Monday, October 29, 2007

"He's a gospel singer, not a spokesman"

Markos:
No one could've seen this coming...

The whole controversy might have been forgotten in the swell of gospel sound except Mr. McClurkin turned the final half hour of the three-hour concert into a revival meeting about the lightning rod he has become for the Obama campaign.

He approached the subject gingerly at first. Then, just when the concert had seemed to reach its pitch and about to end, Mr. McClurkin returned to it with a full-blown plea: “Don’t call me a bigot or anti-gay when I have suffered the same feelings,” he cried.

“God delivered me from homosexuality,” he added. He then told the audience to believe the Bible over the blogs: “God is the only way.” The crowd sang and clapped along in full support.

Aravosis nails it:

So, in the end, Obama let his "best" and "favorite" artist slam gays to thousands of African-Americans, in his name, and neither he nor his hand-chosen white gay preacher said anything in response. Class act, that Obama campaign. For them, creating a "dialogue" means the gay-basher gets to spread his bigotry to thousands while the candidate and the token gay STFU.

It's an all-out implosion by the Obama campaign. This truly is indefensible.

Howie P.S.: My Obama slant might be making it hard for me to understand the congruence between the headline and the last sentence. Greg Sargent takes a less judgmental position. CNN has this story that focuses on Mr. McClurkin's point of view.

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