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“I Found God in The Glory Hole”: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian
Author(s) -
Sumerau J. E.,
Cragun Ryan T.,
Mathers Lain A. B.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/soin.12134
Subject(s) - closet , lesbian , sociology , gender studies , glory , privilege (computing) , transgender , homosexuality , queer , law , history , political science , physics , archaeology , optics
This article examines processes wherein Gay Christian men transition from closeted religious people to openly Gay Christians. Based on 36 months of fieldwork in a southeastern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) Christian church and a synthesis of research into LGBT Christian experience over the past 25 years, we conceptualize these transformations as a moral career consisting of (1) essentializing religious belief and practice (2) emotionalizing early religious experience, (3) spiritualizing coming out of the closet and religion, and (4) sexualizing coming back to religious participation. In so doing, Gay Christian men interpreted the stages of their lives as an ongoing sexual–religious process wherein they became the spiritual and sexual beings they believed God always wanted them to be. In conclusion, we draw out implications for understanding (1) the moral career of a Gay Christian, (2) the usefulness of conceptualizing religious and sexual transitions as elements of a moral career, and (3) the reproduction of religious privilege.