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.
Donnie McClurkin ramps up the ridiculous to speak in tongues and call gays "vampires". The infamously "ex-gay"—or should we say merely "re-closeted"—Grammy Award winning gospel singer and evangelist rants against gays, gay youth and recently out gospel singer Tonex at the Church of God in Christ's Holy Convocation Youth Service. This happened last Saturday at the COGIC convention in Memphis. In the first of three disgusting YouTube videos, McClurkin begins his rant against Tonex, the gospel star and minister who recently confirmed his long-rumored sexuality. McClurkin says Tonex is a "perversion" and must pray away the gay: "God did not call young people to such peversion. Society has failed him, his church has failed him ... I would be homosexual to this day if Jesus hadn't delivered." McClurkin also rails against against openly gay youth as "broken and feminine": "I see feminine men, feminine boys, everywhere I go ... No, don't applaud 'cuz it ain't funny. It's because we failed. I see them everywhere."
And just so the young lesbians aren't felt "left out," he says the following in the second video: "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."
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.
The National Organization for Marriage and Bishop Harry Jackson were expecting thousands of "Christians" to show up at today's rally in Washington, DC that was supposed to intimidate the City Council, which recently cast a preliminary vote in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages.
Jackson had a much smaller crowd than the thousands he had hoped for. As the rally began, there were well under 100 people; by the end there may have been close to 200. They were an enthusiastic bunch, shouting the Devil is a liar and other encouragement to the speakers. Jackson made excuses about how little time they had to mobilize, but promised to pack the Council chambers on May 5 for the next vote. Jackson said his group would be distributing inserts for churches to include in their bulletins this Sunday.
Also making an appearance was former DC Mayor and current councilman Marion "The bitch set me up" Barry.
Jackson was joined at the podium by representatives of the Missionary Baptist pastors network as well as several Hispanic pastor group representatives, as well as the Family Research Councils Tony Perkins, who made a few unremarkable remarks. Focus on the Familys James Dobson sent a letter supporting Jackson and attacking the members of the D.C. Council. To this D.C. resident, the most disappointing moment was former Mayor and current Councilmember Marion Barry leading the crowd in chants against marriage equality (though he noted that he supports civil unions).
...There was also some edgier anti-gay rhetoric. Jackson compared marriage between gay couples to marriage between close relatives, or between "a man and a three-year old." One of the final speakers was a Rev. Daniels, who Jackson recruited for the rally from Florida. He was fixated on gay sex acts, repeatedly urging people to "explain the act" because it would turn people's stomachs and turn them against marriage equality.
Why are these people fixated on sex acts? I swear to God, these bible beaters have more sex on the brain than most gay folks I know. According to the WaPo, its estimate of attendance was "about 150."
Here's Jackson's speech, via the Washington Blade's coverage. On the right, Marion Barry spouts off about morality, of all things (video courtesy of Right Wing Watch). It's sad to see all those black people out there supporting bigotry.
Below the fold, another special guest that breaks the insanity meter.
Update: In the comments below, kevinchi gave us the link to The Maroon Tiger posting of the article Is Gay the Way? The first link I provided had been to a differently titled, syndicated version of the same article on the Black College Wire: When does gay tolerance go too far?
The text by Gaynor regarding "sex change operation[s]" isn't in The Maroon Tiger version of the article, while it is included in the Daily Voice (Black College Wire) version of the article. So, in other words, the Morehouse College student publication version of the article was more edited than the version of the article syndicated by Black College Wire.
From New York's Daily Voice, by Gerren Gaynor, the Associate Opinions Editor of Morehouse College's student newspaper (emphasis added):
...I'm all for being who you are. If you like women, go on and date women. If you like men, be my guest and date men. But if you are born a man, you should be just that--a man. If I have to look twice to tell if I'm looking at a man or woman on an all-male campus, then something is tragically wrong.
At this rate, Morehouse College may find itself in a difficult situation. What happens if and when one of our gay Morehouse brothers decides to go the next step and undergo a sex-change operation, and is then physically considered to be a woman? Does Morehouse have the right to ask that student to leave?
A massive population of feminine males and possible transgender students could critically damage the reputation of Morehouse and perhaps decline the amount of admissions, significantly impacting the college. Would it be wrong for Morehouse to implement a new acceptance procedure in which they are required to interview students, in an attempt to decrease gay population?
Now of course such a process is not likely to succeed, however something must be done before Morehouse College, an all "male" Black institution, becomes something quite the opposite in the years to come...
The argument here about "sex-change operation[s]" is one of the most bizarre arguments regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people and/or issues that I've ever seen from a college journalist, and as an amateur news archiver I've seen a lot of unusual arguments. Obviously, Gerren K. Gaynor doesn't know very many real world gay or trans people to come up with this "sex-change operation" argument; Gaynor's argument speaks to his extreme ignorance about all issues and people LGBT.
And, that Gerren Gaynor is an editor(!) at the Morehouse College student publication The Maroon Tiger says a lot to me. If this piece is what passes for college journalism, then 1.) the particular editor that edited Gaynor's piece needs to be immersed in the Associated Press Stylebook to avoid the kind of offensive language that Gaynor used throughout his piece, and 2.) black homobigotry and transbigotry aren't likely being adequately confronted at Morehouse College.
