I grew up in something that called itself a church

Churches that mistreat LGBTQI+ individuals, according to Bishop Oliver Clyde Allen III, are not churches.

Allen is the senior pastor and founder of The Vision Cathedral of Atlanta, which he established in 2005 with his husband.

The largely Black Pentecostal church now comprises over 3,000 fellowshipped members, the majority of whom are LGBTQI+. Moreover, like many organizations that help oppressed populations, it is built on a historical foundation that the church worked hard to shape in order for its people to be welcomed.

“When people of color, Black people couldn’t find solace in white LGBTQ spaces, we created our own,” Allen tells Today.com about the church’s mission. “We created our own of everything, whether it was our own fraternities and sororities, our own institutions, our own churches.”

At the time the neighborhood wasn’t quite ready for that type of adversity given the church was formally a Baptist Church.

“There was tension, and the neighborhood was having to adjust from a dwindling Confederate Baptist Church congregation to now this huge, Black LGBT majority congregation,” Allen says. “You can imagine the neighborhood was like, ‘What in the world.’”

Los Angeles is where Allen, 50, was born and reared, and he describes his background as “religiously diverse.” His family members attended Seventh-Day Adventist, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches throughout his youth and adolescence.

He frequently stood in the seats while listening to the sermons of the pastors who criticized members of his church. Yet, he notes that LGBTQI+ individuals who energized the church choirs, assisted with collections, and filled the pews were frequently present around these leaders.

Allen saw himself as more than the pastor of a Black or LGBT Church because of these factors, as well as sermons that condemned non-heterosexual relationships as abominations.

Allen saw himself as more than the pastor of a Black or LGBT Church because of these factors, as well as sermons that condemned non-heterosexual relationships as abominations.

Allen defines himself as an abolitionist rather than a preacher, someone whose mission is to propagate the ideas of freedom and acceptance, which he claims are the cornerstones of Christian doctrine.

“I grew up in something that called itself a church. (It) couldn’t have been a church,” he asserts. “Jesus Christ didn’t say anything about gay people and said everything about liberating people. From all types of oppression, (including) sin.” 

At Vision, members are urged to live out their religion through being educated, receiving assistance from the local community, and being encouraged to engage in political engagement.

Its activities are centered on collecting food and clothes for the homeless, offering testing and assistance for HIV and AIDS, and addressing health and wellbeing, especially for Black LGBTQI+ people.

Its main initiatives focus on providing food and clothing for the homeless, providing HIV and AIDS testing and help, and addressing health and wellbeing, particularly for Black LGBTQI+ persons.