Too Gay for the Evangelicals, Too Evangelical for the Gays

A Narrative and Autoethnographic Study of a Celibate-Gay Testimony

Bibliographic Data

ID3508968
AuthorsLuke Aylen (University of Aberdeen, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume15
Issue12
Pages1498
Publication date2024-12-09
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel15121498
OpenAlexW4405195112
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

The ecclesiastical discourse in Britian over homosexuality has included a significant focus on the narratives and experience of LGBTQ+ people. However, the relationship between and respective authority given to human experience and the Bible within church debates remains a matter of contention, especially among evangelicals committed to 'biblicism'. This study considers how even those unconvinced about experience as a 'source' of theology might still engage with queer narratives as an invitation for personal and cultural reflexivity and how the plausibility of theological claims might be tested whilst still prioritising Scripture. I examine testimony through a three-stage study. First, I conduct a narrative analysis of audiovisual recordings of my own prior practice of testimony as a celibate gay evangelical. Second, I offer up new, autoethnographic, thick descriptions of three pivotal crisis moments. Third, I theologically reflect upon these in relation to Romans 12.1-2 and the meta-theme of identity formation. I argue that LGBTQ+ testimonies have the potential to illuminate and thus transform heteronormative cultural patterns within the church; I argue that Christian identity formation must include the central integration of God's identification of a person in Christ; and I attempt to model how Christians might cautiously discern God's activity within a practice of testimony

Art · Literature · Narrative · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Theology · Gender Studies · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Jewish Identity and Society · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies

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Open DOIOpen Access