Mel White exposes ‘lies the Christian Right tell us to deny gay equality’

How and why do otherwise kind and Jesus-esque people become machines motivated by fear and unleashed in ignorance when the topic switches to the gay community?

And how, on this one topic, do some Christians neglect the clear Biblical mandates to care for the poor and the outcast and turn all their negative energy onto the LGBT community? Who can we “thank” for this diversion and inoculation of deception and ignorance?

“Holy Terror: Lies the Christian Right Tells to Deny Gay Equality,” by Mel White, is a treasure map to the answer.

For thirty years, the Rev. Dr. Mel White served the evangelical Christian community as a pastor, seminary professor and ghostwriter to powerful and famous leaders, including Billy Graham, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.

In this book, White points us to several well known Christian leaders who have guided us to a place of blindness and passivity where fundamentalist faith is married to politics.

Fundamentalism of any sort is extremism. Christian fundamentalism is rooted in literal Bible interpretation. “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.”

Of course, they are selectively literal, about women often, and about gays very often. With over 31 thousand verses in the Bible, how did the six on same-sex behavior trump the rest? White lays out the forefathers of this modern fundamentalist movement. Francis Schaeffer began the call to reclaim America as a “once great Christian nation” from secular forces in the 40’s and 50’s. Using hyperbole, half truths and lies, Schaeffer rallied Christians to fight “judicial tyranny.” Schaeffer set the stage for Christians to blend politics and faith.

W.A. Criswell, the senior pastor for 58 years of the 28 thousand member Dallas First Baptist, “fired the first shots in the fundamentalists’ war to purge ‘moderates’ and ‘progressives’ from their churches” using the litmus test of “the Bible is inerrant and anyone who disagrees cannot be trusted theologically.”

With the charismatic assistance of Criswell beginning in the 1990’s, fundamentalists won control of the national boards and committees of the Southern Baptist Convention. Literal understanding of the Bible became the measuring stick as ordained women were now denied the right to preach, and gay pastors, teachers and leaders with moderate views were purged from the denomination.

Beginning in 1979, Jerry Falwell took the organized troops and recruited and trained them within the Moral Majority . He created the platform of pro-life (anti-woman’s choice to reproductive rights and anti-Equal Rights Amendment), pro-family (opposed to the civil rights for gays and lesbians), pro-moral (anti- drug, -porn, -child abuse) and pro-American (“making the U.S. a Christian nation once again”). This movement was the pivotal turning point for the “threat” of the gay community and the rise of political power for the Evangelicals and Baptists.

Jerry Falwell began to use the term “gay agenda” and threatened his followers that “God and Christianity” would be eliminated from American society by the gay community.

Pat Robertson formed the Christian Coalition and “recruited, trained and equipped the army for political action.” He perfected the demonization of the gay community and reduced their existence to “disease, despair and decadence.” Anything that went wrong was attributed to the gays.

James Dobson, President of Focus on the Family, had almost 26 million weekly listeners to his radio show. Egotistical, controlling, power-hungry and influential, Dobson continued to use the fear and loathing of the gay community to raise millions and recruit support to “take back America.”

D. James Kennedy, Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian, grew a mega- church in Florida and lead 459 Christian fundamentalists, pastors and leaders to sign “A Manifesto for the Christian Church” in 1986. Among the twelve social evils listed in the Manifesto, in order of importance are: 1. abortion, 2. homosexuality, 5. unjust treatment of the poor and 8. racial discrimination. White does an excellent job laying out the details surrounding the Manifesto with players, dates and intentions. The direct link between gays and the destruction of America is centered in this document.

(Perhaps we have located the “Radical Fundamentalist Agenda.”)

The “logic” follows that the Bible is inerrant, and because the words we read say God condemns gays, then, if we do not fight against them, God will condemn America. So, if Christian fundamentalists do allow for the extension of civil rights, God gets mad and the nation suffers. Ergo, allow gays to survive and thrive, and God destroys America.

The next two chapters are the gems of the entire book: “The Secret Meeting at Glen Eyrie: Declaring War on Homosexuals” (1994) and “The Glen Eyrie Protocol.” These two chapters read like a secret spy novel; reading the account from audio tapes discussing the goals of these conservatives to intentionally manipulate Christians and the American public into hatred of the LGBT community is maddening.

Christians have been lead around like sheep, by the wrong shepherds. “Holy Terror” by Mel White is an excellent tool for understanding the past while giving insight to the anger and lies coming from fundamentalist and conservative family groups.

Read original story at LGBTQ Nation

James Jackson: America will move forward from LGBT prejudice

“As a Christian, I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.”

“I believe my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty.”

These are inspiring words. At first glance, they seem uplifting and motivational. Until you look at their context. Adolf Hitler, one of history’s most heinous arbiters of genocide and mass murder against most notably the Jews but also any other minority population in Germany, uttered these words. These were dark times, and we appropriately look back on them with disgust, but humanity moved forward.

Here in America, we have had our own brushes with the dark side of history. As colonists and settlers, we populated the North American continent and created the world’s first nation based on democracy and freedom.

At the same time, we slaughtered thousands of innocent natives and justified it with grand slogans like “Manifest Destiny” and dismissed the inhuman treatment as unimportant because these people were “uncivilized” and not Christians. And although Native Americans still aren’t exactly treated in all fairness by our government and our people, as a culture, we have rejected this attitude towards them, and we have moved forward.

