Black Homophobia

Often the call for church peachers to reform their ways and stop living a homophobic lifestyle falls on deaf ears. The fact that they fail to hear, though, does not mean that they have moral authority. In additon, the fact that they fail to refrain from living a homophobic lifestyle, does not mean that they have the divine right to encourage others to do the same.

In Exodus 6:3, God tells Moses: " But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you." The actions of homophobic preachers reveal that God has hardened their hearts. They do not hear when God speaks to them about the pain and destruction black homophobia causes in our communities. They do not hear when lesbian and gay members of their congregations express feelings of isolation. They do not hear when their members share how much it hurts to hear homophobia preached from the pulpit.

Not only has black preachers using church to spread homophobia helped the spread of HIV/AIDS in our communities, black preachers have opened the door for the Religious Reich to develop a political base in some black communities. They are determined to make religious oppression legal in America. The Religious Reich has co-opted the language of liberation and salvation theology and used them to distract attention from the fact that our civil rights are being chipped away by those who have political power. The result is black churches are impotent in effectively addressing the tragedy of Katrina, the decline of our educational system, poverty, unemployment, hunger, homelessness, the spread of HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, political corruption, pollution, war, prison reform...

Perhaps black preachers who live a homophobic lifestyle should spend less time claiming to know what God wants, and more time softening their hearts so that they can hear, and in the process be transformed.