Sophia A. Nelson Gets to Respond to Prof. Michael Eric Dyson on Gay Marriage Debate on MSNBC

May 17, 2012 - PRLog -- Nelson released the following public statement through her publicist Yvette Hayward, New York, NY:

Last night I was proud to be given an opportunity to respond to the ugly and unprovoked personal attacks made on me, Roland S. Martin, Pastor Jamal Bryant and other black clergy as well as the black church for our Bible based belief that marriage is indeed between one man and one woman. The dialogue we had on MSNBC was respectful, compassionate, honest, and purposeful.

I thank MSNBC executives, producers, and others who worked diligently to present both sides of the issue and give those of us on the other side a fair hearing.  I also accept the very public apology made by my friend Michael Eric Dyson on air and in private to me and others.  Since last Friday evening, as I was enjoying time with friends, I have been barraged with emails, tweets, texts, posts calling me ugly names, attacking my faith, cursing at me, and calling me a bigot, or worse.  I regret that people of good will cannot respect that although I support every other right my Gay & Lesbian brethren seek, that because I differ on the issue of traditional marriage that somehow I must be against Gay people. Not true.

I have now addressed the matter openly and fully on national TV as well as given interviews and written about the issue. It is closed for me. I am thus cancelling all media related appearances I had agreed to with Dr. Dyson and others because the personal assaults on my social media and otherwise are becoming of concern to me and my family, publicist.

Time for me to get back to what I do so very well.  I am an award winning author, motivational speaker, corporate workshop presenter, and someone who brings people together, helps them to live their best lives, and I also happen to cover politics occasionally as an opinion writer for several national magazines and newspapers. This issue is sensitive for us all. I pray that we as a nation can find a way to come together and have civil dialogue that heals, moves us closer, and allows us to disagree respectfully when we don't see eye to eye.

Dr. King and Ghandi were both men I admire. They taught civil disobedience with respect, and they eventually won the right they were seeking because of the fact that they did so with respect, love, and civility. Name calling, attacking people, and attacking people's faith is never a way to win the cause you feel passionately about in life. I am going back to my life of service to all mankind.

Thank you.


The link to my debate with Professor Dyson is below:

http://www.thegrio.com/politics/gay-marriage-debate-sophi...