Obama Under Fire For Gospel Tour With Anti-Gay Singer

Hat tip to one of my readers for alerting me to this story. There is growing controversy over Sen. Barack Obama's "Embrace the Change" gospel tour which starts Friday in South Carolina to promote the liberal Democrat's presidential bid. Singers on the tour include Rev. Donnie McClurkin, a Pentecostal minister and Grammy Award-winning singer who has crusaded against homosexuality and who claims that he is an ex-gay. On his website, Sen. Obama said he disagrees with Rev. McClurkin's views on homosexuality, but he did not cancel the appearance.

Among those asking Sen. Obama to cancel the event is Wayne Besen, executive director of the gay advocacy group Truth Wins Out. “Obama’s statement was inadequate and we are disappointed that he failed to sever ties with Donnie McClurkin," Mr. Besen said on the group's website. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a black political analyst, got the ball rolling Friday on the liberal Huffington Post with a post headlined "Obama Should Repudiate and Cancel His Gay Bash Tour and Do It Now."

Joshua DuBois, the Obama campaign's religious affairs director, said in announcing it: "This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom about how politics is done and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level. This concert tour is going to bring new people into the political process and engage people of faith in an unprecedented way.”

My response: I didn't know Mr. McClurkin was a reverend, nor that he calls himself an ex-gay (although I'm not surprised about his gay history, because he always struck me as "sweet"). Let's talk numbers. Gays are, at best, 2% of the total electorate. Blacks are 12% of the total electorate. While there are certainly people who are both gay and black, it is white gays by far who are leading the charge against this gospel tour. Sen. Obama losing the gay vote is politically irrelevant. However, Sen. Obama is in a big battle with Sen. Clinton for the black vote, which comprises the majority of the Democratic primary electorate in the state of South Carolina. This gospel tour - and the criticisms of it by (overwhelmingly white) gay activists - may actually help Sen. Obama with black voters, because he may rightly or wrongly be seen in some black quarters as defending black culture from gay folks.