Choosing Love What LGBTQ+ Christians Can Teach Us All About Relationships, Inclusion, and Justice

What does the battle between conservative Christians and LGBTQ+ people look like from the vantage point of those who are both?

If a culture war is happening, LGBTQ+ conservative Christians are on the front lines. While many people assume LGBTQ+ people have to say goodbye to the religions they grew up with, and many do, others occupy the intersection of LGBTQ+ existence and conservative Protestantism. Choosing Love shows what happens when two identities that seem diametrically opposed--conservative Christian and LGBTQ+--are joined together within one person.

Drawing on participant observation conducted within organizations for LGBTQ+ Christians and on more than 100 interviews with LGBTQ+ Christians, former Christians, and allies--especially Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color--Dawne Moon and Theresa W. Tobin show how a number of LGBTQ+ Christians and their heterosexual/cisgender allies are working to make their families, churches, and communities more inclusive, loving, and just. In telling their stories, Choosing Love shares lessons about what it means to be human, relational beings who need mutual connection to thrive. These stories expose the brutality of treating shame as a special sacrament for LGBTQ+ people and the toxicity of treating a particular construction of gender as sacred. They teach us the difference between arrogance and relational pride, and that humility is the core of true allyship. Finally, they offer contemporary examples of the radical potential of love in movements for social justice.

Written in an approachable style and drawing from such diverse sources as Martin Buber, Martin Luther King, Black/Third World feminism, and queer thinkers of color, Choosing Love is for anyone interested in the centrality of relationships in human life, the place of love in the struggle for justice, and the need for justice in any effort to love.

Dawne Moon is a qualitative sociologist who has studied religion, gender, sexuality, and people's struggles to define "who we are" for thirty years. The author of God, Sex, and Politics: Homosexuality and Everyday Theologies, she is Professor in Social and Cultural Sciences and Co-Director of Gender & Sexualities Studies at Marquette University.

Theresa W. Tobin is a philosopher who researches ethical questions around gender, sexuality and religion, emotions, and spiritual violence. She is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Marquette University where she also directs the Education Preparedness Program, which creates pathways to higher education for people directly impacted by incarceration.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Love and Relationships
Chapter 2: The Complementarian Commandment
Chapter 3: A Sacrament of Shame: "I Love You, But Hate Your Sin"
Chapter 4: Healing Through Relationships
Chapter 5: Becoming an Ally
Chapter 6: Inside and Outside the Evangelical Bubble: Productive and Destructive Tension
Chapter 7: Love, Shame, Humility, and Justice

Index