In response to Otis Clayborne’s editorial that appeared in the Oct. 26 issue of The Panther, I want to offer more of a personal and professional opinion. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want to believe, live how they want to live, and worship who they want to worship, for it is a right afforded to us by being citizens of the United States of America, and in my opinion a God-given right.It’s amazing how we, the African-American race, can magically use the Bible to be the sole research for whatever topic we are arguing. Mr. Clayborne, you cited the same old typical scriptures that all of straight society always quotes. Leviticus 18 says, “Man shall not lie with man.” I have laid with a few men in my five years of being openly gay with myself, family, and friends. I have never laid with a man as a woman, but as another man, my equal. If I wanted to lay with a man as a woman, I would get a woman. You must be very careful because each scripture you use can be distorted for the fact of making the person who you are challenging look good.
While you were reading your Bible did you happen to look over a few more of the scriptures that society often conveniently ignores? Leviticus 19:27-28 says, “You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard. You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor tattoo any marks on you. I am the Lord.” For the most part we all get nice tapers, even cuts, and fades, so is this greater than homosexuality? What percentage of the student body has some type of tattoo or piercing on their bodies?
It is the same Bible that was used by slave owners to justify the oppression of black slaves? So where do we as a people draw the line? Do we simply just pick and choose what gets us to heaven and what does not? It is sad that so many of my peers preach what they want to preach instead of trying to unite and find common ground when it comes to understanding a higher source.
I often wonder when I read articles and editorials like Mr. Clayborne’s, I just have to remember that like many of my other peers it’s just a repeat of homophobic rhetoric recited by their pastors and parents. It seems that anyone who challenges the rhetoric or the word must be a non-believer of a devil. The truth is when it comes to many topics and issues in the Bible, people often quote scriptures they like to fit the situation, often without any knowledge of the real facts.
I am an openly gay homosexual black man living in Texas and life has not been a walk in the park. It is wrong immorally for me to love another man, yet it is okay for our community leaders, pastors, political figures, and parents to lie, cheat and steal. If no one else has said it, I have. We can focus time and energy on slamming the gay community with irrelevant issues and use the Bible in pitiful attempts to justify ignorance. Walk around PVAMU and I promise you will find many more things along with homosexuality that indeed the Bible condemns.
In conclusion, Jesus never discusses homosexuality anywhere in the Bible. I am a true believer in the word, and I have my own personal relationship with God. I am on my own journey to a heaven that I truly believe exist. I, just like everyone else, was created out of sin, and I am not perfect, but at the end of the day when it is all said and done for Terrence Omar` Gilbert, God himself will have the last word. We must first of all learn to love each other as brothers and sisters.
RESPONSE by Otis Clayborne II
The Bible declares in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
First, I would like to say, to clear up any confusion, Leviticus 19:27 was taken out of context. I Corinthians 11:14 says, “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” In Leviticus, the children of Israel were involved heavily in witchcraft, and they shaved designs in their hair and marred symbols in their beard to channel different spirits. This scripture doesn’t pertain to tapers and fades. Verse 28 still stands, though.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
God is clearly saying all scripture is sound doctrine and is given to those who want to be perfected through Jesus Christ. For those of us who know the scriptures and choose not to abide by them, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate ‘(not manly in appearance or manner)’, nor abusers of themselves with mankind ‘(the homosexual)’, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
As I end, I have to leave you with one more scripture, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables,” 2 Timothy 4:2-5.