Living Out Loud with Darian

At the beginning of the month I reported the latest homophobic scandal to occur at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. under the leadership of Bishop Alfred Owens. Three separate e-mails sent by a female choir member attempts to out over 100 gay members of the church.

Bishop Owens first caught national attention for a fiery homophobic sermon he preached during a Palm Sunday service in 2006.

"It takes real men to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior," Owens said in the sermon, which was recorded by the church. "I'm not talking about no faggot or no sissy...Wait a minute! Let all the real men come on down here and take a bow. All the real men-I'm talking about the straight men," he preached. "You ain't funny and you ain't cranky, but you're straight. Come on down here and walk around and praise God that you are straight. Thank him that you're straight. All the straight men that's proud to be a Christian, that's proud to be a man of God." Listen to the audio here.

The Washington Blade along with The National Black Justice Coalition and blogger Pam Spaulding have all written about this unfortunate experience Bishop Owens and some members of his congregation continue to put their gay and lesbian members through.

Sylvia Rhue, director of the National Black Justice Coalition’s religious affairs program and a licensed clinical therapist with a doctorate in human sexuality, said she was troubled but not surprised to hear that a large number of gays continue to join and worship at a church like Greater Mount Calvary.

“We know that many of the gays that go there like the traditional setting of a church like that,” she said. “It tears at your soul. It has the potential of causing depression, drug use and other harmful effects.”

Read my original post here to get the entire story.

Washington Blade

Pam's House Blend