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Right Wing Pulpits Have Become the Epicenter of Gay Hate and Violence
On North Carolina Primary Tuesday, May 8th, voters will be asked to give 55 delegates to either Mitt Romney or Ron Paul and also to vote for or against Constitutional Amendment 1. It reads; “Constitutional Amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one women is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”
In support of the Amendment, Sean Harris, the Pastor of Fayetteville, North Carolina’s Berean Baptist church, preached the following as part of his sermon, Sunday, April 29th.
“So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four-years-old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, “Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do”, you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed.
Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not gong to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are gong to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting too butch, you rein her in. And you say, “Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.”
Those are the preacher’s exact words, interrupted from time to time by approving grunts and laughter from the congregation. Needless to say, after the push back from that segment of the population not bred to hate (a declining breed), Pastor Harris apologized in his own way, saying that his comments were ‘in jest’ and that he was just using hyperbole to convey the importance of the ‘offense’.
The number of gay teen suicides is hard to quantify, but a Columbia University researcher studied 32,000 straight and gay teenagers last year and found that 20% of the gay youngsters had attempted suicide as opposed to 4% of the straight kids. There were far more attempts in conservative republican states than in liberal democratic states. Numerous studies show bullying of gay teenagers is an epidemic in our schools. America is Harris country. I went to the Fayetteville Observer Online site and found one comment after another defending the pastor’s sermon. In fairness there were also a number of comments condemning the sermon.
But, for the most part, polls show that the Amendment 1 will pass. One pro-amendment group spokesperson was quoted as saying “While pro-amendment “incidents” have made headlines, thousands of her group’s signs have been destroyed or stolen and billboards set ablaze.” Thousands?
Oh yes, and 41 states have either statutory or constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex marriage. North Carolina is among them. The constitutional amendment is just to upgrade the issue to constitutional status and make reversal more difficult.
The venerable Dr. Billy Graham, who adores the amendment, weighed in with “watching the moral decline of our country causes me great concern.” He endorses the amendment in an ad to appear in 14 North Carolina newspapers. Big biblical guy, that Graham – except when it comes to his own pocketbook. Ole’ Billy is worth a preacher’s ransom of $25 million. That’s HIS OWN MONEY! He should know after all these years of biblical emersion that God is not exactly wild about the wealthy. Billy might want to turn to Matthew 19: 21-22. “Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. Graham apparently prefers his treasure on earth, thank you very much.
Let’s talk about Dr.(honorary, not earned I might add) Graham’s reference to our moral decline. Please define the moral decline of same-sex marriage. Dr. Graham, please cite ONE marriage broken up by two men or two women getting ‘married’ to each other. One! I’ve asked this question many times before and am still awaiting an answer. Meanwhile the sanctity of marriage and I’m including staying married as part of that noun, is pure bullfeathers. The divorce rate in American, using averages from a number studies, is about 50% of first marriages, roughly 2/3rds of second marriages and damn near 75% of third marriages. Fame-whore, Kim Kardashian splits after 72 days of “Holy” matrimony and nobody bats an eyelash. Not to pile on here, but of the 20 states with the highest divorce rates, 14 gave their presidential vote to John McCain.
Yeah gays gittin’ hitched are going to ruin the ‘Sanctity of Marriage’.
I’ll tell you what. Knowing how enamored the right is with model legislation, let me direct you to the latest evangelical hotspot, Uganda. Though Catholics and Protestants represent about 85% of church membership in this East-Central African country (just west of Kenya if you want to visit Obama’s birthplace), the evangelicals are making tremendous strides. In fact it was a meeting of some of their number and the Ugandans that gave rise to legislation that right-wingers might be eager to embrace in the U.S. It’s called the Anti-Homosexuality bill and as far as I know there remains a section that a practicing homosexual could face the death penalty under certain circumstances. It hasn’t passed yet and if it does the President has vowed to veto it, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a model for the U.S. right. If adopted stateside, I would recommend a certain preacher to administer the lethal injection.
I know it wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying for the right-wing, but there’s also a part of the legislation that allows for life in prison. Maybe they’ll have special days for evangelicals to “come into prison and give them gay lifers a good punch”.
