Abstract:
This article focuses on the ways in which a group of mostly gay, Afrikaans-speaking Christians
interpret, appropriate, and deploy the institution of marriage at a small Pentecostal Charismatic
Church in Pretoria. In so doing, it demonstrates that research into the relationship between
Christianity and same-sex relationships in Africa needs to focus not only on moral panic and
homophobia, but also on how Christianity creates agentive spaces for claiming sexual responsibility
and constructing virtuous personhood. Through three life histories, it illustrates how
a group of gay Afrikaans-speaking Pentecostals use the institution of marriage to broadcast
outward respectability, reconfigure kinship, and refashion community. However, it also speaks
to the frustration of this cultural ideal and the ways in which ‘waiting’ works to mitigate such
frustrations.
