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Black Churches: Bible was wrong on slavery, right on gay issues.

Interesting read. I've read that some African American leaders take offense at LGBT issues being called "civil rights", and that the struggle for civil rights and the struggle for LGBT equality are not the same thing. I actually agree, they are not the same thing, although in both cases there has been immense suffering, inequality, and grief. What I want most is to see, in the title of an old college speech com book, "Bridges, not Walls".

Where I do see blatant hypocrisy is in the African American pulpit (And the white pulpit, whatever that is, and the latin pulpit, and the chinese pulpit....). To teach the bible, supposedly (pick and choose, pick and choose), then say the bible supported Black people in their struggle for emancipation, then in their struggle against the evil system of Jim Crow. There may have been comfort in the bible, but to present the bible, as supporting emancipation and equality, is just dishonest. It's a lying re-write of history. The bible supported slavery, clearly, and repeatedly. It supports the concept of "otherness" being worthy of persecution. It supports mistreatment of women. The bible clearly has an attitude about "mixing" different types. Note blog on the role of religion in "The Lynching Tree". Then to take a smaller number of verses, and deny LGBT congregants and non church goers of their rights, is hateful.

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NOM has tried to play LGBT people, vs. minorities - both African American and Hispanic - against each other in hopes of spreading hate. They cite support by Black clergy and "Bishops" for measure 8 in California, and North Carolina's new Amendment 1. Any time we generalize about race, it's a fine line between trying to discuss a community, vs. stereotyping and racism. But- what we can do is call the ministers on their false reporting of the bible, and false reporting of the bible's role in history, and false use of the bible currently.

Perhaps saddest of all, members of those congregations, who happen to be LGBT, feel ostracized and persecuted within the community where they crave support. To internalize those lies is to internalize self hate and causes isolation and self-harmful behavior. Those members would also benefit from calling the clergy on their lies, and teaching their congregations that the bible doesn't just hate the people that they want it to hate.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on May 12, 2012 at 10:50pm

Am I allowed to change my mind about racism? Perhaps I can start bragging about my white purity and the trouble of uppity negroes.

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on May 13, 2012 at 8:38am

Careful about that! DNA testing may show your white purity is not so pure :-)

I thought this was good, from my perspective as a white atheist watching an African American minister. Of course, I always like watching someone who I agree with. Sort of like those people in the pews like hearing views from the pulpit, that they agree with.

Permalink Reply by Dallas the Phallus on May 13, 2012 at 9:24am

Conservatives take the de facto stance that everything is an attack on them. Gay marriage is an attack on them. Education reform is an attack on them. Tax reform is an attack on them. Environmentalism is an attack on them.

And as much as I disagree with this guys invocation of the bible, he does make good points--especially about black hypocrisy.

But I hate his implication that we are "crying out for acceptance from God."

Permalink Reply by The Flying Atheist on May 13, 2012 at 1:16am

Some interesting, valid points, but I don't think we can blame only black churches and their clergy for displaying any higher degree of hypocrisy than any of the other races or denominations who have also cherry-picked sections of the bible to suit their personal beliefs on any given issue. For me personally, I'm beginning to think that my biggest problem with religious people is not that they choose to live and base their lives and behavior according to what's written in the bible but rather the opposite. They choose to live their lives as they wish, according to and influenced by the bigoted manner and environment in which they were raised, and then they cowardly use the bible solely as a shield to hide behind to validate and to justify their discriminatory and hateful behavior. For these people, you have no right what so ever to question them or call them a bigot as long as they have the bible on their side to justify their twisted views. When this happens, unfortunately the discussion is quickly over and nobody is, quite literally, enlightened or made any wiser.

Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on May 13, 2012 at 8:34am

Absolutely agree, we can't blame the black churches and clergy more than white. I guess my point is we also cant let them off the hook, either. And you are right about using the bible as a shield. WHenever possible, I think one of the ways to poke holes in that shield is to know history and know the bible better than the person using it. No surprise, some atheists seem to know the bible as well or better than some christians.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on May 13, 2012 at 9:06am