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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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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 am actually glad the preacher is anti gay – because then it becomes that much easier for me to fully embrace being anti him
He says that he should not lift a finger against gays, but the government should kill them? This guy is totally wacked.
WOW, you guys are saying that it is a Sin, can any of you please tell me what is Sin? (Not a list of Sins but the definition of the word).
Here's my effort: God is the Author of all life. But there is something special about humanity (even evolutionists should notice this). CHristian theology says that we were made in the image and likeness of God. We live up to God's intent by being fully human- His genuine idea for us. We can see God's fingerprints in us when we love – with all that that means. Then, we are fully human and therefore live up to God's image. When we sin by hating, cheating, diminishing another, we violate God's image in us and therefore our own genuine humaness. Our lives should be like a mirror in which others can see the likeness of God. Sin imakes us like the distorted mirror you'd see at a carnival, giving a false reflection.
Sorry. It was a bit long.
Sin is when someone does something I don’t like or think is disgusting like eating raw oysters. That’s even a bigger sin then being gay; because, eating raw oysters really is a choice
of course you get subjective responses! lol
my favorite one is the one about how god created us in his own image, yet he created us with original sin. Logic error.
we managed to figure out the fence, god couldn't figure out that one, evidently, too much for him to put up a fence around the tree of knowledge.
people visiting here to comment will need to know about the automatic word filter that has yet to be updated to filter out only bad words.
For instance, ho.mose.xuality is considered two bad words by the filter. "ho.mo" and "se.x" – a period, dash, space or other character can be used to break up the letter combinations.
"gay" is not considered a bad word by the filter.
These bad letter combinations also apply to your "Name" and your "email address" so please keep this in mind.
In addition, there are many G-rated words that fall afoul of this outdated and badly-written filter used by this blog.
Here is the list with the "bad" letter combination, followed by the G-rated words that will trip the filter and cause your post to get automatically deleted.
The "etc" means to keep a lookout for other possibilities if your post gets deleted.
The list, which includes actual "bad" words:
--–
ar-se.....as in spa-rse, pa-rse, ar-senic, etc.
ass-hole.....yet ass is okay.
ba-stard
bi-tch
cia-lis...as in Cia-lis(a drug), socia-lism, socia-list, specia-list, etc. (note: this only happens in combination with some email addresses uknown as to why)
cl-it
co-ck.....as in co-ckatiel, co-ckatrice, co-ckleshell, co-ckles, lubco-ck, etc.
co-on.....as in rac-oon, coc-oon, etc.
cu-m......as in doc-ument, accu-mulate, circu-mnavigate, circu-mstances, cu-mbersome, cucu-mber, etc.
cu-nt
do-uche
ef-fing...as in this ef-fing filter
fa-g
ft-w......as in soft-ware, delft-ware, swift-water, etc.
fu-ck......everyone's favorite!
ho-mo.....as in ho-mo sapiens or ho-mose-xual, ho-mogenous, etc.
hoo-ters...hoot, hootie, and hooter is okay. More than one hooter is bad.
ho-rny....as in tho-rny, etc.
jacka-ss...yet "ass" is allowed by itself.....
ja-p......as in j-apanese, ja-pan, j-ape, etc.
ji-sm
koo-ch....as in koo-chie koo..!
na-ked
nig-ger
nip-ple
or-gy
pi-ss
po-on.....as in spo-on, po-ontang, harpo-on, etc.
po-rn
pr-ick....as in pri-ckling, pri-ckles, etc.
ra-pe.....as in scra-pe, tra-peze, gr-ape, thera-peutic, sara-pe, etc.
se-x......as in Ess-ex, s-exual, etc.
sh-@t.....but shat is okay – don't use the @ symbol there.
sh-it
sl-ut
sn-atch
sp-ic.....as in disp-icable, hosp-ice, consp-icuous, susp-icious, sp-icule, sp-ice, etc.
spoo-k
strip-per..but strip, stripe are okay.
ti-t......as in const-itution, att-itude, ent-ities, alt-itude, anti-thesis (any anti-"t" word),beat-itude, etc.
tw-at.....as in wristw-atch, nightw-atchman, etc.
va-g......as in extrava-gant, va-gina, va-grant, va-gue, sava-ge, etc.
who-re....as in who're you kidding / don't forget to put in that apostrophe or break it up somehow!
wo-p
wt-f....also!!!!!!!
