This didn't make it into my piece on gay rights and race in D.C. today, but it's important enough that I feel the need to mention it. Dennis Wiley, a Baptist minister who is co-pastor of the Covenant Baptist Church in Ward 8 with his wife, studied with James Cone and considers himself a follower of Black Liberation Theology.
Now, because of Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory and intolerant statements before and after the election, and because of a concerted effort on the part of the right, Black Liberation Theology got reduced to a kind of doctrine of "black supremacy." Wright may have made an accurate evaluation of what BLT is actually about basically impossible. But Wiley told me, in no uncertain terms, that, aside from personally meeting LGBT folks, it was his study of Black Liberation Theology, and its focus on what Wiley called the "multidimensional aspect of oppression" that led him to see the fight for gay rights as a civil-rights struggle and to start performing same-sex-union ceremonies at his church. (Wiley says that if same-sex marriage becomes legal in D.C., he will perform those too.) That's not surprising--whatever Jeremiah Wright's faults, he is not a homophobe. I'm not sure what all this means, exactly, but I think it's worth mentioning.
-- A. Serwer