There is just so much that's wrong with how this piece by Gaynor is written -- even for a loony opinion piece -- that its editor for it should have been vigorously waving red flags. That neither Gaynor or his editor for this particular piece waved those flags regarding Gaynor's offensive language and blatant ignorance regarding the LGBT people he was commenting on is by itself a sad commentary -- a sad commentary found at a juncture of homobigotry, transbigotry, and a pretty significant African-American institution of higher learning.
I sure hope this level of bigotry and ignorance is limited to the handful of people directly involved with this piece. I really, really do.
Oh, and let's not leave out lesbians. Law enforcement agencies are struggling with a new phenomenon. "Butch" lesbians who physically abuse "lipstick" lesbians can easily penetrate the defenses of women's shelters where victims seek refuge since they, too, are women. The original purpose of the shelters was to provide safe haven for women abused by men.
-- Dr. Firpo W. Carr, in his unhinged Los Angeles Sentinel screed, "God Pays Gays With AIDS"
You have to read all of this jaw-dropper to believe it. Someone needs to break it to the fact-free loving Dr. Firpo Carr (a self-proclaimed spiritual adviser to Michael Jackson and his family) that heterosexuals engage in sodomy. Look at him frothing over it with quite graphic, almost obsessive prose.
You're about to go "undercover," embarking upon a behind-the-scenes foray into the sinful, sordid world of gay and lesbian sex. Again, enter at your own risk! God specifically targeted the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexual activity. (Gen. 18:20, 21; 19:24, 28) Instead of using HIV/AIDS, he nuked them. He used a purging fire to eradicate homosexuals and their diseases. What diseases you ask?
Aside from HIV/AIDS there is a laundry list of "gay" (and later "lesbian") diseases that most don't know about, and that the Sodomites, et al probably had. For your reading pleasure, here are a few: hepatitis, anorectal candidiasis, rectal and oral gonorrhea, lymphogranuloma venereum, trichomoniasis, syphilis, parasitic infections, Kaposi's sarcoma, liver infections, Bowen's disease, thrash (yeast infection), toxoplasmosis (brain infection), cryptococcal meningitis, swollen lymph nodes, night sweats, shingles, seborrheic dermatitis, prostatitis, urethritis, scabies, and venereal warts. Oh, I almost forgot. Fecal incontinence. "What manner of evil might this be?" you ask? "Repeated rectal sodomy and/or 'fisting' (insertion of the fist and forearm into the rectum) causes a weakening of the sphincter muscle of the recipient. This produces an embarrassing dribbling of fecal secretions at inappropriate times. Wearing adult sanitary undergarments helps alleviate staining clothing and furniture." I won't share the gross stuff with you. It's no wonder, then, that under the "crime against nature" entry in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, it says one word: sodomy.
I just can't take cutting and pasting any more of his filth. Some of the comments left at Carr's post, by folks familiar to you, are spot-on.
Just when you think you've seen and heard it all...in this week's Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper opinion columnist Dr. Firpo Carpo tell us that 'God Pays Gays With AIDS.' WTF?
Now that's some seriously ****** up **** to say not to mention entirely inaccurate and cannot be proved. I don't know which is worse, racist white gays or Bible thumping homophobes who are intellectually challenged like Dr. Carr.
Dr. Carr, you are my official 'Negro Please Award' recipient of the week...and believe me, you earned it with this one.
Your so-call god seems to have killed far more Africans than he/she has killed queer people.
Maybe you'd like to explain why he/she has spared lesbians? They don't get AIDS.
I looked up "crime against nature" in Webster's. There's no listing.
However, under "hate crime" is says this: "A hate crime (bias crime), loosely defined, is a crime committed because of the perpetrator's prejudices. This is a controversial political issue within the US. The US Congress (HR 4797 - 1992) defined a hate crime as: "[a crime in which] the defendant's conduct was motivated by hatred, bias, or prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation of another individual or group of individuals." In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act added disabilities to the above list."
Your loony homophobic rant is right up there with KKK and Aryan Nations bullshit propaganda.
Dr. Sylvia Rhue, Director of Religious Affairs at the National Black Justice Coalition, has written a response to Carr. I am publishing it in full below the fold.
It has been a strange couple of weeks. Just last week, I saw something that I never thought I'd see in my lifetime, and felt like I was witnessing it for all my ancestors who didn't live to see a hope fulfilled. But - with a "twoness of being" that DuBois probably didn't imagine when he coined the term - it was a deeply conflicted moment.
As a Black man, in that moment I felt like more of an American than I ever had before, like a barrier to full citizenship and belonging had been raised. As a gay man with a husband and a family, however, I ended up feeling like less of an American than I ever had before; divorced from the celebrating and even the historic significance of the moment by a barrier to citizenship and belonging that fell more firmly into place even as another one was lifted.
My response to the events of the past week have been informed by that "twoness of being," and a conflict that demands I prioritize one part of my identity over another. It's nothing new to Black gay Americans, and we often come down on different sides of that struggle. Lines are drawn, and suddenly I have to be careful of what I say. While I can't say which side anyone else should come down on, some of the rhetoric of the past week - particularly around race and marriage - is troubling.
