"Sometimes
you've got to be scared straight. He is trying to save those people from
Hell."
"He had every right to say what he said about putting them in a pen and giving
them food. The Bible says they are worthy of death. He is preaching God's
word."
- Congregants - Providence Road Baptist Church
Pastor Charles Worley's version of "Tough Love" to his
congregation has sparked a protest around the country that may become a form of
"tough love" in itself - much tougher than Worley and his
congregation would expect in any case.
And not in the form of electrified fences or nooses.
The Catabwa Valley Citizens Against Hate has begun to organize a
peaceful protest outside Worley's "old time religion" church to take
place this Sunday. Originally thought to garner several hundred protesters, it
is quickly mushrooming into a major event, with whole church congregations
being bused in. Current estimates are at 2000, but other groups are planning to
attend. Local police will be in force to contain crowds. And since the pastor
has indicated that he will not back down on his words, animosities will be hard
to restrain. Catabwa Valley Pride has come out with an explicit set of guidelines for the protest stressing an organized, peaceful protest.
The country will be focused on Maiden, North Carolina this Sunday.
Thank you, Pastor Worley! Thank you, North Carolina!
The recent machinations of North Carolina pastors have brought to light the abject homophobia still embedded in the Christian Right. It is a phobia that has been recently covered up by calls for "reparative therapy" and "pray away the gay" strategies. It is a phobia that has been given the imprimatur of the Catholic Church via the Vatican's stance that homosexuality is still a sinful lifestyle "choice." It is a phobia that has had the protection of "love the sinner, hate the sin." It is a phobia that has legislated bullying in schools under the guise of freedom of religious expression.
But despite all the cover-ups, it is a phobia that says gays are
worthy of discrimination, hatred ...and death. Worley's sermons* have made that
very, very clear. Besides God, Pastor Worley himself wants...people...to...die.
Worley has also made it clear that he will not back down from his words.
We hope he doesn't. For in his words are the seeds of hatred quite
akin to the hatred for another group of people: the "sons of Ham."
One wonders if his congregation has any African Americans in it, for if there
are, they fail to see the parallel: the Bible being used to discriminate
against and subjugate an entire group of human beings. But modern society has
disregarded the Bible and dictated that a once-maligned group, a group thought
to be only 3/5ths human, be given equal status, so who's to take up the
slack in regards to Biblically sanctioned contempt?
The vitriol currently being spewed by demonizers such as Tony
Perkins and Bryan Fischer, the dire warnings of impending disasters by Pat
Robertson and Cindy Jacobs all underscore the hatred formerly reserved for
people who dared to considered themselves equal to whites. Worley's own
references to hangings -- a clear assent of what should be done today --
certainly smack of Ku Klux Klan sentiments.
The NAACP has recently come out with a statement supporting the
right of gays to marry. It was also reacting to the current spate of North
Carolina sermons against gays - and abuse of gays. This has angered the
Christian Right to no end: any connection of gay rights to civil rights
destroys any hope of the "wedge" the CR can drive between the black and gay
communities.
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