Ambiguities, Authenticity and Actualisation: Life Story Research with a Bisexual Christian

Explorations into the life stories and experiences of bisexual Christians have often detailed the various experiences of those identifying as bisexual within their various churches (Kolodny, 2000; Toft, 2009, 2012, 2014; Wilcox, 2002, 2009; Yip, 2003a, 2003b). This chapter presents the story of Sam, who identifies as bisexual, gender-fluid, and Christian. Sam describes their experiences in church as ‘fragile’ and they are conscious of the ambiguities of their gender, sexual, and faith self-presentations. In this chapter, I explore how ambiguity is a truly queer concept. It is unstable and unfixable and it is precisely what challenges binaries. I re-examine the work of Althaus-Reid’s ‘Bi/Christ’ in light of Sam’s story, offering original critical insights on how an epistemology of bisexual ambiguity reveals the temporality of human understandings of identity. Underpinning my examination of ambiguity, I explore how issues of authenticity and actualisation characterise contemporary understandings of religion, gender and sexuality. Queer theology therefore exposes how sexuality and faith are not fixable constructs of identity.