Blacks, Gays And The Church: A Complex Relatnship : NPR

WHO'S GAY GOSPEL MIC?

Former Evangelil pastor Bce Gerencser wr about Southern Gospel Sger Kenny Bishop is Now a Gay Uned Church of Christ Pastor! * gay southern gospel singers *

The Gospel church and homosexualy has reportedly had a long ter-twg relatnship.

Boy Band Members Who Are Out As Gay, Bisexual or Queer.

Ltle did I know that Kenny had strayed far om his Fundamentalist Christian roots and was now a married gay man and a bivotnal pastor at Bluegrass Uned Church of Christ Lexgton, Kentucky! Talk about fdg the unexpected — a liberal, gay Kenny Bishop. Whe southern gospel mic seems like a strange source of pleasure for a "gay, secular humanist amic, " as Douglas Harrison intifi himself (17).

SOUTHERN GOSPEL SGER KENNY BISHOP IS NOW A GAY UNED CHURCH OF CHRIST PASTOR

There was a time, and was my own lifetime, that Southern Gospel mic was a form of gay pism and that is worth rememberg, if for nothg else, for s bewilrg irony. * gay southern gospel singers *

Guid by theologil fundamentalism and social nservatism, southern gospel's performers and fans tend to take a dim view of homosexualy. In 2003, gospel sger Kirk Talley was "outed" when the FBI arrted a man who attempted to blackmail Talley wh suggtive photographs he shared on a gay web se.

First, how n a homosexual nonbeliever like Harrison, who as a youth was a "Southern Baptist sissy, " who dreamed of beg a southern gospel star until he me out and suffered the nsequenc for dog so by a reprsive relig culture, still fd ecstatic "glory-rollg joy" southern gospel mic? Dpe his clear disda for the homophobia, fundamentalism, and, at tim, racism lurkg beneath the surface of whe southern gospel, he do not bee polemil or "substute one set of moral dogmas for another. The Gay-Gospel Paradox.

ARE THERE GAY PEOPLE SOUTHERN GOSPEL MIC?

“Gays and Gospel,” a tribute to the LGBTQ+ muny and all the ntributns has ma to gospel mic om s genis the 1920’s until today will be held on “Natnal Comg Out Day.” The ee event explor the tensns, challeng and triumphs of the LGBTQ+ muny gospel mic. * gay southern gospel singers *

If racism and distct unrstandgs of gospel mic's meang and purpose have rerced s separatn as genr, whe and black gospel n, neverthels, fd mon ground wh their shared tradns of homophobia. Then Sgs My Soul was released jt one month before Anthony Heilbut's The Fan Who Knew Too Much, portns of which open a door to what he lls the "secret closet" of gays black gospel mic. The tend dienc of each book may not overlap but they both expose the hypocrisy of the gay-gospel paradox nservative Christian culture and, hopefully, will force broar bate.

His immersn the gospel world exposed him to the genre's "fay secret": gay people formed the heart and soul of black gospel mic while the fundamentalism of church and clergy kept them the closet. "Arch-homophob" the gospel muny, Heilbut wr, equently sg "the mic of gay people, acknowledgg wh every breath and step that if you banished the sissi and the bull daggers [gospel sger Shirley Caar's homophobic aspersns], the tabernacle might cmble. " Harrison's gay-gospel paradox transcends race and uld be applied to any homophobic area of Amerin life, but the hypocrisy seems all the more glarg, as Heilbut emphasiz, a mil and relig culture that played such a pivotal role the civil rights movement.