The Methodist national legislative meeting just reinforced their disgust of gays by upholding their opposition to same-sex marriage. And we all know the Catholic hierarchy hates gays. So where’s a spiritual God-fearing homosexual to go to seek solace and blessings from the good Lord?
Certainly not contemporary America!
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Reynardine
May. 4th, 2012 at 3:00 pm
Slap a four-year-old for being “gay?” When I was that age, I wanted to grow up to be a yellow gas station. Then, when they told me I couldn’t, I wanted to grow up to be a horse. How the Hell can a four-year-old be “gay”, then? If I had a four-year-old boy who really liked skirts and frills, I’d tell him that boys in our society only get to wear that in Scotty parades, but if it continued to interest him, I’d get him started on bagpipe chanter. Little girls these days, as long as everything that law, weather, and prudence require to be covered is covered, can pretty much wear and do as they like. Even though china tea sets might be considered a bit flitty here, perfectly macho curry-colonels have long enjoyed them, and if leisure grants, sitting down to a well-laid four-O’clock with mint tea, milk, and fruit with one’s kids and grandkids is no bad way to civilize them. This guy is a moron, a sadist, and a Philistine all three.
Churchlady320
May. 4th, 2012 at 3:09 pm
Good expose of the extremism in our midst. But one MAJOR correction – those not born and bred to hate are on the INCREASE in America, especially among mainline and progressive Protestants as well as Jews and non-believers. Pew survey data on religion shows mainline Protestants support not just GLBT equality as an abstraction but same-sex MARRIAGE by significant percentages. The world is changing, not as fast as it can – witness the conservative dominance of an otherwise progressive church, United Methodists, who just voted AGAINST GLBT equality. But ALSO witness the powerful witness by pastors and bishops who were outraged by yesterday’s vote and who are ow threatening to split the church to stand for equality over this narrow minded fear from conservatives.
This split in faith communities is going to be historical. Just because of this one issue thee is an enormous split coming between the rock ribbed who think you should beat the gay outta your kid and those who note that Jesus never said a single thing about ANY of the “pelvic politics” that obsess the religious right.
We are witnessing a schism equal to the Great Schism of yore, to the Reformation, to any tectonic shift in belief and organizational line up. If this is led by GLBT people and their friends working for equality, that is as it should be. We will all be better off for the ability to say where we stand on human dignity and equality.
A Walkaway
May. 4th, 2012 at 6:55 pm
I really hope you and the researchers are right. It would be nice to hear of churches (besides our own) that accepted LGBT people as they are, without trying to change them (as if they needed changing in the first place).
In our huge county, I’ve only heard of two other churches like that… and one is under a hierarchal structure that has dictated that acceptance of LGBT people is not acceptable.
mediawest
May. 4th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
as someone who lives on the left coast, and works in commie hollywood, we do shoots at studios in NC, all the time now. [also New Orleans is doing a lot of production now, non union, but it is really helping that decimated economy] the bean counters love to use a ‘right to work’ states so they can use mostly non union. when i am in NC, and see this stuff, [this is not unusual, nor the worst i've seen, either] it is apparent that we are in two different worlds that will never come together. as a jew, i hear the anti this, and anti that, south will rise again bs, and have to keep my mouth closed…
at some point letting the deep south and texas opt out of the union, might be a good thing…. after all, the red states there get $1.85 back for every buck they put in. CA gets less than a $1….
Diane
May. 4th, 2012 at 4:01 pm
besides gays and lesbians, women will have to again fight for their rights.
I’m hoping the nuns rise up and challenge the Catholic church so the the people can march right besides them.
Dan Skinner
May. 4th, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Churches want to get involved in politics.. TAX EM!
A Walkaway
May. 4th, 2012 at 7:04 pm
Has anyone caught what I did… that BASTARD was advocating CHILD ABUSE!!!
I just wish I could get him into an intro to Anthro course… one taught by one of my friends (or as I aspire, taught by myself). He’d learn just how full of shit he really is… how ethnocentric and bigoted. Maybe he’d learn just how biased and wrong he really is, and that his definitions of masculine and feminine are defined by his religion and culture (learned) – but aren’t inherent to humanity.
