Pam Spaulding: Arizona Pastor Calls for Violence Against Gays, Congressman, President
by Jodi Jacobson, Editor in Chief, RH Reality Check
August 21, 2009 - 12:20pm (Print)
Pam Spaulding (of Pam's House Blend), a leading voice on GLBT issues and equality, whom I had the privilege of meeting in person last week at Netroots Nation 2009, writes:
Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona is a bible-quoting hellfire and damnation sort of guy. He calls for the execution of gays in numerous sermons [linked at House Blend].
The good Pastor has said:
"The same God who instituted the death penalty for murders is the same god who instituted the death penalty for rapists and for homosexuals, sodomites and queers"
And:
"The sodomites are recruiters and you know who they are after? Your children. They are being recruited by the sodomites. They are being molested by the sodomites. They recruit through rape, they recruit through molestation, they recruit through violation"
There's more, again, at Pam's site.
Of course these folks don't want any of "their" tax dollars going to support women's basic reproductive health care (forget about abortion, I am talking basic prevention and contraception), HIV prevention, syringe exchange or other evidence-based health interventions, but they will gladly take tax exemptions from the government to spew hatred like a high-power fire hose.
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Can't you just feel their Christian love?
... to highlight the beliefs and activities of faithful people who actually make an effort to assert the value of everyone's life and dignity. I'm sure it's much more fun to ridicule disturbed and hateful people who use religion as a weapon rather than an agent for healing.
Maybe, if you pay enough attention to the lunatic fringe, you can cultivate the opinion that all of us 'godders' are alike.
Paul Bradford
Pro-Life Catholics for Choice
... to understand that some of us queers live next door to some of this "lunatic fringe."
Paul, get a clue. Anyone who insists that zygotes are persons and that all women should or must believe this and live is part of a very extreme lunatic fringe who is using religion as a weapon..
The only difference between the American anti-abortion movement and the Taliban is about 8,000 miles.
Dr Warren Hern, MD
I still stand by both the sentiment and phrasing of my first response. However, explaining in more detail may help clarify my point.
Uncomfortable as it may be, this is a real news story. Some people are likening homosexual and queer people to murders, molestors, and rapists and is advocating the use of the death penalty against them.
Allow me to make this a little more pointed: Someone who has reasonable access to my house is trying to convince others that I should die. That's a Big Fucking Deal.
To basically say, "Hey, why aren't you covering all these other stories?" is to derail and detract attention away from this one, minimizing the concerns of real-life people who are impacted by this. That's not the way to "assert the value of everyone's life and dignity."
You might want to thoughtfully consider, Paul, that your self-identification as "Catholic" carries it with it an inevitable bleed-over from every pronouncement by the Vatican or those Bishops who feel compelled to sound off on issues to the press. This is not because people are prejudiced against Catholics or hate religion, but because the Catholic heirarchy advises that all its member are REQUIRED to agree with a unified monolithic opinion. Although you have made it very clear you disagree with them on some details, THEY have not agreed that you have any right to do so, and in fact those parisioners who get publicly noisy about their disagreement are tossed out on their ears.
