ABSTRACT
The Pentecostal social imaginary thus constructs an obstinate fleshly hierarchy, condemning the supposedly porous homosexual and female bodies to the bottom. These porous bodies are contrasted with the married straight male body, which is imagined as concrete, stable, and impenetrable. Penetrated vaginas are often decried as belonging to prostitutes, a pejorative term levied against any woman who has multiple sexual partners. The penetrating spirits and penises treat the body in same way and begin to erase any distinction between spiritual and material worlds. The body in all of its sensuality is “situated at the center of the production and consumption of religion.” And so how bodies are imagined–both in ritual and discourse–creates meaning. Religion therefore produces “bodies” and a hierarchy for these bodies through a sort of erotic or sexualized imagination. While preaching about homosexuality, pastors and prophets invoked the penetrable, leaky anus in order to intimate disgust and dismiss homosexuals while depicting a gaping orifice rife with demonic possibility.
