Hutchinson, ‘Into exile’, 2018

Category: Literature
Source: Academic
Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality, Gender Identity, Refugee/Asylum, LGBT+
Place: United Kingdom
Year: 2018
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2018.1521610

Hutchinson, O. G., ‘Into exile: theological perspectives on hearing the voices of Black queer Pentecostal men seeking asylum in the UK’, published online 17 October 2018, Practical Theology, https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2018.1521610

Abstract

This paper presents fieldwork data extracted from a wider doctoral research project. The voices of five Black, gay Pentecostal men from countries in the Caribbean and Africa who are seeking asylum in the UK are heard and reflected upon theologically. The study contributes to ongoing practical theological conversation about the nature and practice of knowing the ‘other’. Three perspectives are used to interpret the men’s experience of rejection, sometimes extreme violence and flight into exile; multiplicity of identity; multiple overwhelmings; and exile itself in relation to the author’s reflexivity and the lived spirituality of the interviewees. The article concludes by placing their voices in dialogue with Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection calling for, following Girard, an end to their scapegoating.