–
There are more, some of them considered "racist", so do not assume that this list is complete.
On the other hand, there are words you might expect to trip the filter, yet do not do so, a few examples:
anal
anus
ass
boob
butt
crap
damn
execute
hell
kill
masturbation
murder
penis
poop
pubic
raping (ra-pe is not ok)
shat (sh-@t is not ok)
sphincter
testes
testicles
--
If you want to bypass the filter, it can be done using html tags if necessary. But the list of banned letters/words should be enough for most visitors here.
CNN also has a list of tips on posting comments at: cnn.com/terms/comment_policy.html
Chri-stians believe "hom ose xuality is a sin cond emned by the Bible". If you believe in the Bible then you know that every sin is con demed by the Bible. No sin is greater than another. So if you "bear false witness", "covet thy neighbors wife", abstaining from all s-ex outside of marriage, lu-sting for ANYTHING (not just the other (or same) s-ex) and a bunch of things I don't have time to list...these people who focus on just this one are prolly committing some other s-in that is EQUAL and will keep them out of the kingdom of He-aven...IF YOU BELIEVE IN HE-AVEN !!!!!!!!!
well, there is a distinction between venial and mortal sins
Hard to believe that such sub-creatures as these pastors even are allowed to exist. They should be all collected up and put inside a 50 foot fence until they all die. An eye for en eye, right preacher man?
WOW wrote, " Again the same old thing. Really? Born gay? You can't prove that and you know it."
First of all, you've been told, by me personally, dozens of times, that in science we don't prove things, we explain things. For some reason, you are unwilling or unable to unserstand this basic concept of the scientific method. I think it is because you suffer from a variant of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Secondly, you have been given citations to peer-reviewed scientific research showing the multivariate biological nature od sèxual orientation numerous times. You have been asked to refute those citations, and you have refused. You have been asked to provide your citatations to peer-reviewed scientific research showing gays choose to be gay. Again, you have refused to do this as well.
I wonder why?
Anyway, here, again, are a couple of our citations. The question now is – will you man-up and have the balls to post yours?
The neurodevelopment of human sèxual orientation.
Rahman Q.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2005;29(7):1057-66. Epub 2005 Apr 25. Review.
Biological and psychosocial determinants of male and female human sèxual orientation.
James WH.
J Biosoc Sci. 2005 Sep;37(5):555-67. Review.
Fraternal birth order and the maternal immune hypothesis of male hômosèxuality.
Blanchard R.
Horm Behav. 2001 Sep;40(2):105-14. Review.
The neurodevelopment of human sèxual orientation.
Rahman Q.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2005;29(7):1057-66. Epub 2005 Apr 25. Review.
Fluctuating asymmetry, second to fourth finger length ratios and human sèxual orientation.
Rahman Q.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2005 May;30(4):382-91. Epub 2005 Jan 13.
The biology of human psychosèxual differentiation.
Gooren L.
Horm Behav. 2006 Nov;50(4):589-601. Epub 2006 Jul 25. Review.
Finger-length ratios and sèxual orientation.
Williams TJ, Pepitone ME, Christensen SE, Cooke BM, Huberman AD, Breedlove NJ, Breedlove TJ, Jordan CL, Breedlove SM.
Nature. 2000 Mar 30;404(6777):455-6.
A biologic perspective on sèxual orientation.
Pillard RC, Bailey JM.
Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1995 Mar;18(1):71-84. Review.
Androgens and sèxual behavior.
Pardridge WM, Gorski RA, Lippe BM, Green R.
Ann Intern Med. 1982 Apr;96(4):488-501. Review.
Hormones and psychosèxual differentiation: implications for the management of intersèxuality, hômosèxuality and transsèxuality.
Meyer-Bahlburg HF.
Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1982 Nov;11(3):681-701.
Sèxual orientation and handedness in men and women: a meta-ànalysis.
Lalumiere ML, Blanchard R, Zucker KJ.
Psychol Bull. 2000 Jul;126(4):575-92.
Quantîtative and theoretical ànalyses of the relation between older brothers and hômosèxuality in men.
Blanchard R.
J Theor Biol. 2004 Sep 21;230(2):173-87.
Linkage between sèxual orientation and chromosome Xq28 in males but not in females.
Hu S, Pattatucci AM, Patterson C, Li L, Fulker DW, Cherny SS, Kruglyak L, Hamer DH.
Nat Genet. 1995 Nov;11(3):248-56.
