Transgressive mystical experiences – LGBTIA+ churches and religious movements amid the COVID-19 (post)pandemic

Abstract

Mystical experiences are common in Christianity, among leaders who founded churches or movements with theological perspectives that are innovative to the tradition. These phenomena have occurred with people, until then, considered sinners or excluded from salvation for expressing LGBTIA+ gender identity and sexuality and who, at times, were considered to have psychological disorders because they differ from the cis-heteronormativity, on which the conservative religious morality. Through online interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic with prominent names of this area, heretical from the canonical view, it is discussed how the social stigma and mental suffering imposed on them gained new meanings by becoming a symbolic mark of those “chosen by God” to a life anointed with acceptance and protagonism in their religious communities. It also analyzes how their practices of biblical re-reading and religious rites gained space and spread through social networks, with intensified use following the health crisis at that period