"Tough Love" On Trial: Support Of Pastor Worley's Genocidal Homophobia Has Finally Made Gay Rights Into Civil Rights

“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.” 

- genocidal 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 retrain. 


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. 

So perhaps the gay community should thank pastor Worley for his diatribe. It has brought to the fore the very thing that the Christian Right has denied from the very beginning of its homophobia: gay right are civil rights.


Now if only Tony Perkins would be dumb enough to give Worley a medal...

* As early as 1978, Worley referenced hanging and his congregation has stated that he has always shown an inordinate hatred of homosexuality, couching it in biblical terms. 

The Morality Of OWS: U.S. Marine Sgt. Shamar Thomas vs. The Christian Right Establishment

(Author's note: This article has just hit #1 in OpEdNews! Please help me spread the word by clicking on to the link and telling everyone to do the same - it's more important than promoting this blog. Thanks for your wonderful support)

 As Occupy Wall Street (OWS) passes the one-month mark, people on both sides are proclaiming their stance on its morality, but one very imposing African-American ex-marine has captured the hearts and minds of people everywhere.

This weekend, United States Marine Corps. Sgt. Shamar Thomas from Roosevelt, NY faced down over a dozen NYPD officers and gave them hell about their brutality that has been plaguing the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement.

As he posted on his YouTube video:

I was involved in a RIOT in Rutbah, Iraq 2004 and we did NOT treat the Iraqi citizens like they are treating the unarmed civilians in our OWN Country. No one was brutalized because our mission was to 'WIN the hearts and minds.' why should I expect anything less in my OWN Country.

As a man who loves his country and its citizens, Thomas may have intended to point out the particular immorality in the NYPD's handling of the protesters. But an underlying sentiment was stronger: the morality of OWS itself.

And according to some of today's Christian leaders, the OWS is very, very IMmoral:

Renew America claims that President Obama will take the ultimate reins of power, using OWS as a pawn in his attempt to take over America. They are afraid that the Obama administration will cancel the 2012 elections in order to establish a dictatorship.

Pat Robertson said that OWS was a "cruder expression of Obama."

Bryan Fischer alleged that Nazis were working to bolster the Occupy Wall Street movement in tandem with Democrats and Communists.

At the Values Voters Summit, Tony Perkins (Family Research Council) and his band of "social conservatives" actually prayed for Divine intervention:

"May God prevent these radical organizers from stirring revolution and distracting voters from the elections and keeping watch on our elected leaders."

Maybe they thought God would smite the protesters with a plague or a tiny tornado to whisk away the tent city.

But now that we have people like Rev. Jesse Jackson in the fray, the OWS scenes across the country (and the world) have come to look more like the class struggle that it was intended to be. The latest question may now be: to what extent are churches going to be involved?

PROGRESSIVE CHURCHES JOIN THE FRAY AND WITHDRAW MILLION$ FROM BANKS
No doubt, there will be some harsh words to be said from conservative churches (like the Southern Baptist Convention) to progressive ones such as Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Jose, CA: it withdrew over $3 million from its Bank of America accounts and deposited the money in a local credit union. The reason given was not only solidarity to OWS, but a fiery rebuttal to all the foreclosures endured by it parish of 7200 people. St. Andrew Episcopal Church in Saratoga, CA is following suit with a withdrawal of $150,000 from Wells Fargo. Both are part of PACT (People Acting in Community Together) which now represents 25 congregations and 50,000 people.

The dichotomy will not be lost on the general public: various religious institutions will either be for "social justice" or against it.

Of course, the entire fracas boils down to money: those who need it, and those who want to keep it. The Christian Right's denominations may become one in supporting the 1 percent because, that is, after all, where their money comes from. It also behooves them to keep people poor and nix secular social programs since the poor used to depend upon church charity for survival. In effect: victory against the OWS movement would be a win-win situation for people like Tony Perkins, Pat Robertson, and rising conservative Southern Baptist star Pastor Robert Jeffress.

