The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
Over at Essence.com there is a frank piece about adultery in the church by Dr. Betty Price, the wife of televangelist Dr. Freddy Price, Jr. of the Ever Increasing Faith Ministry. He's from the "prosperity gospel" approach to Christianity.
Apparently the rampant fornication by the men up in the pulpit (with the wives looking the other way), has reached the boiling point for Price, who started receiving letters from women who were engaged in affairs with pastors. A common thread -- access to money, and coercion by the pastor using biblical bullsh*t. Her book is sure to rock more than a few boats in a faith community rife with denial and hypocrisy.
The first letter was from an older, mature woman. She'd just bought a luxury condo but lost her government job after 25 years of service. Her self-esteem was very low. She didn't know what to do because she was financially strapped. And, she was older and didn't think she would be able to find another job in this economy. She reached out to her bishop for counseling. They began an affair. It's been going on for three years. The second woman was from a different church. She works on a committee in which she interacts with her pastor daily. They began spending long hours together. Then the affair began. Now, she is desperately trying to get out but doesn't know how.
Both of these women said they know what they are doing is wrong but expressed they don't have the strength to leave. Both ministers have threatened and coerced these women. They told them, "If they stop the affair then they would be dishonoring God." However, both women expressed they were benefitting financially in the relationships. They were stuck. Unsure of what to do.
Do you even have a second thought that these same women probably condemn LGBTs, even as they engage in this behavior? Price recounts her own brush with her husband's "itch", and this is another reason she has written the book 'Warning to Ministers, Their Wives and Their Mistresses'.
It bothers me to know many ministers have mistresses sitting right up in the church. Their wives and children are subjected to public humiliation. Some ministers even have children with their mistresses and leave their wives. I've talked to a lot of women and they say that in all the churches they've attended the ministers have been unfaithful and run around. I personally know so many that it's scary. These women know what they are doing. Don't be fooled. I wrote my book because I want to expose these types of men, and women, who do this.
For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.
~ Audre Lourde
The other reason I finally felt the need to speak about the collision between marriage equality and the homophobia of some African-Americans is more personal.
The gay men in Bishop Alfred Owens' congregation who felt they "had no choice" but to participate in the degradation and denial of their own humanity are not alone. It's a performance that takes place in some form or fashion every Sunday, in black churches (and beauty shops or barber shops, for that matter) across the country, which Michael Eric Dyson captured in his essay "The Black Church and Sexuality."
One of the most painful scenarios of black church life is repeated Sunday after Sunday with little notice or collective outrage. A black minister will preach a sermon railing against sexual ills, especially homosexuality. At the close of the sermon, a soloist, who everybody knows is gay, will rise to perform a moving number, as the preacher extends an invitation to visitors to join the church. The soloist is,in effect, being asked to sign his theological death sentence. His presence at the end of such a sermon symbolizes a silent endorsement of the preacher's message. Ironically, the presence of his gay christian body at the highest moment of worship also negates the preacher's attempt to censure his presence, to erase his body, to deny his legitimacy as a child of God.
... the black church, an institution that has been at the heart of black emancipation, refuses to unlock the oppressive closet for gays and lesbians. ...Black Christians, who have been despised and oppressed for much of our existence, should be wary of extending that oppression to our lesbian sisters and our gay brothers.
That performance is the price some of us pay to remain in or part of the communities we started out calling home.
"I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do."
-- female choir member of the DC-based Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church in an e-mail to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr. She then proceeded to out more than 100 church members by sending the names to a Yahoo church group.
If you need any further evidence of the pathology of homophobia in the black church, here is something that will make your blood boil.
Already fearful of losing connections, friendship and emotional shelter provided by their faith community if they come out, black gays and lesbians in the church now know that the homophobes in the pews and choirs, along with the bigoted pastors spewing hate from the pulpit, feel empowered to destroy those ties because of their own fear and ignorance. It makes you want to weep. It. Must. Stop. (Lou Chibbaro @ the Washington Blade):
One of Washington's largest black Baptist churches was rocked by a female member of its choir who sent separate e-mail messages to the pastor in December and January outing more than 100 church members as gay, mostly male choir members.
...The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay. She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay.
