{"id":305,"date":"2021-03-21T11:24:32","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T15:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=305"},"modified":"2021-03-21T11:24:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T15:24:33","slug":"the-sin-is-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/03\/21\/the-sin-is-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"The sin is shame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In\u00a0Go Tell It On the Mountain<\/em>, James Baldwin mingles Scriptural references and queer-coding to portray John wrestling with his emergent sexuality. While John\u2019s transformation is the focal point of the novel, Baldwin accomplishes a more complex portrait of how the characters relate to sexuality and religion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John grows up in an environment in which the body and nakedness are seen as sinful. He is ashamed of his baby photo in the living room that shows him naked (26), and he associates sex with sin and shame (10). However, Baldwin portrays many of the characters, not just John, struggling with shame about their sexuality. The church environment shames Elisha and Ella Mae for \u201cwalking disorderly\u201d (14). Gabriel has troubled relationships with Deborah, Esther, and Elizabeth and has deep hatred and fear of his sexuality. John\u2019s anxiety about his homosexuality being sinful is especially potent because he is raised in an environment that constantly reinforces that \u201csin was in the flesh\u201d (15). When sexuality and desire are seen as sinful, disordered, and shameful, it prevents the characters from having healthy or holy relationships with themselves and one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Bible is commonly used to hurt queer people and\/or reinforce the association of the body and desire with shame, Baldwin\u2019s choice to permeate the novel with Scriptural references serves a different purpose. Baldwin\u2019s use of the Bible underscores the centrality of love in Christianity\u2014not sin or shame. By foregrounding love in a novel about a suffocatingly Christian environment, Baldwin invites new uses of Scripture that break the cycle of shame about (homo)sexuality. Just beside the photo in the parlor that embarrasses John, for example, is John 3:16\u2014 \u201cFor God so loved the world\u2026\u201d (26). For Baldwin, use of the Bible is meant to foreground love above all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language evocative of the Song of Songs intertwines John\u2019s homosexuality with the Bible\u2019s most beautiful love poetry. When John is on the threshing floor, he looks around for Elisha and Roy and realizes that love alone can save him from death, for \u201c[l]ove is as strong as death, as deep as the grave\u201d (193-194; Songs 8:6-7). It\u2019s this realization about love that helps him through his transformation. At the end of the novel, when John and Elisha exchange a \u201choly kiss,\u201d its mark on John\u2019s face is \u201clike a seal ineffaceable forever\u201d (215). Their gesture of holy love again evokes the Bible\u2019s love poetry: \u201cSet me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death\u201d (Songs 8:6). Baldwin inseparably entangles the novel\u2019s queer-coding with its religious influences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baldwin\u2019s use of Scripture in this novel hints that gay and Christian identities\u2014indeed, sexuality and sanctity\u2014do not have to be polar opposites, as John is just beginning to understand. It\u2019s love, not shame, that will bring the characters closer to God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0Go Tell It On the Mountain, James Baldwin mingles Scriptural references and queer-coding to portray John wrestling with his emergent sexuality. While John\u2019s transformation is the focal point of the novel, Baldwin accomplishes a more complex portrait of how the characters relate to sexuality and religion.\u00a0 John grows up in an environment in which the … Continue reading The sin is shame<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3909,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[480788],"tags":[53094,146,14513,18034],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-go-tell-it-on-the-mountain","tag-bible","tag-religion","tag-sexuality","tag-shame"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}