If the country has a sense of deja vu in all of this, it may be because it's now expecting to see scenes involving protesters and water hoses. Sgt. Thomas has made us look back and wonder on which side morality will stand.

"You Know They Do It In The Pool, Don't You?" When Gay Rights Become Civil Rights In Hazard, KY

"We have met the enemy and they are ours." 
- Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry, after which the town of Hazard, KY is named.

I remember when, back in the fifties, African Americans were not allowed in some public swimming pools. The reason: it was alleged that they defecated and urinated while in the water. True. People thought that back then. Of course, that was then and this now. 


But wait a minute ...

Activists in Kentucky are planning a peaceful response after two gay men with developmental and intellectual disabilities were kicked out of a public pool.

A maintenance technician reportedly cited the Bible while telling the two men they couldn't swim at The Pavilion, a government-funded recreational facility in Hazard, Kentucky.

"We own this place and can tell you to leave if we want to," the couple was told, according to the Kentucky Equality Foundation.

"We own this place" was perhaps the more egregious statement, the "we" presumably being the good Bible-believers of Hazard, KY. The Bible was also cited when the men and their attendant staff were forced to leave the premises.


Deja vu - it can strike in the strangest places, so I found myself thinking back to the fifties, thinking about African Americans being treated the same way. And treatment is really what civil rights are all about: thinking in bigoted terms is not the same as acting out your bigotry because it is when you act on your prejudices and fears that people are truly hurt. The Christian Right (especially the African American part) is insulted when gay rights and civil rights are equated.


The situation here, however, vividly conveys the parallel: whether you think someone is uncivilized or unbiblical, the results of discrimination are the same: hurt and a tragic feeling of alienation. 


Parallels and Ironies

For a town whose claim to fame is the Mother Goose House, you would think that a Fairy Tale theme would be predominant, but the demographics of Hazard, KY are more Brer Rabbit than Cinderella: 90% white, 7% African American and, well the other 3% - who cares? And it's set in a land where snake handlers still have churches and where the Dukes of Hazzard would look very comfortable (and yes, there is a connection*). 


wikipedia:

Although there has been a steady decline in Hazard's population since the 1950s, there have been numerous commercial and residential developments within the city. The city is also actively working on a downtown renaissance plan to rejuvenate its business district.

Of course, that was before "teh gays" started to make trouble. 

Kentucky Equality Federation:

My clients, whom already feel ridiculed and different, left the city owned facility crying and embarrassed for trying to participate in 'normal' activities that everyday 'normal' people do."

But they aren't normal, at least that was the point being made by the maintenance technician who told the two men to both go home "and read their Bibles": they aren't normal - in the eyes of God, that is. And according to the Mayor of Hazard, no PDA is allowed ever at the Pavilion:

Hazard Mayor Nan Gorman said it is her understanding that people are asked to leave fairly often due to the rule barring excessive public displays of affection, no matter their sexual orientation. She said the Pavilion should have a family atmosphere and displays of affections, whether they be from heterosexual couples or otherwise, shouldn’t take place there.

“People have little children up there, it’s a family [facility],” she said. “People don’t want to see it.”

Evidently, Hazard, KY is not the most romantically inclined place on earth. Now an investigation is underway in order to stave off any protest and unwanted publicity for the town. Up to 40 witnesses will be interviewed as to the extremity of hugging and kissing that went on between the two men. 


The effrontery!!


It may go down in the annuls of Christian Right history as another instance of in-your-face, anti-Christian gay agenda politics, but Kentucky Equality Federation is demanding apologies from the maintenance technician  - on up! There is no word as yet what the local church reaction has been to the situation, but with a town like Hazard, righteousness should be in the air soon, and along with it, some of the country's religious heavy-hitters will be supporting the maintenance man and his staunch deference to the Bible. The reasoning might be specious and from left field, but a man's religion is an immovable object. 


So now we have it: a time when gay rights and civil rights have melded together with the love of two developmentally disabled men. What more do people want?


Separate drinking fountains, perhaps?

* The TV series actually used it as inspiration, but because of "legal problems" had to put in the extra "z".