"The following people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my prayer is that you will sit them down from their ministries," she told Owens in the December e-mail. "Because they are ushering in the presence of sin, lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits."
She sent a copy of her e-mails to a Yahoo list group that goes to more than 300 church members, the gay former church member said.
Bishop Owens, by the way, is notorious for his anti-gay views, sermons, and advocacy of ex-gay therapy, so the emailer had no fear of being reprimanded for her actions. This is what he said in April 2006 in a sermon. You can listen to the unhinged recording here.
"It takes real men to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior," Owens said in the sermon, which was recorded by the church. "I'm not talking about no faggot or no sissy...Wait a minute! Let all the real men come on down here and take a bow. All the real men-I'm talking about the straight men," he preached. "You ain't funny and you ain't cranky, but you're straight. Come on down here and walk around and praise God that you are straight. Thank him that you're straight. All the straight men that's proud to be a Christian, that's proud to be a man of God."
So, what do you think Owens did as a result of that email? He called the various choirs of the 7,000-member church together and offered to help those outed by showing them how they could pray-away the gay, since the Calvary's web site has twice monthly outreach sessions listed called "Breaking the Chains of Homosexuality," led by Minister Dennis Sawyers.
A response by the National Black Justice Coalition is after the jump.
Those daring to come out in the conservative black church know that the price they may pay is very high -- social rejection by a circle of people that has always been their support system, their community.
When pastors step forward, either by coming out of the closet, or moving to provide open support for the church's LGBT worshippers, the judgment can be swift and harsh. The Denver Post's Lisa Kennedy takes a look at the dilemma in a lengthy piece that is worth the click. It takes a focused look at the sad perspective of churches that want to remain in denial, willing to cast out beloved leaders if they are gay or gay-affirming.
It had been just a few minutes more than 238 days since Reynolds, on Oct. 29, 2006, had delivered his final sermon as senior pastor of Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, the church he was born into. His parents, Ledell and Mary, were founding members of the "E," as the faithful call their spiritual home. In 1992, he returned like a character from a Bible passage to become its minister.
The shared journey of pastor and flock came to an end when Reynolds revealed he was a "same-gender loving" man, a designation for gay and lesbian identity gaining favor among gay African-Americans.
..."We've chosen what we believe to be a biblical position," Pastor Cleveland Thompson said over the phone, explaining Emmanuel's decision not to speak about Reynolds.
As for the pastor himself, yes, he fell down. He wept. After he left EMBC, he was adrift. One year into his life as an openly gay man, the 46-year-old preacher would not claim yet to being found.
Kennedy spends a bit of time going over the travails of Ted Haggard and the media storm surrounding his mind-boggling outing, as well as that of Denver's Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel Church, which happened in the wake of Haggard's debacle. When "the fall" comes in the black church, the difference is that no one talks about it. If a pastor applies the tradition of civil rights advocacy for LGBTs, they are usually quietly shown the door, or there is an exodus from the congregation.
Conflicts over sexuality are on the rise. And - if Emmanuel can be held up as an example - preachers who wield the church's civil rights tradition on behalf of gay and lesbian people will be rebuffed by their members, if not sent packing.
But in contrast to the predominantly white churches, where the departures of gay clergy have been followed by everything from news conferences to extended homilies to the formation of restoration committees, black congregations are more likely to shed their gay preachers with a deafening silence.
...Those who do push the envelope receive a response as old as the Good Book: God's laws are unchanging; they must be obeyed, not debated.
But debate appears unavoidable. After wrestling to understand his son's coming out in relation to Scripture, the Rev. Dennis Meredith, minister at Atlanta's Tabernacle Baptist Church, challenged his congregation to become more accepting of gays and lesbians. Over the three years since, the church shed nearly 300 of its 1,100 members - and the financial pledges they brought.
The hypocrisy, of course, is rampant. There are plenty of gays and lesbians sitting in the pews, in the choir, directing the choir, for goodness sake. But in these churches, you're expected to sit there and listen to the homophobic bile spewing from the pulpit. Silence.
Read what happened to Rev. Reynolds when he came out to his congregation. It's painful -- and below the fold.
Over at 
Bishop Owens, by the way, is notorious for his anti-gay views, sermons, and advocacy of ex-gay therapy, so the emailer had no fear of being reprimanded for her actions. 
