Homoeroticism and the African-American Heterosexual Male: Quest for Meaning in the Black Church

Abstract

This essay offers a theory of masculinity and religiosity that may explain the prominent absence of African-American heterosexual men from the Black Church. In short, I propose that the phenomenon may be due to a conflict between a masculine Black-body construct and a same-sex symbolic relationship with an all-powerful male Divinity. Both "God" and "God in Christ" may be homoerotic constructs which many African-American heterosexual men are unable to negotiate sufficiently in order to find deep-felt meaning in Black churches and worship. Conversely, I submit that this same dynamic is sufficient to explain the disproportionate numbers of women and the conspicuous presence of gay men in many churches. This article will develop this thesis using ethnography to gather crucial information in order to interpret the phenomenon utilizing the insights of psychoanalysis, gender theory and philosophical discourse. This essay will, therefore, critique the problematic concept of masculinity, through a utilizing of religious and theological aesthetics to suggest an alternative mode of masculinity.