He Is Black and We Are Queer: The Legacy of the Black Messiah for Black LGBTQ Christians

Abstract

Lightsey interrogates Cleage’s black Messiah to find kernels that can facilitate the queering of womanist theology. She explicates the way Cleage’s claim of Jesus as black correlates to her claim of Jesus as black and queer, a claim that rejects heteronormativity. Cleage decries racial oppression and black people’s acceptance of it, and Lightsey adeptly extends that critique to include those who would condone the oppression of the black LGBTQ community. Just as Cleage claimed black people have accepted a false and racist theology, a slave theology, Lightsey makes clear they have also accepted a false, heteronormative theology. This chapter challenges Cleage and his adherents to respond to the questions of womanist and womanist queer theologies.