{"id":139232,"date":"2019-06-12T20:29:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T02:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=139232"},"modified":"2019-06-12T20:29:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T02:29:02","slug":"and-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-love-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/06\/12\/and-theyll-know-we-are-christians-by-our-love-4.html","title":{"rendered":"And They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.\u00a0By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
\n— John 13:34-35<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Not to mention a hymn<\/a> I grew up with.)<\/p>\n

Two stories I ran across today. First:<\/p>\n

Authorities ‘looking into’ pastor’s church sermon calling for execution of LGBTQ people | TheHill<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s Pastor\u00a0Grayson Fritts, preaching<\/a>\u00a0at All Scripture Baptist Church:<\/p>\n

“Here’s how it should work. It shouldn’t work when we go out and we enforce the laws, because the Bible says the powers that be are ordained of God and God has instilled the power of civil government to send the police in 2019 out to these LGBT freaks and arrest them,” Fritts said in his June 2 sermon.<\/p>\n

“Have a trial for them, and if they are convicted then they are to be put to death … do you understand that? It’s a capital crime to be carried out by our government.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do we feel more comfortable that Pastor Fritts is\u00a0a detective in the Knox County Sheriff\u2019s Office?<\/p>\n

The next headline is relatively<\/em> innocuous in its text …<\/p>\n

Christian Hate-Preachers Are Hosting a \u201cMake America Straight Again\u201d Event | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos<\/a><\/p>\n

… until you start reading about these preachers who, remarkably,\u00a0don’t<\/em> include Pastor Fritts, above.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s\u00a0Steven Anderson<\/a><\/strong>, who\u00a0celebrated the [Pulse Nightclub] massacre<\/a>\u00a0as soon as it happened because there were \u201c50 less pedophiles in this world.\u201d He added that he\u2019s \u201cnot gonna sit here and cry about it and say it\u2019s a tragedy, because it\u2019s not.\u201d He\u2019s also said if he could push a button and kill every homosexual, he would \u201cpush it until it breaks<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s\u00a0Roger Jimenez<\/a><\/strong>, who said the\u00a0worst thing about the massacre<\/a>\u00a0was that the shooter \u201cdidn\u2019t finish the job.\u201d He\u00a0also longed<\/a>\u00a0for the government to round up all the gay people, \u201cput them up against a firing wall, put a firing squad in front of them, and blow their brains out.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s\u00a0Tommy McMurtry<\/a><\/strong>, who wishes we could go back to the time when society put gay people in their place: \u201csix feet under<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

[…]\u00a0The man hosting the conference is\u00a0Patrick Boyle<\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0Revival Baptist Church<\/a>\u00a0in Orlando, so it\u2019s presumably at his church or somewhere close by. Boyle, by the way, insists he\u2019s just echoing the Bible when he says gay people \u201care worthy of death<\/a>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those folk are preachers at Faithful Word Baptist, Verity Baptist, and Liberty Baptist Church, and Revival Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

Three points.<\/p>\n

First, I am not suggesting this is the “Christian,” or even “Baptist” attitude toward LGBTQ folk. I know too many Christians, and read too many more, to make such an assertion.<\/p>\n

Second, I am always seriously reluctant to brand people as not being “Christian.” That’s a tactic that’s been used by tyrants and theocrats down the centuries to discredit and persecute folk of all stripes.<\/p>\n

But I find it impossible to reconcile the gleeful homophobic bloodthirstiness of these self-identifying Christian preachers with anything in the Biblical teachings of Christ, let alone the beliefs of many Christians I know.<\/p>\n

Third, whenever there is a terroristic crime, or even violent sentiment\u00a0of precisely this sort,<\/em> by self-identifying Muslims, there is a public demand that other Muslims pointedly condemn such things, so as to demonstrate that they don’t support such sentiments (and, even then, law enforcement is encouraged and follows through on efforts to monitor Muslim organizations and gathering places to ensure we’re not seeing a terror attack in the making).<\/p>\n

It would not be inappropriate, given these particular individuals, to similarly insist that Christians condemn their sentiments, lest people draw the conclusion that this is how all Christians feel (and, presumably, want to act upon), or even use as a justification to put Baptist congregations under police and FBI observation.<\/p>\n

Consider this my own condemnation of same.\u00a0 This is, as I said, antithetical to my own religious beliefs, and my understanding of Christianity, not to mention my beliefs as to how a civil society operates in general, and how America operates specifically.<\/p>\n

I would say more about the individuals involved … but it would involve language that doesn’t seem particularly loving. Because some folk make it very<\/em> difficult to love them, Jesus’ dictates or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Except for those ostensibly Christian leaders who want to execute LGBTQ people. Yeesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[109,25,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-state","category-gay-stuff","category-religious-zanies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/they-will-know-we-are-christians-by-our-love.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137817,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/14\/the-dire-menace-of-the-lgbtq-religion.html","url_meta":{"origin":139232,"position":0},"title":"The Dire Menace of the LGBTQ Religion","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Feb-19 9:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The article is somewhat lengthy, but it's simultaneously hilarious and appalling, detailing a bill in the Kansas state legislature that basically asserts that LGBTQ is a \"religion\" (a subset of secular humanism, which was deemed a religious faith by SCOTUS in the early 60s), and therefore state law cannot favor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138656,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/04\/22\/scotus-takes-on-lgbtq-employment-and-title-vii.html","url_meta":{"origin":139232,"position":1},"title":"SCOTUS takes on LGBTQ employment and Title VII","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Apr-19 7:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Is LGBTQ discrimination actually sexual discrimination? 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Watch @ananavarro\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138290,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/13\/the-equality-act-is-back-in-the-legislative-queue.html","url_meta":{"origin":139232,"position":4},"title":"The “Equality Act” is back in the legislative queue","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Mar-19 7:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But will Republican Senators have to pay any attention to it?","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/equality-flag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/equality-flag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/equality-flag.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/equality-flag.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/equality-flag.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/equality-flag.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":160315,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/31\/111676558765444227.html","url_meta":{"origin":139232,"position":5},"title":"Trump just likes being mean to people","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 31-Dec-23 12:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump's rule: If you don't have something nice to say about someone, say it even louder.","rel":"","context":"In "~Toots"","block_context":{"text":"~Toots","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/toot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139234,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139232\/revisions\/139234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}