"Jesus loves the homosexual, but he doesn't love homosexuality. This is about holding each other accountable." -- Dave Daubenmire, the founder of Minutemen United and Pass the Salt Ministries, who thinks breaking into church services to rail about the homos share "the word of God" is appropriate. (more on him below)
A "Christian" extremist group has decided to take their anti-gay message on the road and try to shake some sense into renegade churches that dare to be gay-affirming.
Members of the organization, Minutemen United, have crashed services at the First Baptist Church in Granville, Ohio every Sunday since July when, the church landed on the Minuteman hit list for hosting "Love Makes a Family," the Family Diversity Project's traveling photography exhibit of LGBT families. (Columbus Dispatch):
On one of the first Sundays, six people came to the church's 11 a.m. service and addressed the congregation during a time designated for prayer requests and comments.
[Senior pastor Rev. Kathy] Hurt said a man, who introduced himself as a minister from the New Beginnings Church in Warsaw, Ohio, started to give a sermon about how the church was acting against God's word by accepting homosexuals.
The other church on the Minuteman list was Columbus's King Avenue United Methodist Church in Columbus where the Rev. John Keeny said: "They rebuked me as a pastor for preaching that God's love is for everyone."
Alex Blaze of The Bilerico Project hits the nail on the head about these "Christians":
But this comes down to respect for people's religions, and the Religious Right always declares themselves on the side of religious freedom promulgating paranoid fantasies of police rounding up pastors after hate crimes legislations gets passed or school teachers locking away students with Bibles or whatever. But then when it comes to anyone who disagrees with them, suddenly the word "freedom" gets exposed for the window dressing that it is.
And about that Daubenmire fellow. Let's just say that he shouldn't cast stones, as his son was convicted on a child pornography charge.
Not only that, he's yet another fundie with a very odd fixation on homosexuality. He forced himself to attend a Gay Pride parade in Columbus and made these keen observations (something I blogged about back in July):
The homosexual leadership, those who work iniquity, has done a great public relations job. They have convinced us that Tommy and Billy who live down the street are the real face of homosexuality. Sadly, as those who walked into the den of iniquity with us on Saturday can attest, the under-belly of sodomy is a despicable thing to see. A friend once told me that I should never go to a meat packing shop and watch hot-dogs being made. If I did, he warned me, I would never eat another hot-dog as long as I lived.
The same can be said for the sodomite parade. The "meat" on display will forever change the way you view homosexuality. Sin has no boundaries, no clutch, and no emergency brake. Once you dip your toe into the pool of sin, especially sexual sin, there is a magnetism that will not let go. The debauchery parading down our public streets is abominable.
