Black
pastor
denounces
‘miseducation
in
the
pulpit'
|
|
Sylvia
Rhue
is
still
awed
that
Sen.
Barack
Obama
broached
gay
rights
at
Ebenezer
Baptist
Church.
She
said
the
nation’s
first
major
black
presidential
candidate
could
have
faced
awkward
silence
in
January
when
he
mentioned
gays
at
the
church
where
Martin
Luther
King
Jr.
once
preached.
“If
we’re
honest
with
ourselves,”
Obama
said,
“we’ll
acknowledge
that
our
own
community
has
not
always
been
true
to
King’s
vision
of
a
beloved
community.
If
we’re
honest
with
ourselves,
we
have
to
admit
that
there
have
been
times
when
we’ve
scorned
our
gay
brothers
and
sisters
instead
of
embracing
them.”
The
lines
were
so
well
received,
though,
that
they
generated
applause
and
were
echoed
in
other
speeches
that
Obama
later
gave.
Rhue,
the
National
Black
Justice
Coalition’s
religious
affairs
director,
also
noted
the
lines
gave
her
and
other
gay
activists
new
opportunities
to
plead
their
case
to
black
Americans.
“It
means
that
we’re
worthy
of
discussion
in
a
positive
manner,”
she
said.
“It
means
that
we
have
a
presidential
candidate
who
sees
the
cultural
shift
that
is
leaning
more
toward
gay
rights
—
and
that’s
the
future.”
Six
months
after
Obama
spoke
at
Ebenezer
Baptist
Church,
gay
activists
are
working
toward
making
his
inclusive
vision
a
reality.
It’s
not
easy.
Activists
are
challenged
to
surmount
many
prejudices,
fears
and
misconceptions.
Progress,
they
say,
is
agonizingly
slow.
But
there
is
progress.
Rev.
Ken
Samuel,
a
black
pastor
at
Victory
Church
near
Atlanta
and
an
outspoken
proponent
of
gay
rights,
said
ears
that
once
were
deaf
to
gay
issues
now
are
listening
to
carefully
chosen
words.
“It’s
got
to
be
addressed
from
an
appeal
to
basic
fairness,”
he
said.
“If
you
appeal
to
the
issue
of
fairness
and
equity,
that
resonates
with
black
people,
because
then
you
can
remind
them
how
the
Bible
was
used
as
a
weapon
against
black
people.”
Samuel
said
such
considerations
are
spurring
a
growing
number
of
black
congregations
to
abandon
“biblical
literalism”
and
drop
their
attacks
on
homosexuality.
“What
the
Bible
says
is
not
erased,
but
put
in
a
context,”
he
said.
“It
opens
a
door
for
black
people
to
reinterpret
what
the
Bible
says
about
man
laying
with
man
in
the
same
way
we’ve
had
to
reinterpret
what
the
Bible
has
said
about
slaves
being
good
to
their
masters.”
Activists
said
other
arguments,
such
as
those
that
focus
on
notions
of
justice
and
equality,
also
are
causing
some
opponents
of
gay
rights
to
reconsider
their
positions.
Rev.
Larry
Brumfield,
a
black
pastor
at
Westminster
Church
of
the
Brethren
in
northern
Mary-land,
said
black
Americans
should
demand
that
gay
Americans
be
treated
equally.
Brumfield
said
anything
less
than
full
support
is
“out
of
tune
with
the
experience
that
we
have
had
as
a
people
over
the
last
400
years
in
this
country.”
“And
by
that,
what
I
mean
is
we
have
been
ostracized
in
the
workplace
and
in
the
community,”
he
said.
“In
this
culture,
we
have
been
downtrodden
and
been
kicked
around
and
have
fought
—
and
continue
to
struggle
—
for
our
rightful
position
in
this
community.
To
be
doing
the
same
to
another
community
is
shortsighted
and
a
little
bit
self
indulgent.”
Brumfield,
like
Samuel,
said
religious
beliefs
cannot
rightly
be
used
to
justify
the
discrimination
of
gays.
He
said
although
the
Bible’s
older
books
contain
some
passages
that
seemingly
condemn
same-sex
relationships,
Jesus,
whose
words
in
the
New
Testament
are
sometimes
shown
in
red
text,
never
addressed
homosexuality.
“There’s
nothing
in
any
of
those
red
letters
where
this
was
a
priority
to
Jesus,
about
sexual
identity
or
who
one
slept
with,
with
respect
to
gender,”
Brumfield
said.
“My
position
is:
If
it
wasn’t
a
priority
to
him,
it
isn’t
a
priority
to
me.”
In
addition
to
religious
rebuttals,
activists
said
education
is
crucial
to
any
arguments
for
equality.
“The
majority
of
the
African-
American
community
does
not
think
about,
and
does
not
know
about,
the
homosexual
community,”
said
Elbridge
James,
director
of
the
pro-gay
Maryland
Black
Family
Alliance.
“They
don’t
have
a
clue.”
James
said
just
as
many
white
suburbanites
understood
little
about
black
issues
during
the
civil
rights
movement
50
years
ago,
many
blacks
don’t
heed
gay
issues
today.
He
said
such
attitudes
may
partly
explain
why
gay
issues
generally
poll
poorly
among
black
Americans.
“I
think
if
you
look
at
the
’40s
and
’50s,
what
white
Americans
thought
about
the
rights
of
black
Americans,
you
would
find
similar
opposition,”
James
said.
And
much
like
black
Americans
needed
help
to
overcome
“white
privilege,”
James
said
gay
Americans
need
help
to
overcome
“heterosexual
privilege.”
“It’s
the
same
in
the
black
community
on
this
issue,”
he
said.
“It’s
heterosexual
privilege.
They
don’t
think
about
it.
They
rely
on
their
heterosexual
privilege,
but
they
don’t
think
about
it.”
But
such
educational
efforts,
activists
said,
have
a
long
way
to
go.
“There’s
not
a
lot
of
dinner
table,
breakfast
nook
conversations
that
are
happening
about
marriage
in
our
community,”
said
H.
Alexander
Robinson,
the
National
Black
Justice
Coalition’s
executive
director.
Part
of
the
problem,
...
