Sexuality and the Black Church
Reviewed by: Anonymous
Bibliographic Information: Douglas, Kelly Brown. Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999. 160 pages. $19.00. ISBN: 9781570752421.
Twenty years ago, into the silence around the topic of Black sexuality, Kelly Brown Douglas composed Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective. Seeing a void in both the scholarship and faith communities with respect to black sexuality, Douglas’ work seeks to address a deficiency with very real, embodied consequences. Galvanized by the lack of discussion, the crisis of HIV/AIDS, and a personal connection to the field, she brings a womanist perspective to begin the conversation of sexuality in the Black community. Published in 1999, the book by-in-large remains as timely as it did when it was published—pushing against a reluctance to address sexuality in the church, a continued presence of HIV/AIDS, and need to hear from a womanist theologian.
In her introduction, Douglas names three aims for writing Sexuality: to understand why and how sexuality has been a taboo topic for the Black community, to further womanist discussion around Black sexuality, and to promote theological discussion that could build healthier attitudes around sexuality within the Black church and community. These related aims fill the pages that follow, and she is successful in addressing each, using analyses of history, literature and pop culture, power theory, and theological expertise. In combining a broad range of cultural and historical examples with her specific theological lens, Douglas shows both how conversations around Black sexuality were silenced in Black faith communities and why the re-emergence of this discourse is essential to the future of the church.
To make her case and fully flesh out the history of her discourse, Douglas breaks the book into three parts. The first engages the sources of Black theological silence around sexuality, examining how Black sexuality has been manipulated and shaped by White culture, while (and perhaps sometimes because) simultaneously forming itself in resistance to oppression by that culture. Black sexuality, she argues, has been and remains an obsession in White culture because of the way it serves to sustain White power in America. She spends significant time teasing out both the roots and modern manifestations of racial stereotypes around Black men and women and the very real, embodied, consequences of such stereotypes. In these two initial chapters, Douglas shows her adeptness as a scholar, weaving together history and philosophy, unpacking deeper sources of assumptions and stereotypes affecting the Black church and Black sexuality. She moves her readers through history into modern times, bridging the distance and time with well-employed examples and illustrations.
The second part of the book takes up the impact of the White cultural attack for the Black community, digging deeply into the state of sexuality in the Black church. While Douglas makes sure to explain the ways White culture has oppressed and shaped Black sexuality—beginning and extending from the time of slavery—she also spends time naming how Black culture came to this continent with pre-formed attitudes and sexual practices. Ultimately, however, she points to an attack from White culture that “has rendered the Black community virtually impotent in its ability to conduct frank, open, and demanding discourse concerning matters of sexuality.”1 It has been within this silence that homophobia and heterosexism have become mainstays of the Black church, informed by a biblical hermeneutic that Douglas traces from enslaved times through modern day. The response to this silence must be, Douglas argues, a sexual discourse of resistance—a discourse with twin goals of penetrating the sexual politics of the Black community and cultivating life-enhancing approaches to Black sexuality.
As part of naming the sources of homophobia and heterosexism within the Black church, Douglas spends significant time examining the church’s relationship with the Bible. Black biblical tradition, she explains, was shaped by an oral/aural engagement with scripture starting during slavery where such a tradition selectively shaped which texts where passed on—namely those most consistent with Black life and freedom. Meanwhile, an antagonistic relationship to White biblical scholarship developed. Such a relationship has shut down discourse that might persuade the Black community that homosexuality is not condemned by scripture. The oral/aural tradition that has served the community through the horrors of slavery and shaped many contours of the Black church is also participating in its inability to engage around Black sexuality.
The final part of Sexuality and the Black Church turns toward understanding the theology of the Black sexuality and enacting a sexual discourse of resistance to respond to the prevailing silence. Douglas helpfully names two tenets of Black Christian faith—“the attestation of Jesus as Christ, the embodied presence of God, and the avowal that Black people are created in God’s own image” 2—to begin her analysis of the theology surrounding Black sexuality. She then clearly argues that to corrupt, deny, or stay silent around Black sexuality in any way is to dramatically betray Black Christian faith, to undercut the named tents of the faith and relationship with God. To avoid such a diminishment and promote healthy faith communities, Douglas insists on a sexual discourse of resistance, one shaped by breaking the cycles of sin including racism, sexism, White culture, homophobia and heterosexism, and moving towards repentance that transforms both individuals and communities. This discourse must in part utilize a womanist approach which engages “whole” people and seeks to reclaim the imago Dei, the idea that humans are made in the image of God. She ends with practical steps for communities to implement a sexual discourse of resistance. To engage this work, communities need to reestablish the unity of the sacred and secular once prevalent in the Black church, which requires affirming African heritage. Communities must also center Black literature like Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, as well as Black popular culture. The Black church must use Bible study to utilize Black scholarship around sacred text and broaden theological discourse. Finally, she insists, this work must involve action from leaders and those in the pews alike.
Sexuality and the Black Church is a text not just for the Black community, but also for those within White culture who have had a role in shaping the silence around Black sexuality. Leaders of the church universal are implicated in the work Douglas outlines as are all practitioners of Christian faith. A discourse of sexual resistance is a stance all can take in response to the homophobia and heterosexism that is still prevalent in our churches. The tactics she closes her work with are practices all churches can employ to broaden or, in many cases, begin discussions around sexuality.
Though twenty years old, this text still timely. While the HIV/AIDS crisis is not as domineering as it once was, the threat is still very real within our society—particularly within the Black queer community—and has been joined by other threats to the queer community prevalent in our politics and churches today. Douglas’ use of phrases like “black gays and lesbians” could benefit from updating to include the larger LGBTQIA+ community, but little else in her work needs contemporizing. Her sharp historical and social analysis and critique remains current and progressive, reflecting both how little progress we have made and the need to continue the work she outlines. I benefitted from her wide lens approach that focuses as the book unfolds toward practical proposals for faith communities.
Douglas’ writing is clear, and her arguments are easy to follow. That said, she does engage historians, philosophers, and theologians who may not be well known by a general reading audience. This book, while benefitting a wide audience, may best be recommended to those with some experience in the field of theology or Black studies. It would be of particular interest to those seeking to break silence and encourage discussion around Black sexuality for the entire community.