http://youtu.be/s2yIaNSFBBw
It’s one thing to preach to the choir—it’s quite another to step into the lion’s den: Rev. Frederick Haynes of Dallas’ Friendship-West Baptist Church called out his own congregation for decrying President Obama’s marriage-equality stance, even as parishioner stood up and shouted their disapproval at him.
“It really blows my mind how outraged you are,” Haynes told his flock. “You are so outraged over what the President said. First of all, take a chill pill. Take a deep breath, everything’s gonna be all right.” He added, “Black folk can’t even deal with homosexuality because we got issues with sexuality… Why, why do you get so upset?”
Jonathonz
Wow! Just wow. Thank you Pastor Haynes for tellin’ it like it IS!
MikeE
he’s my hero.
MisterTwister
Yes sir Rev. Yes sir.
Queerty- I watched the same video, twice and I don’t see any of his parishioners standing up shouting their disapproval at him. To me it looks like they agree with what he is saying. Maybe I’m wrong.
SebX
That is a very brave and open-minded man. Very well done!
Kamuurie
Bravo to this brave pastor!
Desdemona
He was right on, up until the very end when he said homosexuality was a sin. People love to say it’s a sin, no worse than any other… but I don’t believe it is a sin. Loving someone is not a sin. End of story.
Jason Vanderpool
Way to go Rev. Haynes!!!
B
No. 3 · MisterTwister wrote, “Queerty- I watched the same video, twice and I don’t see any of his parishioners standing up shouting their disapproval at him. To me it looks like they agree with what he is saying. Maybe I’m wrong.”
When I looked at it, a number of people seemed to be applauding. They showed a closeup of one woman, however, who looked really, really angry. The sound track was probably taken off of the microphone the pastor was wearing, so any shouts from the audience would not be heard. Hopefully Queerty’s comments about any disapproval were due to statements from people there at the time.
Also, they showed the audience only sporadically. If someone got up and shouted, and then sat back down, it would be easily missed in the video. I suspect some people were really hostile to what the pastor was saying but that he also got a fair bit of support.
Bob
I applauded this man and any other black preacher who is standing up for us. But, would they be in the same agreement if it was a white president standing up for gay rights? I would hope so, but I really don’t think so.
James
@Bob: I don’t think so either but this is what gay inc needs,more black allies and lgbt people to stand up
londonguy89
@ B. I saw the close up of the woman, but it doesn’t appear that she’s angry at his sermon. Rather it appears to be an emotional moment where she’s agreeing with what the Pastor has to say. If you look closely, she’s saying “PREACH.”
londonguy89
Yup. She’s saying “Preach Freddy”
OctoberNite
Perhaps the congregation will vote to have him removed…
Brent
Great. Too few black preachers are willing to speak up for equality and justice, despite being heirs to a civil rights legacy. Great to hear this.
Alexi3
This is how it will start to really, finally turn our way on this issue. For a Baptist Minister and a Black Baptist Minister, at that, to tell his congregation that this isn’t such a big deal is very significant. It has been known for a long time that the African American Community in general and their church going members in particular prefer to pretend that homosexuality simply doesn’t exist and if it does it is not to be talked about. And for many the analogy between their own struggle for equality and acceptance and that of our own is problematical. The cultural, historical reasons for this are many and varied. This brave man isn’t merely talking about it; he is challenging his parishioners to examine why they are so outraged by the Presidents comments. When people begin to think critically rather than reacting emotionally the tide begins to turn. I applaude this man’s courage and believe with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight his courage to speak out will come to be seen as a turning point toward true equality under the law.
pedro
The guy didn’t read his congregation…Did some lilly-white idiot write this? The guy was speaking about the reaction of other pastors…not his congregants. Secondly, I may be Catholic but I’ve been to a few black churches and these people are showing their APPROVAL of his sermon, not disapproval…White people shouldn’t speak about what they do not understand — A half-mexican in the know!
B
No. 11 · londonguy89 wrote, “@B. I saw the close up of the woman, but it doesn’t appear that she’s angry at his sermon. Rather it appears to be an emotional moment where she’s agreeing with what the Pastor has to say. If you look closely, she’s saying “PREACH.””
I’m not good at lipreading. If she was saying “preach”, that could mean she wanted him to preach instead of talking about Obama and gay rights. It all depends on her tone of voice, and you can’t hear her.
pedro
@Alexi3: What does him being black have to do with anything…Being Arian certainly didn’t stop one pastor from proposing locking all “lesbians, homosexuals and queers” up behind barbed wire fences until they die…And it didn’t stop another lily-white congregation from teaching a 4 yr. old to sing “ain’t no gays gonna make it to heaven”…And being white isn’t stoping a pimply faced 14 year old from spewing learned homophobia. So I ask again what the fuck does this guy being black have to do with anything? Racist f*gs are so fucking annoying…
Schlukitz
Tell it like it is, preacher.
