Posts Tagged ‘Race and Religion’
The Courage To Turn Tables
Perhaps like many of you, I’m reeling and trying to wrap my head and heart around the election results. But maybe like fewer of you, I know this isn’t a new day or some new reality. I suspect that the level of violence we’re seeing would’ve happened regardless of the outcome. The sad and sorry…
Read MoreNaomi Christine Leapheart Appointed Task Force’s New Faith Work Director
The National LGBTQ Task Force is pleased to announce the appointment of Naomi Christine Leapheart, MDiv as the organization’s Faith Work Director. “I’m delighted to join the National LGBTQ Task Force as the Faith Work Director. What a joy it is to be able to go to work every day and use my experience and…
Read MoreA Queer Muslim Response To Orlando
A non-religious man with an Arabic name walks into a bar and slaughters 50 people. Under a system of white supremacy, all Muslims are implicated. As queer Muslims, we are demanded to be experts on the internal workings of a man whom we have never met, and on what it means for queerness, when all…
Read MoreA Religious Utopia Turned Nightmare
The last time an African American lesbian was the protagonist in a novel was in Ann Allen Shockley’s 1982, “Say Jesus and Come to Me.” What shocked and awed readers about this main character is that she is also an itinerant minister. While crusading against street vice in Nashville the Reverend Myrtle Black meets world-famous…
Read MoreLGBTQ Mental Health Care In The Black Church
Back in the day, Girlfriends was one of my favorite sitcoms to watch. To see the interactions between strong Black women on television that mirrored what I was exposed to in my family always left me joyful and anxious to watch the next episode. The cast of the show was Joan, Lynn, Mya, William and…
Read MoreWhen Expanding Our Table Isn’t Enough
As people who believe that Christianity has room for the LGBTQ community, we can be zealous about our efforts to win people to our side. We want people to understand that God truly does love everyone, that the Bible isn’t just a queer bashing book, and that people don’t have to throw away their faith…
Read MoreFor God Is Love
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8 Do we really believe that scripture? I believe this verse would serve us well to consider in its literal…
Read MoreA Reflection On The Recent Shootings In Charleston
As a pastor of a prominently African American Church, the recent shootings that took place in Mother Emanuel, the oldest African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in the South, continue to remind us that racism is alive, screaming and kicking. According to a survivor, the shooter said, “You rape our women and are taking over our…
Read MoreLifting Up Prayers For The Black Community Following Charleston Massacre
Late on Wednesday evening a white gunman fatally shot nine black people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina before fleeing the scene and evading local police. Anti-black violence in places of worship is nothing new. The most infamous of these attacks was the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist…
Read MoreSaying “Yes” To Life
Etched in my memory on a daily basis these days are the Black men who have been killed over the last several months by people whose task it was to protect and serve them. As a black, queer trans-identified male, who is also aware of the violence too often inflicted upon queer and Trans bodies…
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