Movement Magazine: Issue 162

THE LONG READ
BLACKNESS,
QUEERNESS, AND
THE MISSIO DEI
Earlier this year, Augustine won the Church Times
Theology Slam speaking on theology and race in the
wake of recent waves of Black Lives Matter protests.
Here, he unpacks the intersections of his Black, Queer,
and Christian identities, and explores God’s mission to
liberate all from oppression.
I was 8 years old when I realised that in the Black community, being gay was
the worst thing you could ‘choose’ to be. I was 15 years old when my 27-yearold
transgender cousin was murdered by an unidentified man late at night. The
Chicago Police Department did not do an investigation into her death. I was 16
years old when I came to the conclusion that I’m not heterosexual. At the time
my world was turned upside down.
I never grew up in the Black Church. I became a Christian in a predominantly
white church, therefore my experience of the Black church is more as a visitor
than a worshipper. But the Black Church shaped how Black folks think about God
and each other. How we do theology is always considering our understanding
and surroundings.
African American theological hermeneutics were shaped by many years of many
of us not being able to read or write, but relying on the pastor to truly testify
the words of the Lord for Black folk, and the Black literal interpretation of the
Christian text and queerness as it relates to our community will continue to be
shaped in a negative light. This understanding is not too different from the Black
Queer British Believer’s experience as well.
Being Black and queer
was never something that
would be considered as
positive. After all, it was
“gay” that meant “weird,”
“strange,” “bizarre,”
“unworthy,” “disgusting.”
The community, church,
and culture all expressed
a certain way that Black
men and women should
express themselves.
Homosexuality and Transgender identities were always framed to be something
that was outside our community. Outside the cultural understanding of what
it meant to be fully human. Gender and sexuality were framed as an innate
framework and if you deviate from this then you are disrespecting the natural
being of humanity and in effect rejecting your blackness. It was seen as something
that ‘white’ people participate in. Being Black and queer was never something
that would be considered as positive. After all, it was “gay” that meant “weird,”
“strange,” “bizarre,” “unworthy,” “disgusting.” The community, church, and
culture all expressed a certain way that Black men and women should express
themselves. The Black man should be hyper-masculine, expressing almost
animalistic uncontrolled urges to reproduce. He should work physically hard in a
blue-collar career. While Black women are to be feminine, but only a little. They
are supposed to be loud and opinionated, and frankly difficult to live with.
36 MOVEMENT Issue 162 MOVEMENT Issue 162 160
37