The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership by Al Sharpton Read Free Book Online Page A

who knew me and were familiar with my thinking had watched me evolve over the years on the issue. But for others, having a Baptist preacher publicly announce support for gay marriage was certainly unexpected, and it was a big deal.
    Although my announcement might have created some buzz in gay circles, it certainly wasn’t of much political benefit to me. I wasn’t running for the gay vote; I had much more to lose in my own base, which was African-Americans, than I had to gain by picking up political support from gays. It was the same calculation for President Obama, which made the accusations kind of ridiculous that he did it for political gain. Even in the civil rights community, I was standing out there nearly alone when I made my announcement. Andrew Young, the iconic civil rights leader, Atlanta mayor, and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was one of the few who publicly stood with me on the issue.
    After the announcement, I had prominent ministers, men I’ve known for decades, tell me that they wouldn’t let me preach in their churches if I was going to stand up at the pulpit and take that position. A pastor of a prominent church where I went every year to preach the anniversary program called me after my announcement.
    “Doc, I don’t think I can have you this year,” he said.
    “I understand,” I said.
    “Can’t you moderate your views a little bit?”
    “What do you mean?” I asked him. I wanted to hear him say it.
    “Why don’t you just say you’re with civil unions, not marriage?” he said.
    “Why?”
    “It’s just not moral,” he answered.
    “Moral? So let me get this straight, Reverend. I should say gays can shack up, but they can’t marry? That sounds moral to you? I thought we preached against shacking up, Reverend.”
    Years later, after I got the MSNBC show, I got another call from this reverend, asking if I could come back and preach the anniversary program again.
    “Can you come back, Doc?” he asked.
    “I’d love to,” I said. But I couldn’t let him off that easy. “I want to preach about Steve and Ray getting married.”
    He started laughing. I did wind up preaching his anniversary program that year, and I refrained from preaching about Steve and Ray. But I found the transformation amusing, reminding me of the old expression: Success isthe greatest deodorant. When you get successful, all your stench is gone.
    The hypocrisy of the black church on this issue is absolutely breathtaking to me. As I said before, anyone who has spent more than five minutes in a typical black church knows how huge a presence gays are, particularly in the music ministry. But I’ve never seen a minister get up in the pulpit and say, “I’m not accepting gay tithes. I’m not accepting the offering from any gays.” If you really believe it’s sinful, go back through your church records, and for the church members you know are gay, refund all the money they’ve contributed to the church over the years. If you really think it’s a sin, shut down the choir, and ban anyone who is gay from participating.
    Clearly, that’s never going to happen. So what these ministers are saying is that they will accommodate gays as long as it’s in their best interest to accept them. Let’s just not talk about it. Don’t ask, don’t tell. I’ll continue to take your tithes and offerings, let you run my choir, but I don’t think you have the right to be you. And I won’t marry you. I won’t acknowledge who you are. I won’t even allow you to be married outside the church—and I will denounce those who decide that they will allow it.
    But just keep those tithes coming.
    To me, that’s the height of hypocrisy.
    The history of black thought on homosexuality roughly follows the same evolutionary arc in this country as that of the mainstream community, and as a group, blacks are among the most religious in the United States. So you take this passionatereligious conviction and combine it with the