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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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Prayer changes nothing, a colossal waste of time.
I see a rent-a-boy a hotel room and a very public outing in this man's future.
Humanity needs to step in and stop this guy but how would we accomplish it?
It's a mental health issue. Treat it like one.
I knew some "tough guys" in High School who wanted to go to Hollywood and beat up some gays. I opted out of it, was called some names, but otherwise was left alone. When they came to school Monday there were obvious signs that the bashing went all wrong for them, but they denied it. Only years later did one of them confess that they picked out the wrong one.
If a guy can park an 18 wheeler up his dirt road, don't think a punch in the nose is going to affect him.
Cool story.
Prayer changes things .
Prayer can change another's outlook on many things, but that's all it can change. Please tell me how atheism is not healthy for "other living things". I didn't realize other living things could worship any religion. If so, which religion would that be? I'm pretty sure my dog isn't a Christian.
Oh give me a break, we are listening to a mid stream clip where you only hear some of what he is saying. The congregation laughed, they thought he was joking. Ridiculous....
“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.”
Unacceptable. Apology not accepted. It's a total non-apology apology – he's not apologized for advocating VIOLENCE against any kid even perceived as gay. Simply unacceptable. If I went to his church, I'd walk out and never look back.
I love jerks like this Pastor. This is the reason why people are leaving religion in droves, and the "nones" are growing at the fastest rate in history.
Absolutely right. Atheists aren't causing religion to lose adherents; religion is. Religious people don't listen to atheists. It's all the lies and bad behavior and weird messages and hatred posing as love. It's the religious freak show that drives people away. People are not attracted to irreligion anywhere near as much as they are repulsed away from religion.
Cue the moron who says "I hate religion but love Jesus."
too bad my uncle who was in organized crime in the 80's is gone. if he were still around I might have him "punch" this pastor.
And an "Amen!" to that.
I like the way Rev Sean has us vent our violent tendencies on defenseless little kids instead of large muscular guys who could kick our asses. That's why I like Christianity.
Church using bible verses telling parents they have the responsibility to touch children in the "fleshy portion of the child's buttocks?" I guess the Baptists aren't that far off from the Catholics after all.
Baptists teach self-loathing, hatred, terror, and fear. Then, once you're a quivering mass of idiot-jello, they teach degradation, false-atonement, and turn your life into a prison cell of mental-slavery, tossing in a morsel of hope and love that they say you do not deserve.
Baptist religion = Stockholm Syndrome.
One thing I will say is of all the words that came out the pastor's mouth, the only one recognized was "punch'. For me its very childish of our reporters to stick to that when morally the statement was simply made to remind parents not to allow their kids to go out of way. For lack of discipline we have lots of deviant behaviors in this generation. Its not about religion but the truth. And it is true God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve, but all in all Bible says God is not bias, He loves each of us equally.
If you believe in Adam and Eve you expose yourself as a delusional idiot.
God loves us equally but is going to toture the majority of us for the rest of eternity. Right. Makes sense to me.
"It's not about religion, it's about truth"
And what makes you so sure you're the single holder of truth? Don't mistake "faith" for "knowledge", because they're decidedly different. You have belief in a narrow interpretation of your religion that overly concerns itself with s-x, that doesn't mean that what you believe is true.
Oh, so this must be the "family values" conservatives are always talking about.
Surprisingly North Carolina is mostly Republicans.......
Actually, it's not.
Love the Christian, hate their bigoted religion.
The bible says to st0ne them, heck this pastor just says to sm@ck them. He is a progrsssive.
So much for that loving god and love for all mankind. What a piece of sh+t
I'm going to see if punchin people in the chest can help solve other problems in my life.
Moron. I believe any "rev" who speaks like that should be struck down with a 2×4 in front of his entire congregation. With extreme prejudice.
naw,,, i don't really think he was joking,, he is serious about what he said. Yes i am calling him a liar. rev, read the bible instead of someone with an adjenda to put forward. as he said 'whatsoever you do to the least of my children, you do to me.' Remember, we are all made in god'd image. ALL,, not some, but ALL
So glad I'm Pagan. I feel terrible for children raised in households such as this.