Long before Bishop Eddie Long faced lawsuits alleging sexual coercion, the Rev. Michael A. Stevens Sr., pastor of University City Church of God in Christ in Charlotte, had been speaking out on the subject of homosexuality in the African American church.

He has self-published two books that touch on the topic. One is titled “Straight Up: The Church's Official Response to the Epidemic of Downlow Living.”

I caught up with Stevens by phone this week. During a lengthy Q&A, he shared his views on homosexuality, accountability in the black church and the Eddie Long allegations.

The transcript below was edited for clarity and brevity.
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Q. Let’s start from the beginning. You wrote the book “Straight Up” in 2006, long before the Eddie Long controversy.
That’s correct. Maybe it was very prophetic and kind of waiting for a situation such as this to arise.

Q. What prompted you to write the book?
My first motivation was a classical refute to J.L. King’s book, “On the Down Low.” You might remember that King wrote a book and was kind of the poster child for the African American or black homosexual community. Obviously, the ‘downlow’ is the phenomenon of heterosexual men sleeping with other men, though they marry or are engaged to a woman. In King’s book, he gives a lot of references to church leadership, to pastors, elders, deacons, bishops. And as a pastor, particularly who has never been in homosexuality, I felt that someone from the church should really say something about this, because I don’t believe that this is as mainstream as he is making it sound. No one did that, so I wrote a book basically saying homosexuality is wrong, it’s a sin, there is no place for that in the church and that God can heal and deliver.

Q. From what I read in your book, you almost indicate that this lifestyle is rampant in the black church. Is that an accurate assessment?
It’s growing rampantly. It’s growing progressively. The reason it is growing is that there are pastors and leaders within the church who refuse to deal with it for the sake of getting along with congregants. I’ve got to stand on truth. We’ve got to speak the truth and do it in a loving manner, and we need to kind of love people, but don’ t forget to tell the truth while you’re doing it.

Q. In the introduction of your book, you said God has given you a “unique and uncompromising sensitivity” to this issue. Explain that, if you will.
I have a unique background coming from many different perspectives of the church, particularly the black church – everywhere from Catholic to Pentecostal to Baptist… you name it. I’ve got sort of an Ecumenical background, and one of the pains, one of the negatives, I saw growing up in the church was the lack of young, vibrant, I’m going to call it masculine, bravado men. Most of the black churches were filled with older gentlemen and oftentimes sprinkled with a lot of femininity, whether it was choir leaders, and sometimes they were in the pulpit. I think that was a huge turnoff. So I felt that I was uniquely given a great opportunity to deal with this situation because I don’t really have a dog in the fight. I really felt that I had neutral ground to deal with this situation with a clean motive.

Q. You say a “clean motive.” What is your motive?
My motive is to restore and reveal the awareness of manhood in the church, particularly the black church. One of the ways we do that is to address some of the social ills in the black community, and one of them is the absence of men. Only one out of eight people attending a black church is a man. That’s not good. To the black church’s credit, it’s not a black church problem only; there is a shortage of men in churches, period, in the world. There has to be a culture in the church that is attractive and conducive to men. In the African American church, we have what I call a feminized gospel, and that’s an atmosphere that caters more to the emotional, the sensational. Let’s face it, our choirs and our singing and our dancing…these things, they really make women comfortable, but for most men, it’s not how a lot of us are wired. So when you compound that with the fact that the choir director or the organist is really, really, really feminine, and really dainty… how does that attract young men to want to be part of the church or older men to want to hang around the church?

Q. So what is the answer in your view?
We’ve got to go back and strategically, intentionally create a culture in the church, which happens to be the second book I wrote, called “Creating a Culture in the Church for Black Men.” It’s a book that’s really a practical, hands-on guide to how to rethink how we do church. There has got to be some things that we do to make the church more welcoming, accepting and normal for men.

Q. So should we assume that your church – University City Church of God in Christ -- has a high percentage of black men?
Absolutely. I wish we could boast that we have 50-50. We don’t. But I think that, on an average Sunday, we have double or even triple the percentage of black men in the typical black church. I would suggest that we’re somewhere between 35 and 40 percent black men.

Q. Just recently a Rutgers University student jumped from a bridge to his death because he was outed on the Internet as a homosexual male. How do you get your message across without tipping into hate and homophobia? Or is that a concern?
Sure, it is a concern. The book came out in 2006, roughly four years ago. The good news is that I’ve had many, many interviews. I’ve really not had any major opposition. I had one solid debate with a lesbian leader, an African American woman on the West Coast. We seek to bring healing, and we seek to bring wholeness, to men in the church who are struggling with homosexuality. We’re not attacking you. We’re not ostracizing you. We’re not being condescending. We start with the truth, and the truth has to be conveyed with love.

