Full Page Ad Responds to McClurkin: "Black & Gay is Beautiful"

Black gay activists take out a full page advertisement in response to Donnie McClurkin's hateful "ex-gay" and 'anti-gay" rants. The advert runs in today's Metro NY. Click for larger version.

Pastor Joseph Tolton of Rehoboth Temple wrote the official response on behalf of New York’s black gay men and counters the "hypocrisy in the pulpit" and "spiritual" violence of McClurkin and homophobic black churches. It reads in part: "For those of us in faith who have always loved the black church, the defining issue of our lives has been the churches damning stance on homosexuality. As children, the condemnation broke our spirit. As adolescents, this ridicule broke our hearts. As young adults, this disdain has attempted to drive us to the brink. Spiritual violence is wrong and it kills the spirit. The black church must find new ways to talk about sex and sexuality."

At the recent Church of God in Christ's Holy Convocation Youth Service, the allegedly "ex-gay" delivered an incendiary rant against gays and gay youth in particular. Said McClurkin: "I see feminine men, feminine boys, everywhere I go. These young girls are just as bad as the boys in homosexuality, you don't see it. They can hide ... but there are some evil young hard butch girls."

Tolton adds this message to McClurkin: "You are not a man who loves men because of being molested as a child. That grave and despicable tragedy broke your spirit and damaged your mind; however, it did not have the capacity to change your DNA."

Pastor Tolton is seen in the center of the photo. From left to right: Actor Cornelius Jones; Activist Sheldon DeSouza; Michael Whittaker; Tolton; HIV activists Gaynel Sheffield and Pat Desrolers; and openly gay R&B singer Nhojj. Bravo to Pastor Tolton and these activists. Donnie McClurkin's experience was the exception and not the rule. This is much more accurate picture of our black LGBT community—diverse and confident.

Thanks ANDRES DUQUE!

Comments

[Barrett]

This is brilliant. Thanks so much Pastor Tolton!

[Aaron Parker]

excellent news, i wish more of our black LGBTs heard this message, not the false message of shame and hurt by mcclurkin and the black church.

thank you thank you!

[TheRevKev]

Bravo Elder Tolton!

People, I don't care where you go to worship God if you are seeking a spiritual/religious journey...but PLEASE search, seek out and support ministries THAT SUPPORT YOU!

Elder Tolton preached at UFCNB's 5th Anniversary a few years ago and HE IS DYNAMIC! Make your way to his church and support his ministry AND hear an anointed and exciting word!

I'd so much rather spend more time talking about him and Bishop Rainey Cheeks (INNER LIGHT) and Pastor Abena McCray (UFC-DC) and Pastor Kendall Brown (CITY OF REFUGE)- ALL IN DC; or the thriving ministries in NYC and LA and across the country. It is imperative that we take the time to SHOW OURSELVES that we are worth the journey of spiritual healing.

I know that SO many LGBTIQ folks have been broken by churches and hypocrites in the pulpit, but I guarantee you, if you trust Love and God and Grace and Truth, you will find yourself healed in a new way when you and God and love are all spoken in the same sentence.

As an open, out, Man of God/Pastor, I know Sunday by Sunday what it looks like and feels like to see someone hear the Love of God brand new. We've got to undo the lies told about God and church and Jesus and the Bible by people like McClurkin who were broken by people and who continue to simply bruise others. Dr. Phil says "HURT PEOPLE HURT PEOPLE" and that's so true, but what I also know to be true is the LOVING PEOPLE LOVE PEOPLE and we can love each other back to life, back to health, back to wholeness and back to our truth, which is that we are BEAUTIFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE. Period.

Stop letting bad people make God look bad. Again, kudos to Elder Joseph Tolton AKA Pastor Joe, for standing up in the midst of a storm. THAT IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF REFUGE!

Love and Grace.

Peace/Power/Purpose,
Elder Kevin E. Taylor
Pastor
Unity Fellowship Church
New Brunswick

[James]

This made my day, what a great response and awesome photo!

