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May 31st, 2012
05:17 AM ET
Church videos with harsh words for gays go viral onlineBy Richard Allen Greene and Dan Gilgoff, CNN First it was a Christian pastor in North Carolina who told his congregation on Mother's Day that the way "to get rid of all the lesbians and queers" was to put them behind an electric fence and wait for them to die out. That video went viral, fetching more than a million views on YouTube. On Sunday, Pastor Curtis Knapp of Kansas preached that the government should kill homosexuals, in another videotaped sermon that drew lots of online attention. "They won't, but they should," Knapp said, according to a recording of his sermon posted online. Since that sermon, another church video with harsh words for gays has caught fire online. This one shows a young boy singing an anti-gay song while the congregation cheers him on in what appears to be a church in Indiana. "I know the Bible’s right, somebody’s wrong,” the boy sings near the pulpit of a church. “Ain't no homos gonna make it to heaven." As the boy repeats the line “Ain't no homos gonna make it to heaven," congregants from the pews rise and cheer. The video, which was anonymously posted online and has received more than 300,000 views on YouTube, appears to show a service at the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle Church in Greensburg, Indiana. Calls to the church this week went to voicemail, with an automatic message saying the mailbox is full. But a message posted on the church’s website on Wednesday appears to address the controversy, offering no apology for the video. “The Pastor and members of Apostolic Truth Tabernacle do not condone, teach, or practice hate of any person for any reason. We believe and hope that every person can find true Bible salvation and the mercy and grace of God in their lives,” the statement says. “We are a strong advocate of the family unit according to the teachings and precepts found in the Holy Bible,” said the statement, which did not explicitly refer to the video or mention homosexuality. “We believe the Holy Bible is the Divinely-inspired Word of God and we will continue to uphold and preach that which is found in scripture.” The viral videos have drawn criticism from gay and lesbian groups and their allies. Charles Worley’s sermon at Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, North Carolina, sparked a protest that drew more than 1,500 people last weekend. In Kansas, Knapp's voicemail at the New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca was filled with messages saying "things you don't want your kids to hear," he told CNN affiliate KTKA. An official with the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists issued a statement to CNN on Thursday saying that Knapp’s church had left the Southern Baptist fold in 2010. “Obviously, he has taken a radical and unbiblical stand in regards to homosexuality,” said Tim Boyd, communications director for the convention. “We look at homosexuals as we look at all sinners,” his statement said. “God loves them. Christ died for them. The Gospel calls them to repentance and salvation. Therefore, we as Christ-followers should hate the sin and love the sinner.” But Knapp is not backing away from his comments. "We punish pedophilia. We punish incest. We punish polygamy and various things. It's only homosexuality that is lifted out as an exemption," he said. He cited the Biblical verse Leviticus 20:13: "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act. They shall surely be put to death." But he said gay people had nothing to worry about from the government or from him. "I don't believe I should lay a finger against them," said Knapp, of New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas. "My hope is for their salvation, not for their death." Preaching against homosexuality the same day, another pastor appeared to wrestle with how conservative Christians should respond to proposals that people should literally mete out biblical punishments. "What about this guy down in North Carolina said build a big prison, a big fence and put them all in there and let them die out?" Dennis Leatherman asked in a sermon at the Mountain Lake Independent Baptist Church in Maryland. "Listen, I don't know that fellow. As far as I can tell, he seems like a decent guy, but he is dead wrong on that. That is not the scriptural response," Leatherman said in his sermon "Homosexuality & the Bible," according to a cached version of the transcript posted online. The audio of the sermon does not appear on his church's website. In the sermon, he floats the idea of killing homosexuals, whom he refers to as sodomites, then backs away from it. "There is a danger of reacting in the flesh, of responding not in a scriptural, spiritual way, but in a fleshly way. Kill them all. Right? I will be very honest with you. My flesh kind of likes that idea," Leatherman said. "But it grieves the Holy Spirit. It violates Scripture. It is wrong," he added immediately. The Southern Baptist Convention distanced itself from Worley's remarks. The nation's largest Baptist group said Providence Road Baptist in Maiden is not affiliated with its 16 million-member denomination and condemned the comments. But the influential head of the giant movement's seminary does argue that homosexuality "is the most pressing moral question of our times." In a comment piece for the Belief Blog in the wake of Worley's sermon, R. Albert Mohler Jr. dismissed critics who say conservative Christians focus on homosexuality while ignoring other things the Bible prohibits. He contends that laws about keeping kosher, for example, do not apply to Christians, while commandments about homosexuality do. "When it comes to homosexuality, the Bible's teaching is consistent, pervasive, uniform and set within a larger context of law and Gospel," he wrote. "Christians who are seriously committed to the authority of the Bible have no choice but to affirm all that the Bible teaches, including its condemnation of homosexuality," he said. A member of Worley's 300-member church defended him in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. "Of course he would never want that to be done," Stacey Pritchard said of the proposal to put homosexuals behind a fence and leave them there to die out. "But I agree with what the sermon was and what it was about." CNN Belief Blog co-editor Eric Marrapodi contributed to this report. soundoff (4,073 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 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 Next »
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"Christians believe that Leviticus is the word of God, but generally hold that most of the non-ethical laws of the Hebrew Bible become obsolete as a result of the New Covenant initiated by Jesus. Sacrifices became unnecessary because Jesus himself brings atonement to believers through his death and resurrection.[2] Saint Paul's letters deal in detail with the need for Christians to realize that only faith in Jesus, and not obedience to the Jewish laws, brings salvation."
