Agapé Christian Reconciliation Conversations: Exploring the Intersections of Culture, Religiousness, and Homosexual Identity in Latino and European Americans

Abstract

To understand how homophobia manifests itself through a Latino cultural lens of identity, a program was designed to address the issues connecting homosexual identity, culture, and Christianity. The program included screening of one of two documentary films about lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity and family relations. This was followed by group sharing and biblical reflections. Participants ( N   = 122) were asked to complete measures of homophobic attitudes and qualitative appraisal of the program. Pearson product moment correlations analyses revealed that age and political ideology were related negatively to homophobia. Eighty-five percent found the program to be very useful or useful and 95% indicated that they would recommend it to others. The complexities of the intersections of Christianity, culture, and attitudes toward homosexuality in an individual's identity were examined. The data illustrates a positive trend in changing attitudes towards homosexuality in the Latino Christian community.

KEYWORDS:

• homosexuality
• attitudes toward homosexuality
• religious beliefs
• religious prejudices
• Christianity
• Hispanics
• Latino/Latina culture
• De Colores
• agape

Acknowledgments

This work was completed in part through the gracious financial support of grants from: (a) The E. Rhodes & Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Philadelphia, PA; (b) Horizons Foundation (http://www.horizonsfoundation.org); and (c) David R. Stern Memorial Fund of the Agape Foundation Fund for Nonviolent Social Change (http://www.agapefdn.org/sec/s-gr/DRS_h.html). The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support these foundations provided, without which this work would not have been possible. In addition, the authors express gratitude for the contributions to this research by Garrett Lenoir, Dr. Dee Mosbacher, Bert Williams, Bob Offer-Westort, Steve Nava, Angel Jr. Cintrón, Zwazzi Sowo, Naomi Prochovnick, The Courage To Love Institute, Rev. Ann B. Day, Rev. Jeannette Zaragoza, Rev. Alfonso Roman, Rev. Jan Griesinger, Dr. Scot Foster, Yerba Buena Restaurant in Condado, Puerto Rico, the Council for Hispanic Ministries of the United Church of Christ (www.ucc.org), and the Board of Directors of Woman Vision and EyeBite Productions (www.EyeBite.com).