New Podcast Series: LGBTQ+ Affirming Churches in the Rural South

The Rural Faith Initiative of the Center for Rural Strategies has produced a new podcast series on rural faith. The series features research and stories from LGBTQ+ affirming churches in the rural South, collected by The Rev’d Claire Brown, an Episcopal priest in rural Tennessee.

In each episode, Rev’d Brown is in conversation with her friend, The Rev’d Whitney Kimball Coe, who leads our Rural Faith Initiative work for the Center for Rural Strategies.

When Claire Brown began her ministry in rural Athens, Tenn., she came to realize that her parish wasn't the only one navigating the ins and outs of creating a safe spiritual community for LGBTQ+ community members. She set out to find the churches, pastors and lay leaders who had also been on this journey in their corners of the rural south.⁠ Her research was funded by The Louisville Institute’s Pastoral Study Program. The Louisville Institute is a a Lilly Endowment-funded program based at Louisville Seminary supporting those who lead and study American religious institutions.

She spoke with or visited 17 communities across the southeast: Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Methodist, Lutheran, UCC, and Cooperative Baptist. Most of these churches are the lone affirming religious institution in their communities.

More LGBTQ+ people live in the rural South region than any other part of the country, and this area is also a uniquely difficult place to live for them, as southeast states have many restrictive laws and policies. Many of those persons live in rural communities, where Bible belt culture intersects with a lack of community resources and representation. But there are communities of faith in the rural south that defy cultural and religious stereotypes. These churches are committed to living out their inclusive values, and express faith and community as fully affirming of LGBTQ+ persons, including equality in marriage, family support, and ordination.

“More LGBTQ people live in the southeast than other one region of the United States, and many of those folks are in rural communities and many of those folks are Christians,” said Brown. “Part of the need that we see in LGBTQ community life is the need for spiritual and religious places — communities that allow people of all genders and sexual orientations to practice their path to find belonging, to love God and neighbor in a way that doesn’t put them in a place of fear.”

How to Listen

You can catch each episode wherever you get your podcasts on our Rural Remix podcast channel. We’re also excited to share that each episode is first appearing as a segment on Yonder Radio, a weekly radio show and podcast produced by the team at the Center for Rural Strategies.

Sign up for our emails to make sure you do not miss an episode! We hope you’ll tune in for each segment of this series in which we’ll talk about the beautiful, radical, ordinary ways that these churches are thriving in their communities.⁠

The Rev’d Claire Brown is an Episcopal priest, writer, facilitator, and spiritual director living and ministering in East Tennessee. Claire is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, and is the co-author of three volumes: Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers, New Directions for Holy Questions, and The Athlete Devotional. She loves to help communities weave together sacraments, transformative spiritual practice, and social action. Claire is a graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School, the School of Theology at Sewanee, the Shalem Institute, and Still Harbor. Learn more about Rev. Brown.

The Rev’d Whitney Kimball Coe is Vice President of National Programs at the Center for Rural Strategies. In that role she leads the Center's Rural Faith Initiative, an effort to shine a light on the ways rural faith communities are serving their neighbors. Until 2023, she led the Rural Assembly, a nationwide movement striving to build better policy and more opportunity for rural communities across the country. As an organizer, speaker, moderator, and writer, Whitney has shared her perspectives on community and civic courage with audiences around the world. She has been featured on stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival and the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit, and as a guest on the radio program On Being with Krista Tippett. Whitney is an ordained minister in The Episcopal Church and holds a Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, a Master of Arts in Appalachian Studies from Appalachian State University, and an undergraduate degree in religion and philosophy from Queens University. Whitney currently lives in Johnson City, TN, with her husband Matt, and daughters, Lucy and Susannah.

Resources from Rev. Claire Brown’s research:

Baker-Jordan, Skylar. “Being Welcoming Is a Work in Progress.” 17 June 2022.

https://dailyyonder.com/commentary-being-welcoming-is-a-work-in-progress/2022/06/17

Danbom, David B. Born in the Country: A History of Rural America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.

“The Flourishing Queer South: Finding community despite adversity,” 8 May 2024, https://uahillmag.com/2024/05/08/the-flourishing-queer-south-finding-community-despite-adversity/ 

Gray, Mary L. Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. New York: NYU Press, 2009.

Y'all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia ed Z. Zane McNeil. Binghamton: PM Press, 2022.

Movement Advancement Project. Where We Call Home: LGBT People in Rural America. April 2019. www.lgbtmap.org/file/lgbt-rural-report.pdf. 

“Queering Southern Hospitality, Claire Brown, http://bit.ly/43AiWM7 

“Religion and the U.S. South,” Charles Reagan Wilson. Southern Spaces. https://southernspaces.org/2004/religion-and-us-south/