240 Miles of Faithfulness

One of the most well known miracles of the Old Testament is the parting of the Red Sea.  The idea of holding back the sea is amazing to people like me who, on multiple occasions, have failed carrying a glass of water from the sink to the dinner table.  Water is one of the strongest and most deadly forces in the world; carving through mountains and destroying entire cities in one wave.  There is an island in Hawaii where lava destroys everything in its path on it's way to the sea.  The sea is the only force that eventually tames the lava. In parting the Red Sea God shows both the destructive force of water and His ability to control it.    The trek of the Israelites did not begin or end with the crossing of the Red Sea.  Israelite deliverance began with acknowledged prayer.

In Exodus Chapter 3 God speaks to Moses from a burning bush.  He tells Moses that He has heard the cries of His people who are captive in Egypt.  The sounds of their oppression has reached Him and He has decided to give them the land of Canaan (Exodus 3:7-10).  Israel's deliverance began with God answering the cries of His people.  In return God did not plan to simply deliver them, but give them a bountiful land with the ability to sustain them.  The Israelites did not pray for what God was preparing to bless them with, God was preparing to bless them above what they asked or thought (Ephesians 3:20).

After bringing plagues on Egypt and forcing Pharaoh to release Israel God chose to lead Israel to the blessing He had prepared.  It would not have been impossible for God to teleport Israel to Canaan and gift wrap the Promised Land, but that is not how God works.

The trek from slavery to the promised land was 240 miles.  I've seen it described as an 11 day journey (an ambitious estimate).  Even at a slow and steady pace, the journey would have been a few months.  For this journey God provided Israel with everything they needed.  He gave them food through manna.  He gave them direction, leading His people Himself.  He gave them protection.  God equipped Israel for this journey to a blessing they couldn't imagine; a blessing that came about as His choice to answer their prayers.  With everything they needed, and fresh out of slavery Israel reacted to their newly found freedom with complaints and gripes.

God heard Israel's prayers, decided to bless them above what they requested, but that generation did not ever see the blessing because they couldn't be faithful in the journey.  Sometimes God hears our prayers and plans to lead us to a blessing.  We never know what that is, or what God has in store for us, but we need to make sure we don't forego our blessings by exhibiting a lack of faithfulness.

A NSFW Marriage

Ladies...What smell do you associate with your husband?  What does your man know about your body that no one else knows?  What was he doing to you the last time he made your legs shake?

Fellas...What outfit does your wife wear that makes you reconsider whether or not you want to leave the house?  What does she whisper in your ear when she gives in to her passions?  How does she respond when you take her over the edge?

HOLD ON STU!!! you may say.  How can you ask such things and consider this a Christian blog?  What happens in the bedroom needs to stay in the bedroom!

.....

I've met a good number of people who have been through atleast one divorce.  Not to pry, but when a divorcee opens up to me about their divorce I always ask two questions.  How long were you married?  Where did it start going wrong?  In some instances I meet people who were married for a few months to maybe a handful of years.  In many cases those people open up about an inability to compromise or agree.  Sometimes they talk about a marriage that was rushed into or a spouse they didn't fully know.

I've always heard that the first seven years of marriage were the hardest.  So it has been almost shocking lately as I ask my questions to divorcees that I've heard less about the failure of 3 and 4 year marriages and more about the failures of 20 and 30 year marriages.  A coworker of mine recently divorced his wife after 34 years and 5 children.  The common theme in the dissolution of many of these long standing marriages is that marital bliss is replaced with responsibility.  Passion is replaced by practicality, sex and seduction gives way to study and sleep; and eventually your spouse is more like a coworker who sees you in your comfy sweat pants.  

