Black vs. pink

Oh ... me love me the cases of "let's you and him fight."

Sen. Barack Obama committed the capital offense at the weekend of associating with bigots, homophobes and other leper types. Well, not really. He had a gospel-music fund-raiser in South Carolina and one of the performers was Donnie McClurkin, an ex-gay who says God saved him from the gay lifestyle that grew out of a case of homosexual-seduction/statutory-rape as a boy.

There was a pathetically small picket. But the news/blog reaction was amazing. Obama associates with such vile sinners -- crucify him!!! The pharisaic gay left went ballistic for a week and beyond. The intellectual value of those links is essentially nil, but their entertainment value is enormous. It's been like a contest to see who could say the most inane thing.

(You wanna know how bad it was: Andrew Sullivan was an island of sanity, calling himself "a little taken aback" by the reaction.)

• Earl Ofari Hutchison calling McClurkin a "gay basher" (really? has the definition of "gay bash" stretched to the point where no "bash" actually has to occur)
• The Washington Blade calling him a "vote whore" (maybe he can took out a listing in the Blade's classifieds. There's a whole section.)
  
• Mother Jones stating that the "black masses" are ignorant enough to fall for anything set to music (whoa ... aren't liberals supposed to be the ones *against* racial stereotyping)
• James Hannaham at Salon compared the McClurkin invite to a situation involving "a Holocaust denier" (I call a "Godwin")
• The very excitable John Aravosis compared it to "if Hillary invited David Duke" (ditto)
• The arrogant Wayne Besen, calls it "most offensive" to call Obama's disagreement "a mere 'disagreement.' It’s not just a disagreement. It’s repugnant." (so he gets to decide what issues there are legitimately two sides on; this is not the first time he has said this)
• The MyDD commentator who compared it to "OJ Simpson ... sing[ing] the national anthem at their event" (take it away Chris Rock at Track 9)
• Gay_Blog makes the ultimate low blow -- "taking plays from the campaign [of] Karl Rove" (is there no limit?!?!? Nazis I can take ... but Karl Rove?!?!?!)

Obama himself gave an interview to the Advocate, and was admirably forthright in defending his invite to McClurken without trimming his sails on gay issues (as the Advocate likes them). The best part:

One of the things that always comes up in presidential campaigns is, if you’ve got multiple supporters all over the place, should the candidate then be held responsible for the every single view of every one of his supporters? And obviously that’s not possible. And if I start playing that game, then it will be very difficult for me to do what I think I can do best, which is bring the country together.

Look, when I went to Rick Warren’s church at Saddleback, he was under enormous heat because, among his constituency, my position on LGBT issues and my position on abortion is anathema. So his position could have been, we will not have Obama speak because he does not subscribe to our views on these two issues. To his credit, he allowed me to speak, in his church, from his pulpit, to 2,000 evangelicals. And I didn’t trim my remarks, I specifically told them, “I think you guys are wrong when it comes to issues like condom distribution.” And by the way, I got a standing ovation.

My views on gay issues and on choice issues are well-known. I did not trim my sails in the conversation I had with them. And I think as a consequence of appearances like that, I am helping to encourage understanding that will ultimately strengthen the cause of LGBT rights.

The. Guy. Is. Good. Regardless of the merits of his stance, Obama was actually willing to go to the Advocate and defend it to an audience not primed to hear it. One struggles to think of the gaseous shroud of verbiage Hillary Clinton would have covered, assuming that she'd have stood up to the Gay Establishment as Obama did (which I doubt).

Probably the best comment was this pro-Obama blog that tracked down the reactions from the same leftists yelling "anathema sit" when Warren was taking heat for inviting Obama. The comparisons are ugly. The blogger concludes:

There is no way to unify this country if people on both sides refuse to be in the same space as those with whom they disagree.

Bingo.

But at concert night itself, guess who was the biggest hit of the night? McClurkin. So says the Washington Post:

In Columbia last night, a crowd of more than 3,000 in a packed auditorium cheered and clapped during speeches from Obama aides and taped videos of the Senator and his wife, neither of whom attended, but leaped up for applause and cell phone pictures when McClurkin was introduced.

And he even addressed the issue of homosexuality directly:

After another song, he specially addressed the issue of homosexuality, saying he had been "touched by the same feelings."
"Don't call me a bigot or anti-gay,' he said. "Don't call me a homophobe, because I love everybody. . . Let me tell you something, the grace of God is given to all men," he said to loud applause.

Preach it, brother. Anybody who calls me or McClurkin homophobes is an idiot. We know of which we speak. If we "feared" homosexual persons, why would we be around them. We have the same feelings in our genitals as gay people do. If we've acted on it, we've probably enjoyed it as much as they do -- at least in the moment. The Fred Phelpses and Cavemen of the world detest as much as they do you (probably more; we're pretend-Christians, false prophets, etc.) We are part of the same culture, the one that tells us homosexuality is just fine, and might even make us more special or chic.

But we also know that it's possible not to give in to it, if we put God first in our lives and seek out his grace, however intermittently or stumblingly. And with whatever result, whether legitimate marriage or chaste celibacy.

He then went ahead and touched the third rail (video available at the link)

Don't tell me that I stand up and I say vile words against the gay community because I don't. I don't speak against the homosexual. I tell you that God delivered me from homosexuality.

There's just something aesthetically pleasing about people not backing down from political pressure from the Gay Mafia, be it Obama or McClurkin. Perhaps it takes being black and so getting a lot of "must not be a racist" eggshells surrounding you to be able to preach it.