, Jordan, and MacKendrick, Seducing Augustine, 114.
25 Halberstam, Queer Time and Place, 1.
26 Kahan, Celibacies, 3.
27 Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology, 17.
28 Ibid., 17 (emphasis in original).
29 See, for example, Martin, UnClobber; Lee, Torn; Vines, God and the Gay Christian; and Gushee, Changing Our Mind.
30 Perry, Gay Girl, Good God, 22.
31 Ibid., 54.
32 Ibid., 38.
33 Ibid., 50.
34 Ibid., 58.
35 Ibid., 71.
36 Coles, Single, Gay, Christian, 33.
37 Ibid., 23–4.
38 Ibid., 37.
39 Ibid., 39.
40 Ibid.
41 Jordan, Blessing Same-Sex Unions, 5.
42 Talvacchia, Pettinger, and Larrimore, Queer Christianities; Marchal, Bodies on the Verge; Wilcox, Queer Nuns; Hollywood, “Sexual Desire, Divine Desire”; Burrus, “Queer Father”; Burrus, “Queer Lives of Saints.”; Díaz, Queer God de Amor.
43 Larrimore, “Introduction,” in Queer Christianities.
44 Foucault, History of Sexuality, 43, 101.
45 See, for example, Frank, Moreton, and White, Devotions and Desires.
46 Lofton, “Queering Fundamentalism,” 454, 448.
47 White, “How Paul Became the Straight Word,” 289–307.
48 Today as well, queer Christians attend Catholic Mass, lead praise and worship bands, serve as missionaries abroad, and head Black Pentecostal denominations. Consider, for example, the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, led by Bishop Yvette Flunders, a queer Black minister.
49 Scanozi and Mollenkott, Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? See also Cochran, Evangelical Feminism, 77–109.
50 Stell, “From Neighbors to Outcasts,” 339.
51 II Timothy 3:16, New International Version.
52 Quoted in Stell, “From Neighbors to Outcasts,” 345.
53 Ibid., 345.
54 Ibid., 352.
55 Ibid., 356.
56 See Dowland, Family Values.
57 Stell, “From Neighbors to Outcasts,” 356.
58 Ibid., 356.
59 Ibid.
60 White, “Straight Word,” 300–1.
61 Dowland, Family Values, 164.
62 Coles, Single, Gay, Christian, 37.
63 Although this is very common language, this particular quote comes from Wax, “Jennifer Knapp & Larry King.”
64 Wolkomir, Do Not Be Deceived, 188.
65 Christian ethicist David Gushee writes, “Sometime in the 1990s, the cultural tide began shifting [regarding queer folks within the church]. Moving just a bit with the times, some evangelicals adopted a kinder, gentler rhetoric of ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’” (Gushee, After Evangelicalism, 160).
66 Proctor, “Four Christian Views on Sexuality.”
67 Ibid. The Gay Christian Network is now called Q Christian Fellowship.
68 Perry uses queer only once in her book as a play on words (Perry, Gay Girl, Good God, 50). Coles does not use the term at all. Articles and blogs that reflect Side B positions also eschew the term queer for, perhaps, seemingly more palatable terms.
69 Archer, “Homonormativity,” 284.
70 The sides have now expanded to include Sides Y (both gay identity and behaviors are sinful) and X (those who identify as ex-gay) (Proctor, “Four Christian Views on Sexuality.”).
71 “Mission and Vision.”
72 “Statement of Faith.”
73 “Our Values.”
74 Velasco-Sanchez, “When Organizations Devolve.” In 2017, a page on its website called “Making the Connection” outlined TRP's reasons for including racial justice as a part of their goal toward full LGBTQ inclusion: that (1) people of color represent a third of LGBTQ people in the United States, (2) queer people of color “feel a double sense of exclusion” within White churches that have not addressed their history of racism, (3) if churches are unable to address structural racism in their churches, they will be ill-equipped to affirm all LGBTQ persons, including people of color, and (4) it is necessary to make equitable space for LGBTQ persons of color (“Making the Connection”). This page no longer exists but redirects to TRP's Values page.
75 Velasco-Sanchez, “When Organizations Devolve.”
76 Side A voices include Vines, Brandan Robertson, Matthias Roberts, and Julie Rogers, all White cis Christians who have a prominent place in both evangelical and post-evangelical spaces. Side B voices include Coles, Welsey Hill, and Preston Sprinkle, all White cismale Christians who have a large evangelical following.
77 This language of “queered by color” comes from Stockton, The Queer Child, chapter 5. See also Stockton, Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame.
78 Relevant Magazine's CEO/Founder Cameron Strang was publicly called out for racial insensitivity and cultivating a toxic work environment, leading to his six-months-long sabbatical. See Jenkins, “Relevant Magazine Founder Returns” and Henry, “Black Christians Deserve Better.”
79 Gerber, “‘Queerish’ Celibacy” in Queer Christianities, 25.
80 Ibid., 32.
81 Halperin, “The Normalization of Queer Theory,” 1.
82 Tonstad, Queer Theology, 110.
83 Winner, Real Sex, 129.
84 Coles, Single, Gay, Christian, 10.
85 Baldridge, “Youth Group.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Lauren D. Sawyer
Lauren D. Sawyer is instructional staff at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology where she teaches graduate courses in theology and develops trauma-informed/antiracist curriculum for one of its non-degree programs. Her most recent publications include chapters in Spiritual Healing from Sexual Violence: An Intersectional Guide (edited by Debra Meyers and Mary Sue Barnett) and The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Sex and Sexuality (edited by Brian D. Earp, Clare Chambers, and Lori Watson). Lauren earned her Ph.D. in Christian Social Ethics from Drew University, and as a doctoral student she served as submissions editor for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Now living in Seattle, Washington, Lauren enjoys a well-brewed cup of coffee and chilly swims in Puget Sound.
Victoria Houser
Victoria Houser is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she specializes in feminist and cultural rhetorics and embodied composition. Her research focuses on gender and sexuality at the intersection of religious rhetorics, reproductive justice, and trauma studies. Victoria earned her Ph.D. in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design from Clemson University in 2021. Her scholarship has appeared in Intraspection: A Journal of Rhetoric, Culture, and Style, KB Journal: Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society, and Canopy Forum: On the Interactions of Law and Religion. When she's not teaching or writing, Victoria enjoys trail running, hiking, baking, and spending time with her three cats.