FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)–The suffering of the homosexual does not compare with the suffering of the black man in America, Dwight McKissic told a chapel audience at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
McKissic is senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and founder of the “Not on My Watch” coalition.
“When homosexuals have spent over 200 years in slavery, when homosexuals have been legally defined as three-fifths human, when homosexuals have been denied the right to vote and own property because they are homosexuals, then we can begin a discussion of parallels [between the civil rights and gay rights movements],” McKissic said Oct. 13 at the Fort Worth, Texas, campus.
Referring to the case of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black killed for whistling at a white woman in 1955 and the tragic history of the lynching of blacks in America, McKissic said, “No white lesbian has ever been murdered for whistling at another white girl. But black men have been murdered for even a perceived interest in white women.”
While expository preaching of the Bible is the norm for the seminary’s chapel speakers, McKissic noted that, in the African-American community, pastors “are required to address current controversial issues, particularly if they interface with racial issues. You cannot be silent on these issues…. [T]o equate civil rights with gay rights is to compare my skin with their sin.”
Saying that all such preaching must be based in the Word of God, McKissic said his sermon was intended to “model” for seminary students a topical sermon that addressed an important contemporary issue.
To that end, McKissic turned to the Apostle Paul’s teaching on sin and homosexuality in Romans 1 in setting forth biblical authority to decry the equating of civil rights with gay rights.
“At the dawn of this new millennium, the church of the living God cannot allow the gay rights movement to hitch itself to the civil rights movement without putting up a fight,” the pastor said. “We must not allow the gay rights movement to persuade this nation to approve of their sin under the banner of civil rights.
“To equate gay rights and civil rights is insulting, offensive and racist,” McKissic said. “It is time for this generation to rise up and say, ‘Not on my watch!’” Not on my Watch is the name of the coalition of African American pastors McKissic has brought together to advance the biblical definition of marriage and family, and to counter the move toward same-sex “marriage” in U.S. culture.
McKissic told the chapel audience that he could offer no guarantee that the battle against same-sex unions would be won. But he held up as an example the “courageous black soldiers” depicted in the movie “Glory.”
“On the verge of a suicide battle and after an all-night prayer meeting,” McKissic said, “[the soldiers] said, ‘If we go down, we’re going down standing up.’
“I’ve come here today to say that we are going to stand up for the Word of God, to stand up for our faith and to stand up for our families,” McKissic said.
McKissic contrasted the civil rights and gay rights movements to show how they are different. “Civil rights are rooted in moral authority,” he said. “Gay rights are rooted in a lack of moral restraint.”
He pointed out the intrinsic differences between racial and homosexual identities.
“I’ve heard that homosexuals say that they discovered they were gay at 18 or 25 or 33 years of age. I don’t know any black people who didn’t discover their blackness until they were 25 years old…. I’ve met ‘former homosexuals.’ But I’ve never met a ‘former black person,’ other than perhaps Michael Jackson,” McKissic said.
He also pointed out the slippery slope America will find itself on if homosexuality is accepted as an innate human characteristic. “If I could be a homosexual by nature,” McKissic said by way of example, “I could also be a polygamist, adulterer, pedophile or child molester by nature. Should we pass laws to approve of these behaviors?”
Regarding the legal issues involved, McKissic said civil rights “are rooted in constitutional authority. Gay rights are rooted in civil anarchy.” He later referred to gay rights judicial rulings as “constitutional anarchy and carnal antinomianism.”
“There are no constitutional guarantees given to people based on their unnatural, unhealthy, unholy, unwise and unbiblical desires to marry people of the same sex,” the pastor said. “There is no such right in the Constitution.”
McKissic acknowledged the citizenship rights of gay people as Americans. But he said gays should not be given special privileges or special protection simply because of how they engage in sexual relations.
Addressing the issue of historical parallels between the civil rights and gay rights movements, McKissic noted, “The civil rights movement was birthed in the church” whereas “the gay rights movement was birthed in the closet and it should stay there.”
“When Christians open their Bibles, God opens His mouth,” McKissic said in reference to Romans 1:32. He cautioned seminarians that the Bible not only enjoined homosexuality, it also issues a strong warning to Christians who condone such behavior.
“On the subject of homosexuality and same-sex ‘marriages,’ God has spoken and He did not stutter…. God’s Word not only disapproves of homosexuality. It disapproves of those who approve of homosexuality,” McKissic said.
The consequence of this for Christians, he said, is that they must find out “where a politician stands on the subject of same-sex ‘marriages’ and civil unions” before they vote for that person.
“If we vote for a politician not knowing where he stands,” he said, “we could find ourselves approving of what God disapproves.”
“As for me and my house, we’re going to cast our votes for politicians whose positions line up with the Word of God,” McKissic said. “Any politician who believes gay rights and civil rights are comparable is not fit to lead us.”
In answering the question of why he is so passionate about this particular issue, McKissic quoted Martin Luther: “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Here I stand. I can do no other.”
McKissic admonished his listeners to remember the two biblical cities that God destroyed by fire when the populace did not turn away from the sin of homosexuality.
“We in America are on the brink of approving same-sex ‘marriages,’ which would put us in the same category as Sodom and Gomorrah,” McKissic said. “So I want to warn Americans today, in the words of the late Dr. E. V. Hill: ‘God has another match!’”
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For information about the national debate over same-sex “marriage,” visit http://www.bpnews.net/samesexmarriage
