Attached to Paper Session
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This paper examines the role of evangelism in the meteoric rise of the Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), a largely LGBTQ+ Christian denomination. By 1977, the MCC was the largest grassroots LGBTQ+ organization in the world. By 1982, just before the AIDS epidemic began to ravage the denomination, there were 144 churches in 41 U.S. states and thirty other churches in eight countries outside the U.S.: Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Paying particular attention to the MCC’s evangelistic efforts in Mexico, Nigeria, and Australia, this paper will illuminate evangelical and pentecostal influences on the MCC, which challenge the widespread assumption that LGBTQ/anti-LGBTQ religious subjects will fit neatly into our molds of theological liberalism and conservatism. Additionally, the paper intervenes in scholarly conversations about global LGBTQ+ activism in the wake of Jasbir Puar’s “homonationalism” and Joseph Massad’s “the gay international” (e.g., Kristopher Velasco 2023; Rahul Rao 2020; Nour Abu Assab 2017).
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
This paper examines the role of evangelism in the meteoric rise of the Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), a largely LGBTQ+ Christian denomination. By 1977, the MCC was the largest grassroots LGBTQ+ organization in the world. By 1982, just before the AIDS epidemic began to ravage the denomination, there were 144 churches in 41 U.S. states and thirty other churches in eight countries outside the U.S.: Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Paying particular attention to the MCC’s evangelistic efforts in Mexico, Nigeria, and Australia, this paper will illuminate evangelical and pentecostal influences on the MCC, which challenge the widespread assumption that LGBTQ/anti-LGBTQ religious subjects will fit neatly into our molds of theological liberalism and conservatism. Additionally, the paper intervenes in scholarly conversations about global LGBTQ+ activism in the wake of Jasbir Puar’s “homonationalism” and Joseph Massad’s “the gay international” (e.g., Kristopher Velasco 2023; Rahul Rao 2020; Nour Abu Assab 2017).