Wednesday, August 26, 2009

TWO EXAMPLES OF PROFESSING CHRISTIAN HATERS

This is a brief video of a speech by Wiley Drake, Pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California, praying for the death of Pres. Obama:


In case you think that Drake is merely some isolated looney tune, realize that he was second vice president of the Southern Baptist Association in 2006-2007. [See here.]

Another Pastor, Steven Anderson, Pastor of the Faithful World Baptist Church, in Tempe, Arizona, had this to say about Obama:

I'm not gonna pray for [Obama's] good. I'm going to pray that he dies and goes to hell. When I go to bed tonight, that's what I'm going to pray. And you say, 'Are you just saying that?' No. When I go to bed tonight, Steven L. Anderson is going to pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell.

[For the full article, see here.]

By the way, "Anderson wants the death penalty for homosexuals. The source for such a draconian response? The Bible, of course." [See here.]

A friend of mine who called me last night and told me about these Pastors who pray for the death of Obama, and who have the temerity to call themselves "Christians," and appeal to the Bible to justify their hate, wrote me the following email:

Both Pastors Drake and Anderson are on the record for praying for President Obama to die and go to Hell. What kind of Christianity is this that claims that God told Pastor Drake to pray for the President's death? To allow Jesus & God to be used in this manner should not be ignored by those of us that know better. These are the faces of the new Christianity that drive sane people away from our faith, because there is an unwillingness among other pastors to say that that is wrong.

Notice his last sentence: "These are the faces of the new Christianity that drive sane people away from our faith, because there is an unwillingness among other pastors to say that that is wrong."

Where are the other clergy and the other professing Christians who remain silent in the face of this unspeakable madness? Where are those moral and spiritual cowards who allow such hate to be preached in God's name and yet remain silent amidst the oppression of others?

As I've written before, when a person hates one minority group, almost invariably he/she hates one or more other minority groups! So, if one hates African Americans, chances are he/she hates Jews and/or Latinos and/or LGBT people and/or.....

Those professing Christians who remain silent in the face of such hate being spewed in the name of God are just as guilty of the sinful oppression of LGBT people as are the overt haters who are in the public eye! By their silence, they enable, and even tacitly condone, the hateful rhetoric of the Drakes and Andersons of the world; tacitly affirm that they have a right to spew their hateful venom and still call themselves "Christians."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: One of the best coordinated grassroots activities in which we can engage is to select one homophobic church in each city or jurisdiction, and then each and every Sunday during the times of their services picket those churches and let people know that the hate preached in those churches, and in churches like them, is antithetical to the Gospel and to anything that is of God!

If anyone thinks we can or should make nice to professing Christian (or other) haters, please listen to the following audio message from Pastor Anderson, and realize that there can be no common ground between those who struggle for full and equal civil rights for LGBT people and the Pastor Andersons of the world and those whom he represents who, either by their rhetoric and/or behavior or by their silence, seem to comprise most of the institutional Church:

Please click on the audio link on this web page to hear an example of the venom of Pastor Anderson.
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2 comments:

Vanessa Law said...

This is appalling. All the law and the prophets are summed up in 'love God, love your neighbor', I clearly do not pray to the same God as these evil people do.

Jerry Maneker said...

You've got that right, Vanessa! Some people are surprised when I tell them that I believe in a literal devil, but incidents such as these typify the evil that can in no way be accommodated to one's being a disciple of Christ. Best wishes, Jerry.