Gays And Wright

A reader writes:

If there is any "gay" view of Jeremiah Wright, it is that's he's seen as the proponent of the highly dubious theory that AIDS is a government plot against black people. Criticizing that theory, and his belief in it, is a perfectly reasonable, indeed essential, thing to do. However, much of the rest of the demonizing of Wright deflect from three items of immediate gay interest:

1) the UCC is probably the most pro-gay Christian denomination outside of MCC;

2) Wright's church, Trinity, is the largest member of the UCC; and

3) Wright himself has become gay-affirming in recent years, though he wasn't always.

Very, very few black pastors have confronted homophobia in the black community in the name of Jesus as powerfully as Wright has. His ghastly paranoia about the origins of HIV is indefensible, and wicked. But his Christian defense of the dignity of gay people in a very homophobic subculture is remarkable, as is his outreach to some of the most vulnerable people with HIV. And I doubt that Obama's unprecedented defense of gay dignity in a black and a Christian context would have taken the form it has without Wright's influence. Certainly both Wright and Obama have taken more risks and spoken more truth about gay people when it might have hurt them than the Clintons or McCain ever have or ever will. I will not defend Wright, but I do think this is worth putting out there for a fuller picture.