Church members support pastor's call to imprison gays behind electrified fence

By now, we all know about Pastor Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church, NC and his sermon advocating imprisoning gays within an electrified fence so that we may die out.

But here is another sad part of the story. Members of his congregation support him:



Mark my words. Gays and lesbians are not the destroyers of Christianity. Some of these folks are doing an excellent job of it themselves and if those Christians who are shocked by this just simply stand aside and say nothing, then they are cowards.

It's easy to get angry at this madness but just remember one thing. The more ignorant people talk about destroying others, the more they destroy themselves. Hang tight brothers and sisters!

Hat tip to Towleroad

NAACP attacked by 'The Vultures' for its support of marriage equality

Alveda King is a sad woman living off her uncle's name.

When the NAACP passed a resolution support marriage equality, I knew that THEY were coming.

By "THEY," I am talking about a group of wannabe black leaders who I like to refer to colloquially as "The Vultures."

These folks claim to lead "big time" organizations with important sounding names. Something like "The High Impact Leadership Coalition" or "Brotherhood for a New Destiny" or "Center for Urban Renewal and Education."

I should tell you right now that these organizations are astroturfed. They don't speak for the black community because a vast majority of us have never heard of them. And why should we? Whenever there needs to be a true voice in the black community addressing issues such as poverty or socio-economic equality, these groups are never around.

They exist only as convenient black faces to be trotted out by conservatives or the religious right when it comes to issues of race. These so-called black leaders don't care about the black community because they are too busy telling some whites what they want to hear about the black community.

That's all they do. That's the only reason why they exist.

And in the case of the NAACP accepting marriage equality, these folks are in rare form. Religious Right Watch covers what several of them had to say:

Stephen Broden, a Republican politician who has said that the violent overthrow of the government should be “on the table,” dubbed the NAACP “irrelevant”:

Stephen Broden, pastor of Fair Park Bible Fellowship in Dallas, notes that the black community is suffering from soaring unemployment, an extraordinarily high rate of abortions, a high school drop out rate among black teenagers that is breathtaking, an exploding rate of single parent households and the decimation of black families.

Yet, Broden says, the NAACP is making statements about same-sex marriage. “The NAACP has proven again to be an irrelevant organization as it relates to issues of survival for the black community,” says Broden who co-authored Life at All Costs with King and Gardner. The book addresses issues such as abortion and homosexuality.

Domestic violence perpetrator turned “pro-family” activist Timothy Johnson called on African Americans to ditch the NAACP and join his own group, the Frederick Douglass Foundation:

"When you recognize that the black community is strongly a Christian-based group of people, conservative in most of the things they believe, the NAACP has gone diabolically the opposite direction of tradition of the black community," he states. "[The NAACP] really is doing this in order to stay relevant and in order to build up their revenues as it relates to what they can get from the gay community."


"... I think those individuals who call themselves Christian or call themselves Jewish who are members of the NAACP should denounce the organization, should cancel their membership, and really look for something else or another organization such as the Frederick Douglas Foundation to be affiliated with," he states.

Religious Right Watch also mentions comments by the "Queen Mother" of the group, Alveda King, Martin Luther King, Jr's niece:

Alveda King, as always, tied the topic to the question of abortion rights and claimed to speak for her uncle and other relatives in claiming that the King family has always opposed the “homosexual agenda”:

"Neither my great-grandfather an NAACP founder, my grandfather Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. an NAACP leader, my father Rev. A. D. Williams King, nor my uncle Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. embraced the homosexual agenda that the current NAACP is attempting to label as a civil rights agenda," says King, founder of King for America and Pastoral Associate for Priests for Life.

"In the 21st Century, the anti-traditional marriage community is in league with the anti-life community, and together with the NAACP and other sympathizers, they are seeking a world where homosexual marriage and abortion will supposedly set the captives free.”

Alveda King is a sad fraud. Practically her entire career has been reaping off of her famous uncle, a man who lived and died when she was a child. I doubt she knew anything about King. I doubt very much that she is aware that one of King's advisers, Bayard Rustin, was an openly gay man. It was Rustin who not only coordinated the March on Washington, but also introduced King to the idea of non-violent resistance.

 I also seriously doubt she knew what was in King's heart when it came to the gay community. However, we do know what she thought of Coretta Scott King, MLK's wife and the person who did know his heart and was also a very vocal ally of the gay community.

Two years ago, when she was asked about Coretta Scott King's support of the gay community, she made a highly inappropriate comment:

"She (Coretta) was married to him (Martin Luther King, Jr.). I've got his DNA. She doesn't. She didn't. She's passed away."

That comment alone gives a great indication of Alveda King's mindset and lack of integrity.

But generally speaking, anyone using Alveda King or any of these other spokespeople or groups as proof that the black community has turned on the NAACP for the organization's support of marriage equality is lying to their readers.

Neither these groups nor their spokespeople never really cared for the NAACP in the first place.

Because to them, it's all about the spotlight.
 

'Astroturfed group of black pastors attacking Obama over marriage equality' and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Happy Harvey Milk Day everyone!