Q. Do you believe that a person can be born homosexual?
Loaded question, loaded question, loaded question. I don’t believe that man is designed to be homosexual. It’s the old nature-nurture thing. I do believe, however, that somewhere between the first six months and five years that there are some tremendous influences that a young child can have that could very well create a nurturing situation. Those influences could be anything from a father not being in place to a mother being over-domineering. It does happen, and it can be very impactful in influencing the stages of a child’s life. That is why the Bible says we must be born again.

Q. Have you had to deal with this issue in your own church?
Yes, several times.

Q. And how do you deal with it?
I deal with it with scriptural authority. I deal with it with compassion. And I deal with it with truth and love. There are men in our church who lived a homosexual lifestyle for many, many years, but they gave their lives to the Lord and were born again. And they never, by the way, ever claimed to have been born homosexual. I’ve really yet to meet a man telling me in the church ‘I was born this way.’ These men that I’m speaking of now have lived clean and homosexual-free lifestyle for over 20 or 25 years. I believe that the power of the cross and the precious blood of the Lamb can heal and deliver any sin, even homosexuality.

Q. Then why focus on homosexuals? There are probably just as many, and probably more, people in the church who are womanizing or committing adultery or some other sin. Are those not equally repugnant to God?
I think sin is sin. I don’t compartmentalize or say this is a big sin or this is a little sin. Sin is sin, and sin is wrong. Every pastor, every preacher, every policeman, every judge, every congressman and every president, we were born into sin. It is up to us to allow the Lord to come in and bring this sense of healing or wholeness or deliverance. I will make this disclaimer, however: What Paul deals with in the book of Romans in Chapter 1, what really made the whole homosexuality argument stronger… homosexuality, as well as bestiality, were the only two sins defined in the New Testament as sins against nature. Again, I don’t want to compartmentalize and say this is a big sin and this is a little sin. But when a man leaves the natural affection of a woman, when a man decides to lay with an animal, that’s a sin against nature. And perhaps that is why the book of Leviticus is very, very strong against homosexuality. And that is an argument that most homosexuals don’t want to have with me.

Q. Let’s touch on this Eddie Long controversy. What do you make of it?
Obviously, right now it is politically correct, and it is also Christian, for me to say these are allegations. Here’s what I make of it. It is hard for one man to come out and say he’s been in the bedroom, he’s been in a sexual relationship, with another man. It’s hard also for a black man. We have a sense of pride and ego. Even in 2010, with the whole homosexual agenda, it is still taboo, it is still hard for any man to come out and say ‘I have been in a homosexual relationship.’…to say nothing of four separate men who live in two separate cities. It’s a hard pill for anyone to swallow to think that there is not some truth to those allegations. That’s a tough one.

Q. So what do you think should occur?
It should be tried in court, not in the media. Should he be found guilty, I think he should sit himself down. If he does not sit himself down, the church should sit him down. There has to be a measure of church discipline here. And if that doesn’t happen, then it’s a free-for-all and a free pass for any pastor to do anything he wants to do and still lead a 20,000-membership church.

Q. It’s been said that in megachurches where you have strong, charismatic preachers that there is, indeed, less accountability. Would you agree with that?
No two churches are the same, particularly at that level. I don’t think size has anything to do with it. You’ve got a lot of these small storefront churches where mom and dad are co-pastors and 80 percent of the church is family. Then you’ve got 20,000-member churches that were built on personality where the bylaws and everything else suggests that no one can remove him. I will say this: I think he (Long) should sit himself down, and if he doesn’t, I think the next Sunday that out of the 25,000 members, 24,900 should leave. And I think that needs to be a statement not only to New Birth or a large magachurch but to churches around the country, that we’re not going to tolerate churches where there is no accountability.

Q. To use your phrase, do you think Long should ‘set himself down’ immediately, even before this case is adjudicated?
Once again, if he is guilty -- and I emphasize the word ‘if’ -- once he has been found to be in the wrong, I would have set myself down immediately. That has to be my brokenness, my contrition, my biblical response to a sin that’s been exposed. I need help, I want to be able to live and minister beyond this situation. And quite honestly, you don’t see that. If anything you see arrogance; you see a sense of piousness. Who’s the David and who’s the Goliath here?

Q. Do you see much homosexuality in the African American pulpit?
I don’t see it. No, I don’t have the statistical data to say that homosexuality is 50 percent in the pulpit with African American pastors. I can’t say that. I know that I don’t see that with my own eyes, and I’m in a lot of circles. But it doesn’t mean that it’s not there in a very substantial way. What makes the allegations about Eddie Long interesting is that he is not the most feminine and dainty guy. In his case he’s really kind of accentuating the bravado -- the masculinity, the muscle shirts, the working out -- and that’s what fuels the fire of the downlow living. One thing is for sure: Whether Eddie Long is found guilty or innocent, it’s going to cause the church to talk a lot more about sexuality. That is for sure.

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