Ed. Note: I plan on writing something about black voters, the passage of proposition 8 in California, and the discussion that has ensued about whether the former failed in part because of the latter. In the meantime, I thought I'd republish some old content that might be relevant to the discussion.
(Originally posted on October 23, 2006.)
I don't remember when I first became aware of Horace Griffin's book Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians And Gays in Black Churches. Most likely, it turned up in my recommendations on Amazon.Com. But as soon as I saw the title, I knew I had to read it because it would speak to significant part of my experience as a Black gay man. The truth is, it probably speaks to the experiences of many - if not most - Black LGBT folks, because most of us probably spent some part of our early lives involved in Black churches even if we left our churches and our religion behind in adulthood. And, as I've noted before, some of us remain in those churches and the communities built up around them, even as part of who we are is degraded and maligned in those spaces. Sometimes we even participate in our own degradation, because we don't perceive any other choice.
Griffin's book probably has the most to say to Black LBGTs who remain in Black churches where they still hear homophobia and heterosexism preached from the pulpit and approved from the pews. But even for someone like myself, there is a gift (perhaps even a blessing?) here simply in the validation that some of us has experience hurt at the hands of our communities and churches, in the name of faith. It also has something to say to the ministers in those same churches. For that reason, if I could, I'd buy multiple copies and deliver them to ministers like Wellington Boone, Willie WIlson, Alfred Owens, Eddie Long, TD Jakes, Gregory Daniels, and many others. But chances are they wouldn't read it anyway. Still, if it finds its way into the hands of Black LGBT Christians, and to their families and friends, it might just make a difference.
But for my part, having long since left "the Black Church" and the Christian faith, I can only speak about this book as one who faced the same choices Griffin mentions in the book that Black churches offer LGBT members: stay silent and "pass" while absorbing the homophobia in the church, or leave. Both choices exact a significant cost from the LGBT individual.
Ed. Note: I plan on writing something about black voters, the passage of proposition 8 in California, and the discussion that has ensued about whether the former failed in part because of the latter. In the meantime, I thought I'd republish some old content that might be relevant to the discussion.
(Originally posted on March 19, 2007.)
More homophobic than whom? More homophobic than whites? More homophobic than the general population? Or all of the above?
One of the things I wanted to blog about last week, but didn't get a chance to was this Alternet post featuring video from the National Black Justice Foundation's 2nd Annual Black Church Summit, in which Michael Eric Dyson addresses the question that's been on my mind a lot in as I've been reading stuff online lately: "Why are black people so homophobic?"
Pam supplied the video as part of her excellent coverage of the summit. I was invited to cover the summit, but due to family responsibilities was unable to make it. So, I particularly appreciated Pam's coverage, and will return later to some things she addressed.
Every time a Tim Hardaway or an Isaiah Washington or an unknown black preacher makes an anti-gay comment, reporters call me up and ask why are black people so homophobic. But when high-profile white people make homophobic remarks, nobody ever asks why are white people so homophobic. They should, because the answers to the two questions are related. African Americans are homophobic because white Americans are homophobic. We all live in the same homophobic society, and in this case the prejudice starts from the president on down.
I understand where Keith is coming from, but for a while now I've not been willing to defend African Americans anymore against charges of being more homophobic than other groups. I know it's controversial to say that black people are more homophobic than other people, but my personal experience has been that most black people are more homophobic than are most white people I've encountered, and defnitely more homophobic as a group than is the general population. I still haven't seen or experience much that's convinced me otherwise.
Ed. Note: I plan on writing something about black voters, the passage of proposition 8 in California, and the discussion that has ensued about whether the former failed in part because of the latter. In the meantime, I thought I'd republish some old content that might be relevant to the discussion.
(Originally posted on October 27, 2006.)
It's been an strange month to be black and gay in America so far. First there was the gay bashing that killed Michael Sandy in New York, and the disturbing news of Tyrone Garner's lack of a burial 37 days after his death with the possibility of a pauper's burial in the end. Those depressing stories were balanced out somewhat yesterday by the news of the New Jersey Supreme Court decision and the fact that a black lesbian couple was among the plaintiffs whose willingness to take a stand yielded that historic moment.
But even that good news was tempered by reading Keith's post about his speech at Central State University, a historically black college in Wilberforce, Ohio. It was the inspiration for the title of this post. I considered titling it "Hysterically Black Homophobia," because of the reaction Keith says his speech got. But it felt too serious a topic for snark, though the response of the students as described by Keith does indeed seem hysterical, and the homophobia at its foundation is historical.
I'd have written about it yesterday, but sometimes when they're angry people say things they either don't mean or that are said in a manner more inflammatory than constructive. For example, yesterday I probably would have written some things pretty inflammatory things about Black folks and religion. Would have meant them too, as much as the students who heard Keith's speech meant everything they said in response.
• Gay and bisexual black men 13 to 29 years old have the highest rate of infection. In 2006, 5,220 infections were reported in that group.
During that time, 3,330 infections were reported in young gay and bisexual white men and 2,300 in young gay and bisexual Latino men.
• For white gay men, new infections were more common among those in their 30s and 40s, prompting experts to call for renewed efforts to find ways to prevent new infections among older men.
