Gays, God and Gospel Mic | HuffPost Relign

Contents:

• SOUTHERN GOSPEL SGER KENNY BISHOP IS NOW A GAY UNED CHURCH OF CHRIST PASTOR
• GAYS, GOD AND GOSPEL MIC

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

Whe southern gospel mic seems like a strange source of pleasure for a "gay, secular humanist amic, " as Douglas Harrison intifi himself (17). 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.

GAYS, GOD AND GOSPEL MIC

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.