NaQu
I’m not too keen on this.
MIKE
5:51 AT THE END, THAT RNB GOSPEL TRACK IS HOT, CAN I HAZ??
RLS
That was brilliant. I almost have tears in my eyes.
Rodrigo
He was talking about other pastors that were trying to organize to complain to the President, and his congregation was also mad “You are not feeling this, but I am going to preach the gospel anyhow” Which is admirable!!
In general this is great! Normally when I see videos of black pastors preaching about homosexuality, is something totally different, and even tough it is not totally there yet, it is a huge step forward.
“You want to major in what Jesus minor in” Is such an interesting quote. The Bible barely talks about homosexuality, but for some people its like it is all about homosexuality being a sin.
Qazzo
Meh. I’m still not voting for Obama again because of his loose lips supporting same sex marriage. I ardently supported him and over the past 4 yrs have gotten into numerous angry debates with Obama-haters…but he lost me with this. I’m not crazy enough to vote for Romney, because even though I agree with his stance on this single issue, I am not for anything else on his agenda…so come election day, I’ll just stay home.
As far as that pastor goes, I wish he had just left it alone. It’s fine if he doesn’t want to advocate against same-sex marriage and is supporting Obama, but he didn’t need to go on a tangent about it either.
pedro
@Qazzo: So what the f**K are you doing on a gay blog…
B
Re No. 23 · Qazzo – If you switched sides from Obama to Romney, that would give Romney a 2-vote advantage (one more for him and one less for Obama). If you stay home instead of voting for Obama, Romney gets a 1-vote advantage. One of the two is going to be our next president. Whether you like them or not, which of the two do you think is least likely to nominate a reactionary judge to the Supreme Court? Do you want another Scalia? We will see critical Supreme Court cases in the next few years – even if they don’t hear the Proposition Eight one, others will come along. What sort of justices do you want deciding these cases?
Bailey
TESTIFY MAH BRUTHA!!
Mark
@Desdemona: You’re correct. Jesus said not one word about it. Paul on the other hand seemed to be a bit obsessed as I recall. Just slays me that this book wasn’t even started until about 50 years after JC was on the cross – convenient memory and personal bias all over that book. Then of course, the Creed of the Nicene in the 6th Century really did a number on it — man has his fingers in it and it’s not the word of god – it’s the word of the fools who butchered it.
UsualPlayers
(1) Bible was written well after death of Christ as mentioned.
Also:
(2) Its been re-translated multiple times, with the translator’s meaning being a factor. In fact, its a bit factor. Many of the passages now used to justify homophobia had little if anything to do with being gay. But that doesn’t stop the bigot from using the quotes.
(3) The book had sections cut out by the Catholic Church.
(4) The version being used itself is a revision created over 1500 years after the death of Christ.
This is all assuming one even believe it. But its funny for the literalists to claim they are reading the word of God.
its the equivalent of the game where you whiper in someone’s ears 2,000 years ago, and they keep passing it along, but changing language, leading parts out, etc, and then pretending that whatevr the last guy in line says is the literal word of what was written before.
Its simply an impossibility. On top of all of that, here’s the other factor- gay as a group although modenr, -man lying with man – as a concept was not really a big deal for the church as I remember until St Augustine, or Aquinas.
In short, another thousand years afterchrist or a few hundred had to pass before anyone gave a crap enough to make a big deal about men lying with me.
Its not that it was acceptable. BUt it wasn’t as big as the bigots like to pretend.
B
No. 27 · Mark wrote, “@Desdemona: You’re correct. Jesus said not one word about it. Paul on the other hand seemed to be a bit obsessed as I recall.”
It seems that Paul had personal hangups about sex, which was his problem. The word he used that is sometimes translated as homosexuality is a Greek word that he apparently coined. There was a different, standard word that he could have used instead if he really meant homosexuality. See http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibc7.htm for a discussion.
BTW, the word in question, arsenokoitai, while currently translated as homosexuals, previously was translated as masturbators (the translation that was popular while Martin Luther was alive). It’s translation seems to track the Bible thumpers’ sexual sin du jour.
My prediction: when sex with human-appearing robots because possible and the prejudices against homosexuality disappear, arsenokoitai will be translated to mean people who engage in sex with robots.
Paul could have tried to be vague on purpose – remember he was sending letters around to communicate and delivery time was long, so misunderstandings could not be readily corrected. He was also trying to unify a rag tag collection of sects, and sometimes it is politically useful to be vague by using phrases equivalent to the jokes about Ted Kennedy saying, “Let me say this about that.” Then each sect could read its favorite sin into it and not be offended by being told its beliefs on sex were wrong – if they got mad, they might not bother to read the rest of the letter.