In Matthew 13 Jesus talks about sowing seed.  In verses 6 He talks about seed which has been scorched by the sun and verse 7 is about seed that has been choked by the thorns.  When expounding on His parables Jesus explains that the seed scorched by the sun as being without root saying that it "quickly falls away" at the signs of trouble.  In verse 22 he explains that the seed among the thorns is one that is choked out by the worries of this life and deceit of wealth.  While this parable speaks of salvation I also think it speaks to our failures in marriage.  Some are not properly rooted and die quickly while others suffer a slow suffocating death.  

That's not the way God designed marriage.  When Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3 they hid from God.  Before hiding from God however they hid their most vulnerable parts from each other.  That was not God's design.  God's design in putting those two together was a unity that the bible terms "one flesh".  Woman and man were not made at the same time, but woman was made from man for man.  They were made from the same flesh.  Mark 10:8 says the two shall be married and become one flesh.  Ephesians 5:28-29 says husbands are to love their wives as they love their own flesh.  In order for a couple to have sexual intercourse they have to come together and be one flesh.  That was God's design for marriage; an intimacy so deep that two people become one.

The acronym NSFW means not safe for work.  It is a warning attached to a message or link that you probably don't want other people to see you looking at this.  In essence, this is for your eyes only.  Look at the youth of folly and the adulterous woman in Proverbs 7.  While the union is ungodly and the story is meant as a warning this passage also details a successful seduction.  

The bible starts off by telling us that she was dressed as a harlot.  She provides visual stimulation showing the young man what she knows he wants to see.  She pursues him and verse 13 says she catches him and kissed him.  She looks at him boldly and seduces him with her words.  She says, "I came out to meet YOU.  I looked for YOUR face and I found YOU." 

 Even though the bible says that she runs all over the square looking for men she seduces the youth by setting a scene and convincing the youth that it's all for him.  The bible makes no mention of her beauty saying only in verse 21 that she seduces him with her words and caused him to yield.  His response the bible says is that he gave himself over to her and he followed her.

In the context of this relationship, it was sin.  In the context of marriage it is exactly how this should happen.  When a spouse attempts to arouse us or entice us we should be willing to give ourselves over to that person.  

For most husbands our attempt to give ourselves over to our wives is doing what it takes for her to achieve a climax.  By God's design, a man's climax is a near certainty but a woman's climax is the result of attention to detail, an ability to react to unspoken clues.  Through this a husband gives himself over to his wife understanding that he derives pleasure from her pleasure.  A husband giving himself over to his wife is is a man giving everything he has to let his lady know that her time spent seducing him was worth it.

  

Marriages need these NSFW moments.  They need the effort of doing things for the other person.  They need a person willing to shut out the world for a time and give themselves to their spouses needs and pleasures.  

1 Corinthians 7 tells us that our bodies are no longer our own.  Don't let that get lost in the everyday rigmarole.  Find time and make the effort to have a NSFW marriage.  It's not admitting to the seduction of your spouse, the spine tingling foreplay or the acts of sex that displease God.  It's allowing the cares of this world to uproot or choke out your marriage; tearing apart what God has bought together.  Put the work into your marriage, but try to have as many not safe for work moments as life allows.   

Misplaced Nostalgia

I was 9 years old when I read The Greatest: My Own Story.  Everyone in my 5th grade class had to present on a famous African American, and I was assigned Muhammad Ali.  At 9 I was extremely uncomfortable with this.  Growing up in the 1980's; I knew Muhammad Ali more for his religious conversion than I did for his unparalleled hand speed, his granite chin, or his dogged determination.  I began reading and found myself engrossed in his story.  I read about his training, his work ethic, his love for his family, his disappointments in his failed marriages, and all things that made him tick.  I began to respect Ali, not as a loud-mouth athlete with immeasurable gifts inside the ring, but a man who influenced people to his benefit.  It wasn't an accident that he was polarizing.  If you didn't like Ali, he made sure that you disliked him enough to pay to watch him get whooped.  My admiration for Ali the man grew to the point where I hung this painting in my office 3 years ago.

