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Greetings!!
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Dr. Sylvia Rhue
Director of Religious Affairs |
August was such a busy month with 100 African American clergy meeting in Memphis to speak against the hate crimes bill and the heroic Rev. Reggie Longcrier being challenged on his pro-lgbt stance. This newsletter will give you updates on these events and some of our responses.
We salute the Unity Fellowship Church Movement's 25th anniversary! Please read about their upcoming conference in Los Angeles, Saturday October 6, 2007. |
Look for the announcement of the sale of the keynotes speeches from the First and Second Annual Black Church Summits--available in DVD format. Coming soon.
Don't forget to plan to come to the 3rd annual Black Church Summit in Baltimore, MD April 25, 2008 and NBJC's Leaders Conference April 26, 2008.
Tampa "In Spirit and Truth" Town Hall Announced
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The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), America’s only nationwide gay civil rights organization and Equality Florida proudly announce the continuation of the “In Spirit and In Truth” Town Hall series which began in Tampa last July.
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The purpose of the series of Town Hall meetings is to mobilize African Americans around issues of religion and homophobia, marriage equality, fairness for our families, and the upcoming anti-gay amendment in Florida. READ MORE HERE
NBJC Interviews
North Carolina Ally, Rev. Reggie Longcrier
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If you watched the Presidential debates that featured questions from YouTube, produced by Faith in America, you would have seen the Rev. Reggie Longcrier of North Carolina's Exodus Missionary Outreach Church ask the Democratic hopefuls this profound question: |
Americans look back on history and recognize it was wrong to use religion to justify discrimination against African-Americans and women. So why it is still OK today to use religion to deny gay and lesbian Americans their full and equal rights?
Since that day there has been a whirlwind of responses for the Reverend. He says that it took him up to the mountaintop and down to the valley.
READ MORE HERE
Unity Fellowship Church Movement Celebrates 25 Years of Social Justice Ministries
Archbishop Carl Bean, D. Min., Founder/ Presiding Prelate and the Unity Fellowship Church Movement will celebrate its 25th Anniversary at the Radisson Hotel in Culver City, Saturday, October 6, 2007, 6161 West Centinela Ave., Culver City, CA 90230.
Approximately 300 consumers, entrepreneurs, executives, religious and community leaders, elected officials and other guests are expected to be in attendance. READ MORE HERE
Clergy United Wants YOU!
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Essay Competition
$500 Prize
Pro-gay clergy are invited to submit an essay in response to one of two topics: “Why the gay rights movement IS/IS NOT the moral equivalent of the civil rights movement.” www.clergyunited.org
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The Trouble With Harry
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Bishop Harry Jackson, of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, is back in the news with attacks on Barak Obama, calling him a "dangerous man"and a "junior or infant Christian." |
Barak Obama appeared on LOGO and HRC’s presidential debate Thursday August 9. All of the candidates were asked about marriage equality for LGBT people. Although he is for full civil union rights, Obama feels he cannot open the door of equality all the way with full marriage rights for LGBT people. But even his moderate stance gets a berating from Bishop Jackson. READ MORE HERE
Congressman Squares off
With Black Clergy over Hate Crimes Bill
and NBJC Responds Here!
Tempers flared and emotions erupted Tuesday at a meeting between U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and a group of black ministers, stemming from the freshman congressman's support for a federal hate crimes bill.
More than 100 ministers and guests showed up Tuesday for the weekly meeting of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association, where Cohen had been invited to speak. During a volatile question-and-answer forum that followed, many loudly commented that Cohen, who is white, can't adequately represent the primarily black Ninth District. READ MORE HERE
The Memphis Bapist Ministerial statement and read NBJC's response here.
Rift Over Gay Unions Reflects
Battle New to Black Churches
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Never in a "million years" did Robert Renix think he would find a Baptist church that would accept someone like him: a black Baptist gay man.
Never mind one that would allow what happened one Saturday last month, when a tuxedo-clad Renix stood in front of the pulpit at Covenant Baptist Church in Anacostia, exchanging vows with his partner, Antonio Long.
It didn't turn out to be that simple, though. READ MORE HERE |
Homophobia and Black America
When the Oppressed Become Bigots
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The culture of homophobia in the black community can be traced to a belief that homosexuality was completely absent in pre-colonial Africa.
Some scholars go further to deduce that of the 2,000 or so African Languages, none of them have a word for homosexual (Murray and Roscoe, 1998). "Homosexuality is a derivative of an Anglosaxonized culture" (Hares, 1984). |
This of course is not to say that homosexuality is foreign or absent among African people. Homosexuality was prevalent in pre-colonial Zanzibar, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Cameroon (Hares, 1984).
READ MORE HERE
Church Cancels Memorial for Gay Navy Vet
A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.
Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off. READ MORE HERE
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