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Faith & Pride: We All Have a Seat at the Lord’s Table

"For Black people, faith is foundational."

When I arrived at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia to begin my seminary studies, I was one of the few, if not the only openly same gender loving student on campus. I felt like an outcast in a room full of people who expressed a call to live the love of God as church leaders, but this was a culture shock for me. I had always felt welcomed and affirmed in the faith spaces I grew up. While passionately angered through this transition, I found purpose in pushing faith communities beyond their place of stagnant comfort to model a love for all. Faith told me that I was created by God and in God’s image, and that was all I needed to know. Nine years after this foundational experience, I am proud to continue this work. 

For Black people, faith is foundational. For Black LGBTQ/SGL people, faith communities are a source of both joy and pain. This tension can sow division. But we cannot say we are the church of God, full of the faithful to only recognize LGBTQ/SGL people in music ministry and other forms of creative expression. Faith in pride means we recognize our strength comes from struggling together when everyone has a seat at the Lord’s table. The Black faith community must be intentional about repairing this divide.

As we celebrate Pride Month, we are given an opportunity to celebrate our lived experiences as members of a community both Black and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and same gender loving (LGBTQ/SGL). Pride Month and celebrations provide spiritual gatherings of hearts, minds, and souls to collectively inspire and encourage one another to live our best lives. This is also what faith does; it provides a calm assurance that grounds one living in truth. So then, what is the work of faith in pride? 

First, we must love enough to apologize for the hurt that faith communities have caused to the Black LGBTQ/SGL community. The church has called us sinful because of our lived truth. We must remember 1 John 4:20, “For whoever does not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, who they have not seen.”

Second, we must celebrate the diversity of gifts and expressions that exist within our beloved community, as codified by Paul in his letter to the church in I Corinthians 12:12, “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” 

Finally, the faith community must push past the place of believing that Pride is only about rainbow flags and parades. This requires holding space for all members of the community. Pride in faith must be about living unashamedly in truth. The call to action is simple: “unity in diversity.”

For hundreds of years the Black church has stood for those who have been rejected by the world; the oppressed, single parents, homeless brothers and sisters, orphan children and the like. In his writings, The Church in the Life of the Black Family, Rev. Dr. Wallace Charles Smith, establishes the black-extended-family concept as a way to think about liberation for African American people. This family model instructs us that we should take pride in living and worshipping together, in faith. Faith family models must include Black LGBTQ/SGL people. We too are living examples of the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ. 

As this month’s Pride celebrations come to an end, it is important that we continue to call ourselves to this work of freedom. We must ensure that Black faith communities are ones in which Black LGBTQ/SGL people can seek solace and refuge with God. The work of ensuring that Black spaces are affirming for us all is a critical component of the National Black Justice Coalition’s work. I invite you to join us in this work to learn more about how you can act, in faith, to hold space for all people during Pride Month and beyond. 

Rev. E. Taylor Doctor is a third generation ordained minister of the Gospel and the Director of Programs for the National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and same gender loving (LGBTQ/SGL) community.

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