• Among women, blacks had the highest rate of infections, 56 per 100,000. The rate for white women was 3.8. For Latinas, it was 14.4.
The Coopers have a right to put on this ode to irresponsible sexual behavior in the face of the tragic spread of HIV/AIDS in the black community before a student body, however, there needs to be some sort of balance -- such as HIV/AIDS statistics and literature available at the door to counter this tripe.
[T]he play "features the religious church mother, the money hungry deacon, the financially strapped college student that is having an affair with the deacon, the choir member that lives an alternative lifestyle, the members that are in love with the pastor, the 'down-low brother' that's hooked on pornography, and the playboy minister of music."
It's not simply about entertainment or humor to promote a message that one can be cured simply through prayer. As I blogged yesterday, QNotes reported that the Coopers claim an associate pastor with AIDS has prayed his disease away. They are clearly not delivering any sort of responsible message in these critical times.
(Yes, Hypatia, I hope your diary will encourage open and civil discussion. - promoted by pam)
Pam, your calls for dialogue across racial boundaries have not fallen on deaf ears. I'm hurting, and I'm perplexed, and wise woman, you're the only person I feel I can turn to now.
The only times when I get openly dissed for being trans--the only times when I get harassed for not passing perfectly-- have been when I was in the District of Columbia, the jurisdiction with the very best gender-identity equal rights in the whole USA.
I'm in a tough place with this. I was raised to be anti-racist during the Civil Rights era, and have worked on it and practiced what I believe my whole life. Plus I've worked on developing a class-based consciousness and working honestly through my white middle-class privileges. Yeah, I know remarks by white people that are prefaced in this self-justifying defensive way usually don't turn out well. But this is why it's so hard for me to talk about and why I need some compassionate interracial help with it.
10 out of 10 times I've been harassed on the street, it's been by black men, not just any black men in general, many of whom respect me as a woman, but specifically by ones who do things like loiter on street corners and shout things to women walking past.
When I first came out, I found "passing" impossibly difficult and went through tranny hell with that for a couple years. But after enough hormones, I started passing better, and since I transitioned last year, I've been passing consistently and have been able to live quite well as a woman 24/7.
That's why Saturday night's incident in downtown DC hit me so hard in the solar plexus all the more, because it was the first time this had happened since I transitioned almost 6 months ago. I know nobody can expect to pass 100% of the time, but I have been doing amazingly well with it since I transitioned, compared to before.
I was walking along minding my own business. Since I've started passing well, the loitering guys have only been shouting the stuff all women get like "Hey baby / Hey beautiful / I love you / Come with me" etc. Saturday night when this guy started it, I ignored him as always. Then he said "You're a man, aren't you!"
(UPDATE: The 365gay web site has removed the article. There is an vague message there "Correction: On Monday 365gay.com published a story on an anti-gay rally in Annapolis, Maryland. The story was based on incorrect information and has been removed." It would be good to know which aspects of the article aren't correct. So for now, I'll strike the news article about the rally, but Jackson's views are well-documented. )
Bishop Harry Jackson, chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, and pastor of Hope Christian Church in Maryland, is one of the organizers of an anti-gay protest over a bill that would allow gays and lesbians to marry in the state. (365gay):
Within hours of the introduction of the measure conservative groups had mustered about 1,000 people for a demonstration in front of the State House.
Most of the speakers were from area churches, demanding an amendment to the state constitution to bar gay and lesbian couples from tying the knot.
"This gathering is an expression of the desire of the Christian community in Maryland," said Rev. Harry Jackson Jr., one of the organizers.
Jackson later said that it was irrelevant that the bill includes a caveat allowing churches to refuse to marry same-sex couples. Jackson said that any attempt to give credence to same-sex marriage was destructive to traditional families.
Jackson believes that the only sanctioned sexual expression we understand in the bible is the man-woman relationship within a marriage, and that gays and lesbians are somehow inherently under-equipped to raise a child because there is not a father/mother-headed family.
The evangelical pastor and Town Hall columnist has a serious victim complex; apparently the passage of hate crimes legislation would be a sign that the Homosexual Agenda has won and Christian persecution is around the corner -- it will lead to the imprisonment of pastors for quoting Leviticus. Read the hysteria after the jump.
Somehow the principal of Mount Si High School, Randy Taylor, failed to see the plethora of stories in Seattle papers featuring anti-gay blowhard Rev. Ken Hutcherson. He made the unfortunate decision to invite Hutch to deliver a message about the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King. What an emissary of tolerance!
Taylor, btw, couldn't even muster the courage to use the word "gay" in reference to the flap. (Seattle PI):
Mount Si principal Randy Taylor welcomed the Rev. Ken Hutcherson to speak Thursday about his personal experience of growing up with racism and how the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave him inspiration.
But the choice to invite Hutcherson didn't sit well with at least one teacher. Mount Si teacher Kit McCormick -- who questioned how Hutcherson can support human rights if he doesn't support gay rights -- told KING/5 she believes that Hutcherson is not about equality for everyone, rather equality for some people.
In a letter sent Friday to Mount Si parents and guardians, Taylor said "the administration at Mount Si apologizes for how these events have unfolded and the impact on our students."
