Special Report: The Worst Homophobic Churches in America
Perfecting Faith Church
Freeport, NY
Donnie McClurkin, pastor
Anytime a preacher is calling gays “vampires,” you’re probably not at a ‘Twilight’ viewing party. In 2009, gospel singer and “ex-gay” convert Donnie McClurkin ranted at a Church of God in Christ youth service that the presence of feminine men in our world is evidence that “we failed.” The youth in the audience quickly laughed at McClurkin’s rebuke, which promptly explains why bullying is so prevalent in schools today. He went on to say that “God did not call young people to such perversion. Society has failed him, his church has failed him … I would be homosexual to this day if Jesus hadn’t delivered.” Want a little more McClurkin anti-gay rhetoric? He’s even compared gays to drug dealers and gang members.
While campaigning for Obama during his first campaign for president back in 2007, McClurkin slammed gays in an open-air speech. Obama responded to Obama’s tirade by saying that he was not in support of McClurkin’s views. “I do not believe being gay or lesbian is a choice,” Obama said back in 2007. “And so I disagree with Reverend McClurkin…Part of what I hope to offer as president is the ability to reach to people that I don’t agree with, and the evangelical community is one where the Democratic Party, I think, we have generally seen as hostile. … There’s a problem of homophobia in the African-American community.”
Years later, McClurkin – who serves as pastor of Perfecting Faith Church in New York – has apologized for some of the language he used, but doesn’t apologize for his views. “There have been some real changes in my approach, but the doctrine remains the same,” he says. “The one thing that I did not have in abundance was love and tolerance. I did not have that.”
