Julian Bond, head of the NAACP, skipped Coretta Scott King’s funeral:
Bond, who has served as NAACP chairman since 1998, was teaching in Charlottesville Tuesday and told the approximately 300 students of his “History of the Civil Rights Movement” class why he chose not to attend King’s funeral that day. According to several students in the class, Bond said he felt King would oppose the views concerning gay rights held by New Birth’s senior pastor, Bishop Eddie Long.
In December 2004, Long and members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church held a march in favor of a constitutional ban on gay marriage, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
I thought it was bizarre that they held the funeral in a politicized, right-wing Evangelical mega-church, rather than in Mrs. King’s own church.
Good for him. My parents joined that church while I was in college in C’vile, when the church was wee small compared to now — about 500-1000 or so, and just getting started on its rocket ride of growth. I pulled away because it got (a) too big — I’m not a fan of McGod — (b) too ego-driven — I remember when Long crowned himself a bishop, and thought I was witnessing a cult of personality being born, because, er, the Missionary Baptist Church doesn’t have bishops; and (c) too political, with endorsements of lots of dubious folk. [It’s worth noting that his drift toward the right, though, started with his falling out and enmity with Cynthia McKinney, who’s plenty dubious in her own right.]
Thanks for the link.
Yeah, it is good to see that Bond holds on to his principles.
Several years ago when I lived in Kansas… oh, geez, like TEN years ago or so… I was part of a coalition working on getting an amendment added to our local human rights orientation to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The head of the group opposing us was the minister at the town’s largest African-American church, and invited Julian Bond to town for the annual MLK Day celebration. Bond took the opportunity when speaking to talk about how shameful he thought it was that the so many black churches in town were on the wrong side of the amendment and embarassed the hell out of the minister who invited him.
He kicks ass, period.
I had Bond for History of the Civil rights back in the day. He spoke out on issues then. He’s one of those men you admire because they seem unflappable, no matter what happens. And his class was one of the best I took at The University.