My My My, and these people call themselves Christians (as in followers of Christ). It seems to me that Jesus tried to distance himself from the old testament.
Toss the Bible out! Same for the Koran!
Fairy tales may come true they may happen to you if you believe in mobojumbo
maybe we should kill pastors that say we should kill gays.
My man great Idea Kill every holy roller regardless of their faith. The we would have a wonderful world for sure
Germany November 9, 1933 Christian Dogs
You are spot on...these folks are a horror
"Christians who are seriously committed to the authority of the Bible" above the secular gov't of this country are the ones who should move somewhere else where theocracy, not democracy, is practiced. Please see Iran for a model.
Well said.
"The greatest moral issue of our time?" I don't see how what adults do in bed harms someone's else life in any way . . . I think the great moral issue facing Christians is the fact that we permit thousands of children to go to bed hungry every night in this country and elsewhere . . .
Amen to that.
Perhaps christians could concentrate more on helping the downtroden if we didn't have to spend so much time defending against the immoral.
When are they going to kill all the women who were not virgins when they married?
Don't give 'em any ideas. Maybe they haven't thought of that one yet.
Seig Heil
It's 'Sieg' not 'Seig' by the way.
So tell me are not a hair away from being rules by these guys. Religion and over population are the scourge of our time.
I find it ironic that this group hates government intervention in private lives yet wants the government to kill gays. Pure hyporcisy.
This country needs to be saved alright. Saved from the likes of these insane religious nutjobs. The American Taliban. Sick.
These pastors represent the epitome of exactly what is wrong with so-called "christianity." They are very far removed from true christianity.
In Matthew 5:17-19 Christ makes it very clear that the Mosaic Laws are to be upheld.
Christianity died with the Jewish Kid 2000 years ago
I think Leatherman's flesh is really liking young boys.
This guy is an idiot, and I am a Christian opposed to gay marriage. But I am not opposed to gay people. We need to love and pray for them. As for this so called pastor, he is definitely outside of biblical Christian tenants. Nowhere in the new testament does Christ command us to kill the sinners. If it were so, then we would all be on the list to board the carousel (I.E. Logan's Run).
In Matthew 5:17-19 Christ makes it very clear that the Mosaic Laws are to be upheld.
Quoting the big book of fairy tales are we?
Bill, could you please explain to me why Christians such as yourself hide your bigotry behind the word "love"?
to n8362 and the rest of you religious nutbags: really? you realize you are just as bad (if not worse) than the islamic extremists. they love to kill in the name of their god too. great...that is definitely a way to move society forward.
Thank god we have the Bible for a moral compass. We would be lost if we had to use logic.
KILL SINNERS? Even God doesn't do that. If He did, there'd be nobody alive on the planet.
God offers mercy and so should we. God welcomes penitent sinners into His arms. A dead man can't repent of anything.
Somebody should pull all the preachers teeth out for speaking murder. A good shepard ought to preach mercy and justice, not murder and imprisonment.
Why did he say such things? Controversy enables increased contributions. It's all about the money and the photo Op, folks.
It's got absolutely nothing to do with the gospel or the love of God.
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
In Matthew 5:17-19 Christ makes it very clear that the Mosaic Laws are to be upheld.
"Even God doesn't do that. If He did, there'd be nobody alive on the planet. "
well noah would disagree with you as to whether he does it.
I don't think he said Mosaic law.
And God is just festering for the big End Times slaughter and eternal torture chamber thing.
Yes he was referring to the Mosaic Law.
"well noah would disagree with you as to whether he does it."
So would Pinocchio and Cinderella.
He does not say Mosaic law. How do you know that is what he meant?
n8362 Jesus is very specifically and clearly saying the commandments here, not Levitical law, which he rails against. Jesus despised the religeous peole of the day, people like this preacher. The Bible is a great compass, but not when Cherry picked to suit your arguement....there was no more tolerant and open minded man to ever live than Jesus Christ. He knew we were all broken and wicked, atheist and religeous people alike!!!
Am I the only one who's gaydar redlined when that pastor started to speak?
The louder they scream...
We should call it Roy Cohn Syndrome.
Read about Roy Cohn if you don't know what I am talking about.
Another baptist.......
How about all the religious radicals of all religions put in one camp, it should be over pretty quick, then G-d can take his favorites.
New Hope Baptist Church – 785-336-6251
Pastor Curtis Knapp
West Hwy 6
Seneca, KS 66538
Give him a call and let him know your thoughts
Way to go.
I also requested that the city of seneca de-list the church from all publications including their website on the grounds that they are fostering hatred and requesting the government perform genocide.
I hink someone also needs to request that their tax-excempt status be revoked
I HAVE A BETTER IDEA.
You know he'll just not answer the phone.
HOW ABOUT everybody take a dump in a plastic bag and then mail the bag to preacher? Oh, and wrap the plastic bag with a pink ribbon just for fun.
Is that a plan or what?
It's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
Tokencode: thank you. My words will fall upon deaf ears but maybe with enough pressure, the congregation will begin to think about their leader. If they don't, then this no longer is a church but qualifies as a cult.
Please God, protect me from your followers!
ain't that the truth.
I don't think the preacher is following God. Sounds to me like he's following the other guy, if you know what I mean.
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
rjp34652 – TOO funny.