North Carolina Anti-Gay ‘Electrified Fence’ Pastor Faces National Backlash - Awwww the poor baby. SOCK IT TO HIM!!!!!!!! And I DARE anyone from the religious right to defend this man.


  Harry Jackson: God punishes marriage supporters, NAACP next; you're not taping this, are you? - Harry Jackson, it seems to me that if your words are Godly, you shouldn't worry about whether or not you are being taped.  

Commentary: Pastor Invokes Bible to Attack Obama - Some may call me racist for this but I don't give a crap. Seems to me that if you are taking a picture of a group of black pastors who are supposed to be standing against President's Obama support for marriage equality, then shouldn't the majority of folks be black pastors rather than two blacks pastors already affiliated with the religious right and NOM (William Owens  and Harry Jackson) and people like Tony Perkins? Can you say fraud? BET socks it to them. Not for that point, but still, it's an excellent commentary.

Justice for Maverick! Student Wins Right to Wear Shirt - Score one for the First Amendment!

Home Depot stands up to the American Family Association during shareholders meeting

Sometimes a simple declaration is all one needs to turn aside a bigoted statement.

Home Depot has been on the "shit list" (so to speak) of the religious right, particularly of the American Family Association because of its participation in gay pride parades and its donations to GLAAD, The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

AFA is presently boycotting the company, demanding that Home Depot "stay neutral" in the so-called culture wars. Of course the irony is that if Home Depot was on AFA's side in the argument, the organization would be defending "it's right to participate."

Recently, AFA spokesman Randy Sharp made a statement to Home Depot chairman Frank Blake, Home Depot's board of directors, and its shareholders during the company's annual shareholder meeting.

Blake's answer to Sharp was neither long nor was it drawn out, but it made things clear how Home Depot stands on the matter. Blake's response to Sharp starts at 3:18 and also hear the voice of support of Blake's statement from a self-identified "married lesbian from Massachusetts:"

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.

'The most nauseating picture of anti-gay violence you will ever see' and other Monday midday news briefs

This awful scene is Svyatoslav Sheremet, head of Gay Forum of Ukraine, is beaten as he met with members of the media to inform them that a scheduled gay-pride parade was cancelled. (Anatolii Stepanov, Reuters/Landov)

Kiev Pride Cancelled, Two Beaten - Box Turtle supplied the picture and details of this awful scene. You see this is what the Obama Administration was talking about when it made its stance against anti-gay violence. No matter how the religious right tries to bamboozle the situation, let this picture provide the truth of the situation for you.

NAACP Endorses Marriage Equality - The resolution not only helps gay equality but it also helps the NAACP in that it indicates that the organization is growing in a positive manner to encompass the universal struggle for equality.

 NOM pushes extreme video; pushes away remaining stake in political moderation - The National Organization for Marriage is now embracing a fraudulent video pushed by the Family Research Council. For more information on this fraudulent video, see Family Research Council pushing another video of anti-gay lies 

Civil rights group says school censored students - Rainbow symbols promote gay sex. Who knew?

Will the Family Research Council acknowledge error of using recanted study?

Spitzer

Editor's note -  It's one of those two post mornings. After reading this post (and hopefully tweeting Tony Perkins and/or Peter Sprigg, check out my other post below regarding elected officials attacking the gay community - Why do some American Christians anoint the lazy and ignorant as their 'heroes?'

On Friday, something monumental happened.

Dr. Robert Spitzer announced plans to officially apologize to the gay community for a 2001 study he published which claimed that gays can change their sexual orientation.

This apology is a boon for the gay community and closes the book on a long controversy. I detailed it in my 2007 book Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters:

Robert Spitzer is one of the psychiatrists who was instrumental in getting the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses in the early 1970s.

In 2001, he published a controversial study that seemed to claim that small number of people can change their orientation from gay to heterosexual. In 45-minute individual telephone calls with 143 “ex-gays” and 57 “ex-lesbians,” Spitzer asked them 60 questions dealing with their feelings and behavior before and after they allegedly changed their orientations. They also talked about their strategies, feelings and motives for changing.

Many of these individuals were referred to Spitzer by “ex-gay” groups. When Spitzer’s findings were made public, the anti-gay industry lauded him, making sure to mention that he was one of the principle people who led the American Psychiatric Association’s 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

They also made sure to portray him as a martyr of political correctness, making it sound as if some sort of gay Mafia was attempting to suppress his study. Concerned Women for America even sent out a press release claiming that Spitzer’s life and livelihood was being threatened.

The Traditional Values Organization published its own press release of Spitzer’s study. Like other so-called “pro-family” groups, it manipulated the findings without going into detail about how Spitzer came to his conclusion, but making sure to emphasize his support of gay rights.

Over the years, Spitzer has denounced how the religious right used his study for its own agenda. In a 2006 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Spitzer said that he believed that some of those he interviewed for his study may have been either lying to him or themselves. In that same year, he teamed up with Dr. Judith Stacey, Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc and Soulforce, a group that combats “spiritual violence” against the gay and lesbian community, in a press release demanding that Focus on the Family another religious right group, stop distorting research.