racist. As soon you call yourself Black you're a racist. As
soon as you call yourself White, you're a racist. There's only one race. All these labels divide us.
Just like the heads and tails on a coin, uh, you know, if you look at one, it's one. If you look at the other, it's
the other. But if you look at the coin overall, there's only one coin and the value is the same.
"And there's only one God no matter what you call Him - Allah, or,
whatever. You know, there's only one ‘elephant'. It's just that we've been raised - there's
650 billion people looking at this ‘elephant' and every human being in the world has a different perspective of
the elephant. So, instead of rubbishing everybody else's perception, you know, we should listen to what they have
to say. Maybe we might get a better understanding of what this ‘elephant' really is and really looks like.
One might think they know what McGuire's
positions are on these subjects since he's a Christian musician.
Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions.
McGuire is, and always has been, an astute observer of his life and times. He's
also a student of history. Whatever goes into his bright, laughing eyes is then processed through his fertile mind,
a little insight, experience, and brevity are applied, and it comes out of his mouth in thought provoking, if not controversial,
prose. His straight, illustrative talk often gives his listeners blinding glimpses of the obvious. More often,
it's not what "the establishment" really wants to hear.
A perfect example of this is demonstrated in a story Barry told me about a conversation that he
had with a pastor of a church. He asked that pastor, "'How many practicing gays and lesbians do you have in
your congregation?' It gets real quiet. He says, ‘Oh, well, we-we-we, we don't have any of those.'
I say, ‘Oh! How many practicing adulterers do you have in your congregation?' Then it gets real quiet.
‘Oh, well, you see, people DO get divorced and, you know, they ask for forgiveness and God forgives them.'
"I said, ‘Well, what's
the difference between a committed gay relationship - you know, two men, two women, living together for years? Loving
each other; faithful to each other; partners, you know? What's the difference with two adulterers living together
for years?'
"The pastor says,
‘Oh, but homosexuality is a sexual sin.' I said, ‘Every time adulterers sleep together - have sex -
it's a sexual sin. That's what adultery is. It's fornicating with somebody else who's not your original
(spouse).' So, what's the difference? How come our churches are filled with adulterers but no gays and
lesbians are allowed? It's called ‘hypocrisy'!"
