At Charity Missionary Baptist
Church in North Charleston, S.C., the Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III
supports and follows his African-American congregation’s policy:
They will only conduct marriages between one man and one woman.
Credit: RNS photo courtesy of Charity Missionary Baptist Church
But the vice president of the
NAACP also backed his civil rights organization’s recent
statement supporting “marriage equality.”
“We see no conflict in that,” Rivers said,
“because I am the leader of the r-i-t-e at my church, the rites,
but I’m also a strong advocate of the r-i-g-h-t-s of my
members.’’
President
Obama's support for gay marriage, followed quickly by the
NAACP's, has put some black clergy in a bind, torn between their
political loyalties and their religious beliefs. For some, like
Rivers, it's been a both/and proposition, while others say they
can support the president without endorsing his position on gay
marriage.
But the issue
has highlighted that the black church has never been monolithic.
The black church's response is further complicated by the fact
that people in the pew may not always go along with what pastors
in the pulpit preach.
“You’ve got to balance religious convictions with
all of your other interests, your racial interests, your
economic interests,” said Andra Gillespie, an associate
professor of politics at Emory University who studies
African-American politics.
“You’ve got to balance religious convictions with
all of your other interests, your racial interests, your
economic interests,” said Andra Gillespie, an associate
professor of politics at Emory University who studies
African-American politics. Credit: RNS photo courtesy Emory
University
Most blacks
still prioritize their rights as African-Americans and economic
issues over social issues, she said.
Drawing the same distinction as Rivers, the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church issued a statement at
its recent quadrennial meeting declaring that its churches
cannot perform same-sex rituals. But it also noted that while it
differed with Obama on gay marriage, his positions on health
care and student loans are “consistent with the interests of our
congregant members.”
“We do not believe in same-sex marriage but we do not believe
that’s the only issue,” explained AME Zion Bishop Darryl
Starnes. “There is more in the scriptures about treating the
poor right and championing the cause of the oppressed than some
of these other issues.”
Likewise, the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World
has said it is “in conflict” with the president’s stance but
applauds Obama for “his many achievements in improving the
quality of life for all Americans.”
President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle
Obama, and daughters Sasha and Malia (hidden behind other
parishioners) attend services at Metropolitan African Methodist
Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011.
Credit: RNS photo courtesy of Pete Souza, The White House
Overall, African-Americans
remain one of the groups most opposed to gay marriage: 51
percent are opposed, while 40 percent support it, according to a
recent poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That
support, however, has edged up from 26 percent just four years
ago. Among black Protestants, opposition is slightly higher, at
54 percent.
Pew
researchers said Obama's support hasn't noticeably shifted
opinion in either direction, but some smaller groups are seeking
to galvanize lingering black skepticism over gay marriage to
make it a wedge issue for African-American voters this November.
“I would hope that the president would become
wise, come to his senses and know that he has made a mistake,”
said the Rev. William Owens, president of the fledgling
Coalition of African-American Pastors, at a recent National
Press Club news conference.
His group is circulating an online petition to
ask Obama to “repudiate his assertion that gay marriage is a
civil right.”
Still
others, including the Washington-based group Many Voices, are
working to reshape the notion that all black churches are
against gay rights. Rather, many clergy are thinking carefully
about their stance, said the Rev. Cedric Harmon, co-director of
the three-year-old nonprofit.
“They’re weighing this out; they’re considering
who they know, what they believe,” he said. “They don’t want to
be mean. They don’t want to be hateful.”
Rivers said while his church doesn’t sanction same-sex
ceremonies, another across town might conduct them. If gay
members were to request such a service from him, he said he
would recommend they find such a congregation for a ceremony
because it is their right to have one.
“On the issues of justice, fairness and equality
and the prophetic role of clergy and standing up for what is
right, there is much consensus,” he said. “On the other issues,
how you interpret doctrine, that’s up to your church.”
