I continue to be fascinated with the dynamics of the African-American portion of the GLBT community. According to this interesting article in the Indianapolis Star, some black gays are choosing to attend churches that preach strongly against homosexuality so they can experience the energetic, passionate worship style they grew up with.
Jeffrey A. Johnson, the pastor of 13,000 member Eastern Star Church, addressed his attitude toward homosexuals, "I don't know of anyone who is openly gay in my church," Johnson said. "But if someone claims to be openly gay, then we'd pull them aside and . . . try to convince them to God's way and will. I want them to hear God's word. But they cannot serve in leadership and ministry with that kind of mentality. It's not just gays, but anyone who is outside of God's will."
Another local Indianapolis minister said, "We don't investigate and we don't interrogate and we just don't get into it. "We don't make it an issue, and we conduct our services based on who comes."
Soundsd a lot like the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the U. S. Army, doesn't it?
Why would African-Americans subject themselves to this? "My church speaks to my gay soul, but not entirely to my black soul," said Robert Ferguson, a deacon for the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church who is president of Indiana Black Pride. "It's hard to not have the visuals, the music, the culture, if you were raised up by it."
It sounds to me like it's time for GLBT African-Americans to break away and start their own churches. Everyone deserves to opportunity to worship God and be accepted for who they are instead of having to pick one or the other.
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I just posted an essay on this very topic at my blogsite, Christ, The Gay Martyr. It's naive to think that only African-American Lesbians and Gay men seek out churches that condemn their sexuality; more than just race/ethnicity/culture is at play when this happens. There are people who have been hard-wired into believing that Christianity condemns homosexual acts. A lot of those people are Lesbians and Gay men. This is what they've been taught all their lives, and it's almost like a core belief for them . . . take it away, and the whole foundation for Christianity falls apart. So they go to church not to experience inspiration and fulfillment, but denigration and punishment. It's a form of self-flagellation. It's masochism. Instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit, they're filled with guilt and shame, and we all know that guilt and shame in Gay people can lead to unsafe, destructive behavior.
ReplyDeleteThis will be a very hard problem to lick, but we can lick it by urging Gay people to read the Bible for themselves (in context, and in a clear translation) so that they understand what the Christ's true message was. We must continuously cite and explain those passages in the books of Matthew (Chapter 19) and Isaiah (Chapter 56) which affirm Gay identity. Really, we have to do no less than knock the Christian faith off the false foundation it rests on today so that its roots can be exposed and nurtured. We must begin to undo the many centuries' worth of Satanic work false prophets have done. I don't expect to see the course of Christian teaching reverse in my lifetime, but those of us who believe that Christ's message of salvation applies to all human beings must take up this cross, and we must take it up NOW.
http://christthegaymartyr.blogspot.com/
I heartily agree with you, Stuffed Animal. I recently attended a conference at a Queer Studies consortium, and was taken by the lack of self-esteem of so many of the participants, some of whom as professors even tolerated insults regarding their sexuality from their students. LGBT people need to be empowered, and frequently in spite of themselves. When I've counseled gay people, for example, regardless of what I said, and what I said regarding the fact that the Bible doesn't condemn same-sex love but actually affirms it, it didn't seem to make any difference, even when I discussed chapter and verse of the "clobber passages." They were so brainwashed with the fact that God couldn't love them and that they were "sinners," whether or not they conceptually stated it in that way. It seems to me that there are three major ways to deal with this problem:
ReplyDelete1. Christians must actively confront homophobic clergy and their blind followers with biblical truth and show how their prejudicial hermeneutics is not only erroneous but downright hateful and destructive, allowing "justification" for shame, self-loathing, suicide, and anti-gay violence and even murder. This can be done in a variety of settings: letters to the editor, church announcements, bible studies, etc.
2. Taking the celebratory aspects of the Mardi Gras atmosphere of Pride Celebrations and converting them to the expression of anger and revulsion against homophobic clergy, politicians who callously use anti-LGBT rhetoric to hustle votes, and against people who are just downright ignorant and/or hateful. When LGBT people and allies "take to the streets" to express our revulsion, that may well hasten the time when civil and sacramental rights will be afforded LGBT people and same-sex couples. One of these tactics would include couples desirous of "marriage" to appear each and every day at the Marriage License Bureau, with cameras rolling if possible, demanding a marriage license just as would be given any straight couple, and demanding to know why as tax paying citizens they were deprived of this and the over 1,000 rights that straight married people are afforded.
3. I tell all Christians who want a 100% safe place to worship to either join an MCC or, barring that, form their own worship communities with others who understand the only Gospel to be found in Christianity: the Gospel of grace (unmerited favor), faith (trusting God over and above seen circumstances), love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness.
By doing these things I think that more people will become empowered to shake off the yokes of bondage placed on them by the ignorant and the haters, and take a pro-active stance in fighting for every single right that non-gay people have.
Best wishes, Jerry.
www.christianlgbtrights.org