The reader response continues
AIDS and gossip
As a person who has grown up in the black church music world in St. Louis, I believe my view has a lot of merit. I am living with AIDS, and I am black woman. A lot of good brothers have died from this disease who were a part of the music ministry. Instead of the church ministering compassion and mercy, we gossiped. “I bet they have AIDS,” or “I knew he was gay.” Never taking into consideration that the man was someone’s son, brother, uncle, and maybe even father.
Hopefully this controversy will cause African Americans to realize that this disease is killing us. And it is because of ridicule and judgement that people who are infected don’t tell. Many would rather suffer in silence and die a premature death. We in the church are so foolish to think that it only happens to the gay population. The fasting growing population is adolescents and African-American women.
Sheila Jackson
Submitted via email
Not Adam and Steve
God created Adam and Eve to be mates, not Adam and Steve. Homosexuality is a sin. Those of us in leadership positions are held at a higher standard and should live accordingly. Having a homosexual as a choir director is not a good example of what a good, Godly leader should be.
Reggie Williams
St. Louis
Don’t blame the preacher
The person who is most responsible for the spread of AIDS and the death of too many African Americans, male and female, are those African Americans, gay or straight, who refuse to protect themselves during sexual intercourse. It is the fault of those brothers who choose to live their lives on the down low because they are not man enough to accept who they are in the public eye and live with it. The church and ministers do not make those life-altering decisions for us.
What matters in the end is your relationship with God and how you live your life. In the last days, we all have to answer for our sins and wrongdoing; blaming it on the preacher won’t secure your seat in heaven.
It saddens me as well that anyone would choose to side with any belief that crucifies anyone for their personal life choices, but that is the world we live in. We have a hard time loving one another as African-American brothers and sisters, so of course we are going to have a hard time loving one another as GLBT brothers and sisters.
Aisha Taylor
St. Louis
Wink and sin
I remember back in the ‘60s, the church “winked” at those who identified themselves as GLBT. That was wrong. The church should have told those people the truth in love. The most loving thing you can do is tell a person the truth. At the end of this age, the Lord will not “wink” at sin, he will judge it.
Shirley McFarland
Submitted via email
Gay by the book
The book that shows what should be normative regarding homosexuality in the Roman Catholic Church is Father Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick’s Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church. It says: “Homosexuality is a variant of human sexuality for at least ten percent of the population. A positive and affirming lesbian/gay theology or spirituality rejects the notion that a homosexual orientation is abnormal, sick, sinful or criminal. The experience of being lesbian or gay confirms that a homosexual orientation is not contrary to nature but part of God’s plan for creation and essential for developing the human family. Without the presence of lesbian and gay people in the world, reality would be truncated, and humankind unfulfilled. These assertions are based on the testimony of lesbian and gay Christians and the witness of their lives.”
Joseph J. Kuciejczyk
St. Louis