{"id":11828,"date":"2013-04-09T06:07:46","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T06:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/?p=11828"},"modified":"2013-04-09T06:07:46","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T06:07:46","slug":"spirited-by-lisa-c-moore-g-winston-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/spirited-by-lisa-c-moore-g-winston-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirited by Lisa C. Moore ; G. Winston James"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spirited<\/em><\/h2>\n

Affirming the Soul and Black Gay\/Lesbian Identity<\/em><\/h3>\n

Lisa C. Moore ; G. Winston James<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay\/Lesbian Identity is a compilation of essays, poems, and narratives each detailing the religious and spiritual identity of its author. Poet, fiction writer, and the editor of a number of African American lesbian and gay publications G. Winston James, and Lisa C. Moore, the editor of Redbone Press, have included over forty thoughtfully-written pieces that explore African American lesbian and gay spirituality, each providing an intimate and revealing depiction of the author’s search for a spiritual self. The well-written introduction to the volume by Rev. Irene Monroe places this important volume in context, pointing out that not just homosexuality, but human sexuality has ‘never been a comfortable topic for discussion in the black community,’ a claim that both Griffin and a number of Comstock’s interviewees had made. Yet, it is this difficulty that black church leaders have in addressing or even understanding sexuality that has alienated lesbians and gays from many more traditional black congregations that have refused to accept them. Spirited illustrates that in their search for spiritual confirmation and religious support, a number of African American lesbians and gays have sought solace outside of the mainstream black churches. The contributors to Spirited practice a variety of different religious beliefs in addition to the Protestant Christianity, including Buddhism, Haitian Voodoo, and even Shamanism. As noted above, Battle and his colleagues found in their study of African American LGBT people that 54 percent of respondents reported that their religious institution did not approve of their sexuality. Moreover, a vast majority of respondents who reported that their religious faith was supportive of their homosexuality were not members of the traditional black churches, and the ‘most religious’ in the sample were those who followed ‘other religions.’ This underscores the significance of spirituality in the lives of the majority of African Americans, including African American gays and lesbians. ~ Angelique C. Harris, The Journal of African American History, Vol. 93, No. 2, Discourses on Race, Sex, and African American Citizenship (Spring, 2008), pp. 262-270<\/div>\n
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