- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Identifying Race and Religion
- Religion and Race in the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic
- Religion, Race, and American Empire
- Gendering the History of Race and Religion
- Religion, Race, and Sexuality
- Religion, Race, and Popular Culture
- Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century America
- American Missionaries and Race
- Mormonism and Race
- Catholicism and Race
- American Judaism and Race
- Islam and Race in American History
- Buddhism and Race
- Religion, Race, and Humanism
- Religion and Race in American Music
- Documentary Photography and the Visual Politics of Race and Religion
- Race, Religion, and Documentary Film
- Religion, Race, and Sports
- Natives, Religion, and Race in Colonial America
- African and African American Religions in the Early Americas
- Religion and Race in the Greater South, 1500–1800
- Puritans and Race
- Religion and Racial Violence in the Nineteenth Century
- African American Religions in the Nineteenth Century
- Race, Gender, and the Hawaiian Islands Mission
- Asian American Religions from Chinese Exclusion to 1965
- South Asian Religions in Contemporary America
- African American Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- White Protestants and the Civil Rights Movement
- Black Theologies
- Native American Religions in the Twentieth Century
- Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- Religion, Race, and Immigration in Contemporary America
- Migration and Modern Religious Pluralism
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
The history of sexuality is a growing area of interest for scholars of religion and race in the North American context. That which is often regarded as a private matter—sex and sexuality—is in fact shaped by larger cultural, economic, political, and religious forces. To study the intersections of sexuality and race in American religious history, then, is to examine the role of belief, as well as formal religious institutions and their spokespeople, in circulating ideas about bodies, sex, marriage, family, morality, and immorality. If religious variety has been one way that scholars have understood the American experiment from the earliest colonial encounters to the present day, this chapter considers moments when sex and sexuality, and the religious thinking that passes judgments on sexual practices, has served to define or highlight racial difference in American history.
Keywords: sexuality and sexual orientation, race, religion, the body, contraception, colonialism, family, marriage, moral reform, respectability
Monica L. Mercado is Assistant Professor of History at Colgate University, affiliated with Women’s Studies.
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- The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History
- Contributors
- Introduction
- Identifying Race and Religion
- Religion and Race in the Early Modern Iberian Atlantic
- Religion, Race, and American Empire
- Gendering the History of Race and Religion
- Religion, Race, and Sexuality
- Religion, Race, and Popular Culture
- Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century America
- American Missionaries and Race
- Mormonism and Race
- Catholicism and Race
- American Judaism and Race
- Islam and Race in American History
- Buddhism and Race
- Religion, Race, and Humanism
- Religion and Race in American Music
- Documentary Photography and the Visual Politics of Race and Religion
- Race, Religion, and Documentary Film
- Religion, Race, and Sports
- Natives, Religion, and Race in Colonial America
- African and African American Religions in the Early Americas
- Religion and Race in the Greater South, 1500–1800
- Puritans and Race
- Religion and Racial Violence in the Nineteenth Century
- African American Religions in the Nineteenth Century
- Race, Gender, and the Hawaiian Islands Mission
- Asian American Religions from Chinese Exclusion to 1965
- South Asian Religions in Contemporary America
- African American Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- White Protestants and the Civil Rights Movement
- Black Theologies
- Native American Religions in the Twentieth Century
- Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century
- Religion, Race, and Immigration in Contemporary America
- Migration and Modern Religious Pluralism
- Index