Hate Crimes and Justice in the Black Community

Black Christians understand justice. Rooted in a history of struggle against oppression the black
church has historically led the nation in a moral quest for human dignity and freedom.

Unfortunately, some outspoken African-American clergy have rejected the moral vision of black
Christianity by fueling anti-gay prejudice in their opposition to the Matthew Shepard Act. These
African-American preachers are more interested in the media spotlight than in honoring the
black Christian tradition of justice.

Poised for a vote in the Senate, the Matthew Shepard Act extends federal hate crime protections to citizens who are violently victimized because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. It provides local law enforcement with the resources to thoroughly investigate heinous, bias-fueled crimes. Intending to shift public opinion against this bill, a few conservative African-American pastors are working overtime — through protests and provocative advertisements — to spread the false message that this legislation will criminalize them for condemning gay people.

It is time for black Christians to speak out against this distorted and ugly campaign against the
Matthew Shepard Act. The proposed federal statute does not punish nor prohibit free expression of one's religious beliefs. The hate crimes bill includes language protecting individuals from race-based and religion-based crimes as well. The Act protects first Amendment rights for everyone while ensuring that the authorities fully investigate all violent crimes intended to degrade and oppress their victims. The bill protects our children, because black youth are disproportionately targeted and victimized in anti-gay hate crimes.

Homophobic black clergy do not speak for the entire black Christian community. Though they receive dramatically less media attention than Bishop Harry Jackson, many African-American religious leaders are encouraging acceptance and inclusion in their congregations and communities. African-American Christians have long resisted readings of the Bible that exclude and oppress. Enslaved blacks were admonished to "obey their masters" but they believed the story of Moses leading his people from bondage. Jim Crow religion told black people to be silent about oppression because the "meek shall inherit the earth," but Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. called for "justice to run down like waters and righteousness as a mighty and ever-flowing stream." Lamentably, as the Matthew Shepard Act debate has illustrated, the Black religious voices urging inclusion and respect rarely receive as much media notice as those preaching division and bigotry.

To be sure, there is still much work to be done before homophobia ceases to cause pain and
division. African-American gay men and lesbians continue to find themselves marginalized in
some churches and in the mainstream black media. On the news, a handful of Black athletes
and performers received enormous media attention after making hateful anti-gay statements
this year. While homophobia remains a serious and pernicious problem across this nation, it's
important for us to recognize that there are far more people within the black religious community who support equality and dignity for gay people than the media has given credit. The public — especially those young people who are now recognizing their sexual orientation and
gender identity — should know that those who preach bigotry in their unfounded assault on the Matthew Shepard Act do not define the level of open-mindedness and acceptance in the African-American religious community.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote from a letter from a Birmingham jail to express his grave
disappointment in his fellow clergy because they failed to support eh struggle for equal rights
and human dignity. Let us now register our equal disappointment with the intolerance or homophobic clergy in our community. When asked why he'd come to Birmingham, King wrote "I
am here because injustice is here." When asked why we support the Matthew Shepard Act black
Christians can respond the same.

Comments

[mintolbert]

Grace and Peace be unto you all,

I have received many emails from most of you concerning my comments about Homosexuals.

I have read each of your comments, I have read so many articles, notes, documentations and medical research, that reveal some agree with genics is the reason for homosexuality and others state there is no evidence to conclude that genics is the reason for homosexuality.

Bottom line, we will not come to common ground concerning this. Each of you are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mines.

Throughout your emails, many of you called me a "Bigot" so I wanted to know if the definition has changed. I was astonished that the definition has not changed:

A Bigot - "a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance."

So, If I am a "Bigot".. then what are you?

I personally would not have used the word "Bigot". I would have used a phrase, "your convictions is as passionate to you as my convictions are to me."

Finally, I wish each of you peace and long live, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

[tandrmcdonald]

Note to all on the subject.
I'm sixty-two years old and I simply don't understand the so-called Christian obsession with other people's genitals.
Parts of our society seem to be stuck bending over to sniff their neighbors' private parts.
All lather, no soap.
Gramma Rose

[mintolbert]

Grace and Peace be unto all of you.

I have read each response to my comment. I must say, that I am impressed with the strong opinions concerning this subject. But, I would like to expand on my earlier comment and your comments.

I am not suprise of the comments from each of you, but I am suprised that each of you are not up on your research concerning this subject.

Allow me to inform each of you, if I may..

