In recent years, journalists and public commentators have become increasingly fascinated by the supposed rightward turn of Latino/as living in the United States and in Latin America. Religion–specifically, Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity–is often said to be the fulcrum of this growing conservatism. Gender, sexuality, and machismo, in turn, are often thought to be at the core of this religious conservatism. This panel challenges this conventional narrative by pointing to a different set of possibilities within Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity: a gay Latino Pentecostal missionary and evangelist in the 1970s and 1980s; an LGBTQ-affirming Pentecostal-Charismatic congregation in present-day Brazil; and “Indecent” Pentecostal women in present-day Colombia. Together, these papers add new voices and perspectives to ongoing scholarly discussions on Latino Pentecostalisms, gender, and sexuality, challenging dominant narratives and paradigms in Pentecostal Studies and shedding new light on the ecumenical networks and movements in which queer and progressive Latino/a Pentecostals are embedded.
In 1974, Rev. José Mojica founded the first Spanish-speaking church for gays and lesbians in the United States, MCC Hispana, in New York. A native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, and a former evangelist in the Assemblies of God, Mojica became an itinerant preacher in the predominantly gay United Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) in the 1970s, driven by his passion for sharing the “gospel of gay liberation” with Spanish-speaking gays and lesbians. Mojica played a pivotal role in the 1980s in bringing Las Iglesias de la Comunidad Metropolitana (Spanish for MCC) to Mexico and South America as head of the MCC’s Hispanic Americas mission work. Following Mojica’s trajectory as a gay Pentecostal evangelist and missionary, this paper provides a window into early transnational flows of religious and sexual identities between the United States and Latin America. It also centers the often-overlooked contributions of queer Latino/as in LGBTQ religious history.
The Pentecostalization of world Christianity has given rise to a great variety of ecclesial formations shaped and adapted by the context in which they emerge. Two characteristics commonly shared by Pentecostal-charismatic Christian (PCC) churches, regardless of geographic location, are their historically literalist reading of the Bible and a strong emphasis on individual holiness, which often translates into anti-LGBTQ policies, discourses, and practices. However, recent research has documented the emergence of LGBTQ-inclusive PCC churches in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This paper will share findings from fieldwork conducted at the 2023 annual conference of Arena Apostolica Church, a self-identified Pentecostal and LGBTQ+ inclusive congregation in Brasilia (Brazil). Drawing on this case study, the presentation examines how the empowerment by the Spirit enables queer individuals within a Pentecostal church to challenge the heteronormative discourses traditionally associated with this religious movement. In particular, it highlights how the Arena Apostólica Church represents a form of religious innovation within "third-wave" Brazilian Pentecostalism, bringing about creative and deeply contextualized articulations between queerness and Pentecostalism.
The term “Indecent Pentecostalism” may seem contradictory. Many Pentecostalisms in Colombia reproduce theologies that impose heteronormative morals and biblical interpretations that place most expectations of sexual holiness on women. Yet, this paper advocates for the urgent formulation of Indecent Pentecostalisms. It does so by revisiting Elisabeth Brusco’s influential work, The Reformation of Machismo, frequently cited in Pentecostal studies in the United States. Conducted in the mid-1980s, Brusco’s work argues that Colombian women’s conversion to Pentecostalism serves as a liberating act that propels the conversion of their husbands–whose machismo makes them reject the domestic realm–and transforms the family structure resulting in upward mobility among other beneficial consequences. Drawing on ethnographic research with twenty-first-century Pentecostal women in Colombia, this presentation challenges the continuing validity of Brusco’s conclusions for present-day Pentecostalism in Latin America. The paper engages Brusco’s findings in conversation with Marcela Althaus-Reid’s advocacy for the indecency of heterosexual women in Latin America, which requires coming out of a “heterosexual closet” characterized by domestication, monogamy, and submission.