In the USA, today is the annual observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.  If he had not been assassinated on April 4, 1968, he would be 78.  

I have no doubt that Martin King would have been an outspoken advocate of gay rights for more than one reason:

■ He was America's strongest proponent of civil rights. The movement he led was called the Civil Rights Movement.

■ Despite the controversy in church and society on same-gender marriage and/or unions, adoption of children by gay parents and for many the right of gay persons to be in same-gender intimate sexual relationships, King was unafraid to “speak out and stand up” for issues that for him were matters of conscience.

C. Eric Lincoln in his book, Martin Luther King, Jr., A Profile, (Farrar Straus & Giroux, New York, 1970) writes of the response to King’s involvements and statements in support of the Vietnam peace movement:  “His public statements on Vietnam alienated him from other black leaders and resulted in a considerable erosion of his black constituency, who felt that their leadership was being co-opted and that attention was being deflected from the civil rights fight by the peace movement.  He was praised and damned in the nation's press for this new venture outside the racial struggle.”

■ Gilbert Caldwell (left) with Martin Luther King Jr and Ralph Abernathy (center) at a 1965 press conference.

Yet criticism did not deter him.  An exact year before he died, he spoke against the war in Vietnam in a speech titled, Beyond Vietnam delivered at Riverside Church in New York City. His commitments of conscience never bowed to those who disagreed, regardless of who they were.

Another illustration of his understanding of the interconnectedness of all human struggles was expressed in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, written April 16, 1963.

He had been jailed in Birmingham, Alabama because of his civil rights leadership.   Eight white clergy placed an ad in one of Birmingham's newspapers questioning his right to be in their city, and suggesting strongly that he and ‘The Movement’ become more moderate in their approach.

In his letter he wrote: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Using the customary rhythms of his speaking and writing, he reminded his critics of the relationship that exists between all struggles.

But, I would go further and suggest that the Martin King who used the imagery of being a ‘Drum Major for Justice’, would find other ways to identify with the struggle in church and society, for full acceptance and equality of access for GLBT persons.

He would remind society of the reality of gay persons who from the very beginnings if human history have been participants and contributors to the human journey.  I believe he would expose the illogic of those who say of gay persons; “Don't ask, don't tell”.

How can reasonable people admit to the significant presence of Gay persons in our families, communities, churches and institutions and pretend that “they” are not there?  I am reminded of the African American novelist, Ralph Ellison who in the Prologue of his book, Invisible Man has his character say of his black reality: “I am invisible, simply because people refuse to see me.”  Supposedly sane people who want gay persons to be invisible are less than sane.

I believe Martin Luther King would, with his sense of humor that was experienced by his closest colleagues, expose the foolishness of the current debate.  He might say this: “All of us are involved in same-gender relationships. Athletic teams, fraternities, sororities, etc., etc. exist where persons have bonded in significant ways with persons of the same gender.  Most of these friendships may not be sexual, but nevertheless they are intimate in very special ways.”  Why not celebrate the joy of ALL of our same-gender connections?

Dr. King might, in his unique way of identifying our human contradictions, ask: “What is is about sexual activity that causes human beings sto become illogical and unreasonable?  We find it difficult to acknowledge and admit that our parents engaged in sexual activity to bring us into being.  We are embarrassed about sex/sexuality that is one of God's great gifts to human kind.”

I use same-gender rather than same-sex when I speak of marriage and unions and relationships, because of our hang-ups on matters sexual. What is it about sex that so constricts and confuses us.  Is it that each time heterosexual persons point one finger of condemnation at gay persons, we forget we are pointing three at ourselves.

I think Martin Luther King would remind those of us in the African American community of those who were not African American who were our allies and advocates in the most dangerous moments and places of the black freedom struggle.

Forty years after their murders, the state of Mississippi is bringing to trial a person accused of the murders of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964: two whites, one black.  

I was in Mississippi during that summer that we called ‘Freedom Summer’; seeking to gain the right to vote for black Mississipians.  I participated in the beginning stages of the Selma to Montgomery, Alabama voting rights march in 1965.  One of my friends and colleagues was a young white Unitarian minister from Boston, James Reeb.  Jim was beaten by a white mob in Selma and later died.

