Describes the church involvement of young African American men who have sex with men (MSM). Reports data secured from 76 individual semistructured interviews with men between the ages of 18 and 29 who reported recent sexual behavior with other men in Atlanta and Chicago that revealed high levels of involvement in African American churches and its impact on self-esteem and sexual behavior. Notes...

The Direction of the Study This research seeks to understand the nature of renewal of church communities that were once in decline. When speaking of a church as declining stagnant or, in some sense dysfunctional, the implication is that the particular community functions in a manner that contradicts what the church could or should be as Christ’s sign that the New Creation has dawned. To use a m...