As Seth & Amy would say, "Really, Washington Post? Really, you're going to deliver another puff piece on a hate leader hiding behind faith and 'traditional marriage' without identifying this person as a bigot? Really?" Except that's just the what the newspaper did with a profile of Bishop Harry Jackson, the fearmonger who professes his anti-gay marriage crusade is "not a mission of hate." And no, the newspaper didn't call him on it.
After printing, and then apologizing for a puff piece of "smiling bigot" Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage, the Post today lets Jackson — of the Pentecostal Hope Christian Church, who is spearheading the campaign against gay marriage in D.C. — run his mouth about how gay marriage will ruin America without so much as a counterpoint.
It's not that there's a problem with profiling America's hate leaders; that's fine, and worthy journalism. We like that the Post is telling us about how Jackson, a black man, battled racism in the 60s, attending the white schools in the white neighborhoods — particularly because it sheds light on the same guy who denounces bigotry in race, but applauds it in sexuality.
But when it comes to identifying Jackson for what he is — a bigot — the newspaper falls short. If this man were lashing out against whites, he would be branded a racist. But because his brand of hatred is anti-gay, he gets the "smiling" treatment.
His neck is thick — nearly stretching the clerical collar — and his voice is smooth as molasses.
[...] "I believe that the Bible teaches that same-sex marriage is an oxymoron," he says. "If you redefine marriage, you have to redefine family. You'd have to redefine parenting. I'm looking at the extinction of marriage. And black culture is in a free fall."
With fame came backlash.
Someone slipped a note under his door at his apartment. "Bishop Jackson, 50% of the people in this building are gay!"
"I was in line someplace recently," Jackson says, "and a woman who obviously opposes what I'm doing looked at me and said, 'You better go back to Maryland.' "
His wife says: "We have been verbally abused by the best."
Some of his appearances unleashed vitriol, even threats.
At a Board of Elections hearing in June, some of Jackson's followers gave it back — mini-tirades that seemed cruel and mean-spirited, that Jackson says he regrets.
Jackson allows that his church is hardly a one-note crusade. "In my church we have a gang-prevention group. We're concerned with all those things — social ills. But the reason the gay marriage issue is so polarizing is that, from a theological construct, it is clear that gay marriage shouldn't be the order of the day."
Critics have accused Jackson of being a tool of the right wing, a preacher suddenly in love with the klieg lights and big auditoriums.
Religious conservatives: Always the victims of their own hatred, never willing to accept responsibility for their divisiveness.
So far, we haven't heard from GLAAD on this one. But who needs them? The Post is waving a cheerleading banner around Jackson's head. This isn't objective journalism. This is the promotion of hatred.
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This is such a setback–AGAIN–to justice in this world and helps further discrimination. The Post just never seems to learn.
Write to the Post's ombudsperson. Andrew Alexendar is his name. He's a reasonable guy: ombudsman@washpost.com.
Tell him you're canceling the paper.
This is garbage. Is the Post a mouthpiece for injustice and discrimination now?
It would be unreasonable of the Washington Post to call him a bigot. That would offend many people so suggesting that seems illogical. However, my problem from this article arises with "In his mind, too, there was a convergence of black family life and the clashing of alternative lifestyles." Referring to our lives as "alternative" is very problematic.
Some of the gay people he knew in college were really smart? What an articulate thing to say. Some of the black people I knew in college were real credits to their race.
I think heterosexuality has reached its zenith, only because at some point it's sophistication through socialized behavior would have reduced it to the purest manifestation of itself, which, although not contrary in existence with the sexual continuum, is at least not possible to maintain lest mania and fanaticism develop to maintain its continuance, or dominance. Sex is more fluid than that, I think.
So put that bible down player hater and step out of the game if your knees be broke!
The Washington Post is giving him a pass because he's black. This is how liberals operate. They play one group against the other and then take the side of the group they like best.
Rather than be morally consistent in calling bigotry for what it is, they take sides according to what group you belong to.
This article sounded like it was straight out of a public relations firm. IOt would have been far more interesting fro the writer to get a quote from Bishop Jackson's gay brother, and find out what their relationship is, and what accounts for the Bishop's homophobia.
Also, there have been questions about whether Jackson really lives in DC. His first address was hurriedly arranged so that he could register as a voter, a requirement to try to get the referendum filed. However, the address he used was a one bedroom apartment occupied by a single male friend of his, coincidently in a building that is about 50% gay. All this is while his wife and kids live in the Maryland suburbs in his church-paid-for mansion. The post did no sleuthing, and strictly pandered to the anti gays
@jason
Wrong! The Washington Post is a CONSERVATIVE news outlet. Bishop Jackson is conservative… stop identifying him only by his skin color.
The CEO of the Post is very conservative, these are not slips, why do you think they sought out this guy in the first place?
@5 Jason:
"The Washington Post is giving him a pass because he's black. This is how liberals operate. They play one group against the other and then take the side of the group they like best.
Rather than be morally consistent in calling bigotry for what it is, they take sides according to what group you belong to."
Bros before 'mos: That's the Washington Post editorial policy.
why does is it matter that he's black? He's an idiot. He's a bigot. But his blackness has nothing to do with his homophobia. I don't understand why the LGBTQ community insists on pigeon-holing the black community as the last retrograde force standing in the way of queer liberation. AMERICA is homophobic and heteronormative, not just the AFRICAN-American community. What you white college-educated yuppies fail to remember is that the LGBTQ community is one that transcends race, class, religion, region, national origin, etc. When you put down the entire black community, you completely displace the feelings and humanity of black queer people. That's right: they exist (though you wouldn't be able to tell by reading queerty). I mean honestly, some of these comments are sickening. Some of you sound like you work for Fox News with some of the anti-black sentiment you're spewing.
By the way, I'm a white male and I'm ashamed to be associate with all of this racist rhetoric the white LGBT community has been perpetuating. Also, I'm not going to patronize this website anymore. Shame on Queerty for humoring these hateful divide-and-conquer techniques.
The Wasington Times just folded. Let's hope the Washington Post follows its example.