Neuroendocrine mechanisms and the aetiology of male and female hômosèxuality.
MacCulloch MJ, Waddington JL.
Br J Psychiatry. 1981 Oct;139:341-5. Review.
Hormones and psychosèxual differentiation.
Giordano G, Giusti M.
Minerva Endocrinol. 1995 Sep;20(3):165-93. Review.
Neuropsychological development of cognitive abilities: a new research strategy and some preliminary evidence for a sèxual orientation model.
Sanders G, Ross-Field L.
Int J Neurosci. 1987 Sep;36(1-2):1-16. Review.
Fraternal birth order and the maternal immune hypothesis of male hômosèxuality.
Blanchard R.
Horm Behav. 2001 Sep;40(2):105-14. Review.
Sèx steroids and human behavior: prenatal androgen exposure and sèx-typical play behavior in children.
Hines M.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2003 Dec;1007:272-82. Review.
Androgens and sèxuality.
Hutchinson KA.
Am J Med. 1995 Jan 16;98(1A):111S-115S. Review.
Biological and psychosocial determinants of male and female human sèxual orientation.
James WH.
J Biosoc Sci. 2005 Sep;37(5):555-67. Review.
Neurobiology and sèxual orientation: current relationships.
Friedman RC, Downey J.
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1993 Spring;5(2):131-53. Review.
Genetic and environmental influences on sèxual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample.
Bailey JM, Dunne MP, Martin NG.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000 Mar;78(3):524-36.
It doesn't really matter, we are all born with a sin nature.
Matt – we choose not to believe in your putz of a god – just like you choose not yo believe in the 10 thousand other gods we have invented. Thus, what you call sin is irrelevant to us.
Sorry.
By the way, I couldn't help but notice, that just like WOW, and every other ignorant fundiot over the past decade, you choose to move the goalposts and not refute our science, or post your own.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8772014
This is just more proof that religious people are dangerous because of their delusions.
We need to ban religion.
It is nothing but a scam that brainwashes people into thinking they have magical powers based on a fairytale.
Religion is the single most dangerous thing ever to have been created by humans, including the nuclear bomb. More lives have been lost or ruined because of it than any other thing in the history of humankind.
My feelings are mostly in agreement with yours, but I am not sure that "banning" religion outright is the real solution. If people want to delude themselves with fantasy, it sould be their right to do so – just don't impose your "beliefs" on others. I suspect that even thouse "devout Christians" would recoil at the idea of their pastor having his hand cut off for dipping it in the communal till (according to sharia law) or having any other part amputated for dipping it in another place! What really needs to be done in the US is to put an end to tax exemptions for religious groups and somehow limit their influence in political matters that violate our rights as citizens of a multi-cultural secular society.
The above article writes, “A member of Worley's 300-member church defended him in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper...” OK, what about members who did not agree? What about the many Christians who are disgusted and appalled by this man’s grotesque remarks?
You don’t hold an entire group responsible for the behavior of a single individual of that group. It wasn’t that long ago when the media used to promote that very idea. Now they actively push the opposite.
Why? Mostly because hatred and fear sells. It sells newspapers, magazines, and advertisement spots on web pages.
So please do not hold the entire Christian faith responsible for the insane ramblings of a few individuals.
Besides, just because you choose not to believe in God doesn’t mean you’re special or enlightened in any way. I’ve met lots of people who didn’t believe in God who were just as stupid as the ones who did.
Haldan, that 'oh don't judge us all by these crazies' doesn't work anymore... especially when too many Christians don't actually stand up to this craziness. You want us to think differently? Then YOU need to stand up and denounce these crazies – in public, in full view of people – not just on the Internet.
and yet we hear a silence from most christian groups about this issue. Few are speaking out against this speech.
if anything, it appears the christian community is attempting to rally around this issue.
sadly, there's not much justification for the stance against gay marriage other than what these 'sermons' speak to.
Hi “OZ in OK”,
I want to make a few points here....
Point #1:
I am NOT Christian. Or Jewish, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or Atheist, or agnostic, or religious in any way. That being said, we come to point number 2....
Point #2:
I am not saying “'oh don't judge US all by these crazies'”... but rather trying to say “don’t judge THEM by all those crazies...” It’s a small point, but the difference here is that I am not trying to defend myself. My original post was not about me.
Point #3:
“YOU need to stand up and denounce these crazies – in public, in full view of people” ... really? I do? Should I stand on a soap box on a street corner when I do this?
