Tony Perkins has another rough interview

Does anyone remember that comedy movie Airplane and the scene with the hysterical woman? The stewardess kept slapping her to calm her down. Since she was unsuccessful, another stewardess took over. And then another one. Pretty soon, a line forms behind the stewardess of people who will take their turn in attempting to calm down the hysterical woman. One man is wearing boxing gloves. One woman has a tire iron in her hand. Another woman has a gun. And so on and so on.

I was reminded of that scene because of an interview that CNN's Brooke Baldwin conducted with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins. Now Perkins has been having a rough time recently during news interviews. He was called to the carpet on his anti-gay distortions by CNN's Soledad O'Brien and then was further knocked on his ass on MSNBC's Hardball by Congressman Barney Frank with a little assist from host Christ Matthews.

And now Baldwin seems to want to get a piece of the action. She not only takes Perkins to task but asks him point blank about his homophobia and the fact that he doesn't know any same-sex families. Of course there was room for some improvement. When Perkins goes on a tangent about what his children are taught in schools and such, I wished Baldwin would have reminded him that gay couples have children also. Still seeing Perkins squirm in the morass of his lies was satisfying.

'SPLC blasts NOM for its anti-gay lies' and other Thursday midday news briefs

National Organization for Marriage Continues to Spread Lies About Gays - The Southern Poverty Law Center blasts NOM for its lies about the gay community. Can a "hate group" designation be next? I certainly hope so.

 Welcome End of a Pseudotheory - The New York Times blasts social conservatives for their need to rely on bad studies.

  Air Force Academy Graduates First-Ever Openly Gay Cadets - Awesome!

 APA President-Elect: Ablow’s Comments Are “Misleading,” “Inaccurate,” And “Potentially Harmful” - Fox News's homophobic doctor in residence, Keith Ablow, gets his just desserts from the American Psychiatric Association.

  Underground LGBT Group Shakes Up Conservative Evangelical University - BAM! 

NPR exposes the complex relationship between the Black Church and gays

Rev. Dennis Wiley

When it comes to gays and the black church, NPR just ripped opened the closet door and all of the bones fell out. An excellent piece which needs more exposure:

Fairly or not, African-Americans have become the public face of resistance to same-sex marriage, owing to their religious beliefs and the outspoken opposition of many black pastors.

Yet the presence of gays and lesbians in black churches is common. And the fact that they often hold leadership positions in their congregations is the worst kept secret in black America.

While many black pastors condemn gays and lesbians from the pulpit, the choir lofts behind them often are filled with gay singers and musicians. Some male pastors themselves have been entangled in scandals involving alleged affairs with men.

"Persons who are in the closet serve on the deacon boards, serve in the ministry, serve in every capacity in the church," the Rev. Dennis W. Wiley, pastor of Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ in Maryland, says of black churches. Wiley is a prominent advocate of gay marriage. "I do believe a certain hypocrisy is there."

. . . Some say pastors' hostility cuts hard against the history of how countless black churches have flourished. The virtuosity of gay singers, musicians and composers has been the driving force in developing popular gospel choirs — even chart-topping, Grammy-winning acts — that make money for a church, help expand congregations and raise the profiles of pastors.

It all happens under an unspoken "don't ask, don't tell" custom that allows gay people to be active in the church, though closeted, and churches to reap the benefits of their membership.

Some say the arrangement is not only hypocritical, but exploitative.

"On the one hand, you're nurtured in the choir but you also have to sit through some of those fire and brimstone sermons about homosexuality being an abomination," says E. Patrick Johnson, an openly gay gospel singer and author of Sweet Tea: An Oral History of Black Gay Men of the South.

Read more of Blacks, Gays And The Church: A Complex Relationship