Abstract:
American religious scholarship in the late 20th century identified a supposed cultural shift away from communal authority and towards individual interpretation when it came to religious identity. This thesis examines the case of the Metropolitan Community Church of New York (MCCNY), a self-identified Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer or Questioning, and more (LGBTQ+) church community, open to all, which, since the 1970s, has catered to individuals who have left or foregone a variety of other religious communities. It asks: why do people with individually determined religious identities choose to participate in a communal religious space by coming to church at MCCNY, and how does MCCNY incorporate traditional Christian church elements while encouraging individuals’ interpretive autonomy? Drawing from a series of interviews with MCCNY churchgoers and observations from participation in the church community, I will argue that MCCNY functions as a religious environment that is simultaneously individualistic in the sense that churchgoers set their own terms of involvement with the church, and communal in the sense that individuals’ affiliation with the church is connected to its uniquely queer identity that distinguishes it from other churches and marks its continued importance. I will further argue that the case of MCCNY challenges scholarship which argues that declining investment in major Protestant institutions in the U.S. spells an end for the prominence of religious communities in individuals’ lives. The sense that the church stands in opposition to a history of oppression binds congregants together in community even though they negotiate their personal beliefs and relationship with the church on an individual level in accordance with their own experiences and desires.