If we who are black are unable to be in an ally/advocate relationship with our GLBT sisters and brothers of every race in their struggle, our commitment to the black justice struggle loses a bit of its integrity.  The negative attitudes of black persons and other persons of color toward the rights of gay persons, suggests that we have forgotten our own struggles that continue to this day.

I cannot comprehend nor understand their theology nor their understanding of justice of many African churchmen who seem to be more ‘worked up’ about a gay Episcopal bishop than they are about the legacy of colonialism that is still present in their nations and their churches, the tragedy of the deaths of millions because of HIV/AIDS, the poverty that exists all around them and in places, the appearance that black totalitarianism is valid when white totalitarianism was not.

As a clergyman, I believe Dr. King would vigorously oppose those in religion who use Scripture to justify their denial of human rights in the church and beyond of those who love someone of the same-sex.  He would remind religious leaders of how historically, the Bible has been used to oppress persons, only in time to reverse their resistance.

Some justified the enslavement of my African ancestors and the legal segregation of those of us who are African American, because they felt Scripture condoned their actions.  Some of these same persons justified the exclusion of women from ordained ministry because of their reading of Scripture, only to later reverse themselves.  The Bible has remained the same once the canon was closed, but human understandings of God’s intent have matured. I contend that always we must use ‘Scripture to interpret Scripture’ rather than pulling out individual verses and sections of Scripture to justify our bias and prejudice.

Those of us who claim to follow the Jesus of history and to embrace the Christ of our faith, must always guard against doing those things that are counter to our understandings of the Jesus depicted in the Gospels.

Finally, I believe Dr. King would push church and society to practice ‘proportional ethics’.  By this I mean, we have become so obsessed with critiquing and denying gay persons their right to express their sexual humanity that we have ignored issues of human survival.

My church denomination, The United Methodist Church, met in its quadrennial General Conference in May of 2004.  This legislative body makes the decisions and articulates the concerns that direct the life of our denomination.  They were so ‘gay dominated’ in their meeting that the ‘post-war’, war in Iraq received little or no notice.

This, despite the fact that President Bush and Vice President Chaney have membership in The United Methodist Church.

How can logical human beings spend more energy in suppressing gay persons and their allies, while avoiding the raising of serious questions about our national war policy in Iraq?

I am fearful that some persons are so convinced that those whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual are such a ‘danger’ to civilization and culture that they are not responding in sensitive and profound ways to the human and property devastation in southeast Asia and parts of Africa.  If it is discovered that some religious leader of any religion is homosexual, will those in his/her community be deprived of aid?

If we in the church are unable to get beyond our ‘gay phobia’ in these beginning moments of the 21st century, historians will have a field day as they write of our foolishness.

A dear friend of mine, Marilyn Alexander, has co-authored a book with James Preston titled, We Were Baptized Too: Claiming God's Grace for Lesbians and Gays (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, 1996)  In the book’s forward, Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes:

“We say that sexual orientation is morally a matter of indifference, but what is culpable are homosexual acts.  But then we claim that sexuality is a divine gift, which used properly, helps us to become more fully human and akin to God, as it is this part of our humanity that makes us more gentle and caring, more self-giving and concerned for others than we would be without that gift.  Why should we want all homosexuals not to give expression to their sexuality in loving acts?  Why don’t we use the same criteria to judge same-sex relationships that we use to judge whether heterosexual relationships are wholesome are not?”

One of the many quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr. that resonates with me long after his assassination is this: “Why is the church so often the tail-light, rather than the headlight on matters of social justice?”

Today those of us within the church and beyond are challenged to embrace the God-given humanity (and sexual orientation) of those we now exclude, oppress and would make invisible.

If we could do this and attack more vigorously matters of human survival in every part of the world, I believe Martin Luther King, Jr. would be pleased.

© 2005 Rev. Gilbert Caldwell.  This article was written for UK Gay News

Monochrome photos courtesy Bloom in the Desert Ministries, Palm Springs, California

Click here for the "prologue" to this article (published December 27, 2004)

Bloom in the Desert Ministries website has a page on Gilbert Caldwell.  This page contains other writing by Gilbert Caldwell, including the 'Gil's Epistle' on same-sex marriage "It Is Not Marriage That Needs Protection, It's the US Constitution" from September 2004

Profile of Rev. Caldwell by the Human Rights Campaign (2004)

From our archives:
Archbishop Tutu Gives Hope for Gays and Lesbians (February 2004)