‘My dream is that I share the bed with only one man’: Perceptions and practices of premarital sex among Catholic women in Belgium

Drawing on qualitative research with Catholic women who are active in the Church in Belgium, this article sets out to analyse how these women negotiate and manage premarital sexuality. I map their practices, experiences, and strategies, and explore how they make sense of religious and secular norms regarding premarital sexuality. By using two notions as theoretical frameworks, namely religious agency and growth ethics, I argue that combining both can lead to a fertile approach to yielding new insights into the field of religion and sexuality. In so doing, I demonstrate that although not all my interlocutors refrain from sexual relations before marriage, they develop personal sexual ethics, which are distinctly informed by Catholic understandings.

Diverse Trajectories at the Intersection of Religion and Sexuality During Emerging Adulthood

This chapter explores the intersection of religion and sex among emerging adults. It first discusses the extant empirical literature related to how religion influences sexual behavioral decisions as well as the link between religion and sexual values and attitudes. It then acknowledges a general waning from religion during emerging adulthood but presents diverse trajectories related to the religious lives of emerging adults and their sexual decision making. Next, the chapter discusses a variety of pathways and trajectories through which emerging adults may travel as they navigate decisions involving relationships and sexual intimacy and how such decisions are, may be, or are not influenced by religion. The four presented trajectories are religious rejecters, religious remainers, religious returners, and religious innovators. The chapter concludes by addressing some additional complexities regarding emerging adults, religion, and sex and offers some concluding questions and directions for future research.

Diversity in Representations and Voices of Terminally Ill People in End-of-Life Documentaries

Introduction: The 21st century has seen a proliferation of end-of-life documentary films and television documentaries that contribute to building a public image of hospice and palliative care. The way in which terminally ill patients are represented in these documentaries creates impressions of who is welcomed to receive end-of-life care. These documentary representations have not been previously mapped. Methods: Using quantitative content analysis, I analyzed 35 contemporary Western documentaries and studied their diversity in the representations. I focused on terminally ill patients who are given time and space in the narration to voice their views about the end-of-life process. I paid attention to such elements as gender, race and ethnicity, age, class, religion and sexuality. Results: The documentaries welcomed the representations and voices of terminally ill people. Class, religion and sexuality often had a marginal role in narration. The gender diversity of the representations was quite balanced. Regarding age, the documentaries preferred stories about working age patients for dramatic purposes, yet all age groups were represented. However, the documentaries had an identifiable racial and ethnic bias. With a few exceptions, terminally ill who had a personal voice in the narrations were white. In comparison, racial and ethnic minorities were either absent from most of the documentaries, or their role was limited to illustrations of the general story. Conclusions: End-of-life documentaries provide identifiable access to the patients’ experiences and as such they provide emotionally and personally engaging knowledge about hospice and palliative care. While these representations are people-oriented, they include racial disparities and they focus mostly on the experiences of white terminally ill patients. This bias reinforces the misleading image of hospice and palliative care as a racialized healthcare service.

Navigating paradox: Towards a conceptual framework for activism at the intersection of religion and sexuality

At the intersection of religion and sexuality, this article explores how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people navigate dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within faith-based settings. Situated in a postcolonial setting, and with a specific focus on South Africa, the article delineates the oppressive dynamics at work at this intersection, along with how these are resisted through contemporary forms of activism. Grounded in a feminist analysis of relevant literature and of the field of activism in question, and supplemented by interviews with key informants, the research offers a conceptual framework to advance transformative inclusion for LGBTIQ people within, and against, the dominant institutions, discourses and practices of faith.Contribution: This article contributes to the field of scholarship that concerns activism on sexual and gender rights in faith-based settings. It straddles theory and practice, offering an epistemological grounding for political action that advances the rights of LGBTIQ people. In bringing practitioner insights into academic discourse, the article adds to the burgeoning academic enquiry in this area, and offers a conceptual approach for supporting existing and new initiatives against marginalisation, exclusion and violence at the hands of faith.