...In his letter, Taylor didn't use the word "gay" and said only that at the end of the assembly a staff member questioned Hutcherson's views "on a separate issue." He also acknowledged another staff member who booed when Hutcherson was introduced.
As we know all-too-well, the good pastor is on a mission to destroy Microsoft for extending equal benefits to LGBT employees, as well as a strong anti-discrimination policy. This put a burr under the saddle of Hutcherson, who showed up at a MS shareholder meeting to declare that he and his fundie flock were going to engage in a fool's mission buy up enough shares of the company to take it over and bring it back in line with "God's law." [I can't wait to see whether adulterers will be stoned under Ken's rule of the Redmond, WA software giant.]
I blogged about this Seattle-area sad sack back in November when he showed up at Microsoft's shareholder meeting to announce his plan to "take over" the Redmond-based software giant to punish it for not discriminating its LGBT employees.
"I consider myself a warrior for Christ. Microsoft don't scare me. I got God with me. I told them that you need to work with me or we will put a firestorm on you like you have never seen in you life because I am your worst nightmare. I am a black man with a righteous cause with a whole host of powerful white people behind me. I don't care how big Microsoft is, ... "They are nothing but a feather in the wind of God. America basically got started with a tea party and Goliath, if I'm not mistaken, got taken down by David, who believed in the same cause I believe in. "I'm going to go after the new Goliath with one little rock called a share and I'm going to make them tremble before we get through."
His plan? Have evangelicals buy up enough shares to have a majority vote and run Microsoft in the bible-based tradition they believe in. To say that this is a laughably stupid endeavor is an understatement. Nevertheless, Hutch is still receiving media coverage for this folly. And guess who's joining the effort -- ah, yes, the usual fundie suspects.
The Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who leads Antioch Bible Church in Microsoft's hometown of Redmond, says that he will create a global and powerful group to promote traditional family values, including marriage exclusively between a man and a woman.
Hutcherson, joined by some of the country's most influential Christian leaders, has created a new organization, AGN Financial Network, to finance the effort. The worldwide venture asks people to buy three shares of company stock and donate one to AGN. Its Web site tells visitors, "You have the power to change the world," and contains tips on how to open a brokerage account. Among the listed supporters are Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and religious pundit Gary Bauer.
...Hutcherson said it's not Microsoft's job to influence the public agenda, and that it should be left to others, like him.
"That's what my job is," he said. "I'm a pastor."
When asked whether the new initiative is a ploy to make money for his church, Hutcherson said, "Absolutely."
...It's unclear what effect, if any, the initiative could have on the stock price. It would be difficult to influence company direction -- just to gain a 1 percent stake in Microsoft, about 31 million people would each have to spend $104 to buy three shares. Microsoft has about 9.36 billion outstanding shares, and its largest holder is Chairman Bill Gates, with 858 million shares, or 9 percent of the total. Capital Research and Management Co. follows with nearly 557 million shares, or 6 percent.
This whackadoo strategy only confirms that the man is short a full stack. When will he realize he has zero chance at succeeding?
When the Freepers question Hutch's sanity, you know it's all over. Read after the jump.
He's a persistent cus, that Rev. Ken Hutcherson Antioch Bible Church, friend of Latvian fundamentalist hate organizations and the self-proclaimed White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives "Special Envoy."
For years he's tried to prevent pro-LGBT legislation from passing in Washington state without any success.
He got up at a shareholder meeting last week to announce his new initiative -- Hutcherson will destroy the LGBT-friendly Redmond-based software giant by calling for millions of evangelical activists and allies to buy up Microsoft shares and use that power to demand a return to traditional, (i.e. anti-sodomite) biblical values. He said it will be their "worst nightmare." It was captured on video (via Good As You):
"I consider myself a warrior for Christ. Microsoft don't scare me. I got God with me.
"I told them that you need to work with me or we will put a firestorm on you like you have never seen in you life because I am your worst nightmare. I am a black man with a righteous cause with a whole host of powerful white people behind me." [OMFG ]
"I don't care how big Microsoft is," ... "They are nothing but a feather in the wind of God. America basically got started with a tea party and Goliath, if I'm not mistaken, got taken down by David, who believed in the same cause I believe in.
"I'm going to go after the new Goliath with one little rock called a share and I'm going to make them tremble before we get through."
Deb Price, columnist for The Detroit News, has a piece up today, Obama's mistake raises questions on gay commitment, that does a post-mortem of the unsettling events from the perspective of openly LGBT blacks who watched the mess unfold.
Sad, disappointed and more than a little hurt. That's how many Americans who are both black and gay sound when they talk about Barack Obama.
What's upsetting them is that the Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois, despite stellar gay-rights positions, sat back and allowed a gospel concert for his presidential campaign to essentially spiral into an anti-gay revival.
How? As part of wooing black evangelicals in high-stakes South Carolina, his campaign gave star-billing at an event to Grammy-winning gospel singer and preacher Donnie McClurkin, a self-identified "ex-gay" claiming to have been saved from "perversion."
