01 Jul 2001 Where’s the NAACP? by R.D. Davis

The NAACP is not around to help Ron Greer, a black pastor and fireman in need of assistance. “Civil rights” organizations also weren’t there for Pastor Reggie White, the former Green Bay Packer star, when he had his endorsement deals with Campbell’s Soup and other products pulled. Obviously, civil rights for Christians is not a part of the NAACP’s agenda.

Ron Greer is one of the most hated men in Wisconsin. It all started when a fellow fireman at the Madison Fire Department asked Ron what he thought about homosexuality. Drawing on his faith, Ron gave the fireman a Biblical answer – saying that homosexuality is a sin. That was all it took.

Liberal groups came after Ron in full force. More than 300 shouting left-wing militants held a wild, obstreperous protest outside the church of which he is pastor. They chanted anti-Christian slogans and threw rocks at the church’s windows. Then these thugs rushed into church, shouting obscenities at Ron and the terrified church members. For their safety, five armed policemen had to escort Ron, his wife Rosalyn and their three sons out of the church.

The attacks did not stop there. A radical homosexual group from the local college campus vandalized their home in the middle of the night. They left pink triangles with vulgar homosexual references pasted to the walls and spread them all over their yard. Even worse, many local politicians also attacked the pastor for his beliefs regarding homosexuality. Wisconsin state legislators, county officials and city council members demanded that Ron be fired from at the Madison Fire Department – a job has held for 18 years.

Some insisted Ron apologize for his Biblical views and statements. Madison’s lesbian fire chief suspended Ron for two months, and ordered him to take a brainwashing, pro-homosexual “diversity” training course. Ron refused to be brainwashed, and instead exposed favoritism by the fire chief toward homosexual firemen in the department. The fire chief retaliated by firing him.

Ron was fired after 18 years as a hardworking firefighter in his hometown simply because he spoke openly about his faith. He is yet another target of the left-wing radicals and their political allies who are waging an all-out war against Christians. Sadly, today’s “politically correct” NAACP (the core organization) will not step in to protect the rights of Christians. But, if we have civil rights without Christian rights, we are systemically being enslaved to a godless master.

On February 20, 1993, the NAACP passed a resolution to support “the efforts to end discrimination against gay men and lesbian Americans in areas of American life.” In essence, they are equating the gay rights movement to the early black civil rights movement. One is race-based, however, while the other is behavior-based. This policy is why the NAACP and other black civil rights organizations did not come to Ron’s defense or to the defense of Ron or Reggie or any other black Christian who publicly acclaims that homosexuality is a sin. Have you ever heard Jesse Jackson take up their cause? I havn’t.

Because he was fired, Ron could lose his home. But his hardships notwithstanding, Ron refuses to back down to these anti-Christian militants and to liberal politicians who believe that homosexual behavior should be considered normal. He is going to stand and fight. Ron and his lawyer are challenging his firing in a federal court in Wisconsin. The case may eventually end up going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ron is fighting not only to regain his own good name. He is also fighting to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans to openly express their faith without fear of being attacked. Will we help him?
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(R.D. Davis is a member of the African-American leadership network Project 21 and a writer and radio talk show host in Huntsville, Alabama. He can be reached at [email protected].)

Note: New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21.