I am old enough to remember drinking at the colored only water fountain in Ruleville, Mississippi, my mom's hometown when I was five years old in 1964. My mom grew up in Sunflower county, a place that gave birth to activist Fannie Lou Hamer, and a little boy named Emmett Till who was lynched at 14 for looking at a white woman too long.
I am not old enough to remember but I hold in my body the memories of my parents, who had to walk past the town high school to go to the colored high school on the other side of town. They could not be served food at the soda fountain, could not sit on the main floor at the movie theater. To vote was to take their lives in their own hands. My parents came of age in a place rich with the smells of magnolias, sweltering with the heat of the Mississippi Sun, and dripping with racism like the sweat from bodies picking cotton.
Now my parents have lived long enough to see an African American president elected.
My parents and I can testify that change does come. It often comes slowly, with the dedication of individuals, faith communities, and coalitions, but justice does come.
Four students in North Carolina made a small ripple when they sat at a Woolworth lunch counter, peaceably waiting to be served. The next day they took friends; soon there were 27. The sit-ins moved like waves, from state to state, dismantling segregation in the Deep South. Justice moved from state to state, crossing borders like the Freedom Riders on buses, causing a chain reaction all the way to Washington D.C., when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill in 1967.
As an African American clergywoman, I also see gay rights as a civil rights issue. This summer, I will marry my congregants, Alex and Jeremy, just as I have other gay couples in the past. I look forward to the date our new law goes into effect, when these weddings will not only be seen in the eyes of God and the couples' family but will also be legal in our state.
There has been a lot of attention given to religious leaders who want to block the rights of gays and lesbians to marry. But there is not just one Christian voice. I serve a multiracial, multicultural church in New York City's East Village. At Middle Collegiate Church, we believe God made all of us perfectly. God made gay people gay. And we believe that God smiles on love. Jesus himself summarized his teachings this way: love God with all you have and love your neighbor as yourself. Christians have been on the side of ending slavery, of ensuring women and African Americans the right to vote, of working for economic justice, and advocating for the welfare of children.
We've been singing songs from the civil rights movement this June in New York -- "We Shall Overcome," "This Little Light of Mine" -- from our sanctuary to City Hall. We have been singing, "I'm gonna sit at the welcome table, sit at the welcome table one of these days." And we have stood silently outside the Senate Chambers in Albany so our legislators are reminded that people of faith support this issue.
The march for marriage equality continues on in most of our states. To find out how you can become involved in your state, visit Freedom to Marry's state directory of advocacy groups: here. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." As each of us joins this movement, it is my hope that one of these days, all of God's people, no matter whom they love will be welcome at the table of grace and love. I could not have imagined when I was a little girl all the change my parents and I would see in my lifetime. I believe Sam Cooke's ballad has become a prophecy; it has been a long time coming, but a change is going to come.
New York governor signs law approving gay marriage - Yahoo! News
Same-sex marriage in New York - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Associated Press: NY Gov. Cuomo the new face of gay marriage ...
New York 6th state to legalize gay marriage
A Sense of Euphoria Settles on the West Village
It's nice to hear something that isn't HATEFUL from a clergyperson.
NOW STEP UP THE PROGRESS.
I DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME LEFT!
And you're telling me that their followers do not follow suit ?? lol
And BTW, that is some h8ful god you follow.
By the way the early Christians shared everything in common. Did that make them socialistic? I do not see what socialism has to do with gay rights. Socialism has to with how a society organizes production and services. Gay rights is about individuals that may seem different than most others.
Literal interpretation of the translated Bible is the root of the problem. Some clergy do not have foundation in the languages of the Bible. Further all interpretations are not the same. Read the Sermon on the Mount and the Good Samaritan and then ask what would Christ expect us to do.
Take a look. Do you see a connection?
http://hennessyhistory.wikispaces.com/The+Emmett+Till+Case-1
Sexuality in all its forms is an innate desire - it cannot be learned any more than one can learn to have blue eyes or brown hair. Go research it online, science is proving more and more each day that sexuality is encoded into who we are from as far back as in the womb.
Also, please explain how allowing gay people to marry is harmful to children and families. Exactly how does it damage either? The definition of "family" is changing because society is waking up to the realisation that we as LGBTQ people are not:
A) mentally ill
B) recruiters to our cause
C) going away!
Every bit of reliable scientific evidence we now have points to the fact that homosexuality is a fact of biology, innate and unchangeable, and not something that is taught or learned. Denying the evidence that has been clearly and repeatedly presented is not an act of faith; it is not even an act of ignorance; it is stupidity and bigotry.
Nor is there any evidence that homosexuality is in any way detrimental to society. Homophobia certainly is detrimental to society, just as any form of bigotry is.
There is no evidence that homosexuality is harmful to children or families. On the other hand, homophobia has torn families apart, and led to the deaths of many young LGTB people. Homophobia stands in opposition of the ability of LGTB people to form loving, stable family units.
As for what MLK, Jr. would have said about gay rights; I believe Corretta Scott King has spoken many times on her late husband's behalf regarding these issues.
I'm thankful you hold on to those memories because a lot of black Americans didn't experience those times and didn't have first-hand experience with it so they overlook it. It wasn't that long ago that I saw it and was shocked. I won't forget it. If we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it.
However, the spiritual leadership does not tend to share the enlightenment of those they oversee, and for a non-church goer like me, those are the voices I hear.
To me it seems the flip-side of 'diversity' is realizing we are all far more similar than different. Understanding and respecting our differences is key to being able to have respectful dialogue and disagreement about opinions/feelings.
Those of us who choose to support civil rights for all are also choosing to out-flank people in our society who try (with alarming success) to use our ignorance/fears/hates to achieve power over us. Those folks work hard to keep us at each others' throats.
How? We're bribed with sanctioned, even sacrosanct permission to abandon ourselves to the opiate of subjugating others for our own gratification. This allows us the illusion that we are not just powerful, we are safe from being subjugated ourselves.
People accepting flimsy, common-sense defying rationalizations should step back and ask themselves "how is believing this helping ME? What is the motivation of my political representative/favorite pundit, clergy, role model in getting me to buy this hogwash?"
They get your vote, tithe, public support, campaign donation, or loyalty. They get what they need to feel safe and powerful... at YOUR expense.
This dynamic knows no bounds: race, religion, creed, sexual orientation, sex and any other exploitable, relatively superficial demographic difference that might inspire even an inkling of fear.
My hope is that fewer of us give in to that temptation. This is change we can make.
Excellent point.
How, exactly, are gays tearing down straight lifestyles? By the way, your statement seems to say that straight is a choice, "lifestyle", really?
Bingo!
When my husband and I married 31 years ago, the Presbyterian minister who married us believed everyone was entitled to marry under the eyes of God so he also performed weddings for couples of mixed faith who's own clergy wouldn't marry them (the wedding before ours was a Catholic/Jewish couple) but he also performed affirmations for gay couples so he was way ahead of his time (actually Canada was behind the times but we caught up to him in 2005).
The blue haired ladies in the church were only scandalized when he remarried only a year after his wonderful wife passed away from cancer. They managed to have his church removed so he struck out to open a non-denominational wedding chapel and continued to do what he loved until he retired 3 years ago.
The people I know with the deepest faith are the most accepting and loving.