Most people know that before changing his name to Muhammad Ali he was Cassius Clay.  What not many people know is that Cassius and his brother Rudolph Clay were raised Baptist.  Their mother, Odessa Clay, was a woman of faith who ushered her two boys to church every Sunday.  Christianity was a major part of Cassius' upbringing, but a faith he chose to depart from.  In speaking on his conversion, Muhammad said that he looked around and saw portraits of a white Jesus, white angels, white biblical heroes and wondered what happened to black Christians when they died.  Ultimately he felt his race was unaccepted in the Christian Church and converted to Islam.  Cassius' upbringing and conversion are similar to Malcolm Little; better known as Malcolm X.

  Before he became a world known orator known as Malcolm X, Malcolm Little was the fourth of seven children born to Louise and Baptist Minister Earl Little.  Like Cassius, Malcolm was being raised Baptist, and the Baptist faith was a big part of his early life.  At the age of six Malcolm's father was killed by a streetcar.  The accident was deemed a streetcar accident by police and a suicide by the insurance company that covered him, but it is widely believed that there was foul play.  Malcolm's childhood didn't get any easier as he mother was committed after a nervous breakdown and Malcolm became a foster child.  Eventually Malcolm embarked upon a life of crime which led him to jail and ultimately a conversion to a faith he found more accepting of his race than Christianity.  

Both Malcolm and Cassius began as Christians, but converted to the Nation of Islam because Christians (not Christianity) permeated the belief that they were inferior Christians and inferior people because of the color of their skin.  These were individuals with God given gifts that were, for lack of a better word, in house that saw fit to convert to another religion because of the attitudes of the time.

Ultimately Malcolm and Cassius will have to stand before God and answer for their conversion.  I bring this up however because in this election season I've continuously heard the prayer, "Help America get back to the Christian principles it was founded on."  The sentiments expressed in these attempts to "harken back" are not innately pure and not shared by everyone.  The things that made America great to some made it a prison to others.  The freedoms and opportunities enjoyed by some were the result of freedom and opportunities denied to others.  America as we know it began with the near extermination of natives who showed kindness and grew from prosperity attributed to individuals who embraced greed and called it God.  Ecclesiastes warns us about looking back so fondly on the past because it is not a wise inquiry.  The trip down memory lane with America is not pleasurable for all.  There are many evils done by people claiming to be "God fearing Christian men."   

It's not our God given duty to resurrect the past or prevent the future.  We were born when we were born because God has a purpose for us in the time he placed us in.  There are lessons to be learned from the past.  There are new challenges to be met in the present; one of which is not alienating and disenfranchising those in the body.          

Snake-Bitten

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil...Isiah 5:20

Watching the news in 2016 is exhausting.  There's the $600 gun with the 6 figure selling price because it was used to murder a black teenager.  There's those that advocate grown men sharing bathroom space with women and girls.  There are the missing planes, the terrorist attacks, the unclean drinking water, the crooked politicians, the drug related murders, the burgled retirement plans, the widening gap between rich an poor, and perhaps the worst presidential election ever.  Stick around for the commercials and you may catch an advertisement for a TV show where the devil is a handsome protagonist helping the LAPD solve crimes.

It's poison.  It's poison for our minds.  It's poison for our souls.  How do we spread a message of life in a world that has figured out how to profit from it's own destruction?  This week God led me to Psalm 37...twice.  After reading it in full, He led me to Acts 26-28.  I read the chapters in Acts still meditating on Psalms 37.  I began to see the passage in Acts as "middle ground" between the events of today and David's words in Acts.  Paul's adventures in Acts 26-28 are parabolic of the current day as well as illustrative of David's Psalm regarding the calamity of the wicked.

