Bay Windows - January 29, 2004
Laura Kiritsy, lkiritsy@baywindows.com.

The BMA is listed as a member organization of the Coalition for Marriage, an umbrella organization of 17 national and local groups working to pass a proposed state constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. And Bishop Gilbert Thompson, a BMA executive committee member and pastor of New Covenant Christian Church in Mattapan, recently spoke in favor of the amendment at a coalition-sponsored press conference.

Neither Thompson nor BMA Executive Committee President Rev. Dr. Wesley A. Roberts of the People's Baptist Church in the South End responded to requests to be interviewed for this story.

The BMA is an alliance of more than 80 churches in the Boston area that has established itself as a respected advocate on behalf of Boston's black community within the city's municipal institutions. Executive committee member Rev. Gregory Groover, for instance, is a member of the search committee for the next Boston Police Commissioner. Executive committee member Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond is well-known among city leaders for his collaborative efforts to reduce youth violence in the black community as president of Boston's Ten Point Coalition. In 2002, the BMA received $2 million in federal faith-based funding to expand programs for church and community groups serving at-risk youth in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan, according to the Boston Globe.

That's why those familiar with the organization's social justice work are perplexed by its alignment with the conservative elements working to pass the amendment. State Rep. Byron Rushing, D-South End, who said he has good working relationships with BMA members, expressed concern that the BMA has apparently issued no public statement outlining its position on the issue one way or the other. Rushing, a leading proponent of gay marriage in the Statehouse, said the leadership of the BMA "tend to be reasonable people," and he questioned whether or not Thompson was acting on his own when he spoke in favor of the amendment.

"It's important - if they have taken a position, it's very, very important that they say that," said Rushing. "They have to talk about how their name is being used." While Rushing said he'd be happier if the BMA did not take an official position in favor of the amendment, if it has, leaders need to talk about it. "I'm certainly open to having a conversation with them about this," he said. "I think that it's necessary."

Gary Daffin, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said he has worked with the BMA on HIV/AIDS issues in his capacity as executive director of the Multicultural AIDS Coalition. While he praised the organization for its progress in addressing HIV/AIDS in the black community, Daffin called the BMA's alignment with the Coalition for Marriage "unfortunate."

"And it seems to me that the BMA is, frankly, getting in bed with people that are not friends of civil rights," he said. "And that's very, very troubling." From what he's heard about the organization's decision to involve itself in the passage of the proposed amendment, said Daffin, "there was no open discussion with people on this issue, which is a mistake."

"I don't think the BMA has thought through its position very well," Daffin also said, suggesting it should consider the positions of national civil rights leaders such as Coretta Scott King, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Carol Mosely Braun and presidential contender Rev. Al Sharpton, all of whom frame their support for gay marriage in terms of civil rights.

Daffin said that he and a group of activists met with Hammond last October after the minister testified in favor of a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage before a congressional committee in September. Hammond, who did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story, is an advisory board member of the Alliance for Marriage, the organization pushing the federal ban. While Daffin characterized the meeting with Hammond as positive in that Hammond expressed support for giving same-sex couples equal protections to marriage without the name, Daffin expressed concern about Hammond's assertion - made in both his congressional testimony and during the meeting - that allowing gay marriage would perpetuate fatherlessness in the black community.

"A lot, perhaps most of his testimony I would agree with," said Daffin. "The problem is, it has absolutely nothing to do with letting gay and lesbian people get married. ... I think that's indicative of the problem of the BMA getting involved with this virulently anti-gay group. They want to support black men and women marrying and staying married. But signing on to this extremely anti-gay effort doesn't help their effort at all."

Hammond's position that gay marriage fosters fatherless black families has also been assailed by theologian and Innewsweekly religion columnist Rev. Irene Monroe. "While one of the truths behind black fatherlessness is economics and the systematic disenfranchisement of both African American men and African American women, another truth is about African American men - from the unemployed to the mega athlete - is them not taking responsibility for their progeny," Monroe wrote in a December column. "And none of this has anything to do with same-sex marriage."

Monroe said she has written letters to Hammond calling for dialogue on the issue, but has received no response. "I tell you Jesus will get back to me before Rev. Hammond does," she said.

Monroe expressed concern about the BMA's potential to influence the black community, which is traditionally anchored by its churches. "That's the frightening thing," she said. "African-American GLBT people have long been marginalized in their communities and by the larger Black Church with the 'theological qualifier of love the sinner, hate the sin,'" she noted.

In order to change that, said Monroe, "as African-American LGBT people, we have to really shame the Black Church, and I don't know how many of us feel comfortable with that. We have to call them out, we have to shame them. The Church was built on the notion of justice yet has constructed discrimination that intentionally marginalizes people."

Douglas Brooks, an openly gay man and an active member of Union United Methodist Church in the South End for more than six years, also believes a public stance is necessary to counter the BMA's influence. "The Church and its ministers have power to the extent that people give it power," he said. "You won't find me maligning my church. I won't do it. But I encourage folks ... who are in those churches to have their pastors understand that their time, their talents and their treasures help to provide those ministers with their platform."

Like Monroe and Daffin, Brooks believes the BMA's belief that gay marriage undermines black families is misguided. "My opinion is that there are better coalitions that the BMA could be lining up with that would better serve the community," he said. "Gay marriage doesn't undermine [black families]. There are ministers in that BMA who know that as well."

Union United Methodist Church made history in 2000 when it voted to become the nation's first black Methodist reconciling and inclusive church, inviting GLBT people to be full and equal participants in the life of the congregation. That process was presided over by Rev. Martin McLee, who is also an executive committee member of the BMA.

Brooks is reluctant to discuss the potential quandary McLee faces as a BMA member and the pastor of a congregation that has welcomed openly gay congregants. But he will say this: "I love my church, I love my pastor and I know that I'm loved by my church and by my pastor." While he is aware that there are individuals at Union United who do not support gay marriage, he also knows from "the affirming nods they have given when the subject comes up," that there are many who do.

McLee declined to be interviewed for this article. But he has not shied away from the issue of gay marriage within his church, according to one parishioner. Somerville resident David Rudewick, who regularly attends services with his partner Michael Hight, a choir member, said that McLee discussed gay marriage in his Jan. 25 sermon. "He presented all sides of it, but didn't take a side," said Rudewick.

Rudewick said he has been surprised by the level of support for gay marriage he has heard from other parishioners. Nevertheless, he is fearful about the BMA's affiliation with the Coalition for Marriage. "It's scary. It's very scary to think that they might kind of close the ranks to support this amendment," he said.

But Rushing points out the limitations of the BMA's influence in the black community. "It's not the majority of black ministers because a majority of black ministers don't belong to it," he said, noting that there are more than 250 black churches in the Boston area.

Rushing also asserted that in some African-American churches, "the membership listens but does not follow," evidenced by the fact that the members of many of these congregations are people that elect him and socially progressive state Rep. Gloria Fox to office. "I don't know where most black clergy come down on the issue," said Rushing.

Rudewick, however, is seeking some leadership from his pastor on the issue. Asked if he planned to be involved in efforts to counter the BMA's support for the constitutional amendment, Rudewick replied, "I would hope so. I'm kind of waiting to see what Reverend McLee - what steps he's going to take."

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