Master, The Tempest Is Raging
An analysis of gays in gospel
by: Dr. Sylvia Rhue
NBJC Director of Religious Affairs
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Thomas Dorsey |
Thomas Dorsey invented gospel music in the 1920's. Anyone who has been moved to tears, found God, renewed their spirit, or clapped and swayed to the beauty and power of gospel (meaning "good news"), owes a debt to the musical genius of Dorsey.
Gospel music emerged from a tenuous infancy (many found it to be too worldly) to a fully grown rhapsodized force through the work another genius in the 60's. That man was the Reverend James Cleveland, the King of Gospel. |
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The late Rev. James Cleveland |
Rev. Cleveland founded the Gospel Music Workshop where his music “mesmerized his audience and brought a standard of excellence to gospel music in general through his organization in 1968 of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the largest gospel convention in the world.”
I was there in the early days of the Gospel Music Workshop where I remember that Rev. Cleveland had to admonish the men to tone down the flamboyance.
He knew that this fledgling new movement for gospel music would have its wings clipped and ground into the ground by the fierce viciousness of homophobia in the black church.
I went Cleveland's Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church in Los Angeles on at least one occasion and yes there were screaming queens there and the mothers of the church loved them.
The director of the choir I sang with cut an album with Rev. Cleveland. I remember the jokes and the tittering among the choir members when the director was to be in the studio with Rev. Cleveland. Homophobia kept Rev. James Cleveland in the closet.
Rev. Cleveland's church is where Aretha Franklin recorded her seminal work "Amazing Grace", probably the greatest gospel album ever produced. Singing with a choir full of queens didn't bother the Queen of Soul.
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Little Richard |
Little Richard began his ministry at my church. My brother played the organ for him. He was known as Brother Penniman. Our small 7th Day Adventist church was packed to the rafters when he was there.
They seated me at a chair right under the pulpit and sweat from Little Richard poured down on me as he sang "The Old Ship of Zion." Such beautiful music. We would sing gospel music into the night.
Years later, Little Richard came to an Adventist Conference and he visited the home where I was staying with my Adventist friends.
Our host welcomed him, shook his hand and smiled at him warmly, but as soon Little Richard left the room the host called him a "faggot".
Little Richard endured a lot of grief from the Adventists as they speculated, gossiped and talked derisively about his perceived orientation. He never claimed being gay. He left the church. Homophobia exists even for those who spend a lifetime denying it's existence in their life. |
When I lived in Hollywood, I was on the Board of Directors of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). We worked and consulted with the behind the scenes movers and shakers of the TV and movie industry on a daily basis. One day, we were speculating about how gay and lesbian Hollywood truly is.
Even though it was unscientific, we came to the conclusion that Hollywood is probably 33% enthusiastically heterosexual, 33% decidedly bisexual, and 33% avidly homosexual. The question was, is Hollywood 'unique' or do Americans reflect those same numbers in range and motion of sexual orientation? Which brings us back to the subject of gospel singers.
Gospel is in the news because Senator Barack Obama has chosen Donnie McClurkin, Mary Mary, Hezekiah Walker and others to tour in the South to connect with Black voters with the power of gospel music. These three are on record making homophobic remarks with McClurkin being the most outrageous. Donnie claims to be "ex-gay" and tours with Benny Hinn who in the early 90's predicted that God would "destroy the homosexual community" in America by fire by the year 1995. Chilling cheers followed his prediction. Donny himself has declared "war" on homosexuals.
From my experience as a former gospel singer and having friends who are currently on the gospel music scene, I believe that the gospel singing culture, in addition to being stalwartly heterosexual, is also decidedly bisexual, avidly homosexual and deeply closeted in seriously high numbers. We hear reports, here and there, of a gospel singer/minister giving sermons against homosexuality, and after the sermon handing out his hotel keys to men he wants to pursue for that evening. We hear reports of two nationally known, famous gospel singing homophobes who are actually lovers.
An openly gay minister in Washington DC relates the story of going to gospel music events and hearing homophobic remarks from the stage in the daytime, and yet some of those same clergy and gospel singers knock on his door at night.
We know of the closeted lesbians. We know who is gay in gospel and who is not. How do we know? They ask our un-closeted gospel singing friends for sex. Or their bitter wives spill the beans. Or they protest wa-y-y too much, which is a behavior that healthy heterosexuals don't engage in.
We believe that the people who are relaying this information are telling the truth. We believe that people who are espousing homophobic views, tip-toeing around trolling for same sex activities are living a lie. We see our openly gay gospel singing friends living lives of intense integrity. We see our closeted gospel colleagues living lives of quiet desperation and screaming hypocrisy.
Rev. James Cleveland wrote the song, "Peace, Be Still". If the voice and force and grief of homophobia were stilled in the church, especially the black church, there would be more peace, more love, and more kindness. It would truly be "good news". Many of today's gospel singers owe their lucrative careers to the work of James Cleveland. To use the vehicle of gospel to undergird homo-hatred is a travesty of biblical proportions.
Sylvia Rhue, Ph.D.
Director of Religious Affairs
National Black Justice Coalition
