I’m not exactly sure who or what God is, but what I can say is that I’d stake my life on what God isn’t and that’s hate, which is exactly what I believe a preacher is spewing from his pulpit in Phoenix.
Quite reminiscent of now deceased Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church is Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church, who recently led an anti-homosexual sermon that said killing gays is the way to an AIDS-free world.
During his homily Leviticus 20:13 was cited as justification, which says, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.” Anderson fully supported this passage by stating, “And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS, it was right there in the Bible all along. Because if you executed the homos, like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all the AIDS running rampant.” He also went on to say that “all homos are pedophiles” and that “no queers or homos are allowed the church, and never will be as long as he’s pastor.”
What outright saddens me first and foremost is how his words have now made its way into nationwide news. I only happened to learn of this when I noticed a hatred-filled headline in USA Today that read, “Pastor calls for killing gays to end AIDS”, while looking for the latest movie reviews. Because of all the previous rejections I’ve received in the past to joining several churches due to my sexuality, I read the article in its entirety. And although I’m sure there will be plenty of people who end up feeling the same pain I did after reading it, there will sadly probably be just as many who will end up applauding and supporting Anderson’s beliefs as well.
Both Phelps and Anderson have stood for something that I can only compare to hate. Wishing, hoping, or calling for the death to all gay people is something I don’t believe God would ever advocate. So many pastors, preachers, and the like have cited this passage in Leviticus as a way to justify their hate.
“It’s in the Bible, so it’s coming from God and it must be true.” This is often what has been presented to me by several pastors and very opinionated religious people I’ve met over time. I remember this passage specifically being pointed out to me by a pastor back in Massachusetts when I sat at a table with him inquiring about joining his church.
It truly is no wonder why so many gays and lesbians get turned off to finding and developing a closer relationship to God when people like Phelps or Anderson are making nationwide news citing passages like this to support their claim that God hates gays. But the image I hold onto these days with who God is sits exactly on the opposite side of this spectrum. To me God is nothing but unconditional love.
I refuse to believe that God would want to have anyone be killed given that all religions seem to believe that God was also the one to create each of us in God’s image. So if that were the case, why would God create someone only to want him or her killed? If God created me just as I am, as a gay man with an open heart who’s here solely to bring equality, unconditional love, and hope for this entire planet, why would God also want me to be killed given I’m only doing what I feel God brought me here to do?
Ironically, each of the passages in the Bible that continue to be used by pastors such as Anderson to denounce my sexuality in some way always seem to overlook the other passages that condemn just about every single person on this planet. In the same area in Leviticus that Anderson uses for his AIDS argument, it speaks of banishing all men who have had sex with women during their period, or putting to death all men and women who commit adultery, or killing all people who curse their parents, and so on and so forth.
And although the statistics I read on AIDS.GOV shows the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the United States to be originating from a large percentage of unprotected sex between men, there is also just as much of a large percentage coming from heterosexual sex and needle use as well. This changes even more drastically on a global level, especially in poorer countries such as Africa, where the higher percentages of people with HIV OR AIDS are not coming from homosexuality at all.
Knowing all this I choose to look at Anderson’s preaching as just one man’s hateful rants and yet I still have compassion for him. Why? Because I know God would want me to, especially given that I know of plenty of men who were molested by an adult male at a very young age and grew up spewing hatred towards homosexuals because of it. In fact, I was once one of them.
So whatever Anderson’s inner demons are that drive him to preach in the name of God about killing millions of people I truly don’t know. But what I do know is that I really would stake my life on the sole existence of an unconditionally loving God who cares about all of us equally, regardless of sexual orientation, or any other trait that makes up our identity, because weren’t all of them just made in God’s image anyway?
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
if you believe the bible literally then the last book says “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” So I hope he truly knows what he’s saying and or doing. But I should think he probably does not.
Forgive a mini-epistle here…
Throughout history, it has been easy to identify a population as “them” or “evil” or “apart from” or “damned,” so that “we” or “us” or “good people” or “the Chosen Ones” can be united against a common enemy and pulled together as one. Christians were slaughtered by Romans; Protestants were slaughtered by Catholics (and other Protestants!) during the so-called Reformation. Hitler and the Nazis hit perhaps a high-water mark with the conversion of six million Jews into air pollution. Evil and hatred happens a lot – especially in the name of some twisted image of God wrapped around some flag or cause.
Mel White was a former ghost-writer to Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ollie North and others. His book, “Stranger At The Gate: To Be Gay And Christian In America,” talks about the politics and dogma of division between “us” and “them” in this country. Gays have a cheap and easy target for fund-raising, fear-mongering, and violence for decades – the only thing that has changed is the percentages. Younger generations are wising up – but fear of “the other” is clearly still with us.
