Right Wing Pulpits Have Become the Epicenter of Gay Hate and Violence

Last updated on May 5th, 2012 at 08:51 pm

On North Carolina Primary Tuesday, May 8^th, 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 29^th.

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“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!

Dennis S

Raised rural & small town, then lived in N.Y., Chicago & LA. Widely traveled. Returned from world wandering to pursue media life of anchorman/reporter and major, medium and small market talk radio. Highly active in politics. Once worked as orderly & security in Mens Lock Ward for the Criminally Insane at a state institution. Much more rational population than current Teapublicans. Great concern for country run by and for the extreme wealthy. The inhumane current running through this country has no precedent in modern history.

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