Black Gay Men, Homophobia and The Black Church

via Black Gay Men's Blog

Black Gay Men’s Blog takes a look at homophobia and the Black Church. How do black gay men, many of whom were brought up Christian, in black churches, balance their homosexuality with the overt homophobia and hypocrisy of the Black Church? The guilt many black gay men, bisexuals and MSM feel is often as a direct or indirect result of the homophobic teachings of the black churches we attend and this homophobia has spilled over into the black community at large. Is it possible for black gay men to truly love, accept and respect themselves, be happy and emotionally balanced and live honest fulfilling lives, while listening to homophobic rhetoric from the pulpit every Sunday, or is the answer to either abandon our Christian faith, or form our own churches?

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Religious Leader Jim Wallis Urges Christians to Stand with Gays and Lesbians

The homophobic proselytizing done from pulpits each Sunday has directly contributed to the verbal, emotional, mental and physical abuse that LGBT youth face each day in school. At least some spiritual leaders are stepping up and defending these kids.

Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners Magazine and a Christian leader is among them:


I wore purple to commemorate "Spirit Day," in memory of the many young people who have taken their own lives as a result of harassment and bullying inflicted on them because they are gay. I wore purple because I am a follower of Christ.

A bully is a person who habitually intimidates, harasses, or commits violence against those who are smaller, weaker, or more vulnerable because of their "outsider" status. A bully stands in opposition to all of what Christ taught and lived. There is broad opposition within the Christian community to bullying, especially the sort that leads to the deaths we have seen as of late. This sort of harassment is indefensible. And the stories of young kids being so bullied that they take their own lives have been heartbreaking to hear.

Read the rest at HuffPo.

Q&A with Bishop Gene Robinson

Bishop Gene Robinson is the first openly gay, non-celibate priest to become bishop in a major Christian denomination.

He chats it up with Jackson Hole Weekly's Ben Cannon.

….“God’s love is broader, deeper, wider than anything that we can imagine and God’s love for us really knows no bounds. And I think the history of Christianity is really about whether or not we can believe in something that‘s miraculously wonderful, and what kind of a difference it makes in our lives…”

Read the interview.

Is it possible to be GAY and CHRISTIAN?

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Lutherans to allow sexually active gays as clergy

via AP, by Patrick Condon

MINNEAPOLIS — The nation's largest Lutheran denomination took openly gay clergy more fully into its fold Friday, as leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.

Under the new policy, individual ELCA congregations will be allowed to hire homosexuals as clergy as long as they are in a committed relationships. Until now, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as clergy.

The change passed with the support of 68 percent of about 1,000 delegates at the ELCA's national assembly. It makes the group, with about 4.7 million members in the U.S., one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance.

"I have seen these same-gender relationships function in the same way as heterosexual relationships — bringing joy and blessings as well as trials and hardships," the Rev. Leslie Williamson, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Ill., said during the hours of debate. "The same-gender couples I know live in love and faithfulness and are called to proclaim the word of God as are all of us."

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