 |
|
|
|
|
May 2nd, 2013
12:52 PM ET
Ex-NFL player's support for gay NBA player apparently costs him church appearanceBy Dan Merica, CNN Washington (CNN) – LeRoy Butler, a former safety for the Green Bay Packers, is one of many professional athletes to tweet support for Jason Collins, the NBA player who came out as gay this week. “Congrats to Jason Collins,” Butler tweeted April 29, the day Collins came out in a Sports Illustrated cover story. But Butler says the four-word tweet cost him a speaking appearance at a Wisconsin church. He was scheduled to speak at the church (whose name he has not revealed) about bullying and his new book, "The LeRoy Butler Story: From Wheelchair to the Lambeau Leap." That was until the church, according to Butler, told him he was no longer welcome because of his tweet in support of Collins. "The pastor called me and that's when we got into the old, the whole religion thing about gay people and things of that nature and the conversation just went back and forth for us a couple of minutes," Butler told Anderson Cooper on Thursday. After the exchange with the pastor, Butler took to twitter to express his frustration. Butler later tweeted that “some parents went to the church and complained about my tweet” supporting Collins. The church, according to Butler, said that if the football player apologized, he would be allowed to speak. "They basically said this, if you apologize, ask God for forgiveness and remove the tweet, you'll be able to do this speaking engagement with the kids," he said. "I won't do that. That's taking my dignity and respect away." He continued: "I told the pastor, blame it on my mom because my mom brought me up to love everybody." Butler recently tweeted that the church apologized for the incident and thanked him “for not releasing the church name.” Butler played 11 years, from 1990 to 2001, with the Packers and helped them win a Super Bowl in 1997. He was a four-time All-Pro selection, the highest honor for a year of work in the NFL, and is credited with inventing the Lambeau Leap, the iconic touchdown celebration in which a Packer leaps into the Lambeau Field stands to celebrate with fans. As for Butler's stance on gay athletes in professional sports, he said they have "support from straight guys like me that won't judge them." "If we win a Super Bowl ring, I don't care who you bring to the ring ceremony, I just want to win the ring," Butler said. "That's what it's all about. ... Isn't that what it's all about? Winning the championship? Not who is in my bed when I turn the lights out." Since retiring, Butler has been active in the Green Bay community, and his Facebook page chronicles appearances and speeches he has given to churches in the area. soundoff (3,002 Responses)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 Next »
Next entry »When Christians become a 'hated minority'
« Previous entryPope goes economic, harkens back to predecessors
|
  About this blog
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.  |
|
|
|
Sounds like this church didn't want an "Anti Bullying" discussion, but a "how to" for bullying. How is what this church did to Mr. Butler not bullying?
(For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2 Corinthians 10:4
Amen.
Says a lot about Butler, all of it good.
Says a lot about the church, and religion, none of it good......
BD
same scripture applies here ...
(For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
2 Corinthians 10:4
Amen.
E = mc2..........(U–Pb).................two math formulas.............the ark has sunk HS
Any person or church that is that intolerant and judgmental doesn't practice what they preach. "Judge not yet thee be Judged". Good for Mr. Butler, He really didn't need their 8500, anyway and I'm sure he'll sell plenty of his books without this so called church.
oh you forgot the part that also says "we shall know them by their fruits" and that such a lifestyle is an "abomination before God"
Judging Is Believing.
Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? (Luke 12:57)
What is right?
The statutes of the Lord are right (Psalm 19:8).
Amen.
IT'S ME.......... GOD
By Jay Martel
Here’s my problem: I don’t believe in people.
To me, human beings and their world are nothing more than the product of our collective imagination, a sad manifestation of our need to feel important beyond our actual existence. I also can’t help feeling that our lives would be better if no one believed in people; only then would we be able to truly deal with our problems without nursing the delusion of a universe that’s completely dependent on us.
The bottom line is that there are no easy answers to the questions we all have about life.
Why are we here? Why are we all-seeing, all-knowing and immortal? How are we able to be everywhere at the same time?
I don’t pretend to know. I do know, however, that these questions are not made easier by believing there’s a planet of people somewhere out there who depend on us to land their planes safely.
Like most of us, I was raised by parents who believed in the existence of people. Before every meal and every bedtime, we would sit quietly, “listening” to their prayers, and every Sunday morning I was awakened early so we could all go sit on our heavenly thrones for an hour, pretending to be worshipped.
How ridiculous that all seems now!
At the time, though, I never questioned any of it. In fact, for most of my teens, I spoke to a person named Moses who I believed was completely dependent on my advice. I now realize, of course, that this was nothing more than a delusion I needed in order to break free of my cloying parents and their needs.
