Gay Religion

Conflicts over homosexuality and gay rights threaten to break apart denominations, if not North American society. These heated theological and political debates have, as well, obscured the fact that many gays and lesbians are religiously active individuals. Gay Religion is the first book to give a straightforward presentation of the spiritual lives, practices and expressions of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender. Drawing from a wide range of religious traditions, new and established scholars explore the range of gay religious expression in denominations, sects, and even outside recognized religious institutions. The essays ask what these religious innovations mean to the continually evolving religious environment of North America. With its helpful section introductions and an appendix providing profiles of organizations involved, Gay Religion is a unique and compelling resource for anyone interested in homosexuality and American religion.

While homosexuals continue gaining acceptance in other arenas of American culture, only a tiny minority of religious groups accept gays and lesbians as full members and potential clergy. Serious conflicts over homosexuality threaten to break apart several large U.S. denominations. Yet these heated theological debates can often obscure what religious gays and lesbians are actually doing. Gay Religion is the first book to objectively present the spiritual lives, practices and expressions of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered. Drawing from a wide range of religious traditions, new and established scholars explore the range of gay religious expression in denominations, sects, and in areas outside recognized religious institutions. And these scholars ask what these religious innovations mean to the continually evolving religious environment of North America. With its helpful section introductions and an appendix providing profiles of organizations involved, Gay Religion is a useful and a compelling resource for anyone interested in homosexuality and American religion.

Publishers Weekly

In their introduction, Gray and Thumma express a desire to steer away from "highlighting debates over the place of gay and lesbian believers in American religious life," preferring to examine "new and inventive forms of religious expression created in support of the diverse gay spiritual life in America." The mostly ethnographic research reported by this volume's contributors sometimes succeeds in this mission. Ren Drumm's fascinating piece about gay Seventh-Day Adventists chronicles the success of a national support group and the surprisingly accepting response many of them have gotten from the SDA community. And Jay Hasbrouk's essay about Radical Faeries explicates the little-known and even less understood communities of gay men who practice a mix of pagan and animistic rituals. Thumma and Gray separate the book's 21 essays into three categories, "Denominational Heritage Expressions," "Subaltern/Sectarian Expressions" and "Popular Expressions," and include an essay by Marie Griffith that challenges this taxonomy. While the sectioning of the book will probably work for most readers, the use of disappointingly dated research may not. In the first section, for example, Thumma's essay about gay evangelicals and Moshe Shokeid's essay about a gay synagogue both feature field work done between 15 and 25 years ago. In an anthology that does not purport to be a history, the absence of more recent investigations is frustrating. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Scott Thumma is professor of sociology of religion and web and distance education at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary. Edward R. Gray is visiting assistant professor of religion at Emory University and the executive director of YouthPride, a community based youth service and advocacy organization in Atlanta.