ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that men confront expectations surrounding marital intimacy in distinctly gendered ways, asserting their religious masculinities despite sexual obstacles. Sexuality is implicated in manhood, acts since hegemonic masculinity depends upon heterosexuality to maintain gender imbalances between men and women. Religion, like heterosexuality, provides a platform with which men can justify manhood acts. The evangelical ex-gay movement shares many similarities with Promise Keepers in its unequivocal effort to bolster heterosexual masculinity within evangelicalism. The data on evangelical men were gathered by Kelsy Burke as part of a larger project on how evangelicals promote sexual pleasure within heterosexual marriages. Sexual sin, successful strategies for remaining chaste before marriage, the transition, to marital sexuality, and the efforts made to sexually satisfy spouses were common themes in interviews with both men and women. The chapter examines religious masculinity through a feminist lens by identifying the ways in which some evangelical and Latter-Day Saint men understand their masculinity within their spiritual beliefs.
