Being in / Being out: negotiating faith and homosexuality at the intersection of evangelical church and liberal society

Abstract

The leading argument in this thesis is that evangelical communities prescribe a normative discourse of both identity and sexuality which affects and shapes the identification process of homosexual members. There are several mechanisms that constitute and uphold these discourses, both on authoritarian ground (church leaders, Bible and God) and on communitarian ground (fellow Christians). Homosexuals, by their very presence, resist a heteronormative discourse. And as a result of the conflict between their sexuality and their community, homosexual evangelicals negotiate these identities. The consequences hereof are diverse and lead to three subject positions; gay and not religious, religious and not gay, or gay and religious. This latter position indicates that there is resistance amongst gay evangelicals against the dominant sexual discourse. And influenced by such individuals and societal changes, alternative sexual discourses gain influence.