Twenty-two years ago, Reverend Oliver White founded Grace Community United Church of Christ in a low-income black neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a strong congregation with 320 members — until 2005, when White stood up at a synod of the United Church of Christ and voiced his support of gay marriage. Then he came home and told his congregation what he had done.
“I thought they were with me,” he says, “but much to my chagrin, I immediately started losing members.” Over the next few weeks, two thirds of his members left the congregation. […]
How did you become such a strong supporter of gay marriage?
You know, I’ve always felt this way. This is not something I’ve evolved into. I’ve always just felt that people are people. There are all kinds of different people — some are left handed, and others are right handed. Should we discriminate against people because they’re left handed?
That’s how I see it. Many of my friends happen to be gay, and some of my enemies, too. They all deserve the same rights I have in terms of being married, and the joys and benefits come along with that. I would not be inclined to be in relationship with another man, but it’s not for me to judge two men or women in a relationship. It’s about the freedom to love.
The people who left your congregation obviously believe that gay marriage is against the Christian religion. Which parts of scripture do they cite, and how do you read those same passages?
Most people who oppose homosexuality use biblical references found in Leviticus, which state that homosexuality is an abomination to God. Now, that’s a misinterpretation of that text. They really need to read further into it. In the same book of Leviticus, it states that if an unmarried woman is not a virgin, she can be put to death. We don’t put women to death for that reason nowadays.
The one law I quote frequently and try to conduct my ministry by is the one that Jesus gave: Love God first and then love your neighbor as yourself. And yet, we have laws in Minnesota in 2012 that say oral sex is a sin. You can go to jail for it. Come on people, wake up! Let’s get on with it!
Read more. [Image: Shutterstock]
![An Amazing 1969 Account of the Stonewall Uprising
The conflict over the next six days played out as a very gay variant of a classic New York street rebellion. It would see: fire hoses turned on people in the street, thrown barricades, gay cheerleaders chanting bawdy variants of New York City schoolgirl songs, Rockette-style kick lines in front of the police, the throwing of a firebomb into the bar, a police officer throwing his gun at the mob, cries of “occupy — take over, take over,” “Fag power,” “Liberate the bar!”, and “We’re the pink panthers!”, smashed windows, uprooted parking meters, thrown pennies, frightened policemen, angry policemen, arrested mafiosi, thrown cobblestones, thrown bottles, the singing of “We Shall Overcome” in high camp fashion, and a drag queen hitting a police officer on the head with her purse.
Read more. [Image: Joseph Ambrosini/The New York Daily News]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/9a6e1bc30b8385e2b2ffde30d92850ae/tumblr_mh5bv3sphp1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
![Malaysia Declares V-Necks Gay
The Malaysian government has begun organizing seminars aimed at helping parents and teachers identify latent homosexuality in children, according to Singapore news outlet AsiaOne. One of the principal warning signs? V-neck T-shirts. It’d be sort of funny if it weren’t rooted in a wildly un-self aware bigotry.
Read more. [Images: American Apparel/Reuters]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mai927HvFr1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
![What the Gun Control Movement Can Learn From Gay Rights
While gun control and gay rights are very different things, there are a couple of key directives that apply to both: Play political hardball, put your money where your mouth is and reframe the debate to deprive the opposition of fuel.
Read more. [Image: AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8r58tSO9a1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
![How ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Ended Up at a South African Arts Festival
When President Obama ditched “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last September, ripples went global. One crossed the Atlantic and found its way to a dance studio in South Africa. There, it reached a young choreographer struggling, at that very same moment, to decide how—and if—he wanted to do a show about his own country’s troubled, long-repressed relationship with gay men in the military. This bit of news from America helped him decide, giving him not just the confidence to proceed with the project, but also proof of something he’d already suspected: that this was an issue that transcended national borders.
The resulting show, Moffie, debuted in Grahamstown at the National Arts Festival last month, to equal parts anticipation and controversy—and not just because the full-page ad in the front of the festival program featured a very naked, hard-muscled man with a rifle dangling over his privates.
Read more. [Image: CuePix/Chris de Beer]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8hqyzjDzw1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
![Why One Black Minister Is Risking His Church to Support Gay Marriage
Twenty-two years ago, Reverend Oliver White founded Grace Community United Church of Christ in a low-income black neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. It was a strong congregation with 320 members — until 2005, when White stood up at a synod of the United Church of Christ and voiced his support of gay marriage. Then he came home and told his congregation what he had done.
“I thought they were with me,” he says, “but much to my chagrin, I immediately started losing members.” Over the next few weeks, two thirds of his members left the congregation. […]
How did you become such a strong supporter of gay marriage?
You know, I’ve always felt this way. This is not something I’ve evolved into. I’ve always just felt that people are people. There are all kinds of different people — some are left handed, and others are right handed. Should we discriminate against people because they’re left handed?
That’s how I see it. Many of my friends happen to be gay, and some of my enemies, too. They all deserve the same rights I have in terms of being married, and the joys and benefits come along with that. I would not be inclined to be in relationship with another man, but it’s not for me to judge two men or women in a relationship. It’s about the freedom to love.
The people who left your congregation obviously believe that gay marriage is against the Christian religion. Which parts of scripture do they cite, and how do you read those same passages?
Most people who oppose homosexuality use biblical references found in Leviticus, which state that homosexuality is an abomination to God. Now, that’s a misinterpretation of that text. They really need to read further into it. In the same book of Leviticus, it states that if an unmarried woman is not a virgin, she can be put to death. We don’t put women to death for that reason nowadays.
The one law I quote frequently and try to conduct my ministry by is the one that Jesus gave: Love God first and then love your neighbor as yourself. And yet, we have laws in Minnesota in 2012 that say oral sex is a sin. You can go to jail for it. Come on people, wake up! Let’s get on with it!
Read more. [Image: Shutterstock]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m55nolVcr61qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
![Federal Court: DOMA Violates Married Same-Sex Couples’ Rights
A Federal Appeals court in Massachusetts ruled Thursday that the Defense of Marriage Act violates the Constitution by denying federal benefits to same-sex couples and though it’s a narrow ruling, it’s still a victory for same-sex marriage advocates as the case makes its way ever-closer to the Supreme Court.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: Reuters]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4wdnehQHn1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
