Evangelicals Purging the Ranks of Gay People
It’s been two months since the fall of Ted Haggard and the evangelicals having been busy. In the last two weeks they’ve fired Paul Barnes for being homosexual and fired Christopher Beard, an assistant pastor at Haggard’s former church, for “sexual misconduct”. And it doesn’t end there. In fact, it seems that we’re looking at a growing effort to purge homosexuals and those who support homosexuals from the ranks of the faithful.
The Episcopal sect of Christianity is splintering right before our eyes. Several parishes have decided to leave and form an alliance with each other. They will be under the guidance of Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria who is explicitly anti-homosexual and has stated that the growing acceptance of gay people by Episcopalians is a “satanic attack” on the church.
This is an attack on the Church of God - a Satanic attack on God’s church,’ he told the Lagos-based Guardian newspaper. ‘I cannot think of how a man in his senses would be having a sexual relationship with another man. Even in the world of animals, dogs, cows, lions, we don’t hear of such things.
‘When we sit down globally as a communion, I am going to sit in a meeting with a man who is marrying a fellow man,’ he added. ‘I mean it’s just not possible. I cannot see myself doing it.’
Parishes in Massachusetts have also left and many parishes throughout the Northeast have joined the Anglican Communion Network.
Should we be surprised? Of course not. The evangelicals have long supported anti-gay laws and have been major supporters in the various anti-gay amendments that have passed in the US. They run groups whose primary purposes are stopping the “Gay Agenda” and have founded others that claim homosexuality can be cured with Jesus. The purge is just a logical extension of the mentality that was already there.
Popularity: 9% [?]
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader. You can also subscribe to the comment feed for this post or leave a trackback to your site.
Comments
I think the purge will remain non-violent. The churches did this during the struggle for women’s rights. And like that ‘war’, the struggle for the rights of homosexuals is going to be with us for a long time.
I think the best hope for humanity is the death of religion. No matter what it starts as, it always ends up killing people. It’s the nature of the beast, it seems.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I’m not sure this is a good thing or not. If it’s a simple purge, it just means that the remaining churches will be more hardlined than ever, and the sheep that follow them will be even more bigoted and violent. Unless the more moderate churches also become more organized, that is, and actively recruit gay people. Frankly, if I were starting a religion today, it would definitely encourage all the people traditional religions like to ostracize.