Everyone Belongs Here: How Affirming and Non-Affirming Church Messages and Imagery Cause Different Feelings of Acceptance in LGBTQ+ Christians
Most US churches are non-affirming toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning and more (LGBTQ+) communities, but a few have developed affirming theologies. We investigate the causal link between church messages and imagery on the expectation that queer Christians would feel...
| Published in: | Journal of psychology and theology |
|---|---|
| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage Publishing
2023
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| In: |
Journal of psychology and theology
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ LGBT
/ Acceptance
/ Church
/ Web Site
/ Experiment
|
| RelBib Classification: | CH Christianity and Society KBQ North America NCF Sexual ethics RB Church office; congregation ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies |
| Further subjects: | B
Acceptance
B Church B Experiment B Symbols B Christian B messages B LGBTQ+ |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Most US churches are non-affirming toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning and more (LGBTQ+) communities, but a few have developed affirming theologies. We investigate the causal link between church messages and imagery on the expectation that queer Christians would feel accepted in a church. We designed two church websites with affirming and non-affirming theology. We hypothesized that queer Christians who examined an affirming church website would feel a greater sense of church acceptance than those who viewed a non-affirming church website. Queer Christians evidenced significantly greater expectations that they would be accepted when viewing the affirming church website than when viewing the non-affirming website. Exploratory analyses examined how these websites affected straight Christians. Straight Christians did not differ significantly between the two conditions but showed a trend toward greater feelings of acceptance by the affirming church. Therefore, when finding a church, symbols rooted in affirming theology welcome LGBTQ+ and straight Christians more than those rooted in non-affirming theology. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-1162 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of psychology and theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/00916471231185811 |