The Setting

Paul finds himself shipwrecked on the island of Malta.  Paul is on this island because he was arrested for preaching the gospel.  Paul decided to appeal to Caesar and was being transported to Rome when a storm leaves him shipwrecked.  Paul would seem to have been on a collision course with Malta as there was a chain of events that resulted in his shipwreck.  In Acts 26:32 Agrippa in his judgement of Paul says, "This man may have been set free if he did not appeal to Caesar."  In Acts 27:7-8 the weather forces the ship to detour and in verses 9-10 Paul advises against proceeding with the voyage.  Despite ignoring Paul's advice, the ship sets sail and soon finds itself in the midst of a storm.  The angel of the Lord comes to Paul while he sails and tells him that despite the losses the ship has and will endure, no lives will be lost.  After 14 days at sea with little food the 276 men on board found themselves on Malta's shore.

Much like Paul who offered advice to the ship's captain, we find ourselves in situations where those who lead us take us in a direction we would prefer not to go.  Despite outlets to have your voice heard, there are sometimes where your preference is not the chosen route.  It may be because your voice is in the minority.  There are other times when your opinion may be part of the majority, but you lose to a very vocal minority.  In some instances our leaders make decisions with no regard to our preference.  Like Paul, sometimes we find ourselves along for the ride; traveling down a road we would have rather avoided.

Psalms 37:23 tells us that the steps of the righteous man are ordered by the Lord.  When Paul's warnings against sailing out were ignored Paul did not panic or resort to protests that would dishonor Christ.  It is hard to react with a clear head when our path we travel is not the path we choose.  While protest may be appropriate, protesting in a manner that shames the name of Christ is never appropriate.  Our objections should be presented in a way that does not hinder us from witnessing to a sinner or restoring a brother.

The Snake

Snakes do not have good reputations in the bible.  They most often represent loathsome creatures who are crafty and without morals.  Acts 28:3 does not simply call it a snake, but a viper; the connotation adding that the snake is also poisonous and deadly.  

I compare the viper in Acts 28 with the evildoers in Psalm 37.  Snakes themselves are amoral, but represent the immoral; the evil doers and workers of iniquity (Psalms 37:1).  Psalms 37:12 tells us that the evil plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them.  This is similar to a viper who is an ambush predator.  Vipers are typically not large enough to devour humans, but they will ambush and bite humans.  Psalms 37:32 reiterates the relationship between the righteous and the wicked stating that the wicked watch the righteous and seek to slay them.  

In our lives there are those who watch us to study us.  They don't study to learn from us or to know us, but they study to plot, to slay and they bear their fangs at us at just the right time.  Psalms 37 tells us that these people are out there but it repeatedly tells us not to fret.  These people are not to arouse fear or anxiety in us.  We are not to lower our character in response to the actions of those with evil plots.  In addition to having feelings of anger, fear, and anxiety, the word fret also means to wear away or consume.  We are not to let the wicked wear us down with their plots.  We are not to fret.  Psalms 37:8 actually tells us that fretting ONLY causes harm.  The bible tells us instead to delight in the Lord; to focus on him.

Understand that people who live in the dark are drawn to our light.  Remember in Mark 5 that the demon possessed man RAN to Jesus when he was afar off.  Some people are attracted to our light because they desire it for themselves.  Understand too that for some our light is a source of shame; a reminder of convictions that they try to silence.  Living in the light attracts darkness.

Living for Christ will mean that some people will plot to destroy us.  That is not an excuse to stop living for Christ and start focusing on the snakes looking to ambush us.  It is not an excuse to become snakes ourselves.  If a venomous snake bites a human, it does not help the human to in turn bite the snake.  We are to trust in Lord, do good, and feed on God's faithfulness.

The Bite

Psalms 37 tells us not to fret, but it never tells us that evil doers will not harm us.  As Christians we are not immune to schemes of the wicked.  Our lives will have pain, betrayal, hurt and embarrassment; often in a public way.  Sometimes Christians are disillusioned when it comes to suffering; believing that it is either punishment of the wicked or the curse of the discontent.  Hebrews 2:10 tells us that God saw fit to make the author of our salvation perfect through suffering.  God allows us to suffer, but our suffering is not in vain.  He uses our suffering to display His power.  People will crowd around to watch a person suffer.  Every public suffering is an opportunity to publicly glorify God.

