Black Pastors and Gay Rights: DC Becomes a Battleground

The nation’s capital is suddenly center court in America’s loud argument over gay marriage. Nothing new about that, except that this time the battle is being hashed out in the streets, churches and living rooms in working class wards of the city. While there is something poignant about both sides literally singing the same hymn (“We Shall Overcome”) at its rallies, there is also something refreshing about the debate taking place in the unofficial part of Washington, D.C: For once, it’s not partisan.That is not to say it’s not a touchy issue. Gay marriage pits race and faith together in the same combustible conversation, and does so in a community in which both are sacrosanct subjects. The black Christian church predates Emancipation by more than two centuries, and served as a bulwark against the pernicious effects of slavery, Jim Crow, alcohol and drugs, AIDS, poverty, crime, police brutality and bad schools.
In the face of all that, African-American pastors and their churches have offered up faith and love of family as twin defenses. Thus they have been an institution with a message that at its core is fundamentally conservative. And at the same time, it was from the pulpits of these very same black churches that emanated the commanding voices that demanded fundamental change to the old order. Make no mistake, the moral authority and raw political power of the civil rights movement was rooted in these self-same churches. And in that sense they were a liberating, as well as a stabilizing, force.
These contradictory forces of liberalism and conservatism have coexisted, not always easily, for centuries within the church. But gay marriage has opened a chasm in the black community, in which, to paraphrase (and modernize) Lincoln who, while speaking about the North and South during the Civil War, observed that each side reads the same bible, prays to the same God, invokes His wisdom against the other – and belongs to the same political party.
In the local politics of Washington, the true power brokers are predominately black, monolithically Democratic and tuned into the religious sensibilities of their constituents. Thus, the discussion taking place here over gay marriage is really a series of conversations; some within the black community and some within the Christian churches, and almost all of it within the Democratic Party. This is not altogether a bad thing. For starters, there’s no Republican bogeyman, and for another, the race card is played to establish one’s bona fides, not to stoke prejudice. Finally, the church-bashing rhetoric one finds in other places where this debate is taking place is muted here: Attacking the church would simply be a good way to lose the argument. And judging by the language being invoked by both sides, the stakes of this argument are high: Leaders of competing camps clearly believe that what unfolds here in unofficial Washington will be a harbinger for where this nation is heading on gay rights.
“The march towards equality is coming to this country, and you can either be a part of it or stand in the way,” David Catania, one of two openly gay D.C. Council members, declared on May 5, as the council approved his pro-gay marriage measure.
“This is the Armageddon of the marriage debate,” was the rejoinder offered by Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., and author of a petition seeking to have the question put on the ballot for every voter in Washington. “It’s a declaration of war.” See Black Pastors and Gay Rights: DC Becomes a Battleground
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Ministers Oppose Cleveland’s Gay Partner Registry

A group of ministers is leading an effort to repeal Cleveland’s recently passed gay domestic partner registry, reports Cleveland daily The Plain Dealer.

United Pastors in Mission, a group of mostly black ministers led by president Rev. C. Jay Matthews of the Mount Sinai Baptist Church and director Rev. Marvin McMickle of Antioch Baptist Church, made the announcement at a Tuesday press conference at Matthews’ church.

Cleveland city leaders approved the registry at a Monday December 8 session by a 13-7 vote.

All of the seven lawmakers who voted against the measure were black. Ward 1 councilman Terrell Pruitt admitted he was pressured to vote against the registry: “I couldn’t risk having the ministers, who don’t have all the facts, on the pulpits preaching against me on Sunday.”

Cleveland’s domestic partner registry allows gay and straight couples to seek recognition of their union from the city. Ohio passed one of the toughest gay marriage bans in the country four years ago. To ensure that the registry does not run afoul of the state’s prohibition it lacks any force of law and guarantees no protections whatsoever. Any benefits given to couples would be strictly voluntary.

Over 70 cities and counties nationwide offer gay domestic partner registries. Lawmakers in the Mormon stronghold of Utah will take up the question next month.

See Ministers Oppose Cleveland’s Gay Partner Registry
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NEWSWEEK COVER: The Religious Case for Gay Marriage – “Religious Objections to Gay Marriage are Rooted Not in the Bible at All”

Newsweek Poll Shows Two-Thirds of People Who See Gay Marriage as a Religious Matter Oppose it

NEW YORK, NY — The latest Newsweek Poll shows growing public support for gay marriage and civil unions, with a number of factors playing a role in swaying people one way or the other. According to the poll, 62 percent of Americans say religious beliefs play an important role in shaping their views on gay marriage. “According to the survey, two-thirds of those who see marriage as primarily a legal matter support gay marriage. On the other hand, two-thirds of those who see it as mostly a religious matter (or equal parts religious and legal) oppose gay marriage.” Religion Editor Lisa Miller examines this issue in the December 15 cover, “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage” (on newsstands Monday, December 8), and writes that “not since 1860, when the country’s pulpits were full of preachers pronouncing on slavery, pro and con, has one of our basic social (and economic) institutions been so subject to Biblical scrutiny … All the religious rhetoric, it seems, has been on the side of the gay-marriage opponents, who use Scripture as the foundation for their objections.” A mature view of scriptural authority requires the ability to move beyond literalism, as common practice changes and evolves over time. “Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition,” Miller writes.

Miller writes that the argument against gay marriage involves the idea that the Bible and Jesus define marriage as between one man and one woman, and homosexuality is in opposition to Scripture. To which there are two obvious responses: First, neither the Bible nor Jesus says any such thing. And second, no sensible modern person wants marriage — theirs or anyone else’s — to look in its particulars anything like what the Bible describes. “‘Marriage’ in America refers to two separate things, a religious institution and a civil one, though it is most often enacted as a messy conflation of the two. As a civil institution, marriage offers practical benefits to both partners: contractual rights having to do with taxes; insurance; the care and custody of children; visitation rights; and inheritance. As a religious institution, marriage offers something else: a commitment of both partners before God to love, honor, cherish each other — in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer — in accordance with God’s will.” Miller argues that the Bible offers no reason why gays and lesbians should not be married, in both civil and religious terms — and a number of excellent reasons why they should.

“We cannot look to the Bible as a marriage manual, but we can read it for universal truths as we struggle toward a more just future,” Miller writes. “The Bible offers inspiration and warning on the subjects of love, marriage, family and community. It speaks eloquently of the crucial role of families in a fair society and the risks we incur to ourselves and our children should we cease trying to bind ourselves together in loving pairs.”

Also in the cover package, Senior Writer Lorraine Ali tells the story of a custody battle between two women who were joined in a Vermont civil union. Their relationship failed, one partner decided she was no longer gay and now they’re fighting for custody of the daughter they both love. The case, Miller v. Jenkins, has important implications for gay parents everywhere.