An Opening in the Congregational Closet? Boundary-Bridging Culture and Membership Privileges for Gays and Lesbians in Christian Religious Congregations Gary Adler, University of Arizona Openness to homosexuality at the congregational level of American religious life has only recently received schol- arly attention. This research reports patterns of membership openness to gays and lesbians among American Christian congregations and synthesizes emerging hypotheses to explain such openness. Using data from the second wave of the National Congregations Study (Chaves 2007), multinomial logistic regression models demonstrate evidence for the im- portance of clergy characteristics, membership demographics, local context, local theological culture, and religious tra- dition. A boundary-bridging cultural model also conceptualizes how the bridging practices of congregations influence membership openness. Interfaith volunteering and interracial worship express an organizational approach to social boundaries that prioritizes diversity and openness. With a controversial social issue (homosexuality), and a relative lack of local organizational processes to deal with such an issue, boundary-bridging customs may shape the sexuality boundaries of congregations. This research develops knowledge of cultural processes and homosexuality within Amer- ican religious congregations. Keywords: congregation; homosexuality; boundary; cultural model; bridging. The relationship between religion and homosexuality in its most oft-articulated form is one of intolerance and exclusion. Personal religiosity can undergird intolerance of homosexuality, as shown by numerous studies regarding the influence of religious affiliation, beliefs about the Bible, and images of God (Brumbaugh et al. 2008; Burdette, Ellison, and Hill 2005; Froese, Bader, and Smith 2008; Lewis and Gossett 2008; Loftus 2001; Mavor and Gallois 2008; Scheitle and Hahn 2011; Sherkat, de Vries, and Creek 2010; Whitehead 2010). Religiously affiliated movements mo- bilize to place legal constraints on same-sex marriage, religious therapy groups attempt to “re- form” homosexuals, and most religious denominations bar the ordination of gays and lesbians (Campbell and Monson 2008; Fetner 2008; Van Geest 2007b). Less well known than these exam- ples of continued exclusion are religious organizations open to membership for gays and lesbians, especially congregations. Despite being the predominant site of religious activity in the United States, congregational patterns of openness to homosexuality have been explored only recently (Ammerman 1997a; Becker 1999; Cadge, Day, and Wildeman 2007; Djupe and Neiheisel 2008; Moon 2004; Putnam and Campbell 2010). Research to date has been primarily conducted within liberal denominations and in small samples, limiting understanding of which organizational char- acteristics may influence membership openness across the organizational population. This analysis uses nationally representative congregational data to overcome these limita- tions, presenting the extent to which American Christian congregations allow membership for gays and lesbians and testing emerging hypotheses to account for this aspect of openness to The author wishes to thank Kraig Beyerlein, Mark Chaves, Katie Hoegeman, Selena Ortiz, Joseph West, seven anony- mous reviewers, and the journal editors for valuable comments at various stages in the development of this research. Direct correspondence to: Gary Adler, Department of Sociology, University of Arizona, Social Sciences Building Room 400, Tucson, AZ 85721; E-mail: gadler@email.arizona.edu. Social Problems, Vol. 59, Issue 2, pp. 177–206, ISSN 0037-7791, electronic ISSN 1533-8533. © 2012 by Society for the Study of Social Problems, Inc. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website at www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo/asp. DOI: 10.1525/sp.2012.59.2.177. by guest on December 18, 2015 http://socpro.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from