To my African Methodist Episcopal Members,
I recognize that I do not have the authority to discuss African Methodist Episcopal Theology as I am not an ordained minister, yet. But I am a communications scholar and so I make my plea as a Rhetorician.

In January the world lost yet another teenager to suicide as a result of LGBTQ bullying. Our church officially will not perform Gay Marriage and defines homosexuality as an “abomination” like so many African-American Churches.

But this is not a plea for theology reform.
It is a plea for love.

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he affirms that our greatest virtue is not our faith in Salvation or our hope for the future. Our greatest virtue is Love for one another.

We need to be a people that reflects this virtue.

Our church was beget out of pursuit for social justice and equality. We need to continue our tradition. Our Founder, Richard Allen left the Methodist Episcopal Church because he faced discrimination and now our church is doing the same thing. We are keeping a group of people from worshiping God because of their sexuality. I know what scripture says. But I also know that scripture was used to subjugate African Americans for centuries and it is still used today to keep women out of leadership positions in the church. Our reading of scripture that keeps homosexuals from the love of Jesus Christ is no different that the reading of scripture that kept us enslaved and keeps women from the pulpit.

There has been enough bloodshed in the fight for LGBTQ rights.

We need to be a voice of acceptance and love. We preach messages of the wonderful love of Jesus Christ yet we are keeping our LGBTQ brothers and sisters from this love. It is time that we share this love. We need to preach Jesus’ message of comfort and peace to people who cannot find it elsewhere. We need to open our doors. We need to teach our children that discrimination, for any reason, will not be acceptable, and bullying will not be condoned. We need to win back the brothers and sisters we lost because of our failure to shower them with love. We need to embrace those in our community and give them the love and acceptance they need to be who they are.

We need to say there has been enough discrimination, hatred, and violence.

Because, if the loss of the life of a young black man is not worth the AME community fighting for, I shudder to think what tragedy will make the church deem this cause worthwhile.

Yours in Christ,

C. Nikole Saulsberry