God did not stop the snake from biting Paul.  The bible says that the snake bit Paul and fastened himself to his hand.  In some instances poisonous snakes will strike without releasing venom.  When a viper latches on however, it is to pump venom into the blood stream of its victim.  There are two types of venom.  One works to immobilize the victim.  The second type is a digestive fluid that devours it's victim.

The bible does not tell us why the venom had no effect on Paul.  Even though God allowed the snake to bite Paul, He may have blocked the venom.  God may have healed Paul after being bitten.  It's possible that God made Paul immune to snake venom like squirrels, mongoose, badgers and certain birds.  Regardless of the reason, we see that the snake's intended purpose in biting Paul was not fulfilled and ultimately the snake perished in the fire.

The schemes of the wicked cannot catch God off guard.  The venom of the wicked is not stronger than the power of God.  This is the reason that we have for not fretting.  It is God who will make us immune to their poisons.  It is God who will keep us from being devoured on the inside.  The wicked plot to sink their teeth in us and inject doubt, fear, bitterness, rage, and other things to make us go astray.  God has the power to keep us in tact through each of these attacks.  This is why we don't need to fret.

The Witnesses

When Paul was bitten by the viper there were people on hand who watched him.  They watched expecting his demise.  When he did not die from the venom of a viper they thought him a god.  It is for calling these people that sometimes God allows us to suffer publicly.  It was not Paul who was a god, but God who kept him.  By not fretting and staying true to God through venomous encounters we are bearing witness to the power of God to these people.

I will go to him

My favorite part of +Danny N 's pregnancies is the ultrasounds.  As a Dad, I don't feel the fluttery kicks, the gentle shifts, or the morning stretches.  Until the baby's bones were hard enough create alien like shifts in my wife's stomach I was basically a bystander.  Even after the baby was strong enough to push out I was never sure what part of a baby I was interacting with.  Was I talking to her butt thinking it was her head?  Was I high-fiving a foot?  The only thing I knew for sure was that pregnancy for me was anxious anticipation.  It's akin to watching your parents buy your Christmas present on Easter.  You know what's inside the box, but for the better part of the next year it won't be available for you.  Ultrasounds are awesome though because they provide small glimpses of the person you can't wait to meet.  They provide a measure of clarity to a murky situation.  They are the first glimpses of a child.  They put a face to the frequent bathroom trips, the heartburn and the rhythmic punches and kicks.  They provide a glimpse into the child's personality.  They are valued sneak peaks that temporarily quell then subsequently feed the anticipation of this addition to our family.

Some of us however go through all the stages of pregnancy, manage all of the anticipation for a child that does not survive pregnancy, or survives birth but never makes it home.  For me to speak about this experience would not do it justice as I've never experienced it as a parent.  I've only experienced, as a neighbor, a co-worker, and a friend.  I can't offer soothing words based in experience, only an ear, a shoulder, and prayer.  So as another family my wife and I love goes through this journey again we hope that these may be the right words to find you at the right time and offer comfort in this difficult season:

When you study the life and writings of David in the bible you will see ties between his life and prophesy.  David wrote some, fulfilled others, and was the head of a bloodline that fulfilled even more.  David's understanding of Christ was more than most during the old testament could imagine.  In Psalms 110:1 David writes "The Lord said to my Lord."  This shows knowledge of Jesus Christ as well as His relationship with God before the birth of Christ.  David not only has prophesy about the relationship of Christ, but also the death and resurrection of Christ.  David had a divine understanding of the future, of death, and of life after death.

David understood these things, and like some who read this, David also lost a child.  Set aside the circumstances of why God took the life of David's child and lets look at David's reaction:

¹⁹ But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.
²⁰ Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.
²¹ Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.
²² And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?

