Thoughts on Martin Luther King Day

He (Martin Luther King, Jr.) had been jailed in Birmingham, Alabama because of his civil rights leadership. Eight white clergy placed an ad in one of Birmingham’s newspapers questioning his right to be in their city, and suggesting strongly that he and ‘The Movement’ become more moderate in their approach.

In his letter he wrote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

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If we who are black are unable to be in an ally/advocate relationship with our GLBT sisters and brothers of every race in their struggle, our commitment to the black justice struggle loses a bit of its integrity. The negative attitudes of black persons and other persons of color toward the rights of gay persons, suggests that we have forgotten our own struggles that continue to this day.

I cannot comprehend nor understand their theology nor their understanding of justice of many African churchmen who seem to be more ’worked up’ about a gay Episcopal bishop than they are about the legacy of colonialism that is still present in their nations and their churches, the tragedy of the deaths of millions because of HIV/AIDS, the poverty that exists all around them and in places, the appearance that black totalitarianism is valid when white totalitarianism was not.

As a clergyman, I believe Dr. King would vigorously oppose those in religion who use Scripture to justify their denial of human rights in the church and beyond of those who love someone of the same-sex. He would remind religious leaders of how historically, the Bible has been used to oppress persons, only in time to reverse their resistance.

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