Love, Peace and Butt Grease!

Ignorant? Misogynistic? Backwards? Vulgar? Nasty? Un-Christian? Conduct un-becoming of a Pastor?

I really don't know what to call this side show of a sermon that was delivered by Rev. Willie Wilson of the Union Temple Baptist Church in Washington D.C. a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if he was trying to be "'bout it, 'bout it" with his congregation but I hardly find this kind of "coon show" (yes, I said COON SHOW), appropriate for the pulpit or anyplace else when coming out of the mouth of a man who is supposed to be there to spread the Good News about Jesus Christ.

Rev. Willie Wilson
'You'’ve Got to Fight to Be Free'
Union Temple Baptist Church
July 3, 2005


"We live in a time when our brothers have been so put down, can’t get a job, lot of the sisters making more money than brothers. And it’s creating problems in families. That’s one of the reasons our families’ breaking up. And that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians.

You got to be careful when you say you don’t need no man. I can make it by myself. Well, if you don’t need a man, what’s left? Lesbianism is about to take over our community. I’m talking about young girls. My son in high school last year, trying to go to the prom, he said, ‘Dad, I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom because all the girls in my class are gay. There ain’t but two of them straight and both of them are ugly. I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom.’

Now, can I talk here? I ain’t homophobic, because everybody in here got something wrong with him. Whoever you point at, you can point at your own self. You got something wrong with your life. But when you get down to this thing, women falling down on another woman, strapping yourself up with something, it ain’t real. That thing ain’t got no feeling in it. It ain’t natural.

Any time somebody got to slap some grease on your behind, and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that. [Audience shouts and yells its approval in the background.] You got blood vessels and membranes in your behind. And if you put something unnatural in there, it breaks them all up. No wonder your behind is bleeding. It’s destroying us.

Can’t make no connection with a screw and another screw. The Bible says God made them male and female. The Hebrew word "neged," which means complementary nature — there is something unique to man and unique to woman and it takes those two things to complement each other. You can’t make a connection with two screws. It takes a screw and a nut! (shouting)."

Aside from the totally fallacious reasoning and flawed conclusions, it just shows that he, like many other ministers, are willing to use vile language and imagerey to incite and inspire their audiences. I thought preachers were supposed to be teachers but from this sermon he'd have me believe:

• In line with the sexist rhetoric of many of his fellow ministers/religious conservatives, women are to blame for the destruction of the family.
  
• Women who are independent and well-paid have no choice but to become lesbians because they don't need men who make less money.
  
• His son, who obviously was taught that only "pretty" women are worthy, cannot find a prom date because all but two "ugly" girls in his class are lesbians.
  
• Church is the appropriate environment to discuss greased butts and strap ons.
  
• Bleeding butts are the ruination of the black community.
  

Our community is in trouble, alright. But people like the (very,I'm sure) Reverend Willie Wilson are part of the problem -- not the solution.