The Daily Hypocrite: Pastor Wells Is Suing Kentucky So He Can Bully LGBTQ Youth

Once again, I wonder about this war on Christianity when all around the web I see stories about those of so-called faith waging a war against The Gays.

In this case it’s Baptist pastor David Wells, from the Pleasant View Baptist Church in McQuady, Kentucky, who is challenging a policy of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice [DJJ] that states LGBTQ juveniles are to be treated with respect for their identities. 

This is Rule 912, the one that Pastor Wells finds so hard to obey:

DJJ staff, volunteers, interns, and contractors, when working with juveniles under the care of DJJ, shall use respectful language and terminology that does not further stereotype the LGBTQI community. 

DJJ staff, volunteers, interns, and contractors, in the course of their work, shall not refer to juveniles by using derogatory language in a manner that conveys bias towards or hatred of the LGBTQI community. DJJ staff, volunteers, interns, and contractors shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful, or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Wells volunteered at the Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center until his privileges were revoked because he refused to sign the agreement to abide by Policy 912; he doesn’t think, as a God-fearing man, that he needs to treat LGBTQ youth with respect and is suing to connote that habit.

Wells has retained the right-wing, anti-LGBT hate group, the Liberty Counsel and is threatening to sue if the Warren County Juvenile Justice Department does not change its policy regarding LGBTQI youth and reinstate Mr. Wells. 

"Pastor Wells must be able to discuss what the Bible says about matters of sexuality with the juveniles he is trying to help. To remove the Bible from a pastor’s hands is like removing a scalpel from a surgeon’s hands. Without it, they cannot provide healing," — Mat Staver, Chairman of the Liberty Counsel

Healing; it's healing to berate young LGBTQ youth by making them feel less than, worthless; in this day and age, with suicides in the rise among our LGBTQ youth, for a man who professes to love God, and all that God has created, to use the Bible to bully gay kids is simply disgusting; and to sue for the right to bully is the height of arrogance.

Staver and his Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, asserting that Policy 912 is a violation of Minister Wells' First Amendment rights, and says that discussing the ALLEGED sin of homosexuality is crucial to the "mission" of Pastor Wells. Staver says that Policy 912 equates the teaching of biblical morality with "derogatory, biased and hateful" speech.

In response to the Liberty Counsel's letter, Kentucky Juvenile Justice Department released this statement: 

"The Department of Juvenile Justice seeks to protect the rights of all youth in its care and custody regardless of sexual orientation or committing offense. To this end, the department prohibits its staff and volunteers from discriminating against youth based on sexual orientation or gender identity."

Funny that, a man of God, or, in my opinion, a so-called man of God, is suing Kentucky so that he can berate, belittle, torment and torture LGBTQ youth with his own perverse version of what the Bible teaches. He is not a man who is helping any of these young people; he is a man hell-bent on harassing and bullying young people in the name of God.

And he’s suing the state of Kentucky for the right to bully.

NCRM