While I plan to get deeper into this particular subject, I felt it important to at least engage, albeit briefly, on the subject matter.

The Earth cracked, just a bit, for many Black pastors and Christians when President Obama announced he was in support of gay marriage. This tore open a slice in the gender constructs within Black cultural milieus that has, especially in Christian circles, gone unengaged with for decades.  Sexuality, sexual orientation, its twin cousin gender performance is a continual issue for many Black Christians. The idea of how do I act as a man; how do I act as woman; role performance; femininity; masculinity; sexual awareness, are all issues that tend to be seen as very binary for Black Christians—generally speaking. For example, you are either having sex within marriage, in a heterosexual, monogamous relationship or you are “sinning.

Admission – I watch Glee.  I could make a litany of excuses, but suffice to say, I once played Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls, have seen more than a few dozen (like 5 dozen or so) musicals/operas, am constantly amazed by the vocal ability of the actors on the show, and just plain like a good song sung well.  I could do without the plots and dialogue and questionable moral choices, etc., etc., etc. – but I do like the voices and Lea Michelle is about as good as they come.

If you missed it, and you might have missed it, last week Glee did a show called “Grilled Cheesus” where one of the main characters cooks up a tasty grilled cheese (I like those too, with our without a song) and sees the image of Jesus burned into the bread.  From there the plot unfolds and so do the offensive, dare I say blasphemous (praying over an image of Christ in the hope of fondling a girl’s chest), depictions of Christ and Christianity.  If you want the full details you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grilled_Cheesus , or you can just trust me that the show went there and brought the atheist anti-dumb Christian perspective along for the ride.

I read this article on Change.org this morning - "Will There Ever Be a Post-Gay Identity?" - and it struck me that if I removed the LGBTQ references and replaced them with Christian references, the article would have been just as relevant. For example, 

"So what's next? Will we reach a time when there will no longer be a need for separate bars or centers, bookstores or retirement communities? Will there ever be such a thing as a post-gay identity?"

Well, if there's a subject that's not dealt with very well in the church today, it's homosexuality.  But the fact is we ought to be paying much more attention to this.  In fact, many of you reading this right now are struggling with this.  This is why I'm writing specifically to you.

No doubt you're a bit confused about what to do with this, frustrated with every aspect of this issue, frightened of being rejected by those you love and maybe even angry with God because of all this.  There are times in which you wonder if it would just be easier to give in to the struggle.  Maybe you've dabbled in a relationship, maybe you've fully engaged in the lifestyle...or maybe you're seriously considering doing either.  Or, maybe you haven't engaged in a physical way with another person, but you consistently engage online with conversation and even porn sites.