“God Loves Me Too” : Theology and Institutional Change in Queer-Affirming Mainline Protestant Congregations

Abstract

Theological knowledge, often associated with religious authority, is also developed and refined by laity. In mainline Protestant congregations, lay theologizing at the local level contributes to processes in which LGBTQ+ congregants and non-LGBTQ+ allies work to transform their churches into more inclusive spaces. I focus on collaborative discussions about LGBTQ+ issues that I observed during ethnographic fieldwork in three mainline churches’ small groups and Bible studies that lay members organized and facilitated. Group participants discern their beliefs around queerness and Christianity, particularly through contesting interpretations of a set of biblical verses—colloquially referred to as the “clobber passages”—that have traditionally been used as tools to attack and exclude LGBTQ+ people. By contributing to these discussions, LGBTQ+ congregants claim equal presence within Christian institutions, work with non-LGBTQ+ members to propose changes to combat marginalizing behaviors and policies in their congregations and prepare defenses for those changes if they are challenged by non-affirming parishioners.