Today In Christian Love: God Says Gays Must Be 'Put To Death'

Recently Carols and I sat down to watch The Butler. We hadn’t seen it in theaters last year because, well, Oprah; I can’t with Oprah. I’m sorry, I know that sounds shallow, but I just can’t with Oprah. And it didn’t help that when we saw it on cable, how director Lee Daniels really played up Oprah’s, what should have been, what really was, minor roll. The camera lingered on her in scenes that really had nothing to do with her; at times, when Forrest Whitaker, The Butler, was talking, we saw shots of Oprah.

I.Can’t.With.Oprah. But that’s neither here nor there. I was thinking about a scene in a church where, right about the altar was a blazing sign made of those big globe-type light bulbs that spelled out the words: God Is Love.

Y’all know I am not a religious man, at least of the organized religious persuasion, but my thoughts on God, or that being or power, are as follows: she is love. Simple; direct. And everything that follows, everything that is done in the name of ‘God,’ should be done in the name of love.

Sadly, however, that is not the case, and it seems that more and more these days, God’s name is used in conjunction with hate and intolerance, division and bigotry, and She would not be happy about that, y’all. And She would especially not be happy with this so-called ‘man of God.’

Robby Gallaty, the pastor at Brainerd Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was preaching his gospel earlier this week and told the gathering of Christians that they should never repent for discriminating against The Gays, like they had done for discriminating against the blacks because blacks can’t change their skin color.

“God said that the sins of the people had infected the very land in which they live. So what happens to people who engage in this activity, this sexual immoral activity? Go to Leviticus 20, God gives us the punishment for engaging in these sins… ‘If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed a detestable thing. They must be put to death. And their blood is on their own hands.’”

Without dwelling too much on it, though, “Pastor” Robby omitted the parts of Leviticus about shellfish and pigskin and long hair and tattoos because, well, let some things slide through if it works to your advantage to persecute The Gays. But, Robby does want you to discriminate against the Gays because, in the long run, the God of people like Robby Gallaty will kill The Gays.

God is Love, in Robby’s world, unless you’re gay, then God will kill you. So, is it any wonder at all that membership in these types of religions is falling? People are tired of using religion as a weapon of hate. People are tired of hearing that God, God, wants anyone dead; that God smites Haiti because of AIDS; that God sends hurricanes to destroy New Orleans because of a party; that God would hurt anyone at all.

Of course, Robby Gallaty wasn’t done; after telling his people that God will kill The Gays, he also said that God would change us; you know, She would de-gay us, I guess.

“[The Bible says] some of you used to act like this, but now you’ve changed by the grace of God. You were washed! You have been sanctified! You have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of God.”

Honey, which one is your God? The one who kills us. Or the one who washes The Gay outta our hair? Seriously, if God could change us, and if God called us all kinds of sin, and if God Hates Fags, then she would ‘a been changing us from birth so that none of us would exist, m’kay? So, save that hate speech wrapped up as gospel with the nice Christian bow, because it’s not a gift anyone really wants or needs.

But Robby isn’t done spreading the hate about The Gays and continued to warn Christians not to accept us, not to believe, as that sign said, that God is Love.

“Here’s the problem with the argument that you closed-minded Christians, one day you’re going to come full circle, and you’re going to realize that you’re being judgmental just like racism was 50 years ago …. [Now] you guys have repented and come full circle, and you’re going to realize that you’re as foolish as we were with the movement of racism. It’s not the same… A black man can’t change his race, a white man can’t change his race, a homosexual can stop engaging in homosexual acts. See, sexuality is a choice. Gender and race are not.”

And therein comes the lie as gospel, and people will believe because this so-called man of God said it. Like a black man, I was born gay; born that way. I have been gay since my earliest memory, and if I were to try and live my life any other way, it would not be a life at all; it would be a death.

And, if God Is Love, Robby, would she really want that for me? Or is that just you?

via The Raw Story