Conditional Freedom

As a man of faith, it has always bothered me that religion is generally seen as anti-gay.  This further plays into the Republicans' strategy of polarizing America; if religion is anti-gay, then gays will become anti-religion.  I've seen plenty of anti-religion posters at anti-Prop 8 rallies and it saddens me.  That's why this speech resonates for me.

Edit: Here is a link to Bishop Flunder's church.

In 1693 there was a dilemma facing the Christian slave holding South.  The slaveholders felt duty bound to share Christianity with their servants but they were deeply afraid that the liberating nature of the Gospel might cause the slaves to think independently and thus seek to be equal.  In Charleston the slaveholder Charles Cotesworth Pinkney was quoted as saying, "We look upon the habit of Negro preaching as a wide spreading evil; not because a black man cannot be a good one, but because they acquire an influence independent of their owner and are not subject to his control... when they have processed this power they are known to make improper use of it."  A plan was devised to carefullly limit the participation of the slaves in receiving and propagating the Gospel.  A set of promises had to be made by the slaves from a document called Rules for the Christian Society of Negroes to govern how they could worship and they were taught from an accompanying catechism called The Negro Christianized, an Essay to Excite and Assist that Good Work, The Instruction of Negroes in Christianity which biblically defended slavery and suggested that even water baptism and eternal life would not deliver the Negro from his God given appointed curse of servanthood.  A Quote from the rules of worship:

We will as we have opportunity to set ourselves to do all the good we can to the other Negroes in the town, and if any of them should at unfit hours be abroad and much ore if any of them should run away from their Master we will afford them no shelter but we will do what we can that they may be discovered and punished and if any of us are found faulty in this matter they shall no longer be of us.

This is Conditional Christianity - you can be a Christian, but under certain conditions - be quiet, stay in the music department, don't disclose, don't be seen with the same person too often.

Don't ask, don't tell is the common term for the policy about homosexuality in the US military mandated by federal law.  The policy prohibits anyone who "demonstrates a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because "it would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability."  The act prohibits any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing his or her sexual orientation or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces.  The "don't ask" part of the policy indicates that superiors should not initiate investigation of a service member's orientation in the absence of disallowed behaviors, though mere suspicion of homosexual behavior can cause an investigation.  Sexual orientation will not be a bar to service unless manifested by homosexual conduct.  The military will discharge members who engage in homosexual conduct, which is defined as a homosexual act, a statement that the member is homosexual or bisexual, or a marriage or attempted marriage to someone of the same gender.

"Don't ask, don't tell" has come to describe any instance in which one person must keep sexual orientation and any related attributes, including family, a secret, but where deliberate lying would be undesirable.  They can die, be wounded for life, serve in the world's most hostile environments, be torn from family for inordinate periods of time, but they cannot be found to be homosexual.

This is conditional military service; it is unjust and it is wrong.

If a people were allowed to withhold the civil and inalienable rights of a minority group, and re-enforce their privilege by a simple majority vote, then African Americans would still be under the then popular bondage of chattel slavery and indentured servitude.  As an African American woman, who has not forgotten that less than 50 years ago in the Jim Crow South, African American citizens were denied most of their civil and human rights, I know unequivocally that equal rights guaranteed to every citizen by the Constitution of the United States, and given by God, must not be subject to the will of the majority.  One person who spoke out against the iwll of the unjust majority was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and he also suffered for it.

All of the movements to secure equal rights for people of African desent are deeply rooted in faith.  Our leaders--Marting Luther King Jr., Shirly Chisolm, Demond Tutu, Fannie Lou Hamer, Jesse Jackson, and President Barack Obama were and are part of the Black church and their political positions are informed by a "God inspired" theology of Justice for All.  This is the same theology that informs me as a same gender loving AA pastor and it must undergird the position of the SCLC and any decision that provides majority privilege and power for some instead of justice for all.  In the words of the Mother of the African American Civil Rights movement, Coretta Scott King:

Gay and Lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection. . . . banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing at it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.

Some have said, "Why not just settle for unions"--a step-down model of marriage--it is better than nothing, but that is conditional marriage.

Conditional freedoms or partial liberty is something thta oppressed people settle for.  When we accept a sense of second-class citizenship we become satisfied when we are able to get the crumbs from the table.  We need to move this country, our churches, and our families beyond handing out conditional freedoms by demanding our unconditional and inalienable rights.

Dr. Martin Luther King said this:

The hour has come for everybody, for all institutions of the public sector and the private sector to work to get rid of racism.  And now if we are to do it we must honestly admit certain things and get rid of certain myths that have constantly been disseminated all over our nation.  One is the myth of time.  It is the notion that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice.  And there are those who often sincerely say to the Negro and his allies in the white community, "Why don't you slow up?  Stop pushing things so fast.  Only time can solve the problem.  And if you will just be nice and patient and continue to pray, in a hundred or two hundred years the problem will work itself out."  There is an answer to thta myth.  It is that time is neutral.  It can be used either constructively or destructively.  And I am sorry to say this morning that I am absolutely convinced that the forces of ill will in our nation, the extreme rightists of our nation--the people on the wrong side--have used time much more effectively than the forces of good will."

We are losing our homes and jobs too

We are without medical insurance too

We are struggling to take care of our children too

We are seeking sanity and peace in our relationships and marriages too

We seek love, worship and serve God too, and the time has come for us to settle for nothing less than complete equal rights and freedoms in the country that we helped build, defend, and maintain.

Edit: Here is a link to Bishop Flunder's church.