Afterward, Obama continued trying to distance himself from McClurkin's views. But the reality is that he gave McClurkin a stage, a microphone, an audience and national media attention. And Obama inadvertently ended up reinforcing two myths unfortunately believed by many religious African-Americans -- that gays are white and being gay is sinful.
Rod McCullom, a popular black gay writer and longtime Obama fan, said the fiasco makes him wonder how hard Obama would push for gay equality as president. "He folded like a deck of cards. If he is going to fold on the campaign trail, why would we not think he'd fold in the Oval Office?"
What I told Deb when she interviewed me for this piece is that the events highlighted the schism between the socially conservative religious black community and black LGBTs. It was a raw, craven political choice for Obama, who is otherwise good LGBT issues generally. It's all about the numbers game.
The Obama team feels "it's no biggie for them to toss us under the bus," Spaulding says. "That is what is painful," she adds, noting the incident will drive black gays "deeper into the closet."
And, as a result, allow the spread of HIV in the black community to continue unabated as denial is affirmed. Read the rest.
See video of Obama at the MTV forum, which held just a couple of days after the concert, after the jump.
I'm not sure which is worse . . . being educated in the wrong subjects, or being miseducated in the right ones. I'm talking about being propagandized. Brainwashed! That's what goes on in churches, mosques and synagogues all over the world. Self-described ministers of truth, spreading falsehood about Gay people and calling it doctrine. Taking Scriptures out of context, distorting the Gospel of Grace, ignoring the clues to our identity that exist there, encouraging ignorance, and whipping up hatred against us, all in the name of the Lord. I'm convinced that this rampant practice constitutes the Desolating Sacrilege of which Jesus Christ spoke.
In my opinion, there's nothing so sacrilegeous as a False Prophet who vilifies God's Gay children. And there is nothing so desolate as the life of a Gay child of God who takes part in that sacrilege. An interview has surfaced on the Web which proves my point beyond the shadow of a doubt. This interview, which extensively quotes the alleged former lover of a closeted Christian preacher, details how such men lead lives fraught with guilt, shame, deception and perverted desire. The interviewer, New York journalist Clay Cane, calls it a story of "sadness, sexual deviance and scandal." Believe me, it's about as strong an argument against living in the closet as you'll ever find.
The closeted Christian preacher in question is Donnie McClurkin, who has recently been in the news. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama recruited him to head a Gospel music tour in support of his candidacy. Seemingly unaware of McClurkin's reputation in the Black community as an advocate of heterosexual conversion (he himself claims to be "ex-Gay"), Obama got himself embroiled in a firestorm of controversy. In a lame attempt at damage control, he added an openly Gay minister to the tour, which included other militantly heterosexist acts like the duo Mary Mary and Reverend Hezekiah Walker; reportedly, the dude was so intimidated by the strongly anti-Gay atmosphere, he fled from the event as soon as his time on stage was up! What a joke!
Here's some background on Reverend McClurkin: Born 1959 in Amityville, New York, McClurkin grew up in the Christian church and led Gospel groups in his teens. He entered the ministry and served as associate pastor at a Detroit church headed by Marvin Winans, a member of the Gospel-singing (and homophobic) Winans Family. His own career as a professional Gospel singer began in 1996. He's since cut several best-selling albums, and one of them even won a Grammy. McClurkin now pastors his own congregation in Freeport, New York; he founded his Perfecting Faith Church in early 2001. Although his ministry and singing career are high-profile, he's most famous in evangelical circles for his claims of having been "delivered" from Gay identity. He made these claims in a 2001 autobiography titled Eternal Victim/Eternal Victor, and in articles he's since penned for Charisma Magazine and other conservative Christian publications.
An admitted victim of incest and child sexual abuse, McClurkin writes that he was unwillingly drawn into homosexuality by male pedophiles: "The seed of homosexual lust and desire was planted" is the ominous way he describes it. He professes to have overcome same-gender attraction through prayer and guidance from his church elders. Here's a sample of the kind of "guidance" he got: "They would pray with me, talk with me, and a few of them . . . would even teach me how to carry myself like a man. When I wanted to sing soprano, they'd say things like, 'Get some bass in your voice!' or, 'Men don't sing soprano!' (They) even taught me how to walk. If I held my hand up in a feminine way, (they'd) hit it and say: 'Put your hands at your side. Men don't hold their hands like that!'" These intensive lessons in masculine swagger may have had something to do with McClurkin fathering a child out of wedlock in 2000. The evangelical community forgave this transgression, of course . . . at least he was fornicating with a woman!
Donnie McClurkin has become prominent among a shamefully large number of hetero-fascists who are active in Black Protestantism. Reportedly, he's begun forging links with the White religious Right Wing. He has appeared in support of George W. Bush, and parrots the "family values" rhetoric of the Republican party (begging the question of why Barack Obama would want to be associated with him). Ask him what he thinks about Gay identity, and he's liable to call it "a matter of choice" as well as a "curse". He's gone on the record with such opinions in the recent past. In addition, McClurkin has characterized Gay Christian men as "vultures" who populate a "deceptive underworld" within the church (Holy religious McCarthyism, Batman)! According to the New York Times, he's begun offering therapy to young boys who feel homosexual desire. "I've been through this, and have experienced God's power to change my lifestyle," he asserts. "I am delivered, and I know God can deliver others, too." Doesn't reading about this development make chills run up and down your spine? It certainly has that effect on me.
