RENWL

The Rev. Dennis Meredith, center, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Atlanta, began a change in his preachings against homosexuality eight years ago when his son Micah told him he is gay. (photo courtesy of New York Times)

“The ascendancy to power of many of our African-American religious leaders has been predicated for so long on the devaluation of women and LGBT people. These ministers, who are supported by the Family Research Council and refuse to see the relationship between the black civil rights movement of the ’60s with the LGBT struggle to have the freedom to marry, merely become the overseers of a right-wing Republican plantation that will pad their pockets provided that they promulgate the master’s rhetoric.”

~ Rev. Irene Moore from her essay Unholy Matrimony: The Black Church & the Christian Right (2004)

It’s understandable why so many LGBTs are turned off to religion. No need for us to go down an exhausting laundry list outlining the obvious and well-trodden. And yet…as a community we are in the midst of a crisis movement. That’s really what the quest for equality is when it comes right down to it. It’s a social and cultural crisis.

Click on blue shaded area to hear short audio excerpt of anti-gay sermon by Bishop Alfred Owens of Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, Washington DC: 0505owens

One of the things that troubles us in regards to the LGBT equality movement these days is the absence of a strong God consciousness at the forefront of the journey. And we feel that without it, this battle for full civil rights and recognition as equals is going to be a multi-decades drawn-out and tiresome affair filled with sputters and spots—-a legislative victory here. Another one there—-but nothing  like  the ultimate vision. And that is full equality for LGBTs across the land.
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