Having finally settled what to do with the estate of her father, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, is free to get on with her life. Namely, to become head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the decades-old civil rights organization that her father once led. Late last week. Ms. King became SCLC’s new president, following in the footsteps of older brother Martin Luther King III. And it’s got plenty of folks wondering: After leading the fight with desegregation in Birmingham and spearheading the Selma to Montgomery 1960s marches, will the conservative SCLC join the gay civil rights fight?
The SCLC is in a state of demise, and its relevance being questioned on all sides. Whether Martin III was took over, he was immediately accused of inaction, and effectively forced out after a multi-year battle with SCLC members. His replacement, Fred Shuttlesworth, lasted less than a year. And now Charles Steele, Jr., the org’s president since 2004, will step aside for Bernice, SCLC’s first lady leader.
She’ll also be SCLC’s very public homophobe. As The Daily Voice‘s Earl Ofari Hutchinson reminds us, “in December 2004 … she and thousands of marchers stood at the gravesite of her father, Martin Luther King, Jr., and denounced gay marriage. The implication was that King might well have stood with her and them in their protest against gay rights.” An evangelical minister, it’s not terribly surprising to hear about Bernice’s proud bigotry.
It is surprising, however, to see the daughter of a civil rights legend, and one who worked alongside gays, take such a hateful stance on another class of people facing discrimination. With a brand new job inside a struggling organization, what better way to maintain relevance, and a mission statement, then acknowledge you’ve been wrong Bernice, and start fighting for the rights of your LGBT brothers and sisters? The NAACP refuses to join the same-sex marriage cause. And while we’d be shocked if you did denounce your own divisiveness, we’d gladly welcome you into the fold.
How about we take this to the next level?
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terrwill
She is a vile witch who basically spits on the memory of her Father’s legacy every time she opens her vile mouth to spew the homophobic poo out of it. How any Black person especially the kin of one of the Blacks most prominent civil rights leader can be against Gays fighting for the exact same thing the Blacks were fighting for 40 years ago is disgusting. Her Father must be spinning in his grave that this witch has taken up the cause of the rightwing-nutbags who would love nothing better than to go back to the days where “blacks knew their place”………..
hyhybt
I wonder how she and her mother got along?
Kropotkin
Probably a desperate attempt to move into 21st Century Civil Rights activism, you know, the kind that doesn’t involve hating us. I doubt it’s genuine, it’s all window-dressing.
Bertie
I second that – she is one vile human being. A disgrace to the family name.
1EqualityUSA
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1EqualityUSA
Peter J. Gomes Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University;Minister, American Baptist Church
Opposition to gays’ civil rights has become one of the most visible symbols of American civic conflict this year (1992), and religion has become the weapon of choice. The army of the discontented, eager for clear villains and simple solutions and ready for a crusade in which political self-interest and social anxiety can be cloaked in morality, has found hatred of homosexuality to be the last respectable prejudice of the century. Ballot initiatives in Oregon and Maine would deny homosexuals the protection of civil rights laws. The Pentagon has steadfastly refused to allow gays into the armed forces. Vice President Dan Quayle is crusading for “traditional family values.” And Pat Buchanan, who is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention this evening, regards homosexuality as a litmus test of moral purity.Nothing has illuminated this crusade more effectively than a work of fiction, “The Drowning of Stephen Jones,” by Bette Greene. Preparing for her novel, Ms. Greene interviewed more than 400 young men incarcerated for gay-bashing, and scrutinized their case studies. In an interview published in The Boston Globe this spring, she said she found that the gay-bashers generally saw nothing wrong in what they did, and, more often than not, said their religious leaders and traditions sanctioned their behavior. One convicted teen-age gay-basher told her that the pastor of his church had said, “Homosexuals represent the devil. Satan,” and that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had echoed that charge. Christians opposed to political and social equality for homosexuals nearly always appeal to the moral injunctions of the Bible, claiming that Scripture, is very clear on the matter and citing verses that support their opinion. They accuse others of perverting end distorting texts contrary to their “clear” meaning. They do not, however, necessarily see quite as clear a meaning to biblical passages on economic conduct, the burdens of wealth and the sin of greed. Nine biblical citations are customarily invoked as relating to homosexuality. Four (Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, I Kings 22:46 and II Kings 23:7) simply forbid prostitution by men and women. Two others (Leviticus 18:19-23 and Leviticus 20:10-16) are part of what biblical scholars call the Holiness Code. The code explicitly bans homosexual acts. But it also prohibits eating raw meat, planting two different kinds of seed in the same field and wearing garments with two different kinds of yarn. Tattoos, adultery and sexual intercourse during a woman’s menstrual period are similarly outlawed. There is no mention of homosexuality in the four Gospels of the New Testament. The moral teachings of Jesus are not concerned with the subject. Three references from St. Paul are frequently cited (Romans 1:26-2:1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and I Timothy 1:10). But St. Paul was concerned with homosexuality only because in Greco-Roman culture it represented a secular sensuality that was contrary to his Jewish- Christian spiritual idealism. He was against lust and sensuality in anyone, including heterosexuals. To say that homosexuality is bad because homosexuals are tempted to do morally doubtful things is to say that heterosexuality is bad because heterosexuals are likewise tempted. For St. Paul, anyone who puts his or her interest ahead of God’s is condemned, a verdict that falls equally upon everyone.