False prophets have been with us since the beginning of time. Even the Bible calls it out clearly:
There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. (Proverbs 6:16-19, NIV)
Living in one of the many “buckles of the Bible Belt,” I know this first hand. It took GLBT folks a year to raise enough awareness and interest for the local government here to pass an ordinance to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. It then took less than a WEEK for the local evangelical community to raise 10,000 signatures to force a general vote on the ordinance. Two steps forward, one-and-a-half back.
The answer, of course, is at the bottom of every page of your blog: Love yourself unconditionally. Love one another unconditionally. Love as much as possible. That’s really all that matters…”
Even when it bites, hard. Even when “they” seem to be winning. Even when “they” get headlines in USA Today.
Eight years ago, I posted this blog post about this very topic. Not much has changed, in some ways – in others, it’s a whole new world. But the tag line at the end is still the same:
We are your sons, your daughters, your mothers, your fathers, your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends. We are here to love – and we are here to stay.
Thank you for the in depth information. I still think you should write a guest blog for me! 🙂
And I apologize….it was after I posted this that I found that the links to other blogs in that post are no longer active. Which is too bad…because both my friend Tom S and Rewfio had some good stuff out there….
Last word on this – it’s funny, but there are around 13,000 deaths from AIDS-related disease each year. There are about 590,000 from heart-disease each year, and another 70K from diabetes. And the Bible does not condone overeating or obesity. So why isn’t the “good” pastor suggesting that we kill all the fat people? Or all the smokers? Or all the drug addicts?
Here’s why: because he’s a hopeless, stupid bigot. (As an aside, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find the Grindr app on *his* phone, too…those who complain the loudest…)
Well I wouldn’t go as far as calling anyone hopeless or a stupid bigot because to me that’s judging and I have sat in that man’s shoes before. Just as Jesus once said to those stone throwers…none of them could throw those stones because they were all guilty. I try to practice that every day now.
Well, we will agree to disagree, Andrew. Anyone who said what he said – even you – would qualify as “stupid bigot.” I’d gently remind you that the very same Jesus was the one who got angry enough with injustice to overturn the moneychangers’ tables in the Temple, too….
As for hopeless, you’re right – he simply *appears* to be hopeless, apart from Divine intervention. Consider the comment suitably modified… 🙂
Now I’m not sure whether to be offended or to practice Rule 62 here…. hmmm….
What is am abomination is the hate that flows freely from the mouths at the pulpit and then they hide behind the cloth and say it is so…”God justifies and says so”. Let us not forget that the Bible was written by man and it is his words that say so, not God’s. This is no different than the hate that is spread by the Klan, the Nazis, or the self-proclaimed ministers who claim to fight for civil rights.
I am in favor of equal protection under the law for every man, woman and child whether it be due to race, creed, religion, color, sexual oritentation or gender but it angers me that these “mudslingers” misuse and hide under the protections of our constitution and get away with it, yet two people cannot freely olove each other because it is about love not hate.
Every religious organization, political party, or activist group has their own agenda and they all feeel it is within their right to voice and demand that government control that masses based solely on their views and opinions. Its time that people wake up and learn to coexist and care for one another. Perhaps GOD should rain down Fire on the chosen religious few who preach and promulgate hate. Hw would they feel now that they are the targets of hate.
These “Christian Moralists” need to get down off the soap box and practice what they are supposed to preach. What would their “Jesus” say? They wish to blame everyone else for the ills of the world when ll along they perpetuate and nourish its growth. Dont blame terrorism on another religion, blame it on the ignornace and intolerance of mankind.
I only wish that somehow the religious world and the spiritual world will one day merge together and that everyone will be free to practice or believe that which they feel moved to. I have a hard time believing that God conforms to anything, so why should any of us?
Basically, I think he is just an injured human being who is misdirecting his pain. He just has a larger pulpit than most of us have to do it from. When we read his words, we react with our own pain and anger and hurt. I feel sorry for him because with that amount of hate, certainly his relationships are in shambles and his self esteem is probably very low. I have learned to just ignore these people and let them self destruct or, if they are lucky, find enlightenment.
I believe that the Bible was written by man and as such, is filled with man’s judgment and pain. So I never use any quotes from it to prove anything to Christians since that implies that there are parts of it that are valid. That’s not to say that there are not passages that I may find to be personally uplifting or insightful. But I realize that this is just me, interpreting them from my own experience.
Thanks for a thoughtful blog entry Andrew and I enjoyed your mini epistle Steve F.
Rick, thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I agree with you on redirecting the pain. I sometimes wish that people would also see that the Bible was written by man and inspired by God rather than the reverse… Thanks again for taking the time to write your feelings and comments! 🙂