As I grew, persistent questions nagged at me. I asked my father: If we have ultimate power over peoples’ lives, why can’t we just make them perfect and alleviate their suffering? That way, they wouldn’t need to pray anymore, and we wouldn’t need to listen!
My father shook his head with a long-suffering look as if he’d caught me playing with his best lightning bolts. He explained to me that of course we couldn’t intervene in peoples’ lives like that, because then how would they grow and become purer souls? It’s hard to believe that I actually believed this. Absolutely crazy - the idea that we created people just to torture them!
After rejecting my parents’ faith, I dabbled in different forms of people-belief. For a while, I believed that people became happier when they killed animals for me. Then I believed that I buried a gold tablet for people to find. I even flirted with even flakier religions, believing that the peoples’ sun wouldn’t rise in the morning if I didn’t haul it up with my chariot (I was on anti-depressants at the time).
Then, at perhaps my lowest point, I imagined that I had a son who I sent to the people to do with as they wished - some kind of bizarre loaner, I guess.
Then I had a breakthrough: Why did the people I believed in need me so badly?
If I truly had dominion over every aspect of their lives, as I was led to believe, why were they so screwed up? I was familiar with the arguments of theologians - that somehow peoples’ sorry existence was further proof of their need for me. But I just couldn’t buy it anymore.
Since throwing off the shackles of believing in people, it hasn’t been easy living in a culture where everyone seems to think they’ve talked to some guy in a desert. When I recently tried to get medical help for my now-senile father - who actually believed that dead people with wings had come to live with him - I was told that my father was “comforted” by this delusion.
When will we realize that there is nothing comforting about ignorance?
I’m frequently asked: Don’t you sometimes, late at night, at your lowest moments, wish that you were worshipped? When the chips are down, when you feel completely worthless, don’t you wish you could hear the prayers of billions of people asking you for help and comfort?
And I would not be completely truthful if I didn’t say that sometimes, I do. After all, I’m only a god.
Please repost this on a site for 1st graders, where it belongs.
You mean Xtians!
"Why are we here? Why are we all-seeing, all-knowing and immortal? How are we able to be everywhere at the same time?" LOL... doesn't sound too "all-knowing" to me...
Simran,
Matthew 23:29-36
Amen.
I'm sorry you wasted so much time on a such a pitiful attempt at cleverness.
Very clever. Thanks for the post.
So so-called Christians desperately try to get gay men to lie to themselves and become 'straight' yet are the first ones to cry foul since Collins dated a woman?
It's pretty simple, actually. If you champion beliefs that are not consistant with those of the church, of any religion, actually, they are not likely to want you to be an inspirational speaker for them. In America, we have freedom of speech, which is a great thing, but that does not absolve you of accepting the obvious consequences of the position you take.
Nonbelievers follow the LIES of satan and reject the truth of Jesus.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:8
Amen.
@Aloha Mike
The problem is that the position he is taking shold be the moral thing to do accourding to that church.
Do not judge .... Do unto others ..... love your enemy ...... Any of this sound familiar?
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men..." said Paul. You really don't see the irony there do you? LOL...
That's because you've never read 2 Peter 1:16-21.
Evidence shows up to 50% of preachers, priests, whatever, molest little boys – meaning they are gay.
Why are some religious people so darned stupid?
Raze that church. Why would ANYONE want to speak at a church anyway?
Pedophelia is grossly different from being gay. Your entire post is a failure of logic.
And lacks data. Can't believe I am agreeing with sam but that should tell you how ignorant you are.
Evidence shows 50% of your statistics are completely made up. It's an ugly trait best left to the right wing. Please don't do it.
Jesus warned us (Matthew 23:1-39) about who sat in the lead roles in the churches, synagogues, any/all false religions today and specifically told us to read and study His truth (the Bible) so that we can sharpen our knowledge with those that profess to know him whether they are teaching His truth or the lies of man.
HS, "Jesus warned us (Matthew 23:1-39) about who sat in the lead roles in the churches ..."
The same Jesus who is god? The same god who is omniscient and omnipotent? Why doesn't god fix it?
1 John 2:21-23
Revelation 21:8
Amen.
He charges $8500 to speak to a church congregation?
Gouge
He charges $8500 to speak to a church congregation?
.
He should charge more....take them for more money
A famous celebrity or athlete receiving money for a public appearance? THIS IS THE REAL NEWS STORY!
Why not? They have to spend all that savings from not paying taxes on something. Better this than the last church I was in where they had top of the line plasma TVs hanging from the ceiling every 15-20 feet spewing propaganda.
how must more time is CNN going to waste on this subject? Who cares if some jock is gay, straight, or came from Pluto. I have family members who are gay, straight, and some MAY have come from Pluto. Whatever U R U R. This whole story is a big ZZZZZ. Jackie Robinson he isn't....