First - I am a Christian that believes in God'd Word explictly! Many of your arguements are not new and have no real foundational basis. Prime examples are as follows: the universe was created by an explosion of a primeval atom approximately 10 to 20 years ago or believing that man evolve from ape approximately 1.6 to 2.2 million years ago. Each time scientist try to prove these theories, they come up short, with no explanation on how they missed the mark.
Secondly - If each of you are as versed in the knowledge of Homosexuality, you would not have used science as the base of your comments. In 2002 and 2005 a study was completed by the American Journal of Sociology by Columbia/Yale researchers Bearman and Brueckner concluded that there was no positive proof of genics contributes to homosexuality. Once again, I will say, "study and show thyself approved." "Knowledge is power", "a mind is a terrible thing to waste."

I will be waiting on your comments.

Rev. Dr. Rodney N. Tolbert, Sr. (The Doctorate (Phd) is in Eduction - not Theology)

[THERIGHTWING]

Why do we need hate crimes to punish criminals. Everyone that commits a crime should be hit as hard as can be. So now the only people that have no hate crime law for crimes committed against are white men. When is that law going to be passed?

[MaxD]

I haven't read that paper "Reverend" "doctor."
However that it has the word Sociology in it makes it terribly suspect. Sociology has long had a history of trying to limit scientific explanations of human behavior.
There is plenty of evidence in favor of a genetic component to sexual behavior, it is highly heritable. And it seems that it home environment, parental influence have minimal effects on this behavioral outcome.
Identical twins raised apart show this relationship quite well. If your identical twin is homosexual, whether you were raised in the same household or not your likelihood of being homosexual is something like 70 %.
On top of that, there may be some environmental influence on sexual preference. But the environment I am thinking of is that of the womb. That is to say, there seems to be a link between birth order and sexuality. Later born males have a slightly greater than random tendency toward homosexuality. Though more work needs to be done on this.
Excellent over-views of this literature can be found in Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate (an attack on that notion), Matt Ridley also covers this in his book Genome. These books will point you to primary research on this material.

[FOXYLADY]

BLACK MINISTERS OR WHITE MINISTERS...THEY ARE HUMAN BEINGS AND SUBJECT TO THE SAME PRESSURES AND TEMPTATIONS AS ANY HUMAN BEING. SOME OF BOTH ARE BULL SH*^TERS AND HYPOCRITES AND SOME ARE HONEST, HUMANE AND SINCERELY RELIGIOUS LEADERS..MUCH GOES ON BEHIND THE CURTAINS IN ALL OF HUMAN BEINGS HOMES. SOOOO, LET IT GO

[FOXYLADY]

TWOSHORT.......OPEN YOUR EYES - THERE ARE AS MANY BLACK HOMOSEXUALS AS WHITE PERCENTAGE WISE. AGAIN, SOME OF YOUR ILK KEEP BRINGING UP THIS "RACE THINGO" YOURSELVES EVERY SINGLE DAY OF EVERY YEAR... FOR GODS SAKE, PULL UP YOUR BOOTS AND GIVE THE BRAIN GOD GAVE YOU SOMETHING HARD TO WORK ON AND PERHAPS THERE WILL BE NO REASON FOR "YOUR PREJUDICE"

[MaxD]

Foxylady,
The problem with religious leaders is the word religious. And that they are that very thing.

[TWOSHORT]

In the Bible the serpent speak of lust and sex.Black Folk take the good book as gospel we aren't muslim don't care that White Folk have gay kids.We Black Folk who love God just don't want GAY kids!Walking down any street in America Men and Women travel how do i know who's gay?The ones who show us all they are.[LUST and SEX]being cramed down Black Folks Thoats if we don't get in line with the DEVIL.

[MaxD]

Doesn't it bother any of you believers that the bible posits the following rather grand assertion.
All human misery has been caused by the fact that one women fell for a few lines from a talking snake.
A talking snake.
There is also a talking incidiary bit of burning shrubbery.
Doen't that sound just the tiniest bit silly when put baldly?

[Qbear]

Black gays/lesbians are sons and daughters of everyone in the Civil Rights movement. You act as if they aren't BLACK, because they are queer.....shame on you!

[Grit]

Race dosen't seem to matter when it comes to bigotry, and hate.

[JusticiaParaTodos]

The "Christianity" I was taught as a boy was that Yahweh (Jehovah) was a loving god and that only he was entitled to judge and condemn!

The way some of these ministers act, one would think that they themselves do not sin. Or better yet the "sins" of homosexuals are greater than that of major corporations that exploit, plunder and even kill people for the sake of making profits!

While I do not espouse the gay way of life, I believe that these folks are our sisters and brothers and that LOVE is what our Lord would want us to show them, not hatred, prejudice or judgement!

