National Organization for Marriage gloats at African-American church's troubles

Generally, the National Organization for Marriage calls itself an ally of the black church when it comes to stopping marriage equality.

But how does NOM treat black churches who support marriage equality? In the case of one black church in Minnesota, the organization is poking fun at what happened when the minister stood up for gays:

Minnesota Church Loses 3/4 of Its Members For Abandoning Marriage

The left-leaning Religion News Service tries to create sympathy for a Minnesota pastor that lost most of his congregation over abandoning the great truth of marriage, even as the pastor maligns his predominantly African-American flock for "homophobia"

The article in question was actually titled Minn. Church finds the high price of supporting gays and had less to do with marriage equality and more to do with how prejudice potentially harmed a church.

The article talks about how Rev. Oliver White of the Grace Community United Church in St. Paul, MN voted in favor of the United Church of Christ’s endorsement of marriage equality in 2005. Since that time, 72 percent of his predominantly African-American left the church because it was supposedly getting the reputation of being a "gay church."

Of course the fact that NOM makes fun of the church for getting this reputation demonstrates how the organization doesn't know that much about the black church in general. I venture to say that next to women in high hats, gays make up the second largest population of African-American church-going folks.

Needless to say however, NOM deliberately omits portions of the article which does not suit its agenda.

The article goes on to say that while the church may have lost members, it has gained tremendous support and finances from other churches which was not even aware that it existed:

On Feb. 6, White sent 40 letters to UCC congregations across the country, asking for financial help. Out of the 40 letters, the pastor only received three responses: one for $500, another for $600, and then a miracle donation from Dallas.

The Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ in Dallas, the UCC’s fourth-largest congregation and made up mostly of gays and lesbians, came to the rescue of the small Minnesota church they never knew existed by raising $15,000 in a single Sunday — enough to keep Grace Community alive for the next several months.

The cathedral’s senior pastor, the Rev. Jo Hudson, was preparing a sermon for Lent and felt led to revisit the letter from Minnesota that had been sitting on her desk.

“I didn’t know how to respond to the letter at first,” she said. “I began reflecting on my sermon and Black History Month ... which led me to the letter.”

Hudson said she knew her church would have a chance to live out its stewardship theme for the year, ‘Every Gift Matters,’ and White’s letter offered the chance to stand by a church that stood up for gay rights years before.

After just the first service, members contributed more than $7,000. The second service contribution raised the total to almost $14,000. The church kicked in another $1,000 to make it an even $15,000.