A college psychology professor's observations about public policy, mental health, sexual identity, and religious issues
David Kirkpatrick has a lengthy analysis of shifts in evangelicalism in yesterday’s New York Times. Called “The Evangelical Crackup,” the article describes what appears to be a shift in evangelicalism away from political activism.
And then the Rocky Mountain News describes a similar shift underway at Focus on the Family with the advent of Jim Daly as head of the organization.
This AP article gives a report from the Embrace the Change concert in South Carolina.
According those on the scene, McClurkin was featured and presented his beliefs near the end of the concert.
My guess is he will get points from African-Americans in South Carolina but he will lose the state.
Obama says his staff did not check out McClurkin’s views well enough (read: we didn’t think anyone would mind that much).
Barack Obama gets creative; instead of canning Donnie McClurkin he added a gay minister, Andy Sidden, to his South Carolina gospel tour.
To the Chicago tribune, Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin says he met up with Obama at an Oprah gathering and liked what he heard from the Senator.
“I believe in his stance. I believe in his platform and his agenda. So when they asked me if I would be a part of it, there was no problem,” said McClurkin, who has performed at both parties’ conventions and identifies himself as a Democrat. “We don’t have to agree on everything, but we do have to agree on the main thing: that there needs to be change and I believe he is the candidate to bring it.”
Regarding his stance on homosexuality, he says:
For years, McClurkin has talked from the pulpit about how he was raped by a male family member as a child. It was that act, he has said, that sent him into living as a gay man for the better part of 20 years. He now says he is straight and that his ministry is open to those who say they no longer want to live as a gay person. What he doesn’t do, he says, is crusade against homosexuality.
“There’s never been a statement made by me about curing homosexuality. People are using that in order to incite anger and to twist my whole platform on it. There’s no crusade for curing it or to convert everyone. This is just for those who come to me and ask for change.”
Elsewhere, the Human Rights Campaign weighs in to change the name of the concert series to “We Forced the Change.”
And this isn’t the first time that the Human Rights Campaign has crossed paths with McClurkin.
Americablog and Wayne Besen have managed to whip the Obama “Embrace the Change” Gospel Tour into an AP story today.
I wrote Donnie McClurkin to ask him if he had changed his views on gay rights with no reply as yet. I also wonder if he is an Obama supporter — which would be a stretch from his Republican National Convention appearance in 2004. From the AP article, it does not appear that he has changed his views about his own experience or how to think about sexuality, but nothing is said about his political views.
Obama now seems to be in a difficult spot: keep McClurkin and send more gay supporters to Hillary or drop him and make a mess of his South Carolina strategy for wooing socially conservative Christians.