Donnie’s Little Problem

Our Subject: Pointing the finger, which should come as no surprise

“Everyone needs dick.  See, I can buy fags. Bunch of guys that need dick – just plain need it? That I get.” -Banky Edwards (Chasing Amy)

Donnie McClurkin loves dick. He lusts for it.  He fantasizes about it. He’s obsessed with it. Undoubtedly, if he had his druthers, he’d have his mouth wrapped around one as I type this. Yes, indeed. Donnie is infatuated with men, and he hates himself because of it.

Video has been circulating of Donnie giving a sermon at the recent Church of God in Christ convocation in Memphis, in which he attacks young gay people and speaks, in an admittedly familiar way, about the “perversion” of homosexuality. According to McClurkin, “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 (me).”

He goes on: “I see feminine men, feminine boys, everywhere I go … No, don’t applaud ‘cuz it ain’t funny. It’s because we failed. I see them everywhere.”

Get it? Much like those pesky ghosts that haunted Haley Joel Osment’s character in The Sixth Sense, they’re everywhere. Actually, this analogy works pretty well. Let’s just make a slight adjustment..

Donnie McClurkin: I see gay people.
Malcolm Crowe: In your dreams?
[Donnie shakes his head no]
Malcolm Crowe: While you’re awake?
[Donnie nods]
Malcolm Crowe: Gay people like, in bars? In bathhouses?
Donnie McClurkin: Walking around like regular people. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re gay.
Malcolm Crowe: How often do you see them?
Donnie McClurkin: All the time. They’re everywhere.

As a “former” gay man who has been delivered by Jesus from homosexuality, McClurkin has made no bones about his disdain of gays and of the “gay lifestyle” in the past. He recently took singer/performer/preacher Tonex to task after Tonex admitted that he, himself is gay. Donnie encourages Tonex to turn away from this “affliction” and “pray away the gay.”

I have a HUGE problem with this. First, if McClurkin, who is obviously still gay and still attracted to men (during this same Memphis speech, he likened his same-sex urges to those of a diabetic, “I don’t eat sugar, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t want sugar”) wants to remain celebate (and I highly doubt this, given the lurid rumors of his dabbling in sex with men) so be it. But it’s shameful of him to use his bully pulpit to hatefully condemn unapologetic, uncloseted gays.

Second, I’d like it very much if the anti-gay religious community could come to grips with the fact that a) no amount of prayer or heterosexual programming can change a gay man into a ravenous vagina-pounder and b) gay isn’t wrong. This last point needs it’s own post (or, more likely, a series of posts) so I’ll just leave it at that (for now).

Third, I can think of little worse than a cowardly hypocrite using a 30-year-old tragedy (his alleged molestation as a child) to make excuses for his own perceived failings. Make no mistake about it. Donnie McClurkin isn’t gay because of a traumatic childhood event.  He’s gay because he’s insatiably attracted to men. The former has NOTHING to do with the latter.

I want to make it clear that I certainly don’t intend to make light of Donnie McClurkin’s past. Molestation is a horrible, inexcusable crime, and no one deserves to be made a victim. But it is disingenuous of him to keep pointing to that as the cause for his gayness. Further, I find it unsettling that he can so easily use his own tragedy as a launching pad from which to persecute others. Donnie ain’t right, and he knows it. His problem is, he thinks he’s not right because he’s gay, not because he’s a self-hating charlatan.

Note: Afromamba and I are in the business of helping you solve your relationship problems. Really. We’re good like that. So if you have any questions or need any advice please drop us a line at nakedadmonition@yahoo.com