Gospel According to MD

“I apologize for participating in this conspiracy of silence.”

–Rev. Delman Coates, 2012

As a Black/male/Christian/gay/preacher/pastor, what I find most frustrating is that many Black congregations were places of refuge and safety from the violence and mistreatment done to African American people during Jim Crow and our struggle for civil rights.  Both of which I might add, were opposed by the white majority on the belief that God did not create all men and women equal—and they used the Bible to justify that position.  Of course, now, you cannot find one Black congregation that would accept such tenets.  We condemn slavery, as well as the separation of races and consider them to be great evils. Yet, these historical precedents are no different than the experiences LGBT people face in our society today.

The Bible, as I teach and preach from it, is not meant to be God, but to lead people into relationship with God. Unfortunately, in the traditional African-American church, it has morphed into the single largest weapon used to keep LGBT men and women from living before God whole and fully human.

In a recent article published in the Washington Post, a prominent African-American Maryland  pastor, Delman Coates of Mount Enon Baptist Church, spoke up then out in support of the Same Sex Marriage Bill in his home state. Coates is quoted as saying, “Gays and lesbians are a part of our communities, they are a part of our families, [they are] a part of our church families. I believe the church ought to be a place where all people, regardless of their lifestyle, ought to be welcome.”

While Black churches are far from monolithic, and certainly not on this issue, most progressive conversations regarding the right of same gender loving couples to openly acknowledge and affirm their love and relationships in the Church has been silenced. Silenced under the literal interpretations of the Bible and what some think it says about homosexuality, marriage and sin.

To believe that LGBT people are created in the image and likeness of God and worship as such in the historical Black church is not only unlikely but close to impossible. Homophobia in the Black church has outlasted slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell and even the election of the first African-American President of the United States of America.     

While Coates may not have it totally right, as he wrongly asserts that homosexuality is a “lifestyle” choice, he is headed in the right direction with such a bold and courageous declaration. His statement is more congruent with what it truly means to capture the essence of African religion which is pragmatic, informative and communal—where everyone has a soul and religion permeates all dimensions of our lives and strengthens our humanity.

We, as Black gay men and women, are being characterized as the ‘great evil’, and denied civil and human rights because of biblical [mis]interpretations, based on fear, hate, ignorance and prejudice. How is it that those being most oppressed in society are perceived to have the power necessary to destroy the entire institution of marriage simply because they want to openly affirm their love for their same gendered partner with God’s blessing in the church?

We who claim spirituality, shaped not only by our American history but also by our African past, must become a people willing to engage the Bible not as God but as a pathway to better know a loving God. A puritan morality that gave our community the idea that the only moral sexual position was the “missionary position” has done as much to demean God’s rich gift of sexual expression and the belief that love is God’s gift to all humankind.

Washington Post article, “Speaking out for same-sex marriage law, black minister stands apart”