ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the process by which persons reconstruct their Evangelical religious identity to include the formerly incongruent homosexual identity. It focuses on how these bridges are forged or the identities of the Evangelical faith and the gay lifestyle are reconciled. Through an analysis of the interaction between Good News, its members, and a traditional Evangelical identity, a complex and subtle process of identity negotiation comes to light. Hart and Richardson have found that gays often organize their self-identity around their sexual identity. The biblical mandate of sanctification and the assurance of eternal "rewards" for a faithful Christian operate as implicit mechanisms of commitment to the new gay Christian identity. In conceptualizing religious identity change or conversion as an either/or proposition, researchers may be overlooking the subtlety of the individual's identity negotiation. More often people seek out Good News to resolve the identity dissonance; once the dissonance is resolved or reduced, they disappear.
