[Peace-discuss] Reverend Bevel's speech

[Phil Stinard]

I just got back from listening to Reverend James Bevel speak at the 
Forgiveness Weekend events at Salem Baptist Church.  He hadn't finished 
speaking when I left at 8 PM due to other commitments--I would have wanted 
to stay for the entire talk--but I did manage to stay 10 minutes longer than 
the large group of people who got up and walked out en masse....

First let me congratulate Aaron Ammons for organizing Forgiveness Weekend, 
an event whose goal is to empower those convicted of felonies and help them 
reintegrate into society.  The weekend got off to a great start tonight, and 
there was a strong sense of comraderie and brotherhood among those present.  
Aaron is a powerful, yet humble, speaker, and he did an excellent job of 
presenting testimonials from people who were convicted of felonies but 
managed to turn their lives around.

Reverend Bevel is a fiery, entertaining speaker, and spent about the first 
45 minutes of his speech discussing Reverend King and the civil rights 
movement, and the role religion played in the founding of the United States 
and its system of laws.  He emphasized that forgiveness is essential for the 
progress of civil rights.  He also said that the country and the 
Constitution was founded on the Bible, and that the US was God's chosen 
country for experimenting with systems of governance.  This laid the 
foundation for the rest of his talk, in which he stressed that blacks will 
empower themselves only by working within the US legal system and by living 
their lives based on biblical principles of sexual morality and male/female 
relations.  Things took a turn for the nasty when out of the blue, he said 
that two bulls can't have a calf, and then launched into a diatribe against 
homosexuality without, remarkably enough, mentioning the words "gay" or 
"homosexual."  He talked about two married couples going on a vacation 
together and the two husbands hooking up.  He made it sound like a joke, but 
it wasn't a joke....  A lot of people got up and walked out at this point, 
and I can't say for sure it's because he was gaybashing--the people who left 
will have to speak for themselves as to why they left.  I was uncomfortable, 
but I wanted to hear the whole thing.  Bevel continued on and said that 
sexual dysfunction is one of the main causes of the breakup of the black 
family.  Then, mercifully, he changed the subject and said that we needed 
prayer in the schools, and that it was a bad thing when the government took 
prayer out of the schools.  I had to leave at that point.

Julio was furious and wanted to leave when the others left, but I insisted 
that he stay with me for the ten extra minutes.  I explained to him that we 
owed Reverend Bevel the respect of hearing him out, and that it was 
important to hear viewpoints different from your own and listen to what your 
"enemy" is saying about you.  He's still angry, so I'll have to go to other 
Forgiveness Weekend events on my own.  As for me, I'm not angry at Reverend 
Bevel as a person, but I am disappointed in his rigid, conservative 
position, and I'm sickened and angry to know that the implementation of his 
teaching methods will result in hundreds, if not thousands, of black gay 
children growing up to hate themselves, living miserable false lives, and 
wondering why they can't be like everyone else.

I could dismiss Bevel as just another right-wing homophobe and walk away, 
but that's not productive, and it's not going to save any lives.  Plus, I 
still respect the man.  I'm hoping that AWARE can set up a dialogue with 
Aaron and others who might share Bevel's views on this and other subjects 
related to racism and black/white relations before an AWARE meeting 
sometime.  It's important for people to understand each other.  I still 
think Forgiveness Weekend is an important event, and I wish Aaron and the 
others the best of success.  I'll see you all there tomorrow.

--Phil