Better yet, I’d love to see him put in a gender and sexuality course taught by one of my colleagues… he’d come off a distant third in her class… if he survived.
The bastard literally made me want to puke.
Reynardine
May. 4th, 2012 at 8:13 pm
Well, yes, that’s why I called him a moron, a sadist, and a philistine. Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. But a number of boys who have grown up to be gay were ones whose timidity or “effeminate” tastes as small children were responded to with heartless brutality in the belief that this would make them macho, and although it’s fashionable now to say that homosexuality is just inborn, I can think of nothing more certain to make a boy grow up with a loathing of traditional “masculinity”.
A Walkaway
May. 5th, 2012 at 9:25 am
I can certainly understand that! I grew up with the “Man is the Boss!” bullshit, and despise it – and I’m glad to have learned about my true heritage because that sort of thinking is (or was) unknown to my ancestors. The macho crap also was part of the picture… and because of my life-long health issues, I faced a hard time because I wasn’t a “He-Man” type and active in sports.
My dad was always “right” and the boss, even when he was abysmally wrong. He never listened to anyone he didn’t consider an equal – and that included his family. (It was the way he was raised by the abusive bastard who married his mother and “raised” him.) Such an attitude created a person who was capricious, hard-headed, and unwilling to listen or compromise in any way. He never took consideration of other people when he made his decisions… and they caused a lot of grief.
Shiva (Moderator)
May. 4th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Rush Limbaugh uses hyperbole to influence people as well. And I’m here to tell you it’s not innocent like they try to tell you it is. it’s not just a way of telling a story, it’s a way of telling people to do things without being honest about it.
I’ve said this before. You can teach your children not to do things like swear and drink, you can teach them to not be gay but when they grow up they will be whatever they are going to be. When they grow up they learn what was withheld from them and they turn away from it.
the gun nuts with a little dicks keep saying there’s going to be a revolution. I think there will be one in time but it will be over religion and religious persecution and the gun nuts wont get their happy let’s shoot the government up choice. in fact many of them will find that they are not on the side they wanted to be on
D.D. Maurer
May. 4th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
So where’s a spiritual God-fearing homosexual to go to seek solace and blessings from the good Lord?
THE ELCA! They’ve joined the ranks of realizing that God LOVES DIVERSITY.
Lindsay
May. 4th, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Pre-adolescent children are always predominantly homosexual. Boys will congregate with boys and girls with girls unless some external influence is brought to bear. It is only when the hormones start to flow that bots are no longer scared of “girl germs” and girls see something more in boys. Over the years I have often wondered what psychological damage has been caused by insisting that children are just little adults. I can remember my daughter believing that she was gay in her early teens and the decision that my wife and I made to just let nature take its course. Recently we had to remind her of that action when she expressed a similar concern about her daughter
Reynardine
May. 4th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
They did used to call the same-sex groups of children “homosexual”, creating needless freak-outs in parents, including mine. The proper term for it these days is “homosocial”.
The production of adult sex hormones is preceded a couple of years by adrenarche, when, in addition to adrenaline, the adrenals begin to produce androsterone, an anabolic steroid that is also a precursor hormone for both testosterone and estrogen. When puberty is fully established, the gonads convert most androsterone to the proper adult sex hormone (the cycle is more complex in women), but until the transition is complete, aggression and what can only be described as polymorphous-perverse humor is the order of the day- factors which make teaching the junior high/middle school crowd such an unmitigated pleasure. Sexual experimentation during this stage is not necessarily indicative of adult orientation, or even paraphilia.
There is a cautionary note. Any youngster caught acting out sadistically, or towards younger children, or towards animals, needs counselling right away. We’ve most of us heard of the MacDonald Triad. Those who haven’t, it’s not a triple burger with cheese. It involves cruelty to animals, fire setting, and bedwetting, but the bedwetting, though it may be a sign of nocturnal terrors, is neither necessary nor sufficient to a diagnosis. Either of the other two is a bad omen; both together are an urgent indicator for good therapy, as they are, if unintervened, signs of a developing sadistic psychopath.
