Southern Gospel Sger Kenny Bishop is Now a Gay Uned Church of Christ Pastor — The Life and Tim of Bce Gerencser

Contents:

• WHO'S GAY GOSPEL MIC?
• SOUTHERN GOSPEL SGER KENNY BISHOP IS NOW A GAY UNED CHURCH OF CHRIST PASTOR
• GAYS, GOD AND GOSPEL MIC
• NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC
• GAYS GOSPEL MIC: AN OXYMORON?
• BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP
• NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• FOR COMG OUT DAY, ‘GAYS AND GOSPEL’ CELEBRAT LGBTQ+ FLUENCE ON CHURCH MIC

WHO'S GAY GOSPEL MIC?

About 54% of practicg Christians said homosexualy should be accepted, acrdg to a recent Pew Rearch Center study.

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.

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

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.

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.

GAYS, GOD AND GOSPEL MIC

"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. Freedman, "Usg Gospel Mic's Secrets to Conont Black Homophobia, " The New York Tim, June 1, 2012, accsed Augt 4, 2012, ; Louis Bayard, "Review of Anthony Heilbut's 'The Fan Who Knew Too Much, '" The Washgton Post, Augt 3, 2012, accsed Augt 5, 2012,.

For more on the difficulti faced by black gospel sgers who e out as gay see, Kelefah Sanneh, "Revelatns: A Gospel Sger Com Out, " The New Yorker, Febary 8, 2010, 48–57,. Ironilly, Harrison tak Heilbut to task Then Sgs My Soul for his ial discsn of homosexualy gospel culture The Gospel Sound.

In this olr work, Heilbut argued that black gospel appealed to gay people bee of the mic's "theatril" quali. Goodman has been imated by other sgers, cludg mal, while also beg a character habed by drag queens gay bars throughout the South. For an dience a gay bar, wr Harrison, gospel drag "transmutat the gospel classic to a ll for actn on the part of the dience" (144).

NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC

"If orthodox evangelil popular culture has a vted tert portrayg the gay-gospel nnectn as a sful paradox, " Harrison persuasively argu, " is no small part an attempt to efface the fact that sner and sat alike e to the mic as nonnformists—real or imaged, gay or straight, and everythg between—drawn to southern gospel's dramatic renrg of spirual margaly and social misftedns" (148). It is a ncln that would ronate wh equal power Heilbut's discsn of homosexualy and hypocrisy black gospel culture.

There is a crilly important distctn between the outsir inty of the nservative evangelil and the gay gospel fan. In celebratn of Natnal Comg Out Day, the special event “Gays and Gospel” will take place on Tuday, Oct.

“The choir the Black church has always been a place where gay men uld show off their virtuosy while explorg their sexualy, ” said E. “For me and so many others like me, the church was a place where we uld safely exprs our queerns vert ways while takg pleasure phg the lims of genr, ” Johnson Natnal Comg Out Day, a day tablished 1988 by a psychologist and femist as a form of gay liberatn, Johnson is teamg wh longtime iend and Northwtern lleague, Kent R. Brooks, director of special projects for the partment of relig and spirual life, to lead a special lecture and performance lled “Gays and Gospel” on Tuday, Oct.

GAYS GOSPEL MIC: AN OXYMORON?

Brooks have teamed up on a special lecture and performance lled “Gays and Gospel” to explore the tensns, challeng and triumphs of the LGBTQ+ muny gospel mic. Johnson and Brooks talked to Northwtern Now recently about the event and why is important to highlight this often overlooked part of gay most people surprised to learn about the history of gays gospel? But, he was fact gay — although he wasn’t open about are some of the other queer performers you will talk about the lecture who fluenced gospel mic?

It’s not unual to have people still sgg the church who are still stgglg, and ’s not unmon to have people who are very famo now, who are still there be sgg durg “Gays and Gospel? 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!

Throughout the middle s of the 20th century, a signifint number of gay or "queer" artists left their mark on gospel mic, a cultural form that many nsir to be Ameri's most origal. Ined, the ntributn of gays and lbians to gospel mic has been so large as to be absolutely "ccial and fundamental. The say on "the children, " the faial appellatn ed to refer to gays the church, is siar ntent and theme to "The Gospel Sound" that Heilbut is keen on revealg the gospel world all s plexy, paradox and ntradictn.

BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP

It may not do much for Mahalia Jackson's "satly image" to know that she was notorly stgy and uld cs like a sailor, but fills out her human portra jt say on "the children, " however, is more a medatn on homosexualy and black church. Heilbut gets beyond simply acknowledgg the prence of gays black church and the fact that gospel artists such as Sam Cooke, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Alex Bradford and Jam Cleveland (to name only a few) were known to be gay or "queer.

" He intifi a time when black church were safe spac for "the children, " a time when gays and lbians sought and found refuge church that not only acknowledged their prence but also their value.

For this reason, many black gays and lbians once were among "the most fahful members" of black church and "the most avid celebrants" of s worship culture. There was a time when a gospel song about beg "livered" wasn't for beg "livered om homosexualy.

NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC

When he surveys the current world of gospel, seeg (wh some exceptns) so far om s glor past and so nial of s gay roots, the anger and the grief nearly overtake is soberg to regnize that what Heilbut ultimately acplish the say is an acuntg of gospel mic's fall om grace to near irrelevance. He knows that the overemphasis on nmng homosexualy that one fds the gospel world and many black church is not a sign of prophetic wns.

If that is te, then that is precisely what we have Anthony Heilbut, the fan who perhaps knows a ltle too much but has found a betiful way to tell all about through for a slishow of the greatt Gospel songs:Gospel SongsRelatedRelign and SexualyslipollajaxChristianyGay ChristiansSacred Sounds. In Jam Baldw’s “Go Tell It on the Mounta, ” the protagonist, thly veiled as himself, wrtl wh two cril qutns: What do mean to be a Black Amerin, and what do mean to be gay? ” Our nnectns and ntributns to the larger Black relig smos are secrated every time homophobic pronouncements go unchecked the holy plac of worship.

“Those nomatns are more open to gays whout announcg , bee of s lurgy and anizatnal stcture like Pentestal church, ” Patterson shared. The Black gay male mega-stars are always forced to go back to the closet, publicly nouncg their sexual orientatn at the church’s annual nvotn. McClurk is a three-time Gospel Grammy wner, was a revered judge on BET’s “Sunday Bt, ” a realy TV-gospel sgg petn show, and the poster boy for Ain Amerin ex-gay mistri.

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Acrdg to McClurk, Black mal, like Tonéx, are gay bee of sexual moltatn, an absentee father, or they didn’t have strong male imag around them. Confg, however, same-genr sexual vlence wh homosexualy, McClurk misterpreted the moltatn as the reason for his gay sexual orientatn.

What mak Tonéx unique is not that he was once a gay gospel mic artist and pastor, but rather he told the tth about his sexualy. For example, “blaquebigaymisters” is a Yahoo gay misters’ group, boastg over 787 members sce July 2000. A report followg the 2009 Convotn asked, “Is COGIC gog to be silent while an anized culture of homosexual misters and bishops populate s pulps?

” COGIC nnot ny that the church gets s J dance on and Amen shouts to a black gay male queer gospel athetic every Sunday, and no one knows better than McClurk himself. “I learned yterday—through the ‘Phoenix’ article regardg the Cy of Boston Gospel Ft—of the pth and breadth of Donnie McClurk’s views on the gay muny, ” Julie Burns wrote to me an email.

FOR COMG OUT DAY, ‘GAYS AND GOSPEL’ CELEBRAT LGBTQ+ FLUENCE ON CHURCH MIC

However, that abily to experience an embodied spirualy is tnted by the church, school and homophobic peers. The play highlights the tersectnal reali of beg Black, gay and spirual through the protagonist Phas Young. Young is an amilly bright and milly gifted gay male scholarship stunt who leads the school choir.

The tensn between the two young mal illtrat how homophobia mangl and maims at such tenr and formative years. However, 2020, Morehoe admted transgenr male stunts to s g class, and there’s talk of creatg an openly gay gospel choir. Alisha Lola Jon reflects on tths about gospel mic shared the short film, ‘God, Gays, and the Gospel.

Awakeng to a flurry of DMs and texts the other day, I was directed to a short film entled “God, Gays, and the Gospel. Paraphrasg same-genr-lovg (SGL) clergywoman Bishop Yvette Flunr, Dillger plaly stat, “There would be no gospel mic whout gay people … bee ultimately, we created .