And lest we forget Sodom and Gomorrah, recall that the story is not about sexual perversion and homosexual practice. It is about inhospitality, according to Luke 10:10-13, and failure to care for the poor, according to Ezekiel 16:19·50: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” To suggest that Sodom and Gomorrah is about homosexual sex is an analysts of about as much worth as suggesting that the story of Jonah and the whale is a treatise on fishing. Part of the problem is a question of interpretation. Fundamentalists and literalists, the storm troopers of the religious right, are terrified that Scripture, wrongly interpreted, may separate them from their values. That fear stems from their own recognition that their “values” are not derived from Scripture, as they publicly claim. Indeed, it is through the lens of their own prejudices and personal values that they “read” Scripture and cloak their own views in its authority. We all interpret Scripture: Make no mistake. And no one truly is a literalist, despite the pious temptation. The questions are, By what principle of interpretation do we proceed, and by what means do we reconcile “what it meant then” to what it means now?” These matters are far too important to be left to scholars and seminarians alone. Our ability to judge ourselves and others rests on our ability to interpret scripture intelligently. The right use of the Bible, an exercise as old as the church itself, means that we confront our prejudices rather than merely confirm them. For Christians, the principle by which Scripture is read is nothing less than an appreciation of the work and will of God as revealed in that of Jesus. To recover a liberating and inclusive Christ is to be freed from the semantic bondage that makes us curators of a dead culture rather than creatures of a new creation. Religious fundamentalism is dangerous because it cannot accept ambiguity and diversity and is therefore inherently intolerant. Such intolerance, in the name of virtue, is ruthless and uses political power to destroy what it cannot convert. It is dangerous, especially in America, because it is anti-democratic and is suspicious of “the other,” in whatever form that “other” might appear. To maintain itself, fundamentalism must always define “the other” as deviant. But the chief reason that fundamentalism is dangerous is that, at the hands of the Rev. Pat Robertson. the Rev. Jerry Falwell and hundreds of lesser-known but equally worrisome clerics, preachers and pundits, it uses Scripture and the Christian practice to encourage ordinarily good people to act upon their fears rather than their virtues.
Fortunately, those who speak for the religious right do not speak for all American Christians, and the Bible is not theirs alone to interpret. The same Bible that the advocates of slavery used to protect their wicked self-interests is the Bible that inspired slaves to revolt and their liberators to action. The same Bible that the predecessors of Mr. Falwell and Mr. Robertson used to keep white churches white is the source of the inspiration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the social reformation of the 1960’s. The same Bible that anti-feminists use to keep women silent in the churches is the Bible that preaches liberation to captives and says that in Christ there is neither male nor female, slave nor free. And the same Bible that on the basis of an archaic social code of ancient Israel and a tortured reading of Paul is used to condemn all homosexuals and homosexual behavior includes metaphors of redemption, renewal, inclusion and love – principles that invite homosexuals to accept their freedom and responsibility in Christ and demands that their fellow Christians accept them as well. The political piety of the fundamentalist religious right must not be exercised at the expense of our precious freedoms. And in this summer of our discontent, one of the most precious freedoms for which we must all fight is freedom from this last prejudice.
Peter J. Gomes Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University;Minister, American Baptist Church
Sexy Rexy
It’s ironic, since MLK was actually supportive of the late Bayard Rustin, who played a major role in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. MLK’s handlers disliked Rustin because he was gay, but King had no real issue with it. And IIRC, before she died, Coretta Scott King had positive things to say about gays. So this is a shock to see and hear Bernice trash-talking like this.
And wasn’t Yolanda a lesbian?
Love3284ever
There is nothing in this world that Bernice King can do to make me stop loving her. Bernice is one of the most beautiful, kind, sensitive, thoughtful, intelligent, loyal and courageous women I have ever met! I am a woman and I have loved her since I looked into her big, beautiful dark brown eyes June 10, 2008 at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. We were both members at that time and I was in a very dark place emotionally when I met her. Unfortunately for me, Bernice is not a lesbian so after years of holding out hope that she could ever love me the way I loved her, I had to finally accept the truth and move on with my life. I do honestly believe in another time, in another place, in a perfect world, if she had been truly available and a lesbian we could have had that “special relationship.” Bernice King will ALWAYS be, “Heaven Sent” and “So Beautiful” to me, no matter what! If I ever held a special place in her heart at all, I would pray she would completely “open her heart to all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people and admit that she has evolved in her understanding of same gender relationships. If Bernice were able to “renounce her previous anti-gay stance”, maybe a part of me could finally have some peace knowing that under different life circumstances, we could have been happy together. Unrequited love is a painfully heartbreaking experience.