Last week Rod 2.0 reported a small but influential number of black, California-based ministers were bucking the trend and telling their congregations and communities to vote NO on California's toxic Proposition 8. There is a welcome update: Rev. Eric Lee, President of the California Chapters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, publicly criticizes these so-called "black leaders" who are embracing Proposition 8.
Karen Ocamb has a great interview with the reverend at Bilerico. The money quote is when the reverend questions prominent anti-gay, black mega-church pastors such as Apostle Frederick K.C. Price who are in the front on this issue.
I would remind - particulalry the African American clergy - that the people who are driving this fight for Proposition 8 and to deny the civil rights of one group of people are the same people who considered African Americans inferior and used the Bible to justify slavery, Jim Crow segregation, discrimination. It's the same Church - the Mormon Church that did not allow blacks into the priesthood and did not allow them into Mormon heaven. So I think we have to consider the source - and so when you look at the source, it should automatically cause a red flag to be raised.
For those in denial about the racist history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—extensively discussed on this page—here are the Cliff's Notes. The good reverend asks the same question we asked the other day: Where is the "leadership" of black church "leaders" on important issues affecting our community?
When you see an absence of clergy—particularly the African American clergy—who are absent when it comes to -70% of all new AIDS cases affecting black women and you don't hear anything about it; when you see an absence of clergy when 50--60% of black and brown boys are dropping out of school, going into gangs and into the prison industrial complex—where are the clergy on those issues?
Amen, reverend. Perhaps we should ask the board members of the National Baptist Convention, the nation's largest black Baptist denomination, who waited 25 years into the HIV/AIDS pandemic to finally mention the disease that was killing tens of thousands in the black community. With "leaders" such as these ...
Photo KAREN OCAMB
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Courage Campaign Goes to Mormon Church [Bilerico]
Some Background ...
Black Baptist Convention FINALLY Mentions AIDS [R20]
Anti-Gay, Black Pastors Use Children for Prop 8 [R20]
Blige, Etheridge Raise $3.9M for No on Prop 8 [R20]
"Noah's Arc" Actor Doug Spearman, Black Ministers Urge "NO" on Prop 8 [R20]
One Question for Mitt Romney [R20]
Romney Quotes Scripture on Gay Marriage, What About Mormon's Racist History? [R20]
HIV Spreading in NYC at Three Times National Rate Black/Latino Gay Men Hit Hardest [R20]
CDC: "Troubling" Rise in HIV Among Black Gay Men [R20]
Ending Black Homophobia Will Reduce HIV [R20]
Primetime Reports Black HIV Epidemic [After Elton]
"Out of Control: AIDS in Black America" [R20]
POZ Examines Race and the Down Low [R20]
HIV Rates Rise Among NYC Black Gay Men [R20]
