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Straight to Jesus : sexual and Christian conversions in the ex-gay movement / Tanya Erzen.
LIBRA BV4437.5 .E79 2006
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Erzen, Tanya.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- New Hope Ministries.
- Church work with gay people--California--San Rafael--Case studies.
- Church work with gay people.
- Ex-gay movement--California--San Rafael--Case studies.
- Ex-gay movement.
- New Hope Ministries--Case studies.
- California--San Rafael.
- Genre:
- Case studies.
- Physical Description:
- ix, 282 pages ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Berkeley : University of California Press, [2006]
- Summary:
- Every year, hundreds of gay men and lesbians join ex-gay ministries in an attempt to convert to nonhomosexual Christian lives. In this fascinating study of the transnational ex-gay movement, Tanya Erzen follows the everyday lives of men and women at New Hope Ministry, a residential ex-gay program in Northern California, over the course of several years. Straight to Jesus traces the stories of people who have renounced long-term same-sex relationships and come to New Hope from other countries out of a conviction that the conservative Christian beliefs of their upbringing and their own sexual desires are irreconcilable. Rather than definitively changing from homosexual to heterosexual, the participants strive to experience a conversion that is both sexual and religious. At New Hope, they maintain a personal relationship with Jesus and build new forms of kinship and belonging. By becoming what they call "new creations," these men and women testify to religious transformation rather than to changes in their sexual desire or behavior. Straight to Jesus exposes how the Christian Right attempts to repudiate gay identity and political rights by using the ex-gay movement as evidence that "change is possible." Instead, Erzen reveals, the realities of the lives she examines actually undermine that anti-gay strategy.
- Contents:
- 1 Steps Out of Homosexuality 22
- 2 New Creations 52
- 3 A Refuge from the World 85
- 4 Arrested Development 126
- 5 Testifying to Sexual Healing 160
- 6 Love Won Out? 183
- Conclusion: Walking in a Dark Room 216.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-272) and index.
- ISBN:
- 0520245814
- 0520245822
- OCLC:
- 61362696
- Publisher Number:
- 9780520245815
- 9780520245822
- Online:
- Contributor biographical information
- Publisher description
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