An Opening in the Congregational Closet? Boundary-Bridging Culture and Membership Privileges for Gays and Lesbians in Christian Religious Congregations

Homonegativity and the Black Church: Is Congregational Variation the Missing Link?

“…Most commonly, variation between congregations has been studied in terms of the composition of the congregation (Chaves & Anderson, 2008). This research indicates that congregations that adopt more conservative or literalistic readings of sacred texts tend to have more homonegative attitudes (Adler, 2012). Some research also suggests that, relative to other congregations, those with predominantly female congregants are less likely to be homonegative (Whitehead, 2013).…”

“…However, most research on the Black church (and on church-goers in general) neglects studying congregation-level variables due to the difficulty in obtaining an adequate sample of individuals and congregations, thereby limiting generalizability of the findings. The available literature on the effects of congregationlevel variables on attitudes toward homosexuality suggests that variation between congregations may account for a large proportion of the variation in attitudes toward same-sex sexuality (Adler, 2012;Whitehead, 2013). Variation between congregations may be studied in terms of policies (e.g., Does a congregation allow same-sex couples to hold leadership positions?)…”

“…Generally, higher educational attainment is positively related to homopositivity (Ritter & Terndrup, 2002). This relationship holds both within religious congregations (Adler, 2012) and, to some extent, within Black congregations (Irizarry & Perry, 2018). Greater education may represent increased exposure to diverse worldviews, which often facilitates openness to others, including sexual minorities (la Roi & Mandemakers, 2018).…”

“…Religiousness is one of the most consistent predictors of attitudes toward same-sex sexuality (Fullilove & Fullilove, 1999;Irizarry & Perry, 2018). Specifically, homonegativity has been positively related to adopting a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible (Adler, 2012;Whitehead, 2013), abiding by a conservative Christian tradition (Whitehead, 2013), and endorsing frequent service attendance (Herek & Gonzalez-Rivera, 2006). These attitudes vary considerably by congregation (Walsh, 2016;Barnes, 2013).…”

“…Our data showed that the more often an individual attends worship services, the more homonegative attitudes that person will have. One explanation of this relationship may be that the more often an individual attends religious services, the more likely they are to hold traditionalist views, which may be responsible for homonegative attitudes (Adler, 2012;Whitehead, 2013).…”