The Sexual Politics of Black Churches (Religion, Culture, and Public Life, 2) Hardcover – February 8, 2022 by Josef Sorett

Description

Author: Sorett Josef

Package Dimensions: 19x229x581

Number Of Pages: 280

Release Date: 18-02-2022

Details: Product Description
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.
Review
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, author of
Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter and dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary

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, associate professor of religious studies, Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Chair, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University

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, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion and Culture, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

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