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Desire, Sexuality, and Advocacy in Religious Discourse: Embodied Experiences Across Diverse Contexts

Submitted to Program Units
1: Gay Men and Religion Unit

For this June session, we have invited scholars to share their works in progress in a workshop that delves into the interplay of embodied experiences and advocacy for social justice in religious contexts. Spanning philosophical, cultural, and theological terrains, the papers unravel the complexities of desire, sexuality, and the pursuit of equality. From Plato to Heidegger to M. Shawn Copeland, we explore the link between desire and physicality, contemplating both affirmations of physical intimacy and reckonings with violence against marginalized bodies. We confront normative constructs perpetuated by white Christian nationalism and navigate the complexities of LGBTQIA+ advocacy within the Black Church, dissecting the mechanisms of reinforcement and resistance.

Michael Pettinger, New York University, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

For this June session, we have invited scholars to share their works in progress in a workshop that delves into the interplay of embodied experiences and advocacy for social justice in religious contexts. Spanning philosophical, cultural, and theological terrains, the papers unravel the complexities of desire, sexuality, and the pursuit of equality. From Plato to Heidegger to M. Shawn Copeland, we explore the link between desire and physicality, contemplating both affirmations of physical intimacy and reckonings with violence against marginalized bodies. We confront normative constructs perpetuated by white Christian nationalism and navigate the complexities of LGBTQIA+ advocacy within the Black Church, dissecting the mechanisms of reinforcement and resistance.

Papers

  • David Dawson Vasquez, University of St. Thomas

    Gay Desire and the Longing for Beauty

    Abstract

    The paper is an overview of a project underway on the philosophy of desire as a prolegomena to a theological analysis. The thesis is that gay promiscuous desire and activity, rather than being some disordered or fruitless endeavor, is a witness to a missing aspect of our embodied human nature. The philosophical analysis of beauty and sensuality has a complicated history. I will show that from Plato, through Plotinus, the medieval thinkers, to Hume, Kant, and Heidegger, there is a recognition of desire as essentially bodily that has often been negated at the service of the immaterial, intellectual, spiritual. In this overview, i will focus on the two framing points of the tradition, Plato and Heidegger, to show that both have in their thought the potential for grounding a robust affirmation of physical erotic interaction.

  • Joshua Howard, Emory University

    Raising a Son, Razing a Nation: White Christian Nationalism and the Farcical Mission to Turn Every Boy into a Straight Man

    Abstract

    This paper attempts to examine how White Christian nationalists understand heterosexuality and operationalize it within their nationalist ambitions. I focus on how White Christian nationalists imagine the sexual development of boys into straight men who, in White Christian nationalists' machinations, will father Christian children, head the household, and lead the nation. My source base primarily includes childrearing manuals from evangelical and White Christian nationalist authors. These manuals contain valuable - and often pseudoscientific - information instructing parents on how to raise their boys into straight men. I hope to apply the theories of Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, and Lee Edelman to demonstrate how families mediate a boy's sexual development, as parents surveil their son's sexual behavior, punish supposed homosexual tendencies, and guide him towards heterosexual adulthood. Ultimately, I aim to demonstrate that, while families are a microcosm of the Christian nation, building the Christian nation starts with the child.

  • Ross Potter, Independent Scholar

    Silent Violence: The Sources of Internalized Homophobia and the Damage It Does to Both Self and Others

    Abstract

    Looking to the various sources of anti-gay and anti-MLM/MSM rhetoric, this paper explores the violence, both physical and non-physical, done on gay and queer men’s bodies and how that violence can lead to internal violence, external violence, and counterviolence. Utilizing M. Shawn Copeland’s notion of embodiment to ground the lived experience of gay and queer men with their own physicality and the physicality of those they come in contact with, a framework can be developed for reconciling violence, whether intentional or unintentional, while restoring healthier relationships with the self, others, and community.

     

Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen
Play Audio from Laptop Computer
Podium microphone

Sabbath Observance

Sunday (all day)

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

90 Minutes
Schedule Info

Thursday, 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM (June Online Meeting)

Tags

# LGBTQIA
#erotic
#aesthetics
gay
queer
violence
embodiment
Internalized Homophobia
Black Church
LGBTQIA+
public policy
Advocacy
Bayard Rustin
Quaker faith

Session Identifier

AO27-303