Debbie Perry
May. 4th, 2012 at 10:15 pm
I can’t for the life of me understand how you can hate someone just because of sexual preference. Do you know, I mean really know this person? Why can’t we just judge people by how they treat us or treat others? I know many gays and like them because of what’s in their hearts and how they treat me. Why do they deserve to not be happy and in love? Why would you beat them, jail them, kill them? I don’t understand. Maybe it’s because I am a liberal. Conservatives hate things just to hate. Churches are full of people who hate because that’s what they are taught….IN CHURCH! Then the want to wear their little bracelet that says WWJD? If Jesus did exist (you people have me wondering) he would show love, acceptance, help. I just don’t understand hating gays? What did they do to you personally? The same above goes for blacks….get to know the person before you make the judgement.
gnj
May. 5th, 2012 at 8:54 am
What this pastor said is a disgrace but many of the Christians that I have encountered feel the exact same way though none have openly condoned the sort of violence the pastor is advocating. For example, a coworker has a two year old daughter who one day quite loudly told her mommy in a store that she did not like boys. My coworker when sharing this story with us said that she was going to ‘pray on this’ and that she will have to watch her two year old very closely because she did not want her daughter to go the ‘wrong’ way in life. This person considers herself a God-fearing Christian. My thoughts were first of all this woman’s daughter is just two and secondly, this woman already has grown children with whom she has a tumultuous relationship. I just wonder if Christians actually sit and listen to what they say sometimes because usually what they say is irrational and just plain ignorant.
Shiva (Moderator)
May. 5th, 2012 at 9:05 am
I think its just poor parenting. What little girl likes boys until they are around 12 anyways? (of course the age may be earlier now). Isnt it completely normal for little girls and boys to not like each other in a “sexual” manner at that age? WTF? A 2 year old hardly is proclaiming her lesbianism at that age.
A Walkaway
May. 5th, 2012 at 9:32 am
I think it depends on peer pressure and socialization, especially outside the home.
I don’t remember a period in my childhood where I didn’t get along with (and was friends with) girls… we lived in an area during the pre-adolescent phase of my life where the only boys in the area (a couple) were bullies, and most of the others my age were girls. When a new boy moved into the neighborhood a couple of blocks away, we became fast friends… but there were no hostile feelings towards girls at any point.
Maybe it was because most of the girls were “tomboys” and we shared common interests – and I’d learned that they had those common interests.
Shiva (Moderator)
May. 5th, 2012 at 9:36 am
Yeah but at 2 years of age?
A Walkaway
May. 5th, 2012 at 10:29 am
At that age… I didn’t have any friends that I remember.
Around 3-4, I think my first friends were a little boy who lived behind us and his sister (maybe a year older than us) – and my folks have always said that I had an “imaginary friend” during that time. I also vaguely remember some other non-Mormon friends who were the children of one of my dad’s friends at work – both girls.
That was when we lived in Mormon country. The Mormon kids tolerated us at best. I’ve mentioned the way we were treated.
Age 5-6 on to adolescence… my friends were girls, except for the one boy who moved into the area. (I do remember the silly and stupid “Boys are better than girls – girls are better than boys” arguments in elementary school, and used to make the other kids really angry by saying that boys and girls were equal.)
Reynardine
May. 5th, 2012 at 7:56 pm
As I said, I was a couple of years older than that when I thought I could grow up to be a yellow gas station.
There’s nothing like picking on a pimple to turn it into an abcess, and there’s nothing like harping on a childish quirk or an adolescent insecurity to turn it into a lifelong problem. Adults should keep their own damn sexual hangups out of their dealings with kids. For my part, I’d have given a lot to have had my parents know when to shut up.
Barry Roope
May. 5th, 2012 at 10:56 am
The right-wing Republicans are all liars. One day they will answer for their wrongdoing, especially the way they have turned on America’s children, cutting funding for school lunch programs is about the most cowardly way a legislator can act. Every single one of these cowards needs to be voted out of office. They can all HUG NUTS!!
robyn ryan
May. 6th, 2012 at 11:57 am
Last time I looked, gays, women, minorities, et.al.,all paid taxes.
So why do the loonies get to make the rules on how taxes are spent?