Washington Blade
By Dyana Bagby
February 10, 2006
(www.washblade.com)

NAACP Head Skips King Funeral
Bond tells students his absence due to church's anti-gay stands

Civil rights leader Julian Bond, chair of the NAACP, told a group of University of Virginia history students he chose not to attend Coretta Scott King's funeral at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in suburban Atlanta Feb. 7 because of the anti-gay stance taken by the church's senior pastor, according to an article in the Cavalier Daily, the university's newspaper.

Bond, a University of Virginia history professor, told his "History of the Civil Rights Movement" class Feb. 7 that he felt King would oppose New Birth Bishop Eddie Long's anti-gay views.

King, widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., died Jan. 30 due to complications from ovarian cancer. Her funeral attracted thousands to the 10,000-seat church, including four presidents.

Emily Frost, a second-year student who attended Bond's class Feb. 7, told the university paper that Bond "said that he chose not to attend the funeral [because] during her life Coretta Scott King very much [pushed] for civil rights not just for African-Americans but also for gays and lesbians.

"The church that the service was in has historically marched against gay rights and he felt that she had the choice to promote gay rights, and the church had the choice to go against them, and he was also using his liberty to not attend [something] she would be ashamed of," Frost also told the paper.

Bond also discussed his absence at King's funeral in an e-mail to another student and denounced Long's anti-gay beliefs, the Cavalier Daily reported.

"Mrs. King was a strong supporter of gay and lesbian rights," Bond wrote in the e-mail, according to the newspaper. "Her husband was a strong believer in helping the poor and preached a theology of contempt for seekers of material goods - and lived his life that way.

"The pastor of the church where she was funeralized led an anti-gay march through Atlanta - sadly, Mrs. King's youngest daughter, an elder in his church, accompanied him. We cannot know what Mrs. King's wishes were for a funeral - she probably had no choice about church or minister - but I did have a choice - and while I have an abiding respect for my former neighbor and friend, I chose not to be in that church."

Bernice King, a reverend at New Birth, helped organize a march in December 2004 with Long calling for black churches to become more vocal on issues including banning same-sex marriage, reforming the education and health care systems and creating economic opportunities for minorities.

The march, which began at Martin Luther King Jr.'s gravesite at the King Center, drew between 20,000 and 25,000 people, according to Atlanta Police Department estimates.