So a preacher goes on a rant about putting all the gay people behind a fence, feeding them and letting them die off. He is obviously an unappealing fellow, even if he is a "reverend" and the pastor of a church. I have heard he was surprised by the uproar. At 71 he apparently does not comprehend "going virile" on internet.
In the MSNBC http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/22/11813973-charles-worley-north-carolina-pastor-faces-backlash-outrage-over-call-for-gays-to-be-put-behind-electric-fence?lite story posted about impending protests against the pastor and his church there were a few posts quoted. One said "Pastor Charles Worley is yet another argument for the abolishment of religion."
Obvioulsy, I think the pastor was wrong. I do not support the gay rights agenda and I am offended that such a position on sexual morality and the meaning of marriage can be misconstrued as "hate speech." However, I have stood up in the past and will be willing to stand up in the future against gay bashing or abuse. What Worley has done is abominable and sadly he is no doubt not the only one advocating such things. I am not a Baptist and my understanding of Baptist polity is that his congregation will need to deal with him.
My greater concern is how this story will be used. It is interesting that the media does not cover the 43 dioceses and Catholic institutions suing the US Government over religious liberty, yet any crackpot preacher threatening to burn a Koran or spewing idiotic suggestions on gay issues is worthy of front and center coverage. I am even more concerned that MSNBC would include in its coverage the suggestion that religion should be abolished.
My opinion on gay marriage is quite simple. I believe gay people should be free to marry. I have always thought this. However, it is my understanding that gay people do not want to get married. They are not attracted to the opposite sex. Therefore, this is not an argument about human rights. It is a debate on what the word marriage means (i.e. a covenant between a man and woman). Unfortnately, the media allows the public face of the debate to focus on people like Worley. Do the vast majority of people who are against "gay marriage" espouse his views. I think not. But that does not matter. The point is to paint traditional Christian faith as evil and hateful. Ironically, the liberal Christians are allies of the secularists in this. They are too naive to believe that the abolition of religion would include liberal religion. They assume they are safe because they can say, "we think like you" to the secularist. They do not see that traitors and turncoats are rarely respected or embraced.
I wish Worley and his ilk would shut their mouths. I do not want to see gay people suffer any more than they already do. I do not want the faith misused to abuse gay people. But from my view, the greater risk is to us, the traditional Christians. There is no real risk that gays will be rounded up into concentration camps. None at all. But attacks on religious liberty, that is a different story. It has been going on for a while, and the media will not say a word about it. And their silence is an indication of just how far things have gone in a very short while.
In this country we have always had some extreme views. When the war came, some wanted to hang the priests of the English church. Then later an Army colonel in Denver said "Nits make lice" and wanted to kill them all. And in another century we went out and rounded up all the Japanese-Americans and put them in camps. The new evil today is that the news media does not report the news but makes opinion by biased coverage. Who's got the Demons, here?
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