Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of posts reporting on the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice's National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality. To read the other posts, click here.
As an African American pastor, I have worked for more than a decade to bring hope and healing to the Black Church community by breaking the silence about sex and sexuality. Today, reflecting on the just-concluded 12th annual National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality, I can see that the Black Church is undergoing a radical change. In place of the silence bred from fear and ignorance, we now see our youth and adults affirming God's good gift of sexuality and seeking the wisdom to live responsibly as spiritual and sexual beings.
You can just look at the high rates of unintended pregnancy and HIV/AIDS to know that the silence about sex in the African American church community has been disastrous. The fact that more than 740 clergy, educators, lay leaders and youth came together last week at the National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality to learn, talk and pray about sexuality issues is a breakthrough. And the fact that so many people have taken action to address the problems we face is an unmistakable sign that we are at the dawn of a new day.
Those who know the Black Church know what I mean when I say that talking about sex was taboo. We pastors turned our heads rather than acknowledge teen girls in our own congregations becoming pregnant, young men and women suffering HIV, and domestic violence and sexual abuse being perpetrated in the most upstanding families, including clergy families. We acted as though we did not know that the abortion rate among African American women is more than three times as high as that of White women.
We shattered the bonds of silence at last week's Summit on Sexuality. Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders challenged us to "start doing what we say" as Christians. A health system that leaves 47 million without basic insurance is a betrayal of the values that we as Americans say we hold dear - the values of fairness and justice.
She challenged us to face up to the fact that many of us are guilty of child abuse - of saying we love children but allowing children to go without the basic necessities of life. Having children is a serious, lifelong commitment. We need to fund comprehensive sex education - including but not limited to education about abstinence - and contraception so people have the information and means to plan their pregnancies.
The Black Church - and our society at large - shows enormous respect and concern for the fetus, as do I. But I am also pro-choice because I believe women are moral agents, with the God-given ability to make conscious decisions and to know when to bring or not bring a child into the world. To people who attack me for being pro-choice and call me a "babykiller," I say there's something wrong with a society that is pro-life for the fetus but aborts the child through inadequate health care, poor education, and lack of opportunity.
During the 12 years of the National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality, the Black Church has become more accepting of women in ministry and of individuals who are gay and lesbian in church leadership positions. But we are far from finished in breaking the silence about sexuality in our Black churches. We are still exploring what faith communities can do to improve sexual health, family relationships and communications, youth development, women's lives, and parental responsibility. Hundreds of leaders of the Black Church have taken part in this movement to bring about a new vision of what it means to have "the abundant life," as Jesus called it. A new day is dawning, but what it will bring depends on our will to continue to move forward.