[JerzGirl226]

Mintolbert you really disgust me. Being gay is not a choice. Gays don"t have any more of a choice than you or I. MLK may have not mentioned "gay rights" in his speeches but he never condemned them either. It"s really funny how you neglect to mention that. As a matter of fact, his wife Coretta was a big supporter of gay rights. How do you explain the fact that two of biggest Civil Rights figures ever did not spew out anti-gay rhetoric every chance they got? Just confess, this is about your hatred of gays and that it has nothing to do with the bible. Do you really think that you are getting into heaven with that attittude? I think not.

[MaxD]

Sadly,
The Black Conservative Christians are on the "right side" of this theological argument. So why wouldn't they protest the protection of abominable sin? Eternity is on the line isn't it? Just as slave holders in America were on the right side of that theological argument. It is an age old problem religious liberals have always faced. That is finding a theological argument that supports more progressive ideals.
Homosexuality is a terrible sin in the monotheistic traditions. Abomination.
Maybe its time to stop justifying our actions by the strange religious laws of un-sophisticated desert tribes who believed in talking snakes and bushes.

[Qbear]

Black evangelicals under deals with Ken Mehlman and Cheney/Bush GUTTED 1/3rd of Ryan White AIDS funds,,,for "faith-based" programs with ZERO medical or pandemic qualifications. These nonsense programs FAILED in 85% of Senior High School girls who made abstinence pledges.
HOW MANY young women became HIV+ because of the astondingly stupid buy off? How do these evangelicals go face these mostly Black and Latina women knowing their folly cost them their health for the rest of their lives?

[Qbear]

What is especially offensive is we have States (for DECADE)S which include sexual orientation under their hate crimes laws, and NO Church, and NO Minister has been silenced or litigated against because they hate gays/lesbians. So how do these "evangelicals" get away with these LIES?

[plutorage]

(Black) Christian Ministers to gays: Gays getting beat up is less important than (Black) Ministers giving their opinion on morality and making sure everybody thinks like they do

Sounds like Iranian government policy. maybe (Black) Christian Ministers would be happier living in wonderful downtown Tehran - no gays, enjoy.

[Giordano Bruno]

Actually, very much like in Iran, there is a myth among many African Americans that homosexuality is a white American problem. Even so, it is very disappointing that the African American community has failed to embrace the homosexual community and support each other's desire for full civil liberties.
There are many gay people who did as much for them. Not that it's all about reciprocity. Jesus never said anything against homosexuals. In fact he defended a prostitute. Seems as though they are more impressed with the Old Testament than the New Testament theology. Even here in Northern California there is a lot of African American homophobia. What is sad is that it also tends to minimize the legal gains of both communities.

Giordano

[AlwaysAmused]

Hate crimes laws are inherantly anti-american and anti-chrsitian. Period. Noone should support such legislation, ever. WHat hapepened to Matthew Shepard was horrible, the crime itself is enough reason to punish the perpetrators, their motive is irrelevant.

As to the Jena 6, why they haven't been carged wiht a "hate crime"?

Answer, because they are black. Hate crimes laws are nothing more than an very thinly veiled attempt to make some americans more equal int he eyes of the law than others. Repeal all hate crimes laws.

[Qbear]

WRONG

There are specific crimes where the victim is specificly HUNTED, and where the hatred fuels a level of brutality white straight males will NEVER KNOW. When was a straight kicked to death by 5 of his fellow sailors until his body was described as SO damaged, it equaled a hoorible car accident?
Alan Schindler's mothers KNOWS.

[Qbear]

horrible (typo)

[AlwaysAmused]

Never Know?
Are you really that naive?
Perhaps your unaware of the racism against whites in predominantly black communities? Or the fact that white males often beat the shit out of other straight white males, including ganging upo on them in the same matter over such issues as sports teams, music, women? If you honestly think that straight white maes are never brutalised your far far less intelligent than even I thought. Ever wonder what happens to a white guy in prison? Or how many such crimes are racially motivated?

More to the point, if a victim was hunted whether its becasue he was gay, or black, or rich, is irrelevant. Whats important is that he was intentionally singled out and victimised. WHy doesn't matter. What makes a gay man being killed for being gay more important than a man being killed for his wallet?
I dont care why they caused that much dmagae, and neither should the law, the important thing is WHAT they did not why.

[CalvinistHobbesian]

Motive and intent are legitimate factors in many current laws. The difference between assault, manslaughter and attempted murder boils down to intent and motive.
Spray-painting "Go Wildcats" on your neighbor's garage door is vandalism and cheering on a sports team. Spray-painting "die juden" is vandalism, and intended to terrorize a whole community, a specific class of people. By your argument, the same crime, but I feel deserving of different punishment.