I expect better, Obama!

Vicki sent me a WTF message today on the McClurkin-Obama controversy. As the queer press is spinning it, the Obama campaign has gotten into bed with an anti-gay gospel singer. I would love to believe differently but, yeah Vicki, my own mini-research backs it up. Dang. WTF.

So I have some some questions for my fellow Obama supporters.

1) Why a gospel tour at all? We Black folks listen to all kinds of music, and gospel is the least of it these days. What's with the religious pandering?

2) And what's with the Obama staff's lack of oversight? In the Google era, surely the Obama team could have read about his views in advance and averted this disaster by not inviting him along at all.

3) Why not admit fault? Gaffs will occur, but I cannot believe that the Obama team is willing to endure this crisis rather than simply ask this man to step aside. If McClurkin's as supportive of the Obama campaign as he insists in today's press, certainly he would choose to step aside for the greater good of the campaign?

To which, McClurkin states in today's paper that he is not anti-gay. I went back to his piece in Charisma Magazine, and can only note that he's mincing words (i.e. "God hates the sin, not the sinner.") I've been there as a Christian, and know that this place of pity is not the same as supporting a LGBT rights agenda.

Here's a clip from the article:

"These tendencies surfaced because a broken man thrust an 8-year-old boy into this whirlwind. Thus my first sexual relationship was with a man. Before I could ever know the purpose or pleasure of a woman, have my first date or even my first kiss, the wound was inflicted, and the seed was planted."

Before you go all liberal with this "he's just talking about his own experience" stuff, let's clarify that he's hooked "a message" onto this experience for his fellow Christians.

"There may be some who will read this and resent some of the statements made about homosexuality. I understand. Some have no desire to change this lifestyle. But there are countless numbers of people who are not happy in this lifestyle and want to be freed from it...For them, I write this without apology, knowing that I've been through this and have experienced God's power to change my lifestyle. I believed that I was meant to be a whole man, made for one woman, and God brought it all about. I am delivered, and I know God can deliver others too."

McClurkin wrote a book with this same message, by the way.

McClurkin sees those "in the lifestyle" as broken people, abused and in need of healing just as he was. While I understand and support his quest to understand the affect of his rape on his sexual development, the message of "gays are broken and should be delivered by God from their sin" has given succor to the hatemongers (including Our Dear Idiot, Mr. Bush).

And, hey, this idea that violence turns victims from their real sexual orientation should be scoffed at. Indeed, you Andrea Dworkin fans notwithstanding, I think we can all agree that the Obama campaign would (and should) run from someone who'd issue a statement like that on the origins of female heterosexuality.

To which, let's rightfully ask the Obama campaign why they believe defending this performer under the "Embrace the Change" banner makes sense.

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Related: Nooses in the news. WTF.