As the concept of freedom and equality began to evolve in the 1800s, many began to notice a discrepancy in which Americans actually had freedom and equality. Attitudes began to change on the notion of slavery and the contradiction between it and the American ideal of freedom. There were some that defended it, so much so that it caused a bloody civil war. We look back with disgust and see our ancestors use a book meant to teach humanity how to love and care for one another to justify hate and cruelty.

Preachers adamantly argued that God condoned slavery by selecting stand-alone quotes to use as propaganda to justify their personal views. Many used Ephesians 6:5 and said “slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling.” We look back now with shame because we have moved forward.

Vestiges of this attitude remained in the middle of last century. Americans, and increasingly the world, watched as attitudes towards segregation in the South began to change. We watched in horror as police viciously released dogs and turned water hoses on peaceful protesters. We look back in disgust at a powerful political figure who spewed hate at his 1963 inaugural speech for governor of Alabama.

Governor George Wallace unashamedly said, “I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” We look back as a people and are saddened not only by one of our leaders preaching this hate, but also at the waves of cheers by the populace that embraced it. But America moved forward and got better.

We are now at another turning point in our history when the idea of freedom and equality are in question. Now we are beginning to take a hard look at the treatment of gays and lesbians in our society and their unequal treatment under the law.

There are some who will say that this isn’t the same and this isn’t as extreme as the examples I have given from our history. In response to that I would like to provide a few recent incidents relating to this situation.

In 2003, recent candidate Rick Santorum equated homosexuals to those that practice bestiality. In 2010, Clint McCance, a school board member for the Midland district in western Arkansas, said, “Seriously, they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way I’m wearing it for them is if they all commit suicide.”

Now, in 2012, Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C. preached to responses of “amen,” saying, “I figured a way out, a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers… build a great big large fence, 50 or a hundred miles long. Put all the lesbians in there, fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with 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 will die out.”

Our children and grandchildren will look back on statements like this the same way we look back at other dark sides of history –– with disgust and shame. Of this we should have no doubt because, as always, America and its people move forward.

Read the original story at MPNNow.com

Kentucky Church Attacks LGBT Community With Religous Billboards

Kentucky State Flag

Have you ever noticed that there are many Christians who love to take part of the Bible and use it, but ignore the rest of the Bible because it is inconvenient to their desires for power? Well, apparently the Bluegrass Church of Christ is one of those. They have put up billboards condemning the LGBT Community through the use of decidedly un-Christian passages within the Old Testament.

Kentucky Equality Federation states that:

“While we respect the right to free speech, we condemn Bluegrass Church of Christ for leaving out other parts of the Bible, a practice known as “prooftexting” in some Christian circles. There are plenty of passages extolling good behavior, such as helping the widow and orphan, aiding the sick, and forgiving others.

Likewise, there are portions of the Bible which also contain stories of graphic violence and practices which we question today. For instance, there are plenty of passages which describe beating people to death with rocks for minor crimes, amputating limbs for petty offences, endorsing polygamy, allowing incest to go unpunished, and recommending genocide and repression of women and certain ethnic groups. Is the Bluegrass Church of Christ prepared to endorse these Bible passages?

This is a grandstanding attempt by a local church to divide Lexington’s community and to provide moral cover for discrimination, asserting that homosexuality is somehow anti-God and making a vague comparison of homosexuality to murder. Recently, a lesbian couple was kept out of a prom at a religious school for having the bravery to acknowledge their own identities. If the faith community of Lexington continues to silently tolerate this public humiliation and discrimination of the LGBTI community in our area, it will have abandoned Christ’s commandment to love your neighbor.

We call on religious congregations and groups of all faiths in the Lexington area to forsake and condemn these discriminatory actions. We, as the Kentucky Equality Federation, condemn this ongoing pattern of persecution which is being carried out in the name of religion.”

Read the original article at lezgetreal.com

North Carolina Pastor Faces Backlash Over Quotes Regarding Gays

A North Carolina church pastor’s call for gays and lesbians to be fenced in so they can eventually die off has triggered outrage among gay-rights and anti-hate groups, with one local citizens organization planning a protest in response.

The Catawba Valley Citizens Against Hate said it was organizing a peaceful protest against Pastor Charles Worley on Sunday in front of Providence Road Baptist Church just outside Maiden, N.C., “to tell the world that hate is not welcome in our community.”

The group said the protest would be “in the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King and Gandhi.”

“We will not scream, shout or taunt Pastor Worley or his church’s members,” it said on its Facebook page.

The protest organizer, Laura Tipton, who lives in nearby Hickory, N.C., said she’s gotten a tremendous outpouring of support and now expects “400 or more” people to attend.

“I think the message needs to get out, especially because this is a North Carolina church and North Carolina has gotten a very bad rap,” Tipton told msnbc.com. “I think it’s important that people know that not all of us feel this way, that there is support for the LGBT community in this state.”

Worley’s Mother’s Day sermon suggesting that “lesbians and queers” should be rounded up to die off touched off a firestorm after a video of it was posted on YouTube this week by the Catawba Valley citizens group.

Read the whole story at witn.com