Disruption & Breaking Free:
Sexuality, Theology, and the Black Church
Saturday 16 February, 2013
5 - 8pm, $0/Rsvp
Union Theological Seminary, James Memorial Chapel
3041 Broadway
The Anointed, written by Germono Toussaint engages a discourse about sexuality, spirituality and theology in the Black church. It was inspired by interviews with prominent same gender-loving, GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender) Black church leaders, namely: Bishop Yvette Flunder, Bishop Wyatt Greenlee, Rev. Kevin Taylor, Pastor Joseph Tolton, and Marques Moore. Moore is a survivor of several ex-gay ministries (“ministries that were created to restore GLBT persons trapped in sexual and relational sinâ€).
The Anointed is part of a larger thesis project of Michael Roberson examining systemic homophobia in the Black church stemming from religious dogma that institutionalizes homophobia in Black communities.
Roberson’s thesis asserts that homophobic messages, spewing from the Black pulpit leave indelible marks of pain, misery and damage on the collective soul, spirit and material bodies of the Black GLBT community, and directly impact the health disparities of this community, particularly, Black gay men. The question is: how are Black gay men expected to protect their lives when they have been told by the Black church and community at large that they are an abomination unto God?
This event will attempt to engage this question by bringing heightened awareness of the historical trauma inflicted on Black GLBT individuals by the homophobic hegemony intrinsic in Black church experience and to encourage enlightened conversation that will advance healing for Black GLBT people and within the Black community.
The Anointed is part of a larger thesis project of Michael Roberson examining systemic homophobia in the Black church stemming from religious dogma that institutionalizes homophobia in Black communities.
Roberson’s thesis asserts that homophobic messages, spewing from the Black pulpit leave indelible marks of pain, misery and damage on the collective soul, spirit and material bodies of the Black GLBT community, and directly impact the health disparities of this community, particularly, Black gay men. The question is: how are Black gay men expected to protect their lives when they have been told by the Black church and community at large that they are an abomination unto God?
This event will attempt to engage this question by bringing heightened awareness of the historical trauma inflicted on Black GLBT individuals by the homophobic hegemony intrinsic in Black church experience and to encourage enlightened conversation that will advance healing for Black GLBT people and within the Black community.