LeRoy Butler did the right thing. Exclusion and bullying in the church–hypocritical. Didn't your god say "Love everyone"
Also, $8500??? Shouldn't that church be giving some money to the poor rather then speding that money on a speaker??
If they spent $8500 on a speaker then they were likely expecting to double that during the collection afterwards.
This is why I no longer attend church!
I stopped attending after the pastor laid into everyone for a full hour about not giving enough to pay for the new church building, the one that only a handful of people wanted and had a say in planning, while the old one was still in fine shape. To hell with using the money for any kind of actual charity work, some people wanted a fancy new church. That's when I left.
Jesus would not hate or treat gays different.
Big S..................1,900 MILLION tear old what ?
I know the geography of Wisconsin !............But here is the article just released !
First Snapshot of Organisms Eating Each Other: Feast Clue to Smell of Ancient Earth
Apr. 29, 2013 — Tiny 1,900 million-year-old fossils from rocks around Lake Superior, Canada, give the first ever snapshot of organisms eating each other and suggest what the ancient Earth would have smelled like.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130429154107.htm
Oops ...........year ?
For sh-its and grins B S
Gravity is not up for debate !
BY the way Austin ...................Splat goes a fairy in the sky !...............bye bye tinker bell !
Einstein's Gravity Theory Passes Toughest Test Yet
Apr. 25, 2013 — A strange stellar pair nearly 7,000 light-years from Earth has provided physicists with a unique cosmic laboratory for studying the nature of gravity. The extremely strong gravity of a massive neutron star in orbit with a companion white dwarf star puts competing theories of gravity to a test more stringent than any available before
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130425142250.htm
science, it's about time you folks are catching up on the laws of gravity. Jesus wrote this truth in the Bible thousands of years ago.
HS, which parts of the bible did Jesus 'write'?
sam, time to stop being lazy and read 2 Peter 1:16-21.
"Jesus wrote this truth in the Bible thousands of years ago."
.
And the question still stands....where did Jesus write and what did he write?
Ted Jones the crusader not for khrist
It is the Holy Spirit that reveals the truth. Given that Jesus spoke in parables, that only those inclined towards God could hear and see the truth, you would have called him liar if you could understand His writing.
KJV bible for real?? Too ironinc posting from KJV on this thread. Check your history. King James was gay. ha ha ha
Matthew 23:29-36
1 John 2:21-23
Revelation 21:8
Amen.
DUPLICATE? WHERE IS MY FIRST POST. CENSORSHIP OS CRISTIAN FOOLS
Merely because you don't know how the blog works doesn't const-itute censorship.
There's an automatic word filter, Mr. Capslock.
So now the christians are not just anti gay, but anti anyone who actually acts like a christian should toward gays.
Great bunch of moral folks you have there,
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. KJV
Proverbs 16:25
Amen.
How would you know how a christian should act towards someone who has no morals. Or how anyone with morals would act towards those with no morals.
Give it a rest, if they don't want the guy to speak, then so be it. They were paying him, it wasn't like he was speaking out of the "goodness" of his heart. There is nothing non-Christian about cancelling an appearance by someone that you are paying $8500 to speak.
the time old phrase, "what would Jesus do" apparently has escaped the Christians such as these.
HS, I thought that you christians believed that the way to live life is prescribed in the bible, yet your quote shows how contradictory the bible is. Essentially you won't know if you've passed god's test until it is too late.
Dear Heaven Thent,
Why are you thpeakething with a lithp? Do you really thinketh that god thpoketh that way? You do not make any thenth.
It's not that Jesus didn't like gays. He just had such a team of fine fellows all around him that there wasn't any need to come out,with all that coming in going on.
shuffler, different morals =/= no morals. It really boils down to ethics, which is the actual practice of utilizing one's morals.
And you could use more practice.
@HeavenSent
"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. KJV
Proverbs 16:25"
This could be used to justify killing in the name of jesus.
Phony heavensent wrote his/her babbling lies in the 2nd post.
trollintraining, that scripture pertains to the death of your soul, not of your carnal flesh.
In Santa we trust, Genesis 6:5.
He took the high road and didn't release the name of the church.
He could have.
I bet we know it by the end of the day.
As a traveler to Wisconsin Bill................I sure would like to know ?
We may well know it, BillDeacon. Someone else may release it.
The church itself thanked him for not releasing it. Perhaps they are feeling their decision was hasty.
In any case, he took the high road by not releasing the name of the church.
Kristians are enemies of freedom
Sure they are. They're the only Americans who can't wait for a king to come, conquer the country, and end democratic rule. They can't wait for King Jesus to start torturing his (their) enemies too. They pray for this dictatorship to happen sooner, rather than later.
are Kristians anything like the Kardashians?
