----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The San Francisco Examiner, Monday August 23, 1993
Front page headline:

ANTI-GAY TALK SINKS LUMPKIN
 Preacher who quoted Biblical call for death to homosexuals booted
 off rights panel
by Larry D. Hatfield of the Examiner Staff

          After first defending him, Mayor Jordan on Monday fired Baptist
preacher Eugene Lumpkin from the San Francisco Human Rights Commission
in an effort to quell the firestorm of controversy over Lumpkin's
remarks about homosexuality.
          Jordan fired the commissioner after Lumpkin refused at a stormy
breakfast meeting to voluntarily resign (Ed. note: tut-tut on the split
infinitive.)
         The mayor was as resolute as Lumpkin was," said a source close
to the mayor, adding that the minister claimed he had received many calls
from across the nation urging him not to quit.
         Jordan told Lumpkin he had a responsibility to the commission
and to The City as a whole to end the controversy and begin "the healing
process," the source said.
         Jordan was preparing a statement to explain his change of mind, a
spokesman said, but it was not immediately available following the
mid-mirning firing.
         The mayor had stuck by the controversial minister after he
had called homosexuality an "abomination," but withdrew his backing after
Lumpkin implied on a television show Friday that he believed in a
literal interpretation of Biblical passages that included advocating
death for homosexuals.
         Those remarks cost Lumpkin--already the target of angry protests
from the gay community and others in The City--the backing of some who
had supported him, including the Rev. Amos Brown, a powerful figure in
the black community.
         Lumpkin's televised comments were "the straw that broke the
camel's back," Brown said, agreeing with Jordan that the growing
controversy would make it difficult for Lumpkin to serve effectively
on a commission charged with defending the civil rights of all citizens.
         At the breakfast meeting, the source said, Jordan told
Lumpkin he found it "inconceivable" a human rights commissioner could
be associated with advocating violence.
         Lumpkin, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church on Divisadero St.,
has maintained his actions on the commission and his beliefs and
preachings in his church were separate affairs.
         By Saturday morning, the source said, he appeared to be ready
to quit. Then came the calls that convinced him to tough it out, Lumpkin
was said to have told Jordan.
         Other commission members also had protested his remarks and
demanded his resignation.
         Jordan press secretary Noah Griffin said Saturday the mayor,
who had defended Lumpkin's right to express personal religious views,
felt the Baptist minister had 'crossed the line" with his latest remarks
that seemed to condone violence toward gays.
         "It's not necessary to go on a radio or television show and
express your religious beliefs," Griffin said during the weekend.
"He's crossed the line into advocating behavior."
         Lumpkin's fundamentalist Biblical interpretations had
exacerbated simmering frictions between San Francisco's gay and
African-American communities.
         Black and gay activists have begun a series of meetings to
discuss mutual concerns and any needed reconciliation between the
communities.
         Among the outcomes of a meeting of the group on Saturday was
a decision to push for creation of an African-American advisory
committee for the Human Rights Commission.
         There already is a gay and lesbian advisory panel.
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