ABSTRACT
Black Pentecostalism in the United States has been interpreted as exclusionary and often intolerant of gender and sexual diversity. This chapter explores one US Black Pentecostal movement, The Fellowship for Affirming Ministries (TFAM), and how its radical practices of religious and social inclusion complicate any neat interpretation of US Black Pentecostalism. It argues that TFAM queers Pentecostal theology and practice. TFAM articulates Christian theological positions and practices of social inclusion that contest the normative US Pentecostal center, demonstrating that Pentecostal theology and identity can be oriented toward plurality, multivocality, and radical love. This brief history on the constricting beliefs and practices of some black Pentecostal communities does not capture the entire black Pentecostal view on these matters in the United States. As already stated, black Pentecostalism is not a monolith. It is constituted by diversity and a plurality of theological and social viewpoints.