Ken, you are focused on the carnal flesh here on earth. Christians focus on souls of all to ensure they continue with Jesus through eternity.
Oh, here we go with the 'carnal' bullshit again.
And they believe the creationists BS...............it sounds like ?
The reason you are so blatantly angry is for believing lies that keeps you in the dark.
HS + BS = BS
science, thanks for proving how angry you are.
And they should know better !
I know the geography of Wisconsin !............But here is the article just released !
First Snapshot of Organisms Eating Each Other: Feast Clue to Smell of Ancient Earth
Apr. 29, 2013 — Tiny 1,900 million-year-old fossils from rocks around Lake Superior, Canada, give the first ever snapshot of organisms eating each other and suggest what the ancient Earth would have smelled like.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130429154107.htm
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. KJV
Proverbs 16:25
Amen.+
Sit down and start working out the science for it. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the probabilities are astronomical ...over and over and over.
HS + BS + BS = BS..................got it.
science, come out, come out, wherever you are and enter the light that removes you from darkness for eternity.
– timing
Learn to come out at the opportune time, when the contracts are expiring for example NFL, when releasing a new album, a new show, a new movie.
Timing timing timing
-church connection
Make sure a church has said something about sins and called people to repentance. Record it! Don't slam the church, make sure you notify the media. They will take care of it
-victim
You are the victim, you are the persecuted. Repeat to thyself 'I am persecuted'. It is a very powerful!
The good news is now he knows exactly the kind of people he was dealing with.
Then again, the bible is pretty explicit on what it thinks of gay peope. Why is anyone still surprised about this? I understand many Christians don't even crack the spine of their books, instead just parrotting what they think it says, but word has been out for awhile that the bible is pretty much against gay folks being gay.
Maybe if Christians did crack the spines of their books and found out folks like the Westboro are not making it up there would be less Christians.
Irrational, not to worry. Most of us know His truth. Just as you know satan's lies.
the Bible is also very specific on how we are to treat our fellow man. Matthew 7:1, thou shall not judge. The Golden Rule. And furthermore, id like for one of these people to show me in the Bible where Jesus showed the kind of hate, intolerance, and spitefulness these so called Christians show to those they judge as immoral? Or just show me where God tells us to judge others as such....
The Bible is also very specific that all non virgins who wed must be put to death in their fathers doorstep and that marrying a divorced woman is adultery a violation of 1 of the 10 commandments. So, yes – it's all ignorant BS written to control the illiterate and uneducated population and its purpose has not changed much over two millennia.
Judging Is Believing.
Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? (Luke 12:57)
What is right?
The statutes of the Lord are right (Psalm 19:8).
Amen.
Fools have no clue that Jesus is speaking about the 2nd death, being the death of you soul aka He'll blot you out for eternity if you don't repent, ask Him for forgiveness, the of course, sin no more.
CARNAL CARNAL CARNAL!
Sam, I'll repeat this just for you. Nonbelievers are blinded by the lies of satan which leads to anger because they don't know or live Jesus' truth. It's easy, one step, two step ... step by step in Jesus' truth sets you free. Satan's lies keep you in bondage.
Heavensent
How can something I don't believe in lie to me? Do you also believe unicorns lie to me? What about the Lizard People who live in the moon? DO they lie to me? Oh oh, what about the Flying Monkeys from the Wizard of Oz?
Oh, HS aren't you just the most darling little thing.
Thanks for your concerns. In a similar vein I'm similarly worried about how Santa feels about me.
Matthew 23:29-36
1 John 2:21-23
Revelation 21:8
Amen.
++
HS-
I don't know why you think qouting lines from your fairy tale are impressive.
We know you do nothing but troll, but you could at least step up your game a little.
So is he coming out?
Of what...
The question is, are you? From the fog of stupidity you live in, I mean.
christianity illustrated
Sam, Christians care about everyone's souls. However, you prove you just care about what's in this life for you because you don't care about your soul or anyone's soul. You even deny you have a soul. That's how blinded you are by satan's lies.
HS +BS +BS
No sole needed.....................except on bottom of shoe........... can be replaced or repaired HS !
HS: Eat the business end of your shotgun. Jeebus is waiting
Nonbelievers are blinded by the lies of satan which leads to anger that they don't know or live Jesus' truth. It's easy, one step, two step ... step by step in Jesus' truth sets you free.
Heaven Sent
What you say is very interesting, because the people I see who are angry the most are usually the Christians yelling at non believers that they don't have souls or whatever silly things you say. You guys are the only ones being angry about anything.
=)
++
Matthew 23:29-36
1 John 2:21-23
Revelation 21:8
Amen.
And HeavenSent still blurts out bible verses like they're supposed to mean something. How sad a life she must lead to have no thoughts of her own.