RENWL

Pastor Beckley Responds To Our Open Letter On His Petition To Defend Prop 8, Gay Black Folks, And The Black Family

Sometimes it's about finding common ground. And then going from there...

Note: Pastor Joshua Beckley actually responded almost immediately to our open letter to him that was posted on RENWL last Friday Sept. 3. For some crazy reason we didn’t come across his email until today. If you haven’t yet read our open letter to Pastor Beckley we encourage you to do so before reading what he has to say.

Here’s the link to that post: Open Letter To Pastor Joshua Beckley On His Petition To Force CA To Defend Prop 8, Gay Black Folks And The Black Family.

If you have already read it then please read the following reply to us from Pastor Joshua Beckley of Ecclesia Christian Fellowship in San Bernadino.

Good Morning Derrick;

God Bless you for your heart and concern about the Black family in the America and thank you for the tenor and tone of your letter. It was refreshing, as you probably know I haven’t receive very many positive response for my stand and position.

But let me say right off the bat I agree with you wholeheartedly and the video is a prime example of that problem, a problem that I have been concerned about and working with black men in our community from the day God gave me the vision start Ecclesia. I too admire Rev. Harry Jackson and
agree with you about his spirit.

Derrick I am just as committed to the healing, strengthening and saving of the black family as I am about upholding the biblical definition of
Marriage. Understand I am called to preach and uphold the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, and I have no doubt that you Love the Lord as well, and
as a preacher in America I am charged by God to remind our Nation and any nation for that matter what God words requires and declares
(Ezek.3:16-27).

Understand I have never and do not take my position as a personal attack on the gay community, because I believe God love the man but often doesn’t love what he does, and Derrick if you love the Lord,
then I am confident the He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13).

But back to the matter at hand, you sound like a young man passionate and our black families, and therefore must have thought much on what could be
done to turn the tide of decline in our family. I would like to continue this dialogue with you and find out what we can do together to lower the number of out of wedlock births among our single African-American men and women.

Thank you for your kind and respectful approach. I can respect that! God Bless you and your wonderful family. Please keep in touch!

Our thoughts:

Believe it or not, we got a bit emotional when we read his email initially. We were actually afraid to open it at first. His words read exactly the way we thought he was gonna sound—welcoming, mindful of the Lord, scripture quotes throughout—and gentle in his tone. We actually felt a tinge of sadness when he mentioned his lack of positive response to his stance on the Prop 8 matter.

This is what happens when we identify someone as an individual and not as a stance, an issue or simply the opposition. When we individualize ourselves we in turn create the same for another. Even in differences we can’t help but be completely present to the fact that the other is human—like ourselves. In some odd and very inexplicable way it also like we’re about to enter into a friendship of sorts—maybe a partnership in terms of sharing ideas to address the issues we’re both concerned about in the black community. It just feels so odd because never in a million years did we think we were going to conduct anything close to meaningful dialogue with a black minister in our community who actively opposes gay marriage.

Thing is, it was not our goal to convince him of otherwise when we initially reached out to him. And we feel Pastor Beckley understands that based on his words. The point of our open letter was to make contact and share our concerns about the black community.  We didn’t know what to expect.

Just a week ago Pastor Joshua Beckley was the most evilest person on the planet. And now…it’s just not like that.

What a difference a day makes, ya know.

We gotta write him back and let him know that we received his email. Then we guess we’ll go from there. This is just so wild. Maybe we should write a book about all this, “Pastor Beckley And Me: How We Rebuilt The Black Community While Fightin’ About Gay Marriage Tooth And Nail The Whole Time.”

Ha. Don’t think he’d like that title. And to tell the truth neither do we. Wow, this is so weird—-and yea, kinda’ exciting.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in what clearly feels like the beginnings of an amazing and interesting adventure.