²³ But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.  (2 Samuel 12:19-23)

I don't include this passage to encourage mourning parents to fast forward through the grieving process.  I include this passage to encourage you that while you can not bring you children to you; my saved friends one day you will go to be with your children.  They are on the other side of the ultrasound now; living life as God intended with no sickness or sin while we toil away in a world attempting to distance itself from God.  1 Corinthians 13:9 says that we know in part, and we prophesy in part but when the perfect comes the partial passes away.  

To my brother and sister in Christ whom this was meant for.  Your children have been made perfect.  They have the fullness of Christ.  They know each other.  They know their grandmother.  They know their parents.  They know you.  They love you.  They understand that God has more down here for you because they understand His will, but they wait anxious for the day when you will go to them.  We're praying for you both as you continue to run this race understanding that there are extra special blessings awaiting you at the finished line.

With Love

Danielle and Stuart    

        

Why?

Welcome to this community.  I am glad you are all here, and I hope to see this grow.  I try to be careful to never refer to this as my community because I believe that if it becomes what I hope for it to be that we will all feel like owners.




We all know the tumultuous history the black family has faced in this country and as a result of this country.  Black families were separated in Africa due to the slave trade.    If the family found themselves all captured they then had to endure the middle passage and hope that the family could avoid rape, murder, or death from deplorable conditions.



Once in America, if still together, the black family had to hope that they were bought/sold as a unit.  Otherwise husband was ripped from wife.  Mother was ripped from child.  Brothers and sisters were separated and children were left to raise themselves.



For generations blacks were denied the opportunity to raise our own children.  We were denied the opportunity to love our spouses until death.  We were not allowed to be a black family.  That did not change with the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Black families were still torn apart due to murder and acts of terrorism.  We all know about Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers; family men, patriarchs, husbands, fathers.  These killings were not isolated events.



Vernon Dahmer was involved in helping register blacks to vote.  A business man with a successful store, saw mill, a cotton farm and other business ventures; he offered to pay the poll tax for blacks who could not because in his words, "If you don't vote you don't count."  One night his house was set ablaze with his family inside.  He stayed inside returning fire while his family snuck out of the back entrance.  He later died of smoke inhalation and his burns.  That day one wife lost a husband.  Eight children lost a father.

For centuries the black family has had more adversaries than advocates.  Presently, however I think we are in a position where we have the opportunity to do what our ancestors could not.  We have the opportunity to love our spouses till death.  We have the opportunity to rear our children.  With those opportunities we continue to face challenges.  What I envision for this community; our community, is a place where we can discuss our challenges, celebrate our successes and share best practices.

I believe that our best practices are a marriage and family structure centered around Jesus.  We need to pray.  We need to love.  We need to forgive our spouses.  We need to forgive ourselves.  We need what God is anxious to pour out in us.  We need His Holy Spirit.

For many people, their Christianity is their church.  Their Christian walk is how they fit into someone else's vision.  Many of us are not plugged into Christ, but we are plugged into someone who we hope is plugged into Christ.

    
For us to be who we were designed to be we need to be plugged in to Christ.  Our salvation is based on Him.  Our lives should be based around Him.  Our marriages should be based around Him.  We are to raise our children in his nurture and admonition (Ephesians 6:4).

That is my hope for this community.  My hope is that we can sharpen each others iron.  My hope is that we can encourage each other because narrow is the path and hard is the way that leads to life.  My hope is that we can promote spiritual growth, familial love, and we can lay a STRONG foundation for the black Christian families that will come after us.

God bless you all.

