‘We’ll Convert Your Children,’ Says Gay Men’s Choir - The Amerin Spectator | USA News and Polics

Contents:

• GAY, EX-HILLSONG LEAR SPEAKS ABOUT EXPERIENCE WH UNCLEAR POLICY
• SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS FAC BACKLASH AFTER RELEASG ‘WE’RE G FOR YOUR CHILDREN’ VIO
• BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP
• GREENVILLE GAY MEN'S CHOS IS MAKG THE YULETI GAY THIS YEAR
• SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS: WE’RE G FOR YOUR CHILDRENAPPEARG AT ST. IGNATI CHURCH JULY 24
• MY RPONSE TO THE GAY CHOIR SGG ‘WE’RE G FOR YOUR CHILDREN’
• DO A POIGNANT PHOTO OF GAY MEN'S CHOIR SHOW DEVASTATG IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS?
• CHOIR AND GAY MEN'S CHOS SG TOGETHER
• MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR REHEARS WH SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS

GAY, EX-HILLSONG LEAR SPEAKS ABOUT EXPERIENCE WH UNCLEAR POLICY

Canfield and his boyiend, Reed Kelly, ma natnal news 2015 when he was forced to step down as choir director for Hillsong NYC’s worship team, after appearg on a natnal televisn show, Survivor, which he stated that he was a gay Christian who attend Hillsong.

I was a staway on CBS’ Survivor, and on the show, I was vol about beg gay, Christian, and servg as a choir director at Hillsong NYC. ) After the show began airg, some article me out sayg that Hillsong had a gay choir lear at their church to which Brian Hoton wrote a rponse sayg that was not te unls that man didn’t tell the learship he was gay.

SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS FAC BACKLASH AFTER RELEASG ‘WE’RE G FOR YOUR CHILDREN’ VIO

JC: After I stepped down and was servg as an offstage vol ach, the lead pastor of Hillsong NYC told me that he believed homosexualy was a s. There are many LGBTQ people who serve as “hosts” and the choir, but apparently, you n’t lead worship, lead choir, or be a Front Le Volist if you are openly gay.

Everyone the church learship knew that I was gay and datg, and wasn’t an issue until Brian Hoton ma his statement that I wasn’t a choir lear at church and that they don’t approve of homosexualy. In fact, the only time I heard the word “gay” om the ma stage was when was grouped together wh other mori, like the black muny or lack of clary on what the church believed hurt my relatnship wh the church bee I began not tstg people.

Hillsong tly lov people, I believe that wholeheartedly, but by not beg clear about their beliefs [and l] on homosexualy, ends up hurtg the same people they are tryg to love. Mike Parker, reportg for CBS Chigo, wrote, “Activists fear gay Ain-Amerins are beg targeted for murr, ” while Marc Lovels of the Coaln for Jtice and Rpect queri, “Are we unr attack? In April, Lsig showed a vio at a Google semar entled J Christ: The Mil where “J Christ lip-syncs Gloria Gaynor’s late 1970s dis h I Will Survive durg which he strips down to jt a diaper, effemately stts along a cy street, and fally gets n over by a speedg b.

BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP

Rters/Kimberly WheThe San Francis Gay Men’s Chos has faced tense backlash after releasg a song that many believe is tent on phg the LGBT agenda on the song, which was released earlier this month but ma private Thursday followg immense public cricism, the choir sgs such phras as, “we’ll nvert your children” and “we’re g for your children, ” which was viewed as an overt threat to parents.

— SF Gay Men's Chos (@SFGMC) July 8, 2021 The choir said ma the vio private to keep members of the chos the vio safe due to “vrlic” threats of harm and ments that beme “creasgly alarmg.

GREENVILLE GAY MEN'S CHOS IS MAKG THE YULETI GAY THIS YEAR

The vio, tled “A Msage From the Gay Communy, ” reportedly received 88 lik and 5, 000 dislik before was ma private, acrdg to The Post Millennial. While many black pastors nmn gays and lbians om the pulp, the choir lofts behd them often are filled wh gay sgers and micians. Print Obama's recent announcement that he supports same-sex marriage turned the spotlight on rervatns many blacks harbor about gay rights.

SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS: WE’RE G FOR YOUR CHILDRENAPPEARG AT ST. IGNATI CHURCH JULY 24

The virtuosy of gay sgers, micians and posers has been the drivg force velopg popular gospel choirs — even chart-toppg, Grammy-wng acts — that make money for a church, help expand ngregatns and raise the profil of pastors. It all happens unr an unspoken "don't ask, don't tell" ctom that allows gay people to be active the church, though closeted, and church to reap the benefs of their membership.

"On the one hand, you're nurtured the choir but you also have to s through some of those fire and brimstone sermons about homosexualy beg an abomatn, " says E.

MY RPONSE TO THE GAY CHOIR SGG ‘WE’RE G FOR YOUR CHILDREN’

Bishop Yvette Flunr of Oakland, Calif., is openly gay and the founr of The Fellowship, an anizatn of black pastors and church openly welg of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr members.

" Commentator Keh Boyk, who is Ain-Amerin and gay, lls a paradox: "The church might be the most homophobic and most homotolerant of any stutn the black muny.

DO A POIGNANT PHOTO OF GAY MEN'S CHOIR SHOW DEVASTATG IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS?

" Woon, the pastor North Carola, agre that the prence of gays and lbians choirs or other church mistri reveals the "duplicy and, ankly, the hypocrisy of the black church.... He says his church also has ntued to support gay members who have ntracted HIV/AIDS, unlike some other church that ostracize them — a practice many people on both sis of the issue say has been mon.

But many others say they are torn between their allegiance to their church, which form the cultural and stutnal backbone of black muni, and their sire to live ee of homophobia. " Gospel mic superstar and megachurch pastor Donnie McClurk shocked the non-gospel world years ago by revealg a 2001 book that God "livered" him om a gay "liftyle" that he said was a rult of beg sexually abed as a boy. Pastors No Strangers To Gay Sex Sndals The sexual behavr of some male pastors, many of them also gospel sgers, also has stoked mors or led to sndal.

CHOIR AND GAY MEN'S CHOS SG TOGETHER

The ntroversy was all the more notable bee Long was a proment supporter of Geia's gay marriage ban, passed 2004, and a proposed U.

The Bay Area the 1970s had arguably the most visible prence of LGBT members black church, jt as the broar gay rights movement had gaed momentum the regn. The Love Center Church Oakland, Calif., found by the late Bishop Walter Hawks, one of gospel mic's biggt stars the 1970s and 1980s, ma wav for welg black gays and lbians.

But by the time Owen was old enough to jo the choir, he was no longer a member of The Church of J Christ of Latter-day Sats; he had been exmunited after he me out as gay.

MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR REHEARS WH SAN FRANCIS GAY MEN’S CHOS

The ensemble of roughly 15 members, lled the One Voice Choir, is not officially part of the LDS church Utah, but they've been ved to perform at a Mormon church-sponsored outreach event for the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny.

" Rexene Pcher, another member of the group, tears up when she talks about her gay son who whdrew om the church when he no longer felt accepted. Sce the choir was formed, the LDS church lnched a new webse urgg Latter-day Sats to reach out more to gay and lbian members.

“Remember on that last ‘Hey’ to gay up, ” chos director Shelton Ridge Love tells the fal rehearsals, the Greenville Gay Men’s Chos is performg s Christmas ncert “What a Gay Holiday! What a gay performance will be — and that’s important to Christmas events: You're the Sat Nick of time for the Christmas paras Upstate SCUntil 2019, the choir didn’t have “gay” the name.