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May 2nd, 2012
04:18 PM ET
North Carolina pastor retracts sermon remarks about punching gay kidsBy Stephen Walsh, CNN (CNN) - A Fayetteville, North Carolina, pastor has retracted controversial language used during a weekend sermon in which he instructed parents to hit children who exhibited behavior associated with homosexuality. “I apologize to anyone I have unintentionally offended,” Sean Harris, pastor of Berean Baptist Church wrote in a statement on his church’s website. “I did not say anything to intentionally offend anyone in the LGBT community. “My intent was to communicate the truth of the Word of God concerning marriage,” the statement continued. “My words were not scripted. It is unfortunate I was not more careful and deliberate.”
Harris’s remarks at his church came a week before the state’s voters consider an amendment to North Carolina’s constitution limiting legal unions to marriage between a man and a woman. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories "The second you see your son dropping that limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist," Harris said in the Sunday sermon. "Man up. Give him a good punch." "You’re not going to act like that," the pastor advised parents to tell their children. "You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male.” In an interview with the Fayetteville Observer, Harris said his comments were meant as a joke. In a video of the sermon posted online, laughter can be heard from some members of the congregation, as well as cries, of “Amen!” as the pastor spoke about responding to seemingly gay kids. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter Berean Baptist explains its stance on discipline of children on its website: “Remembering the love and forgiveness that God has shown them, parents in turn should train their children with the purpose of reflecting the Heavenly Father to their children. Parents should consider their responsibility to be the instrument of discipline in their child’s life (Prov. 19:18). At times this may include appropriate and reasonable physical means (Prov. 10:13) employed upon the fleshy portion of the child’s buttocks (Prov. 22:15; 23:13); that this method is to be viewed as correction rather than punishment (Prov. 23:13); and that this correction will result in the child’s physical and spiritual betterment.” Harris told the Observer that from within his church, "the response was, 'Pastor, we know you didn't mean that.'" What do you think? Watch the above video to hear Harris’s remark and leave your comments below. soundoff (2,325 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I freakin love religion. It's all about murder and genocide and punchin a kid in the chest if he lets his wrist go limp. Oh and the oppressing women is just the cherry on the sunday.
Front page article for this idiot, really CNN? Wow, you are getting more and more desperate for fanning the flame of your anti-Christian war...
The likes of you need to be exposed.
Nope, sorry, I always wear pants...
hey stop reading then, I love these kooky cult stories and the only thing better would be more. Go with god.
apparently, you did not have any problem with the front page articles that extolled virtues of being christian.. persecution complex, much? or are you being defensive for the flimsy faith you have?
You said it. I wonder if any of Reverend Wrights lovely sermons made the front page. You see the problem with the make-it-up-as-you-go-along approach to religion.
Where is your Carolina pride? Living in North Carolina means you can say stupid things. People expect it from North Carolina. Being a man of the cloth and telling your flock to beat their kids is part of your job...that being a false prophet from North Carolina.
why is it that people who say stuff like this look and sound like h0m0s?
I don't know what that "pastor" is, but he's certainly not following Jesus.
The world would be so much better off without the hatred perpetrated by organized religions. Organized, mean spirited, nasty people all under the banner of supposed goodness.. My daughter is a caring, respectful, sucessful , compassionate person who was married to her partner during the legal window in California. Will never forget the nastiness of the Mormon Chuch while it pushed Prop. 8. What did they accomplish other than dashing the dreams of many good people? Organized religions=evil incarnate.
In other words, I failed as a parent so I need to endorse my qu eer daughter and her perversions to justify myself.
@pervert alert
Do you have any semblance of intelligence that you would care to share?
@p alert.. its called humanity you idiot.. love does not need to be restricted to a man and women.. with the severe persecution complex that you christians have, you should know well what results from restricting love and their belief . unfortunately, you christians have become exactly what people opposed when they first became christians.
Once I was in a fast food place in Idaho, when I a family came in with two young children. The father sat down and immediately started reading a newspaper – the mother got up and dutifully got ketchup. The parents were wearing t-shirts that demonstrated a conservative leaning. One of the kids played a little bit with one of the small containers of ketchup. The father screamed at him, and asked if the kid wanted t go the bathroom – the child said in a panicked voice – NO DADDY – I LOVE YOU DADDY.
Is this were this behavior originates from?????
That's a frightening story that probably plays out day after day with these so called christians.
Absurd. God may have made a child "male" but what it means to be male has been placed upon the child by SOCIETY, NOT BY GOD. God does not say a male can never cry, or express feelings, or grow his hair long, or have a limp fricken wrist. Those rules were invented by MAN, and have nothing to do with god. In western culture many men shave their facial hair. That is considered FEMININE in other cultures. Are Christians incapable of rational thought? This is stupidity at its finest. This so-called 'pastor' is an absurd disgrace to Christianity.
Let's face it, christianity is absurd.