Severed Ties

When George Zimmerman pulled out his 9mm pistol and took the life of Trayvon Martin it had nothing to do with Martin's sexual preference.  When Officer Darren Wilson unloaded his service weapon into Mike Brown it was without regard as to whom Mike Brown was romantically involved.   When officers applied an illegal choke to Eric Garner there was no consideration as to whom Garner was married.  Twelve year old Tamir Rice's gender identity was not a factor in the shooting that cost him his life.  Walter Scott's death is totally unrelated to his sexual history.  John Crawford III was killed in an Ohio Walmart without regard to which sex he chose to identify with.  If sexuality, gender identity and marriage were not factors in these killings, why are they tied to the resulting Black Lives Matter movement?  

Brandon Ellington Patterson wrote an blog called "Why you can't be Pro-Black and Homophobic at the Same Time."  In it he states:

 It's problematic for members of any one marginalized group to challenge the progress made by members of another, especially when both groups suffer as a result of the same system—a system that favors being white, male, straight and "cisgender," a term used by academics and advocates to describe the opposite of trans.

But it is especially problematic for black people to reject the LGBT rights struggle, especially when, over the past year, black people have been particularly vocal about their own racial oppression, via sustained, high-profile protests that have swept the nation.

Most glaringly, it's problematic because blackness and LGBT identities are not mutually exclusive. There are lesbian black women, gay black men, bisexual black people, transgender black men and women, "genderqueer" black people—identifying as neither gender or both—and black people who are any combination of any of the above.

And black LGBT people and their allies have made incredible contributions to the black liberation struggle, from Bayard Rustin during the civil rights movement toAudre Lorde, a poet, feminist, and LGBT advocate, as well as the three women who founded the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and the organization that birthed the movement: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.

Patterson makes two arguments as to why black issues and LGBT issues are intertwined.  His basic arguments are that our struggles are so intertwined that progress for one group is progress for all.  He goes on to say that the struggles are not mutually exclusive given that there are LGBT individuals who are also black.

His first argument regarding intertwined struggles seems to be a burden that only blacks are forced to carry.  In 2015 Roland Emmerich released Stonewall, a movie based on LGBT riots in 1969.  While these riots, celebrated in LGBT pride cultures, were largely started by blacks, Emmerich creates a white hero who takes the first brick out of the hands of a black man to throw and begin the riots.  To his surprise, Emmerich faced some backlash from the LGBT community.  He explained his decision to center the movie around a white fictional character by stating:

You have to understand one thing
I didn't make this movie only for gay people.  I made it also for straight people.
As a director you have to put yourself in your movies, and I'm white and gay

By Emmerich's admission, he could not identify with a black leading character and changed history in his movie to make a movie more accepting to mainstream.  The ties Patterson describes that supposedly bind blacks and gays are more often a bind to blacks.  Gay causes can be championed at protests for black murder victims but a gay director thought it best to replace a black historical figure with a white imagined figure.  I'm not upset that Roland decided to rewrite history.  My point is that our struggle as blacks is not intertwined with LGBT causes and that we should not accept being shackled with that burden.

Patterson's second point is less of an argument and more of an emotional plea.  It is an appeal to the lowest common denominator; an implication that we should support gay blacks for no other reason than because they are black.  I'm always leery of people who attempt to appeal to a wide demographic by way of appealing to a common denominator.  We are comprised of more than our basic similarities.

I don't use the term lowest common denominator to insult my heritage.  I mean it only as a large basis to which some believe I can be appealed to.  Why did Donald Trump meet with black pastors?  Because it represented two large bases by which to attempt to appeal to people without understanding who you are appealing to.

In John 6:44 Jesus says that no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him near.  I have been saved, not because God made an appeal to my lowest common denominator.  I have been saved because God drew me near and Jesus died for me.  I won't compromise the guidelines left for me by someone who died for me because of appeal thrown at my race.

I am pro-black in that I believe we should all get due process.  I am pro-black in that I believe a black man killed with an illegal choke hold or a child shot while breaking no laws deserves the right in death to have their killers accused in a court of law.  While I am pointedly pro-black, that in no way ties me to the LGBT movement.  The two are not mutually exclusive, and to say so is an insult to the history of African Americans.