"WHY THE BLACK CHURCH SHOULD SUPPORT GAY RIGHTS"

A good friend of mine sent me this superb article by Rev. Dennis W. Wiley [Pictured] entitled, "Why the black church should support gay rights" that deserves to be as widely disseminated as possible.

Clearly, what Rev. Wiley has written bespeaks a Christian who clearly understands the Gospel, and the claims of Jesus on anyone who is His true disciple.

Here is an excerpt from his article that will hopefully whet your appetite to both read it and widely circulate it to as many people as possible, for what he speaks concerning the Black Church is just as relevant to most all of the institutional Church, be it Black or not.

"The Black Church has been so poisoned by homophobia and heterosexism that the idea of it actually supporting gay rights seems oxymoronic. But Black churches are not monolithic and, although the vast majority of them denounce homosexuality as a sin, there are a few that do not. Covenant Baptist Church, a traditional African American congregation in Washington, DC that my wife, the Rev. Dr. Christine Y. Wiley, and I co-pastor, is one of those few. We believe that whereas homosexuality, as a sexual orientation, is not a sin, hypocrisy is. That is why Jesus says nothing about the former, but speaks volumes about the latter.

"There are numerous publications now available that help us to understand that the few biblical passages once thought to express unequivocal condemnation of homosexuality have been grossly misinterpreted. In fact, the more accurate translations of the Bible do not even mention the word, "homosexuality," a relatively new term. And, while these passages condemn same-sex behavior that is violent, abusive, or believed at the time to result in ritual impurity, the scriptures do not explicitly address sexual intimacy between two loving individuals of the same gender."

"I support gay rights because the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of love, not hate; a gospel of justice, not injustice; a gospel of inclusion, not exclusion; and a gospel of authenticity, not hypocrisy. Remember, Jesus spent the bulk of his time associating with those whom society rejected--i.e., the poor and the sick, the downcast and the outcast, the last, the lost, and the "least." By the same token, those whom he most harshly challenged, criticized, and chastised included not only the rich and the elite, who disproportionately enjoyed the privileges of society, but also the religious hypocrites--i.e., people who pretended to be more holy, pious, and righteous than they actually were."

[For the full article see here.]

In response to his article, I wrote a comment to it that contains the response I gave to a good friend of mine who forwarded his article to me,:

"As I wrote to a friend of mine who just emailed me this article: What a terrific article!!!! I hope this article gets circulated far and wide, and that it helps people to finally see how the inculcation of lies concerning Gay people in the all churches, Black or not, have caused countless professing Christians to listen to, and obey, the haters than to obey Jesus, and thereby they have made a mockery of their claims to be Christians, just as they have made a mockery of so much of the public's perception of Christianity itself. Moreover, the incalculable damage they have done by castigating and condemning God's LGBT children in the name of God, no less, has caused suicides, assaults, and murders of countless LGBT people, and wreaked havoc on their families. God bless you, Rev. Wiley for speaking out on this crucial matter! We can only pray that other clergy speak out against the atrocities done to God's LGBT children that have been perpetrated by most of the institutional Church."

I can't tell you how much you will be blessed by reading Rev. Wiley's article, "Why the black church should support gay rights", and the great need for people to widely disseminate his article.

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