80.3 Christian religious life and LGBTS identity

Wednesday, August 1, 2012: 11:15 AM
Faculty of Economics, TBA
Oral Presentation
Raquel SOUZA , University of Brasília/Brazil, Taguatinga-DF, Brazil
The hegemonic view on sexuality, based on the gender binary man/ woman and the naturalization of heterosexual desire, has been the subject of inquiry in different segments of society and academia. In the field of religion, some theologians and christian leaders have  delivered a speech about the legitimacy of deviant sexuality from traditional religious morality. Inclusionary Theology, based on the historical-critical reading of the Bible, is founded on the assertion that all that make up human diversity have free access to God, allowing LGBTs people to exercise the Christian faith and experience their sexuality. 

The church Comunidade Cristã Família Athos, located in Brasilia, is one of the churches in Brazil that utter the inclusionary theology, proposing the elimination of stigma against sexual diversity. The Community came from the union of religious Christian homossexual who have become unwelcome, even excluded from their former churches. The rituals performed in Athos concern about that sadness caused by the trajectory of exclusion not only familiar and social, but religious, always stressing, through songs and sermons, as the faithful are accepted and loved by God, and expressing the possibility of healing the heartbreak through inclusionary religious experience. 

The purpose of this exhibition is to analyze the process of compatibility between religious life and LGBT identity in the Community Athos, watching the reinterpretation on biblical grounds to rework discourses on Christian morality and same-sex marriage. Reinterpretation wich argues that the Christian God is that of unconditional and fully love, God that never condemn the sincere, true-hearted same-sex affection.