The ?Christian Love? of the Providence Road Baptist Church

A lot of buzz has happened over the last few days regarding a sermon given by Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, NC. If you read the HuffPo or any number of other sources, you?re aware of it; Worley basically proposed a couple of large concentration camps. One for gay men, the other for lesbian women. The horrifying suggestions have caused a great deal of outcry over such a hateful tome, delivered from a pulpit.

Yes, the world, in general, is outraged. But Pastor Worley?s parishioners aren?t. They seem to agree with preacher man that putting people who are doing nothing but trying to live their lives into concentration camps is a pretty swell idea.

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Members of Providence Road Baptist Church are standing behind Pastor Charles Worley and the sermon he delivered earlier this month calling for the elimination of the gay population.

Geneva Sims said she?s been listening to Worley preach the Gospel since the 1970s.? She wasn?t surprised by the 71-year-old pastor?s now infamous sermon.? In fact, she supports him and his message.

?He had every right to say what he said about putting them in a pen and giving them food,? said Sims.? ?The Bible says they are worthy of death. He is preaching God?s word.??

Providence Road Baptist Church member Stacey Pritchard agreed.

?Sometimes you?ve got to be scared straight,? she explained.? ?He is trying to save those people from Hell.??

Pritchard said Worley?s message isn?t one of hate.? Instead, she interpreted it as tough love guided by Good Book.

His words are viewed as hurtful and offensive to many people around the world.? The May 13 sermon video, originally posted on the church?s website (it has since been taken down), shows Worthy speaking out against gay marriage and President Barack Obama?s support of it.? Most of the backlash, though, is focused on a portion of the sermon where he details a way to ?get rid of? the gay population.

?I figured a way out ? a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers ? but I couldn?t get it past the Congress,? he said.? ?Build a great big, large fence?50 or 100 miles long?put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can?t get out. Feed them. And you know in a few years, they?ll die out. You know why? They can?t reproduce.?

Worley went on to say homosexuality makes him ?puking sick.?? According to Brent Childers of the non-profit organization Faith in America, statements like that are detrimental to young people in America.

?That is what makes young LGBTs feel there is no hope,? said Childers, who also believes religious leaders like Worley hurt the public?s perception of the Christian faith.

?When they see this type of rhetoric coming from a so-called Christian pastor, they aren?t going to want anything to do with the church?now or in the future,? said Childers.? ?If you defend this pastor?s comments, you are mocking God?s love, God?s understanding and God?s knowledge.?

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And while you?re at it, you?re going to have to stick me in that concentration camp, too.

No, I?m not gay. But I?ve done some pretty bad things, according to the Bible

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You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material. ~Leviticus 19:19

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I sit here now, in my cotton-polyester shirt, thinking about my garden, where you will find corn, tomatoes, beans, and peas. And soon, some watermelons. Got flower gardens around the other side of the yard. A MIX of perennial and annual plants.

What do you want to bet that Stacey and Geneva are also guilty of at least some of the things I?ve done? See you in the camp, vile sinners.

Brent Childers is completely right about this, of course. Younger people, especially, will hear these messages of hate, and turn completely away from religion. I hear these messages of hate, and refuse to allow my own daughters anywhere near a Sunday service. When they get older, they are free to do as they choose to do, but dragging them into a church right now could very well be child abuse, if the preacher is spewing the kind of hate that Pastor Worley spews.

When we look at religion overall, the most hateful religions all seem to be Abrahamic. There?s always a way to justify killing someone, if you open up one of the Abrahamic good books and look long enough. The number of atrocities committed by people who used their holy books as their inspiration is endless, from the Crusaders, to the Inquisitors, to Hitler, to Osama, to Kony?. and only Dog knows how many indigenous people in North America were wiped out by good Christians, doing the work of the Lord. It is saddening, it is disgusting, and it is incredible, to me at least, that humanity can?t advance itself enough to get past the urge to kill people based on their living, or thinking, in a way that others deem to be ?an abomination.?

I have said that I think the tax exemption for churches should be lifted, especially if those churches use donations to spew hate. But I?ve had my mind opened up by a suggestion I heard recently. Someone said that maybe, instead of taking the tax-exempt ststus away from churches, what we should do is take away the tax DEDUCTION for church donations. That way, he said, at least the taxpayers wouldn?t be subsidizing hate anymore.

I kind of dig that idea. Let Geneva and Stacey pay for the hate out of their own pockets.

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