On Monday, some “40 African-American religious and political leaders” got together to celebrate Martin Luther King Day by bashing the homosexual activists trying to usurp the civil rights battle for their silly same-sex marriage agenda. This video, from the Illinois Family Institute, feature’s the group’s advisor Pastor Al Cleveland reminding Christians they “must not be afraid to speak truth.” Like how Illinois’ recent State Senate passage of a civil unions bill isn’t a true step toward civil rights. “Civil unions and homosexual behavior cannot be compared to the noble civil rights movement. [Applause] Nor can it be compared to inherent characteristics like race and ethnicity,” says Cleveland, evidently unaware that race is, uh, a man-made construct. But of course Cleveland is the guy who also claims, “There is no research proving that homosexuality is immutable or biologically determined,” so yeah.
jerks
Did You Celebrate MLK Day By Attacking Homosexual Activists And Their Terrorist Marriage Campaign?
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Mathew
Coretta Scott King supported gay rights.
Red Meat
Your ancestors hated Jesus and the white men that preached it at them. Now here you are preaching the white man’s religion. You have failed your ancestors.
SouthSideShorty
Cynical as it sounds, I doubt we will ever gain acceptance from black or hispanic groups. Their closets tend to run very deep.
tjr101
@SouthSideShorty: The same can be said about the Republican party.
ChiGuy76
It’s not surprising that anti-gay, homophobic, heterosexist black preachers get all the attention. However, as a resident of Illinois, this seems to disconnect with my reality. Almost every single African-American friend, co-worker, and acquaintence of mine has voiced nothing but support for gay rights and marriage equality, many of whom are deeply religious and regular attendees at church. In fact, I believe all but one African-American state senator voted in favor of the civil unions bill. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just living in a bubble.
Brandon
Some people are just a bit different..at least he has got it down pat…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuEZY7-czGA
Spike
Very troubling to see such hate and in tolerance being voiced on MLK Day.
Matthew
Slave traders said that Africans (my ancestors) were just as unnatural and unclean as he is making gay people out to be. To be quite frank, there are bigots who believe that today. I find it hard as a black gay man to continuously see my own community display such hate. It’s unfortunate for a group of people who experience and have experienced so much hate, to do the same to another group.
Bob
These are the very same people that many of us, in the LGBT community stood next to, in their justifiable quest for civil rights. Now they spit in our faces in the name of their God. My God is a loving one who made me gay just as their god made them black. Does everyone need someone that they can look down on and hate? The LGBT community is still at the bottom of the food chain as long as our political leaders allow it.
justiceontherocks
You’re telling me the guy behind the speaker in the grey coat and red shirt isn’t the queen of his neighborhood?? No sale on that.
ChicagoJimmy
The funny part about this is these folks always repeat the same talking points. He said, “homosexual behavior cannot be compared to…inherent characteristics like race and ethnicity,” and then, “there is no research proving that homosexuality is immutable or biologically determined.”
Okay, but I bet he doesn’t want to be discriminated against because of his religion either, and that was certainly a choice. No one is born a Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, or Christian at all.
In then end there are just some people who are so miserable they must find some other group to bash to make themselves feel better.
chicagotist
@justiceontherocks: LOL
I was thinking the same thing about the white guy sporting a Village People mustache!
Gay Republican
This bigot is Democrat! Just like Obama!
Adam
@Spike: Very troubling, but unsurprising. Religion and bigotry mix very well together.
Brandon
@Gay Republican: Bigotry knows no political party
Adam
This was also mentioned on that other BET video, about how blacks don’t want gays to appropriate the Civil Rights movement because they feel it belongs to them. Which is complete, intolerant bullshit.
reason
@Red Meat: Most unintelligent thing that I have heard in a while, as if people are measured by their ability to mimic their ancestors thinking and reasoning.
@SouthSideShorty: The recent polls tend to show otherwise. It is more about outreach and understanding, when you completely ignore sections of the population what are the chances that they will ever get to really know about and understand you?
@Matthew: Hate exists in every corner of every population whether they have experienced injustice or not you will find hate-filled blacks that suffered through segregation, hate-filled jews that managed to survive imprisonment at concentration where they watched many of their brethren parish, hate filled Irish that were treated like dogs here and abroad. The idea that if you have been discriminated against it comes as a surprise that you would discriminate is bogus. As long as there are selfish people on the earth there will be discrimination whether they hide behind constructs of superiority, religion, race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, or whatever. Those are just tools to get some sort of reward for themselves whether it is cash, acceptance, dampen hate of themselves, take personal failures of their mind, or whatever other benefit that they can reap at the expense of others. Selfishness is nearly synonymous with humanity, thus there will be discrimination in some form until the population is culled. If you are religious you would expect that to happen during judgment, if you are religious you would also know hat many of these self-righteous religious individuals will be the first people cast out. Similarly the people that they turn to hate whether it be against them or someone else may end up joining them. To many people in this community and others become slaves to other peoples hatred and end up dipping in the same cesspool as the bigots.
Red Meat
@reason: Only as stupid as current white people converting to Mormonism and Scientology.
Kev C
Pastor Al is all about the clothes, the bling, the fabulous haberdashery.
Eric Phelan
How about instead of preaching bigotry to your church, send your church to help the poor.
alan brickman
I say the same thing I always said the message of …equality is the bus…and there are some bad drivers….but you don’t fire the bus!!!
GregorVonK
@ChicagoJimmy: You’re so right about this preachspeech consisting of little more than the same old talking points. We’ve heard it all before–and before that. Doesn’t stop the cheering section from reacting like these standards lines are nothing short of a revelation. (Of course, they’re probably playing to the camera too).\
They must have edited out the line about God creating “Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.” (I wonder who DID create Steve then.)
Sceth
I expected nonsense, but could not get past 1.28, where the speaker butchers “Weltanschauung.”
Johnny
The guy behind Pastor Al is going to eat him after he leaves the stage. But for now, let him have his moment. Just smile and nod. Smile and nod.
Gay Republican
@Brandon: Really? Then how come we are told to believe that Republicans are “always” bigoted, but none of the left-wing tools on this site would say “bigoted Democrats”?
JM
Not that I don’t have any problems with the rest of this hateful speech, but…
@1:10 – Is he having trouble reading those two words? Not very bright…
@6:45 – Gender is not the issue of the day. Do the research.
@6:58 – Woe to you motherfucker; take your own advice and stop being a nasty bigot.
@7:19 – You should be born again. I bet you come out looking like a fruit salad (not gay, I mean looking like one of those women with the fruit headdresses).
Hateful ass is an ass.