Around the time I entered junior high school, I became involved in the Youth For Christ movement. I remember a mantra that our YFC ministers had popularized: "Come as you are." We were encouraged to come to God exactly as we were. In one sense, the slogan meant that you didn't have to dress up in fine clothes to go to church. It had a broader sense, though: That it wasn't necessary to make yourself respectable in the eyes of the world in order to enter God's temple and worship at His throne.
God's concepts of respectability are different from the ones human beings have. The world may think your skin is the wrong color, or shun you because of the social class you come from, or consider you a sexual pariah of some kind. God sees past those superficial concerns. However you were created, and whatever your circumstances, the Lord welcomes you into His presence. You are His child. Not only does He want you to come as you are, He insists on it! You can't present yourself to God wearing masks and disguises. Nor should you try to deceive your sisters and brothers in Christ.
Gay people like Donnie McClurkin (yes, I said it!) believe otherwise. They're deluding themselves, but it's easy to understand why they think as they do. Just like the rest of us, they're victims of miseducation. What passes for Christian doctrine today is a far cry from what Jesus Christ actually taught. Set upon by Satan's poachers, who disguise themselves in shepherd's clothing, LGBT lambs are tricked into following their corrupt lead. Deceived! Misled! Fooled into believing that penances imposed on the ancient Israelites also apply to us. Blinded to our presence in Scripture (the 14th chapter of Revelations, among other passages). Pressured to give the directives of prophets and apostles the same authority as the directives Jesus Christ gave us, even when those directives differ. Manipulated into worshiping the Bible, a man-made text, as if it were a substitute for God! We've been distracted from the message of salvation our Savior preached.
Those of us who come from an ethnic background also have to deal with strong cultural biases that severely regulate gender roles. The appalling behavior modification training McClurkin got from his church elders mirrors what my own parents told me as a child: "Stop acting like a girl!" Be they Christian, Muslim or otherwise, African-Americans demand a strict separation between masculinity and femininity. How easily they forget that the God they worship is simultaneously male and female, and how difficult it is for them to accept that some of His children are, too!
Donnie McClurkin didn't just suffer rape at the hands of his male relatives. He was also raped by his church! In both cases, wicked people sought to impose shame and degradation on him. They perceived his alternate gender identity, targeted him because of it (something I believe pedophiles routinely do to Gay children), violated him, and made him feel as if he deserved punishment. In this diabolical way, they took control of his mind, and programmed him to punish others like himself. They call it "evangelism", but it's really recruitment, combined with a form of sexual harassment that Jerry Maneker calls "genital theology" . . . the very thing fundamentalists accuse Lesbians and Gay men of doing!
This is the method organized religion uses to manufacture fundie closet cases, a procedure that no doubt goes back many centuries. So effective is this method, it's miraculous that anybody escapes its cruel indoctrination. God, the architect of Gay identity, makes such miracles possible. He inspires us to burst the bonds of self-loathing that Satan's trickery places on our souls. Every day, millions of LGBT Christians are breaking free from shame, challenging lies told from the pulpit, seeking and finding their true identities through prayer and research and therapy (the legitimate kind), and the evidence of their own life experience. Some of these newly enlightened folks are even preachers!
The various religious communities we belong to may never make peace with Gay identity. That doesn't mean we can't make our own peace with it. We can. We don't have to suffer lifelong victimhood. We don't have to fear scriptural terrorism. We don't have to be "Bible believers"! As Christian converts, we only need be Gospel believers. That's where our salvation lies, and that's where Jesus Christ speaks of us. Yes, He does! Don't believe the naysayers. The proof can be found in the 19th chapter of Matthew, verses 9-12; the Savior calls us eunuchs who have been so from birth. (In Biblical times, a "born eunuch" was the equivalent of what we now call Gay men.) He exempts all eunuchs from heterosexual marriage, and links their unique status to the kingdom of Heaven. That sure doesn't sound like condemnation to me! What's more, in verses 16-19 of that same chapter, Jesus Christ lists the specific commandments that apply to his disciples. Guess how many of those commandments prohibit same-gender love? Absolutely none of them!
What more does the Savior have to do for us to stop thinking ourselves as abominations? Who can vilify us when God does the opposite? Why do we let false prophets come between us and God? It's foolish! Do we enjoy suffering needlessly? Do we think God wants to inflict pain on us? What's the percentage in ending up a guilt-ridden, self-destructive wreck? How does that make us better Christians? It damn sure hasn't brought Donnie McClurkin closer to the Divine. His opportunistic, mask-wearing Gay colleagues in the Gospel music world aren't exactly role models, either.
A couple of years back, McClurkin was interviewed on the PBS TV series "Religion And Ethics Newsweekly." He took advantage of the occasion to compare Gay people to liars. He also said: "Anybody who has a lying problem, they get to the point where they hate (it), having such a lack of character, (and) they (want to) make a change." He was surely talking about himself in regard to lying; could be he was also talking about himself in regard to changing. If everything said about him in Clay Cane's interview is true, Donnie McClurkin knows in his heart the kind of change he needs to make: One that involves total honesty with himself and others, renunciation of self-serving bigotry, and freedom from crippling shame. For his sake as well as our own, let's all pray that God empowers him to make it.
