Passionate and Pious: Religious Media and Black Women's Sexuality

About the Book

In Passionate and Pious Monique Moultrie explores the impact of faith-based sexual ministries on black women's sexual agency to trace how these women navigate sexuality, religious authority, and their spiritual walk with God. Providing churchwomen a space to candidly discuss these issues, these popular ministries exist largely beyond the traditional church, with dialogues about sex taking place in chat rooms and through text messages, social media, email, and other media. Moultrie foregrounds televangelist Juanita Bynum's construction of the black Christian sexual identity these ministries promote while emphasizing how churchwomen reconcile these prescriptive identities with their individual experiences. What does it mean for senior women to exercise sexual agency when their church standing could be questioned? What does celibacy mean for women who experience same-sex desire while believing that such desire goes against God's will? Advancing a womanist sexual ethics, Moultrie reframes biblical interpretations and conceptions of what constitutes a healthy relationship to provide a basis for sexual decision making that does not privilege monogamy or deny female pleasure, thereby calling on black churchwomen to experience responsible and life-enhancing sex.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction. For All the Single Ladies: Black Women's Stories of Faith and Sexuality  1
1. Sexual Purity as PR: Tracing the Impact of Religious Media  21
2. Reading "Our" Bynum as Text: For a Black Woman by a Black Woman  29
3. Beyond Bynum: Analyzing Contemporary Faith-Based Sexuality Ministries  50
4. "Why I Gotta be Gay?": Approaches to Womanist Sexual Hospitality  81
5. "The Lord Still has Work for Me to Do": Analyzing Senior Sexuality and Faith-Based Sexuality Ministries  96
6. Horny and Holy: Saved Women Seeking Sexual Pleasure  116
Conclusion. Living Sexually Before God: A Contemporary Womanist Sexual Ethics  142
Notes  153
Bibliography  173
Index  183

About the Author :
Monique Moultrie is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Georgia State University and coeditor of the revised edition of A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z.

Review :
(Starred Review) "A stunning and dynamic sociological read on womanist sexual ethics." - Sandra Collins (Library Journal) "This engaging multidisciplinary thought-provoking text will be of interest to academics, educators and researchers. . . . It brings new critical insights/analyses to a topic often considered taboo in these fields." - Uvanney Maylor (Ethnic and Racial Studies) "[Moultrie's] approach is bold, delving into the experiences of real women in an attempt to bring sexuality out of the shadows of church teachings, yet indicating that the parachurch ministries themselves have not gone far enough." - Tola Olu Pearce (Journal of African American History) "Moultrie's Passionate and Pious … goes beyond filling a gap in the literature as her work provides an intimate portrayal of the messages transmitted in black Christian media and the way these messages are received." - Apryl Williams (Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture) "Reaching beyond typical questions, like the morality of homosexuality, Passionate and Pious is a more robust exploration of Christian sexual ethics.… An excellent resource for theological graduate students looking for more insight into the sexual ethics of the Black church and Black women. It is also an excellent read for Black women and those of other backgrounds who grapple with the high price of purity culture and pleasing God through their sexual choices." - Courtney Bryant (Journal of Religion) "Charts new ground…. Passionate and Pious is an important text for helping religious leaders, laypersons, and activists do the work of constructing viable alternatives. It is a valuable text to guide scholars, teachers, and students in examining the complex tensions between Black women's sexuality, moral codes, and religious beliefs and practices." - Elise M. Edwards (International Journal of Africana Studies)