Barack's Gay Gospel Scandal

The Progressive Media Project asked me to weigh in on the scandal around the gospel tour organized by the Obama camp that featured controversial "ex-gay" minister (and Grammy award winner) Donnie McClurkin... Check below for what I came up with.  I focused less on the scandal itself and more on Obama's inability to capitalize on it.  I think Hilary's strength in the campaign so far is that her team has been able to make a gallon of lemonade out of every lemon tossed her way.   Similarly, Obama might have used this as a moment to define the vision and savvy of his campaign as opposed to underscoring its general mediocrity at politics as usual.

Also check out my friend Kenyon's take on it if you're hungry for more...

Sen. Barack Obama needs to draw the right lessons from his recent gay gospel scandal.

The Obama campaign announced a few days ago the lineup for "Embrace the Change," a series of gospel concerts in South Carolina designed to woo African-American votes in a state holding one of the nation's early, attention-grabbing primaries. What the campaign thought would be a popular event with superstar gospel acts turned into a political and PR nightmare when it was revealed that the roster included gospel star, minister and avowed "ex-gay" Donnie McClurkin.

The Grammy award-winning McClurkin has come under sharp criticism for his position that LGBT people have made a choice that goes against God.  This teaching is underscored by his description of his own life — after 20 years living in the shadows as a closeted gay man, he argues that God gave him the "wherewithal" to become a heterosexual.

The Obama team was put on the defensive. The senator claimed he didn't know about the minister's anti-gay views and that his staff had not properly vetted him.

What should really concern us about this campaign misstep isn't the initial mistake. If this was a simple error, the Obama team could have pulled McClurkin, citing a clear difference of opinion. But a recent poll by Winthrop University shows that 74 percent of African-Americans in South Carolina find "homosexuality" to be "unacceptable." Thus the campaign saw itself on the opposite side of this issue than its constituency. So, McClurkin was allowed to remain on the tour, alongside Mary Mary, a popular duo that has compared being gay to being a "murderer" or a "prostitute."

The Obama team felt caught between alienating the LGBT community, in particular the largely white institutions that the campaign is close to, and being seen as out of step with a black community on the fence between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The controversy presented a real opportunity, however. That 74 percent number hides a real diversity within the black community on LGBT issues. Even concert-goers surveyed by CNN who expressed support for McClurkin offered a range of explanations, including First Amendment rights and nuanced views on his positions. Here was an opportunity for Obama, who claims to be the great uniting force, to bring in some of the many black faith leaders who are actively participating in a dialogue within the church about homophobia.

Instead of calling on one of these faith leaders, the Obama team turned to a white gay minister to join the tour and put the black community on the right road.

Obama had the chance to show the nation he could take a long-standing division in the African-American community and use his power and celebrity to build a bridge that helped all move forward. However, we've gotten the usual — engaging black folks through spectacle instead of real politics and looking away from the diverse leadership in Black communities in favor of a quick fix that leaves the political crisis intact.

In the beginning, Obama offered us more than politics as usual. If he continues to let a coldly calculating campaign turn him into just another politician, the failures of the gay gospel scandal, though fleeting, will foreshadow the defeat of real leadership at the hands of cynical politics.

Comments

[frequent reader]

Nice post. You definitely hit on the most inexplicable move: Obama bringing in a gay white preacher to his gospel tour. That's gotta be the most politically tone deaf action possible. How did he even ever get elected to the state legislature with instincts like that?!?

[Sharon K]

When I first learned of the scandal that arose from the gospel tour, my initial gut reaction was that the tour was most likely organized by people within the Obama camp who are not black. I have no doubt that Barack and Michelle Obama would have known that the lineup for "Embrace the Change" would create a minefield for Barack.

However, I decided to support Obama even after hearing of the scandal. If a democrat wins this race, he or she will be inheriting a hornet's nest of problems some of which are ticking time bombs that could all of us at risk. Hillary has many skills but the ones that will be most valuable, under those conditions, are diplomacy, compromise etc. I think Barack is better at that as was evidenced by his role in changing the death penalty in Illinois.

I wasn't happy to hear about how the South Carolina gospel tour was handled and I suspect that he was probably disappointed too and will learn a lesson and move on. I think he already has.

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