OMG. Looks like a bit of a PR problem... Journalist Clay Cane has an exclusive interview with an alleged former lover of recloseted homosexual anti-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. Well, perhaps he isn't so "ex-gay", as the man alleges he had a sexual encounter with McClurkin long after he claimed to have prayed away the gay. Clay Cane:
In this revealing interview "Rob" details his relationship, or as he described, "roller coaster ride" with the “We Fall Down” hit maker from 2001 to 2004, which is ironically during the height of McClurkin's anti-gay rants and calls for conversion. How they met, his status in the gospel industry, their sex life, why he stayed and why they ended it. Plus, their last encounter in March 2007.
The full interview can not be made public, some things I had to leave out such as other artists in gospel who are gay, but have not made anti-gay rants and a relationship with an R&B legend who as, “Rob” said, married a “bisexual”, famous pastor. I only wanted to focus on the relationship with McClurkin and no one else. I am presenting a story for people to make up their own minds.
...How long were you guys being sexual? Off and on for three years, 2001 to 2004.
During this time to 2001 to 2004 is really the height of his anti-gay rants. The book came out, he made comments, he told the New York Times in 2002 he’s counseling adolescent boys to convert them from homosexuality. Would you hear about these rants? Every time I’d read an article in Ebony or Jet, or whatever, I’d just hear it—I’d get upset and we’d always have an argument about it. He said, “I told you.” I said, “It’s crazy. What you’re doing is crazy. You’re writing this stuff, but yet you’re still doing it.” I said, “I have a problem with that. What’s wrong with you?” He said, “I have a problem.”
What do you think he meant by “I have a problem”? It’s something he just can’t control. He feels that he has to say that to please people. He said, “I don’t want people to believe that I’m still doing it.”
...Do you think being violently homophobic was the key to his success? There are so many gay people in the gospel music industry. Why did he have to be so— So like he was?
Yeah—so like he is! Even right now… It seems like every time he was attacked in the media, or word was getting around, it just seemed like it made him even madder. He had attacked gays, the lifestyle, when something was written about him—one lady wrote an article, “The Sins of Donnie McClurkin”, I mean, it was scathing. It’s since gone now, I tried to find it today and Keith Boykin, he’s written some things. Every time somebody would do that he would counterattack. The articles, the hearsay would make him just go crazy and he was not fun to be around. One time we met and it was him sitting in a bed Indian style and me sitting in the hotel chair looking at TV. No sex, no nothing…
There is so much more over at Clay's pad, including details about Donnie's "johnson," role playing, and who liked being the bottom. Uh oh.
Last night I posted that Barack Obama's team has selectedRev. Andy Sidden of Garden of Grace United Church of Christ in Columbia, SC to speak at the “Embrace the Change” concerts that feature recloseted anti-gay Grammy winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin this weekend. The openly gay pastor will be interviewed by Mike Signorile on his show today, broadcast on SIRIUS OutQ 109.
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I think discussion of the National Black Justice Coalition's role in this is critical, because some Obama supporters (or, generally, critics of my post over at Salon) have tried to couch any criticism of the candidate as white gays attacking Obama ostensibly to hide their opposition to him based on race, or somehow saying gay discrimination somehow trumps racial discrimination. It's not a zero sum game.
The fact that the NBJC was right on the McClurkin issue -- and in contact with the campaign regarding the addition of Sidden -- highlights the marginalization and invisibility of black LGBTs and how the McClurkin matter affects this subgroup in this story.
I look forward to hearing about how Sidden feels about being openly gay pastor in the South; for instance, what are the challenges he faces, and how open does he feel he can be in Columbia, SC with his partner?
It would also be good to know whether he interacts with other pastors from less progressive churches to effect change regarding homophobia in the religious black community.
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Queerty has Mike Gravel's reaction to the mess ("Gravel On Obama's Gay Gospel Gaffe"), and as usual, Fighting Mike doesn't hold back. A snippet:
Barack Obama's refusal to dump the anti-gay singer from his South Carolina event shouldn't surprise anyone, especially gays. The fundraising phase of the campaign is over; now the candidates are focusing on courting voters. Gay fundraisers lined the pockets of Clinton, Obama and Edwards despite their refusal to support your marriage rights. Now they'll further distance themselves from your cause to get votes in places like SC. When the general election starts, forget it.
This is what happens when the LGBT community doesn't stand up and insist that their candidates express a total commitment to equality. One piece of advice: Be suspicious anytime you hear politicians talk about their 'moral values.' No one collects $100 million without compromising his or her moral values constantly.
The National Organization for Marriage and Bishop Harry Jackson were expecting thousands of "Christians" to show up at today's rally in Washington, DC that was supposed to intimidate the City Council, which recently cast a preliminary vote in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages.
...I'm all for being who you are. If you like women, go on and date women. If you like men, be my guest and date men. But if you are born a man, you should be just that--a man. If I have to look twice to tell if I'm looking at a man or woman on an all-male campus, then something is tragically wrong.
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Last night I posted that Barack Obama's team 