[CC]

I love it!! that ad should be ran in ALL forms of publication!!

[Joseph Reaves]

Important piece and I agree with Elder Tolton's message and appreciate his ministry. He needs to send this to some Christian publications and particularly publications within COGIC.

[Byron in PGC]

I needed to read this. Thank you so much Rev. Tolton for spreading this message. This truly is the Good News that the churches should be spreading. I can't tell you how happy I was to find City of Refuge Church and how they accepted me as I AM!

[Honut Sinti]

This is such a wonderful and welcomed post. It made my day!

Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!

[alicia banks]

wow

thanks rod!

this made my day!

alicia banks
eloquent fury

[thepulpit]

After reading the sentence to Donnie McClurkin: "When you are ready, come home and we'll love you until it doesn't hurt anymore." I stretched out both arms and said YES! That's what Donnie needs now and all of us too. We all have been hurt and sometimes need a lil comforting to take the pain away. Kudos BGMN! What a powerful ad and statement. LUV it!

[Taylor Siluwe]

@ thepulpit:

Well said. You don't get to be a black gay adult without going through the storm. Donnie is in pain and his mind is doing backflips trying to deal with it.

I understand that. Still, I've hated him far too long to think of him as our prodigal gay son.

Therefore, it would take a better man than me to open my arms to him and offer a hug. I'd probably knee him in the nuts and vent a few choice words. But then I'd feel better (like I always do after I lose it) and we could try the hug thing again .....

[Nathan James]

My hat is off to my friends Nhojj, Cornelius, and Sheldon for joining the other out, proud gay men of color in this ad, all taking a bold, powerful, public stand against faith-based hatred!

As for self-hating Donnie McClurkin, he continues to encourage homophobia while making his pulpit an altar of ignorance. The damage he and other religioius leaders like him do to the gay community (and society at large) cannot be understated. In a very real sense, McClurkin is co-signing every gay-bashing or killing that occurs, because he is affixing his church's blessing to ignorance and intolerance.

I want to see this ad on every subway car, bus, and billboard in NYC. It's a much-needed response to years of Church-sponsored bigotry!

[Dwight Supremacy]

Things like this fill my heart!

[JASON]

I am so glad that ad happened. I feel its 1 a strong showing of the black gay community that most have not seen. and 2, a big fuck you to donnie. I feel sorry for that man, and i fear for his misinterpretation of sex. these church people think a historic text like the bible and define human sexuality. sory you can't, we discover new hieghts everyday and some up in simple wrong/not wrong, good/bad, evil/ benign is frankly stupid. These church leaders are missread people who should be banned from the pulpits. They do not guide but instead insight war and witch-hunts. this is all very nostalgic, but like the chatholic church, these people must learn their leasson in hell after cursing so many. DOnni is a Vulgar little man whois sick and i say lets give it a year or two before he is dragged into court for killing his secret gay choir boy lover in a fit of rage.

[dt]

Going up against the black church is a scary thing and a big deal in that I'm sure the majority of us here know that the black church is basically the backbone of the black community. It is where everything almost literally begins and ends. People who don't even go to church will find one soon to have their children baptized and to have their parents or grandparents buried and to some degree allow it to rule their lives. Not God, the black church. We all have at least one pastor in the family. We all have a deacon or missionary in the fam. We know the trends and the culture in the black church. And no one loves them some God quite like black folk. With that said, many know that how blacks feel about the black church they can use it to use, abuse and manipulate folks into doing and believing anything. Prosperity televangelists anyone? We are talking about breaking centuries old traditions but we must because the use, abuse and manipulation in any form HAS to stop before more damage is done. Kudos to those brave enough to stand up for what is right and to fight the real good fight.

[Demetrius]

Was VERY happy to see this in Metro Friday - thanks for mentioning Rod; kudos to them for placing the ad

[QH]

That is amazing to see, this is how to fight ignorance, with courage, intelligence, class, & love.-QH