“Notes on faith” is theGrio’s inspirational, interdenominational series featuring Black thought leaders across faiths.
Awakening to a flurry of DMs and texts the other day, I was directed to a short film entitled “God, Gays, and the Gospel.” It opened with a provocative remark by music historian and journalist Tim Dillinger about the connection between gospel music and queerness. Paraphrasing same-gender-loving (SGL) clergywoman Bishop Yvette Flunder, Dillinger plainly states, “There would be no gospel music without gay people … because ultimately, we created it.”
No lies were detected. When we are completely honest, we have always sensed the connection between gospel music and queerness. Having grown up in the Pentecostal tradition, for as long as I can remember, the believers who exposed me to the excellence in gospel music I now know by heart were from the LGBTQIA+ community. Unfortunately, our “don’t ask, don’t tell” arrangements in many churches and the gospel industry have gotten in the way of non-queer folk being let into gay people’s truth. But if we just follow gospel music, its tastemakers, fans, and musical styles, it is evident that God, gays, the gospel message and its music have always been intertwined.
Recognized by many as “The Mother of a Movement, ” Bishop Yvette Flunder, herself a daughter of the Church of God in Christ, is the presiding prelate of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM), an inclusive United Church of Christ (UCC) affiliated organization. Speaking on the issue with the New Yorker, Flunder estimated that over 90% of chart-topping gospel performers are queer — her conservative assessment. She would know; as a hitmaking soloist in her own right on Bishop Walter Hawkins’ 1990 gospel staple and crossover hit “Thank You, Lord,” Flunder is a veteran of the gospel music ministry.
Not only is she a chart-topper; in life, Flunder is partnered with iconic vocalist Mother Shirley Miller, who first recorded the crossover gospel hit, “Oh, Happy Day” — a selection known and requested worldwide. Together, the two have long embodied pulpit and music ministry goals — and couples’ goals — for those who openly and discreetly identify as LGBTQIA+ in gospel music networks.
To be sure, as evidenced in the blues-infused musical style established by gospel music foreparents such as Professor Thomas A. Dorsey (formerly the blues musician Georgia Tom), gospel artists have always blurred the boundaries between the club and the church. Pushing Flunder’s analysis even further, in “God, Gays, and the Gospel,” Dillinger explains how gospel music first found its home in the mainstream, as several of its artists found an intended queer audience and crossed over from church to disco venues, performing gospel to ‘70s dance club rhythms in “gospel discos.”
Chronicling gospel disco as a natural evolution and subgenre, Dillinger traces crossovers from the church to disco by gospel recording artists. From the quartet Mighty Clouds of Joy to Tramaine Hawkins, the music of these presumably non-queer, worship leader-entertainers went beyond the church to help queer clubgoers feel the spirit in the dark — and on the dance floor.
Behind the scenes, Flunder’s good friend, the late Pastor Daryl Coley, is another link in this musical genealogy, having been music director to both Hawkins and disco icon Sylvester James, (popularly known simply as Sylvester). Flunder was a spiritual mother to Sylvester, pastoring him until his death at 41 from AIDS-related complications. And though Coley eventually married and fathered children, he was among the first to divulge his complex queer sexual history to the gospel music industry.
Although I have researched these correlations for over 15 years, without fail, these basic truths seem to shock people, even as they confirm some of their deepest suspicions about the gospel music scene. Whether we readily accept Flunder’s estimation or not, there remains recurrent anxiety about queer participation in gospel music, so much so that it prompted the research for my book, “Flaming? The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance.” As a cisgender, heterosexual, and married theologian woman, I remain concerned by the conflict between the scriptures and our practice of the text and committed to humanizing the very people who are often maligned while doing the Lord’s work. My book sought to look closely at the performances folks have found “peculiar.”
Over and over in our interviews, artists were forthcoming about who they were, especially when they felt safe. And various gospel fans speculated about artists’ sexualities while simultaneously admitting that the music and ministries of those artists have been life-changing, often facilitating a God-encounter. In short, artists like Coley, Sylvester, and contemporary artist B.Slade have long understood the assignment, taking the message of love, joy, and light outside of the four-walled church and into the world, delivering it in a language even non-Christians can recognize.
However, I remain struck by how church culture challenges ethical norms in our treatment of LGBTQIA+ people. How is it that LGBTQIA+ people who lead us in worship are susceptible to being ousted from Black churches? How can we, as believers, participate in one of the most unloving parts of culture at large?
Nothing can separate us from Love
Undoubtedly, LGBTQIA+ musicians are the architects of Black worship in both pulpit and music ministry. Yet historically, SGL believers have been forced to suppress, compartmentalize or forge new paths to faith, delivering themselves from homoantagonistic spaces and entering or creating communities where they can be themselves free of wrath or doubt. Even when exiled or departed from Black churches where conservative theologies preclude loving interactions, LGBTQIA+ believers have always found ways to connect to God’s love in and beyond the church. Our inability to acknowledge these believers as key to our most transcendent experiences contributes to their tumultuous relationship with an unloving church, not with God.
Because God is, and has always been, Love.
One thing is for sure: Though humanity may fail or antagonize us, nothing can separate us from the love of God. I have learned so much about grace observing the lives of LGBTQIA+ worship leaders who were rejected by the family and faith communities they were born into.
For those of us who cannot comprehend LGBTQIA+ plus people being our kin, made in the image of God, allow me to offer this sentiment: “By our love, by our love, they will know we are Christians… by our love.” When I reflect on the ethics practiced within my faith tradition, I am often haunted by the lyrics from this hymn based on John 13:35. Its perspective seems so simple — being known by how well we love — but as an Afro-Protestant Christian raised in a biblical literalist tradition, I have observed the ways we repeatedly fall short of loving our kin when navigating differences. Rather than trying to confirm or dispute one’s sexuality, let’s find our kin where we all meet God. Let’s meet our siblings in doing the work of loving each other well. Let’s love in a way that is more than charity; let it be full of compassion, seeking understanding with a passion.
My prayer for my LGBTQIA+ kin is this:
May your work continue to speak.
May our love rise to meet and understand who you are.
You are a gift from God.
You are made in God’s image.
I confess that we have been unloving to you.
Please forgive us because we had no idea who you are.
May you receive ease, compassion, and grace for your journey.
May you be freed to rise and shine brightly with resounding peace and unstoppable power.
You are loved by the Most High.
Rev. Dr. Alisha Lola Jones is a faith leader helping people to find their groove in a fast-paced world, as a consultant for various arts and faith organizations and professor of music in contemporary societies at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. She is an award-winning author of Flaming? The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance (Oxford University Press). For more information, please visit DrAlisha.com.
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