One Punk Under God

The episode of One Punk Under God that I watched on Wednesday (I guess it was this week's episode) opened with Jay Bakker speaking to a church audience that is almost exclusively African-American. The crowd is enthusiastic and vocal, but then he brings up the fact that he's been criticized recently for speaking out in support of gay marriage. The room goes silent and stays that way as he continues to speak. He calls out the crowd, somewhat vaguely, for not supporting the "freedom" of others considering that their ancestors once lacked freedom. That's an unfair comparison, of course, and you can't help but feel that Bakker was playing to the camera, but regardless you have to also admit the guy has the courage of his convictions even if you don't agree (like I don't) with the basic conclusion that the homosexual lifestyle should be acceptable within the church. We also find out in this episode that the other shoe drops and Bakker's Revolution church loses its primary source of funding over Jay stand on homosexuality. The episode ends with Revolution apparently in jeopardy as Jay announces that he is leaving Atlanta to move to NY so that his wife can continue her studies. It makes me wonder if Jay had this "out" in the back of his mind when he decided to risk Revolution for the sake of speaking out about his convictions...that he might be leaving it soon any way.