UsualPlayers
B
I still marvel at the fact that any Christian can, with a straight face (pardon the pun), even if they are believers take the words to be literal given the convoluted history.
Zack
If this Pastor was at a church near me I might even think of ending my boycott of all things religious and start attending again. Someone should send this link to Pope Benny, who seems to be bucking for the most hateful man on the planet award…
Gitto
I agree with the Paster that we should not focus on other people’s sin while neglecting to focus on our own.
In regards to saying that Paul was wrong about what Jesus said, how do you know this? Paul lived at the same time and was taught directly from Jesus, and we were not.
UsualPlayer
There’s evidence of when Paul lived and didn’t live. Part of the problem in terms of the Bible is that many Christians (if that’s your faith) are taught many things that are factually inaccurate about the history of their own faith. You don’t have to be any less of a Christian to know this history. In fact, many religious scholars are Christians. But the way Churches teach your faith is designed for mass marketing rather than accuracy. So, when some preacher tells you something. You should question if that’s how it happened is it is an interpretation. Many things that are taking as “literal” are in fact interpretations. You won’t hear that from a lot of preachers because they fear you will doubt your faith so they market it as the actual words across centuries, cultures, history records, languages (modern and ancient) and many of things that make literal interpretation impossible.
Billysees
@Desdemona:
Desdemona wrote: He was right on, up until the very end when he said homosexuality was a sin. People love to say it’s a sin, no worse than any other… but I don’t believe it is a sin. Loving someone is not a sin. End of story.
———————————————–
Well said. Thanks for saying it in very simple and easy to grasp terms.
It is not widely known though it should be.
Jesus seldom ever mentioned the word sin and almost never referred to it.
Maybe about a dozen times or so.
We should do the same by expressing the good that many things are instead of relying so much on the writings of attitudes from cultures of days long gone by.
Steve
Thank you, Rev. Frederick Haynes. You are a Christian leader who is willing to follow the teachings and example of Jesus, instead of just using the old testament to hate and condemn other people.
Jesus never condemned anyone for being gay, or for almost anything else. The only people he ever criticized were the Scribes and Pharisees, for being hypocrites. The 23rd chapter of Matthew, is entirely about preachers who do not practice what they preach.
A few verses before that, in Matthew 22, Jesus said the second highest commandment is, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. It seems, Jesus understood and taught “equal protection under the law”, long before any of our founding-fathers.
declanto
@Gitto: Fail. Paul wasn’t even born yet when X was crucified.
“Protestantism represented St. Paul’s victory over St. Peter. Fundamentalism represented St. Paul’s victory over Christ. ”
— Will Durant, “Caesar and Christ”
declanto
Paul was a Roman. The Greeks and Romans had distinctly differing views on homosexuality in the early church. Paul was a Roman partisan who viewed the Greeks with distaste.
Kevin
@Bob: Would gay white men be concerned with someone who was spewing hate towards blacks? I hope so, but I really don’t think so. Two-way street.
UsualPlayers
@Kevin: Some are. Some aren’t. The problem, as we are learning with all bigotry, is that the bigots tend to be the loudest.
Billysees
@declanto: No 36
Interesting statement by Mr. Durant.
Interesting BIO also — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Durant
B
No. 37 · declanto “Paul was a Roman.” He was a Roman citizen because the inhabitants of the town he was born in, Tarsus, were made Roman citizens in 66 BC, and their descendants inherited that citizenship. Tarsus is geographically located in what is now Turkey. Paul claimed to be Jewish ethnically, a member of the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee. Regardless, he was raised in Jerusalem.
He probably did not pick up Roman cultural attitudes as one would have if growing up in Rome. He apparently barely mentioned his Roman citizenship, although took advantage of it on occasion (before being executed, he appealed to Caesar, which he would not have been allowed to do if he were not a Roman citizen).
DragonScorpion
A good sermon, and definitely something that our movement and the Black church needs to hear right now. I most appreciated this sermon — https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ywImcNViPtc — by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber. A shame it fell largely on deaf ears.
Billysees
@Gitto: No 32
It’s probably too late to make a comment about No 32 and expect a reply.
But I don’t recall knowing that Paul was “taught directly from Jesus”, unless you mean being taught by the Holy Spirit from his conversion experience.
Am I missing something here?
Billysees
This is actually the first time I listened to the entire sermon.
And it was excellent.
Somehow, I usually forget the reason for the article and start my commenting by commenting on the comments of others.
The folks that come here to Queerty are Biblically smart and insightful.
That’s refreshing to me.