Do not tell me what I need to do. Do not make assumptions that you know who I am, or what I have already said and done outside of the internet... because you have no clue. I do what I can, where I can, and it is not up to YOU to determine the what and the where.
The bottom line here is that the only people I am willing to be angry at are the ones who made and support that statement regarding the execution of gay people. I am not going to lump all Christians into that category, because I am grown up enough to know better.
WWJD? Well, he might just love everyone. Including gays, lesbians etc.... But not those idiots who preach gays should die, Jesus would probably just pee on them.
PRAISE JESUS BROTHER
Why are these pastors not being prosecuted for hate crimes? This goes beyond freedom of speech - this is publicly advocating harm to a specific group of people. These pastors are disgusting.
the US does not have very strong hate crimes laws, unlike most other developed countries. In most civilized countries this poisonous filth that pours from these preachers would have been stamped out long ago.
CNN is reporting the EVIL GARBAGE that the "churches" are preaching....what a ridiculous thing to say.....
and, how is hatred a good thing?
intolerance is intolerable!
THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD KILL PASTORS!
Where do these people get the idea that Biblical law should be made into Federal Law?
The Same place the Taliban and Al Qaida get them–conservatism.
@dabu – I'm hard-core conservative and fully believe that nobody's religious law should ever be government law. The only place that's ever led is to the downfall of the resulting theocratic society. What you describe is actually the belief of today's republicans, who have very little to do with actual conservatism.
On Sunday, Kansas pastor Curtis Knapp preached that the government should kill ho mose xuals.
"They won't, but they should," he said, according to a recording of his sermon posted online.
I hope this is quote is taken out of context. That's a brutal statement. That I believe is crossing a line and being a Christian I'm sadden to hear that kind if message being preached to the congregation.
Corrction: Of message not if message
Why are you surprised, it's in his Bible, if any Christian is true to their faith he/she would be saying the same thing. Thank "God" most Christian are not true believers (they take what they agree with and leave the rest).
The "logic" they use to justify choosing what parts of the bible are important baffles me. The bible is the word of god one minute, but don't get between a southern baptist and a pulled pork sandwich.
I love that! ...and a pulled pork sandwich. Made my day!
Meanwhile, there really are good things that the church is doing, not just this evil garbage that CNN reports.
Name them....
Jim: You are an idiot! This church is calling for MURDER! It does not matter if they raise money at bake sales. If you want to continue to live under a rock and be uninformed about lunatics that get the benefit of no taxation under the guise that they are a religious organization while advocating MURDER by blaming CNN for delivering the information, you should move to Iran, where religious creeps run amok!
Like the American nuns that are feeding the homeless? Oh right, they are in trouble for spending their time doing that rather than spending their time speaking out against abortion and gay marriage.
Like what lol
You have accepted a faith of selective intolerance. It doesn't truly matter whether or not you help "save" people or feed the homeless when you still call for the murder or genocide of other people. There is an unresolvable disconnent there, and you cannot in good faith ignore the other atrocities they advocate under the guise of kind-hearted saviors. Ask yourself this: Would you devote yourself to the teachings of a man, or men, as they call for the murder of Jews? Muslims? Buddhists? Children? Blacks? The only thing that separates you from them is religion, age, or race. The only thing that separates you from gays is your orientation, and if you accept this preacher or his teachings or his Church then the only thing you are doing is separating yourself from your own humanity and common dignity.
I gather my comment was misinterpreted. This church is not doing good but harm. The church (as in the true bride of Christ) is doing great good. I could name examples, but clearly anything said falls on deaf ears. The church I belong to is not as-sociated with these people. We are not calling for the murder of anyone. That would be a gross generalization. Unfortunately people who generalize are often the most difficult to have discussions with.
No no no. I understand that these people probably represent the fringes of Christianity. But the book you pray to still calls for their death. I am saying why would you want to associate yourself with the Bible when it also includes this verse? If a neighbor came and helped me, fed me, clothed me, and did nothing harmful to me, but still at the same time called for the death of a child or man or woman next door because he was "different" I would not associate myself with him any longer. My whole point is that no matter how much good you do, or no matter how many verses in the Bible that teach morality, you still cannot accept indoctrination from a source that also calls for murder. That is why I cannot in good faith be a Christian. Not because I hate all the people who preach such things, but because the Book and primary source itself does as well.
Sorry for the late reply. Didn't see 🙂