'God is not against you'
African-American churches struggle with homosexuality
By MATT SCHAFER
JUN. 6, 2008
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http://www.sovo.com/2008/6-6/news/localnews/8646.cfm (http://www.sovo.com/2008/6-6/news/localnews/8646.cfm)
Rev. Dennis Meredith still preaches to a full house twice each Sunday, but the faces largely don't belong to the same people who filled the pews when he arrived in 1994.
Since 1917, Tabernacle Baptist Church had served a historically African-American population in the Old Fourth Ward, but shortly after the turn of the century the church began to change. Families who worshiped at the church for generations, veteran donors, left the church because it was becoming a "gay church."
"I used to preach all over the country. I'd be gone once or twice a month preaching, that's a lot. When I started preaching love and acceptance, people stopped calling because suddenly I'm the gay pastor, I'm the pastor of the gay church," said Meredith, who is straight.
In 2001, after Meredith's son told the pastor he was gay, Meredith changed the messages he preached every Sunday and Wednesday night.
Thank goodness there are people like Rev. Meredith. Sometimes life catches up to my prejudice and overwhelms it.
Nichole
Of course he isn't. He doesn't exist!
I know you smoke, I know you drink that brew
I just can't abide a sinner like you
God can't either, that's why I know it to be true that
Jesus loves me--but he can't stand you
I'm going to heaven, boys, when I die
'Cause I've crossed every "t" and I've dotted every "i'
My preacher tell me that I'm God's kind of guy; that's why
Jesus loves me--but you're gonna fry
God loves all his children, by gum
That don't mean he won't incinerate some
Can't you feel those hot flames licking you
Woo woo woo
I'm raising my kids in a righteous way
So don't be sending your kids over to my house to play
Yours'll grow up stoned, left-leaning, and gay; I know
Jesus told me on the phone today
Jesus loves me, this I know
And he told me where you're gonna go
There's lots of room for your kind down below
Whoa whoa whoa
Jesus loves me but he can't stand you . . .
The always funny, Austin Lounge Lizards
Quote from: Blanche on June 07, 2008, 05:36:33 AM
Of course he isn't. He doesn't exist!
Now Blanche... *pokes her in the ribs with an elbow*
Rev. Dennis Meredith is just one of a growing number of clergy who have come face to face with the truth of what Christ's gospel demands, a grace that is free, a love that is for everyone.
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