Neither Black nor Queer: evangelicalism and groundless theology in Brazil

Abstract

This article illuminates the ramifications of what I call ‘groundless theology’ for Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ evangelicals. Based on ethnographic research at an igreja evangélica inclusiva (inclusive evangelical church) in São Paulo, I articulate the role of groundless theology in a church that openly accepts LGBTQ Christians as members and church leaders. Although this geographically nowhere-but-everywhere, rootless theology can be found in mainstream Brazilian evangelicalism, it is particularly noteworthy to identify its influence in the theological interpretations of Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ evangelicals. I will illustrate the workings of this theology through analyses of a Black gay man’s sermon about Hagar, a figure in the Hebrew Bible, and the theological stances of Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ congregants. These examples elucidate how the geographical selves of Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ evangelicals are shaped, orienting them not towards Brazil, Africa, or even the ‘Holy Land,’ but towards a spiritually- but not materially- grounded religious geography that can produce ahistorical and acontextual hermeneutical frameworks.