After much yelling and screaming from some bloggers, Senator Barack Obama decided not to attend the "Embrace The Change" tour the campaign is sponsoring. But the tour goes on.
The idea of the concert tour was to reach out to the religious community, but the opponents to the idea of the concert looked at the record of Donnie McClurkin. The claim of these bloggers is that Donnie McClurkin is anti-gay.
The problem is they're wrong.
This is what the Chicago Tribune wrote: Gospel singer says he is not anti-gay
By Kelley L. Carter | Tribune staff reporter
7:13 PM CDT, October 23, 2007
Gospel music superstar Donnie McClurkin says he was surprised to wake up Tuesday morning to a media firestorm.
The 47-year-old Grammy Award-winning musician is scheduled to perform this weekend at Sen. Barack Obama's three-day concert series in South Carolina. But in the wake of accusations by a gay-rights group that McClurkin falsely asserts that homosexuality is a choice, bloggers are calling for the Democratic presidential candidate to cancel the singer's Sunday night appearance, saying McClurkin's views are anti-gay and incite hate.
McClurkin told The Associated Press on Monday that "sexuality, everything is a matter of choice." But on Tuesday he told the Tribune that his ideals, and most importantly his ministry, were severely misconstrued.
"I don't believe that even from a religious point of view that Jesus ever discriminated toward anyone, nor do I," McClurkin said in an exclusive interview with the Tribune. "Most of the things that were said were totally out of context and then other things weren't true."
"My only concern is to be in place with Sen. Obama in unity and bring all the factors together for the sake of change," he said. "That's my only thing. Of course some agents have twisted it as though he [Obama] were embracing a racist or a Nazi, and that is anything but true."
McClurkin and Obama first connected last month in California at an Oprah Winfrey fundraiser for the Illinois senator.
"I believe in his stance. I believe in his platform and his agenda. So when they asked me if I would be a part of it, there was no problem," said McClurkin, who has performed at both parties' conventions and identifies himself as a Democrat. "We don't have to agree on everything, but we do have to agree on the main thing: that there needs to be change and I believe he is the candidate to bring it."
For years, McClurkin has talked from the pulpit about how he was raped by a male family member as a child. It was that act, he has said, that sent him into living as a gay man for the better part of 20 years. He now says he is straight and that his ministry is open to those who say they no longer want to live as a gay person. What he doesn't do, he says, is crusade against homosexuality.
"There's never been a statement made by me about curing homosexuality. People are using that in order to incite anger and to twist my whole platform on it. There's no crusade for curing it or to convert everyone. This is just for those who come to me and ask for change." I think what's happened is some of these liberal bloggers are just plain stupid, and don't look into things. They just shoot off their mouths. This is combined with some Gay activists who struggle to compare themselves with those who are Black, using a "Straight White Male Centric" point of view.
That's where a Straight White Male is viewed as normal, and everyone else is not, so from that perspective, a Gay person can compare themselves to someone Black.
But it's a crock.
The simple fact is that being Gay is a choice. Being of a skin color is not. Just because a person choses to be Gay does not mean their civil rights should be violated. But it is a choice.
I've dated women who said they were Lesbian, has sex, then got married, or in one case, was married, then Lesbian, then dated me.
If your head's spinning, think about mine!
