The Black Church’s teaching that homosexuality is immoral has created a crisis for lesbian and gay Christians in black churches. This book provides a historical overview and critical analysis of the black church and its current engagement with lesbian and gay Christians. It is an engagement I characterize as oppressive and duplicitous. For though black church leaders once refused to accept white church leaders’ use of the Bible to justify oppressing them during the periods of slavery and segregation, presently many use the Bible in a similar fashion to justify oppressing lesbians and gays. African American lesbians and gays are generally born into black churches and as a consequence of this existence endure pain while their humanity, sexuality, and love relationships are denigrated. Such preaching and teaching create psychological and theological problems for lesbians and gays in black churches, and for their heterosexual friends, family members, and fellow congregants. As a counterpoint to these negative teachings, I offer new approaches to understanding scripture and homosexuality through pastoral theology and black Christian liberation theology.
Excerpt from the preface, by the author Horace L. Griffin.
Great for:
Leaders and laypersons within the black church who hold a particular, negative stance toward homosexuality, especially within their own churches. The author looks at the issue from a liberation standpoint, which is one many African Americans used during the fight for civil rights.