The Rev. LaTrelle Miller Easterling is unusual for many reasons. Among them: She’s the first female pastor in the 190-year history of the South End’s United Union Methodist church. She’s also a zealous advocate for gay marriage in a city, and nation, where black ministers oppose it with equal zeal.
Last year Easterling even signed a pledge, in defiance of Methodist policy, to marry gay couples. When she performs such a ceremony — she’s not yet been asked — she risks not only her job but her very ordination.
“I certainly would never think to speak for anyone else, but I have felt strongly for some time now that this is an area where we (ministers) need to come out of the dark ages,” said Easterling, whose husband is a minister and who’s about to send a child to college.
“If you feel strongly about something you feel strongly about it.”
Other local black ministers who feel strongly in opposition to gay marriage, including leaders of the Black Ministerial Alliance and Boston’s Ten Point Coalition, were mostly unavailable yesterday to discuss President Obama’s so-called “evolution” toward gay marriage. Certainly Obama has divided black ministers nationwide, with some preaching strongly against him Sunday despite Obama’s reaching out to them within hours of declaring his gay marriage support. Polls consistently show African-American and Hispanic voters significantly less likely to favor gay marriage than whites, who favor it now by a slight majority.
In Boston yesterday, The Rev. Bruce Wall said he’s heard some ministers express “disappointment” with Obama. But “that doesn’t mean you throw the baby out with the bath water.”
Darnell Williams, president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts, said many religious blacks equate gay marriage with abortion. “So some folks may fall out with the president (over gay marriage) and still vote for him, and others may not,” Williams said.
But Leonard Alkins, former president of Boston’s NAACP, said he doesn’t know why ministers oppose it. “We’re all God’s children,” he said.
LaTrelle Miller Easterling said her thinking on gay marriage, like Obama’s, has “evolved over time,” though she evolved way before he did.
“Our president needs to be in the forefront of civil rights issues and I do see this as a civil rights issue.”
She also said anti-gay stances are based on churches’ teachings, not the Bible, and “misinterpretations” of scripture.
“If people would do good theological research,” she said, “they’d see.”
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