Slouching towards Gaytheism: Christianity and Queer Survival in America

W. C. Harris

feb 2014 · State University of New York Press

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Slouching towards Gaytheism brings together two intellectual traditions—the New Atheism and queer theory—and moves beyond them to offer a new voice for gay Americans and atheists alike. Examining the continued vehemence of homophobia in cultural and political debate regarding queer equality, this unabashed polemic insists that the needs met by religion might be met—more safely and less toxically—by forms of community that do not harass and malign gay and lesbian Americans or impede collective social progress. W. C. Harris argues that compromises with traditional religion, no matter how enlightened or well intentioned, will ultimately leave heteronormativity alive and well. He explores a range of recent movements, such as Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" project, reparative "ex-gay" therapy, Christian purity culture, and attempts by liberal Christians to reconcile religion with homosexuality, and shows how these proposed solutions are either inadequate or positively dangerous. According to the author, the time has come for "gaytheism": leaving religion behind in order to preserve queer dignity, rights, and lives.

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W. C. Harris is Professor of English at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Queer Externalities: Hazardous Encounters in American Culture, also published by SUNY Press, and E Pluribus Unum: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Constitutional Paradox.