I thought Jesus came to bring a new religion introduced in the New Testament. Jesus spoke of love, so Christians always go to the old testament when they are looking to inflict pain and punishment. The law was made to serve man, not for man to serve the law.
You can share your admiration of Rev. Sean's loving message by contacting him at his e-mail address:
pastor@bereanbaptistchurch.org
This guy is a total POS. He is not qualified to have children let alone speak to how others should raise theirs. Publically inciting violence against a particula group of children has to be some sort of crime, can we please charge this guy?
Charge the guy? He should get the Presidential medal of freedom !
Agreed. There's got to be something criminal about this. Especially given the authority he has a church leader.
I don't even see him retracting his remarks, based on the quote above. All I see is him apologizing for spreading what he still thinks is the word of God and that it offended people. He's not sorry about the message–just the effect the message had.
I think a tip to child services in the area he lives in would be wise. He clearly supports and possibly abuses children. BAD CHRISTIAN....NO HALO FOR YOU!
And another phony just sayin post
You are wrong HeavSent
And another phony post from a paranoid twit
Nope,,,wrong again
Typical GOP "Christian" cowardly bully. They would use gov't to imprison everyone that disagrees with them if they could.
Another poison "Christian". Just can't get that hate out of your heart, can ya? Have to try and use the Bible to justify your dark heart. Every time you open your mouth, you prove that you know nothing about God, cause it's the Devil who loves hatred.
Prayer changes things .
you obviously made that up – have no proof of your statement – and are just repeating the garabage you hear from the man on the pulpit.
change is coming, and it's the death of organized religion
Prayer changes my name to Hitchens and WWJD and just sayin and lots of others, and though it makes absolutely no sense to do it since you all know me immediately, I do it.
I pray every day to the spagetti monster that people like you shut up.... further evidence that prayer does not work
Prayer is evidence of a mental illness. Proven
It seems to be another fake just sayin post
Actually, scientific studies have shown that prayer is no more effective than a placebo.
Prayer really changes things
Proven .
Sorry you are wrong. Prove it Hitch.
Sorry but Prayer is evidence of a mental illness.
No, it really is just as effective as a placebo. So payer = sugar pill.
The proof ball is in your court just sayin. You make accusations show your proof. My money says you are all bull.
this trolling twit again
Atheism is not healthy for children and other living things
Proof? Read the replies
Prayer changes things
Proof? You are all here.
You prayed to the spaghetti monster that we would shut up? It worked for me.
Just goes to show you that there are some in the Christian community that would resort to violence and bullying LGBT people... I know that there are plenty of Christians who aren't that deluded but there are a vocal minority like this sorry excuse for a man that hates what he doesn't understand so much that they feel it is their responsibility to wipe it out. Live and let live, believe and let others believe how they wish to.
Isn't religion wonderful? Why would anyone want to be part of a group that preaches intolerance and hatred. Why does anyone still embrace Bronze Age thinking in 2012?
Correct me if I am wrong, but I could swear he was talking about parents correcting unwanted behavior in their children, not with anyone else's.
It don't see a problem with this man or how he spoke. He's not being politically correct and that is just fine. Not everyone uses the english language in a legalistic way and their meaning isn't literal. There are cultural differences in the way people talk in different areas of the USA.
Correcting a perceived unwanted behavioral pattern is the right of the parent. Abusing a child is not. No one is condoning the abuse of a child.
it's called ignorance
tell me how much differently can culture change the meaning of "give him a good punch"?
But I bet you would have a big problem when an atheist says to go up to a christian and give him a good punch to see reason and logic.. huh??
I see you missed his point. The pastor was talking about correcting unwanted behavior IN YOUR OWN CHILDREN (capped so you dont misread or skip). I did not see a single word or hear in the video about correcting that behavior in children other than your own or anyone else.
Wow...rationalize much?
Actually, no. There was no rationalization there. Just standard reading comprehension.
ever heard of child protection agency? beat a child, yours or not.. especially yours, I must say.. and they come ship your a$$ to jail and take the child away from your abusive hands.. better for the child, I suppose, than in your abusive hands..
Really, how does it matter that you beat the so called inappropriate behavior IN YOUR CHILD? does that give you right to beat him or punch him because it is YOUR CHILD?
You seem to be ignoring the part in my first post where i specific state no one was condoning child abuse. I'd rather not believe that reading comprehension is becoming a rare ability, like common sense.
The cultural difference in how one speaks raises a big divide with comments in which the pastor made. Hitting one's child, regardless of what one wants to believe, doesn't immediately equate with child abuse. Corrective action takes a lot of different forms, from verbal to physical.
I just love it when people back their own personal hate with religion.
Sometimes I really hate Christianity.
Let's see molest kids and beat gays sure sounds like an all inculsive cult to me..
Print all of what he said CNN. He hardly apologized if you read the entire post to his blog. He is just a typical violent hate mongering christian and he most certainly didn't retract or apologize.
let me see... beat the child or encourage erection enter excrement? there must be another solution, anyone?