Minnesota church learns price of supporting gays
A small Minnesota church is finding out the high cost of standing up
for same-sex equality—while also receiving an unexpected lifeline from
the very people it decided to support.
When Pastor Oliver White
voted in favor of the United Church of Christ's endorsement of same-sex
marriage in 2005, 72 percent of his predominantly African-American flock
at Grace Community United Church in St. Paul couldn't stand with him.
The
UCC's 2005 vote, he said, was "the beginning of the end of many UCC
churches." Predominantly black churches like his suffered the most, he
said, since the black community "was, and still is, very homophobic."
