When responsibility entered the room: interrogating the silence in Christians’ life narratives

ABSTRACT

This paper identifies some of the methodological considerations involved in narrative research with conservative faith groups, while addressing the things left unsaid through an exploration of silence in the author’s own life narrative of faith and sexuality. The challenges posed by silence – temporal silence and concealment – require greater focus in narrative research methods. Moreover, the pervasive and palpable effects of silence in sexuality research with (nominally) Evangelical Christians calls into question what we (can) know about sexuality in conservative faith communities using qualitative research methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexuality education
• religion
• secularism
• qualitative methods

Acknowledgments

I thank Lee Airton for their mentorship and encouragement with this manuscript. I also thank Christopher DeLuca and Heather McGregor for their guidance on earlier drafts. Thanks also to the reviewers and editors for their valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. While Ontario’s recent sexuality education controversy is beyond the scope of this paper, I recognise that my reader may wish for further background on the history of Ontario’s ‘sex-ed’ saga and its relationship to religious conservativism and Evangelicalism. See Bialystok (2018), Bialystok and Wright (2017), Irvine (2006), Lesko (2010), McKay et al. (2014), and Rasmussen (2016).

2. I provisionally classify participants as Evangelical. As a trans-denominational movement, Christians who hold the same beliefs may observe their faith in different denominations and traditions. Following Juzwick and McKenzie (2015), I approach the term ‘evangelical’ in a sociological rather than theological manner where by evangelical is defined as ‘an individual who (a) believes the Bible to be the supreme authority for religious belief and practice, (b) has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and (c) enacts an activist approach to faith in everyday life’ (129).