Mat Staver Slams Churches That Reacted To
Orlando With Kindness: It Was A Homosexual Love Fest
Staver went on to lament that some churches
turned memorial gatherings following the terrorist attack on a gay nightclub in
Orlando into a “homosexual love fest.”
“Even in the situation following what happened
in Orlando,” he said, “churches got involved and they led in some cases and in
other cases they followed and they ultimately allowed that situation, instead
of an opportunity to pray, some of them allowed it to be a homosexual love
fest. That’s not something that we need to celebrate, this is a tragedy that is
against all Americans.”
Co-host Matt Barber then joined in to fault
gay-friendly Christians because they are “disobeying Christ, are actually
running afoul of God and Jesus in the context of the marriage debate and are
siding with the Prince of the World who is trying to redefine marriage.”
“Believe me, this idea of gay marriage didn’t
come from God, it didn’t come from Christ,” Barber said, “so who did it come
from?”
How
disgusting a person do you have to be to even think something like this, much
less SAY it?!
And what will our
Christian allies say to these two shit bags? What will their rebuttal be to
hate now being directed not just to us but to their own who don't measure down
to their standards? For god's sake, people, speak up. Your silence sounds like,
"Oh, maybe they're right."
Respectfully, can I
ask what "speak up" would sound like to you? I mean, I'm not going to
get invited on MSNBC like Tony PerKKKins, so if I---or other Episcopalians, for
example---want to speak up (or are already doing so), who/how would they hear
us? [Full disclosure: I do a heck of a lot of blog commenting *outside* of JMG
and the gay intertoobz, generally. Y'know, the kind of places where I get
moderated OUT. By Christianists.]
The Truly Religious have decided PA
needs a bathroom bill. The PA "Family" Association (our AFA chapter)
held a rally Monday...the now-familiar "fears" and
"concerns" were expressed by the local usual suspects. The rally
received hardly any coverage. What DID get covered was the
counter-demonstration by a group of concerned people, some transgender, some
not. They were not polite. They were loud. They were noticed and their
spokesperson got interviews. The group formed at our LGBT Center and came back
to detox. The Center is small, so their meeting area was also where my
receptionist desk is, so I got to hear their takes on the day. Some of them
were down because of the harassment from the "Family" members, some
were angry. But, because although I'm a shy person I also can't help but offer
my 2 cents, I reminded them they were a presence, people saw them and heard
them, and they made an impression...they couldn't help but make an impression
on some of the kids who were dragged there and some of the adults who also were
dragged there.
What can our Christian allies do? I
don't know and I don't need to have the answer. But the group on Monday
reminded me that all politics is local and that you make the news by speaking
your piece. If they just showed up at the capitol rotunda, how noticeable would
that have been? They decided on a way to get noticed, get coverage, make their
point. Visibility, like coming out, is important. Making noise, like coming
out, is vital.
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United
Methodists, United Churches of Christ, "good" Lutherans,
Unitarian/Universalists and the other mainstream denominations have worked
together in the past. There is no denying their importance in the Civil Rights
movement. Do they think we are worthy of their efforts?
We're in a nation
that's been dumbed down to the point that a traditional approach to getting
attention, to speaking on talk shows, to writing comments doesn't work. Again,
how do respectable, good Christian allies not just share the attention but gain
it and seize it? I hate that our nation's decibel level is so high now, but it
seems that wresting attention is what's needed. A critic doesn't rewrite a show
s/he doesn't like. We read here all the time that nothing good will happen
until the old farts die off and the millennials take over. I'm all for it. I'm
nearly 70...I'm tired. The millennials of the mainstream denominations need to
convince their old fart leaders that the old farts' ideas aren't working and
new ways need to be used, that the denominations need to come together, need to
let the "no, WE're right" theology take a back seat to getting
together and work to prove "they're not all like that." Sooner rather
than later.
To paraphrase Velma
in "Chicago," we cannot do it alone.
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