How Badly Does Obama Need South Carolina?

In June 2006, I took Mr. Obama to task for lecturing Democrats like me about faith. It seems he’s the one who really could use a lecture.

John
Aravosis of Americablog brought this to everyone’s attention this morning.
It’s incomprehensible. Obama has decided anti gay bigots are welcome, as long as they help him in South Carolina.

As religious conservatives gather in Washington this weekend for the “Values Voters Summit,” Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced its latest effort to attract people of faith to the campaign: a gospel concert tour. All three of the dates of the “Embrace the Change” tour are in South Carolina, where Mr. Obama is locked in battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for black voters. Gospel acts including Mary Mary, Donnie McClurkin and Hezekiah Walker, Byron Cage and the Mighty Clouds of Joy are scheduled to appear. “This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom about how politics is done and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level,” Joshua DuBois, the campaign’s religious affairs director, said in a release. “This concert tour is going to bring new people into the political process and engage people of faith in an unprecedented way.” Obama’s Gospel Tour (h/t Americablog)

Well, I agree on one thing, it certainly is unprecedented for a Democrat to
share the stage with a virulently
anti gay bigot like Donnie McClurkin.

Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who has detailed his struggle with gay tendencies and vowed to battle “the curse of homosexuality,” said yesterday he’ll perform as scheduled at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, despite controversy over his view that sexuality can be changed by religious intervention.

Ah yes, God can save you from your, ahem, gayness. Hallelujah! Do
I hear an AMEN?

“I’ve been through this and have experienced God’s power to change my lifestyle. … .. “I am delivered and I know God can deliver others, too.” – Donnie McClurkin

The disgusting views of McClurkin are only a small part of this issue for me.
Having Barack Obama invite him in on a South Carolina tour is the same as embracing
McClurkin’s dangerously bigoted view of homosexuality, all based on the fact
that he was molested as a child and now — praise the Lord! — is “cured.”
Right. But that the most visible black leader today is embracing McClurkin in
order to win a state is not only disgusting but dangerous. Homosexuals have in the past been ignored in the black, religious section of the African
American community, with devastating consequences. The Village Voice, as well as The New York
Times, have covered this issue, which many have never considered.

Many black AIDS activists lay much of the blame for the crisis at the steps of the black church, long a cornerstone of the community, which some contend waited too long to flex its muscle on the AIDS issue. “Churches were feeling a tension between abstinence and prevention; they would say things like ‘We ain’t got any gay folk in our church,’ ” recalls Reverend James Booker, an AIDS outreach coordinator with HCCI and a pastor himself at Allen Temple A.M.E. in Mount Vernon, New York. “But now the choir members, deacons, and ministries are getting sick, and they don’t necessarily fall into the stereotype.” The Tuskegee Effect For Blacks, a 28-Year-Old Study Is One of Many Barriers to HIV Prevention

Now imagine the stigma in South Carolina. People like McClurkin promote this discrimination. “People of faith” do not include gay bigots who think homosexuals can be “cured.” They’re simply religious “Christianists” whose prejudice is discriminating against a whole group of people. (Can’t wait to hear Andrew Sullivan on this one, since he’s a real Obama fan.)

The above article was written in 2000, what seems like a lifetime ago. It’s
focused on New York City. However, people like McClurkin and his ignorant ilk
forward these dangerous notions to the masses in their You Can Be Cured
religious messages, which no one should endorse, promote or accept.

Barack Obama’s cozying up to McClurkin in South Carolina is as craven as politics
gets. There is nothing “Christian” about McClurkin’s views of gays
or Mr. Obama’s willingness to be associated with McClurkin. These types of “religious”
people are why individuals like me, a wayward Christian because so much bigotry
abounds, have been driven to practicing faith and spirituality in different
ways beyond the traditional. I’ll meditate for these men tomorrow morning, both of whom are most certainly lost.

In the end, maybe Mr. Obama will change his mind and exclude McClurkin from his South Carolina
stump spree, however, a powerful message has been sent and received. No doubt it’s being received in South Carolina, too. Unfortunately, cozying up to a popular gospel bigot just might do Obama some good. It got Mr. Bush elected.