Monday, May 21, 2012

Crazy North Carolina pastors? Blame the Amendment One vote

It's been said that during an argument, the first person who accuses the other of being a Nazi is automatically the loser. I think whoever said that would make an exception in the case of North Carolina pastor Charles Worley of of Providence Road Baptist Church:




Transcript:

"I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers, but I couldn't get it passed through Congress. Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there, fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can't get out…And you know what, in a few years, they'll die out."

Now the most creative of my lgbt brothers and sisters would accuse this pastor of slyly talking about concentration camps and unfortunately they aren't off the mark.

However, I think the old man thinks too much of himself. For centuries the gay community have withstood violence, hatred, and ignorance wrapped up in a religious package. We have withstood scorn, ridicule, and also disease. I hardly think that the silly plans of a backwoods preacher can bring us down.

But sadly, I don't solely blame Worley for his outrageous comments. I also blame the National Organization for Marriage and its recent successful Amendment One campaign. I've always said that wherever the organization goes, it leaves destroyed communities in the wake of its anti-marriage equality campaigns with people having to make amends with each other for voicing negative opinions about gays that were brought to the forefront.

Now in the case of North Carolina, NOM's sickness has infected several pastors.

Patrick Wooden and a cell phone?
Worley is just one. Let's not forget the diaper pastor Patrick Wooden who, because of NOM's Amendment One campaign, claimed that gays have so much sex that we require stitches and diapers. He later doubled down on that lie and also claimed that gays use cellphones a sexual instruments.

That's Wooden right there on the right at the Amendment One victory party. Doesn't that look like a cell phone in his hand? If it is, I don't want to know where he got it.

And let's not forget about Pastor Sean Harris of the Berean Baptist Church Fayetteville, who advised parents to use violence against their potentially gay children:



What it comes down to is that NOM's campaign against marriage equality made it permissible for some of these folks to let their freak flags fly. But now they can't seem to pull them back down.

North Carolina's gay community will survive the Amendment One vote. But I am seriously worried about some of the state's pastors. If another pastor pulls another outrageous outburst, I'm going to be calling the guys with the white coats.



Bookmark and Share

8 comments:

Song1964 said...

Never before has a group of people been so pushed away from Salvation, God, and the Gospel as the "Queers and Homosexuals". I have heard almost these exact words from the pulpit of the church I grew up in. I am convinced that this is not following the great commission (Matt. 28:19&20). I am also convinced that when we stand at the judgement seat of Christ, they will have to answer for these words of hate and unChrist like behavior. I am a Christian, I am an ordained minister, I am a lesbian... there is no conflict. Shame on this "Pastor".

Anonymous said...

The Bible is a mirror. You only find there what you bring to it. That being said, it's pretty irrelevant to modern life, and quite the impediment to rational discourse and to humanity as a whole.

Rob P said...

Oh that Pastor Worley! He's too smart for me.

I never knew that my parents were gay and lesbian.

Prospero said...

How can these people call themselves "Christians?"

glendenb said...

What's the line from Hairspray? You better brace yourself for a whole lot of ugly coming from a never-ending parade of stupid.

Yeah, NOM deserves some of the blame for making this man think it was okay to say this, but I don't think he suddenly started believing it because of them. He probably though it before and lacked the courage to say it. Now he's said it. And we can know him for the bigot he is. But the community isn't broken because of it, it was broken before, it just didn't know. Not it knows.

Chiefy said...

You got it, Rob P.--Worley is way smart, but he forgot something. When you're putting those "queers" behind the fences, how do know you got them all? Like as not, before they're all dead, some gay pastors are going to come out, then you have to put them away. It's just a never-ending battle for truth, justice and biblical fundamentalism.

Anonymous said...

NOM: "Catholics, Mormons form Alliance with Fundamentalists in Well-Thought-Out Scheme"

NOM is a creation of the beltway a creature of our cynical, dysfunctional political system. An alliance of Catholic Republicans using Mormon money to gain political influence. People like NOM's Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, and Robert George live in a sophisticated blue state world. Politics is a game and moral and social issues can be discussed intelligently. But it was not George's intellectual argument against gay marriage that won the day in North Carolina, but the prejudices of the people.

Quite simply, NOM is playing with fire, they are playing with fire for the basest reasons, and they are playing with a fire that will not burn them, but others. Gallagher, Brown, and George will always have speaking gigs, they will always get invited to DC cocktail parties of some sort or the other, and they will always have someone to print their column. It's the poor kid in rural North Carolina who is questioning her sexuality who pays the price.

EvilI said...

"Now the most creative of my lgbt brothers and sisters would accuse this pastor of slyly talking about concentration camps..."
I certainly wouldn't accuse him of doing it slyly. It seems pretty explicit to me.