{"id":6308,"date":"2004-09-23T13:01:31","date_gmt":"2004-09-23T20:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/09\/23\/so-funny-i-forgot-to-laugh.html"},"modified":"2004-09-23T13:01:31","modified_gmt":"2004-09-23T20:01:31","slug":"so_funny_i_forg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/23\/so_funny_i_forg.html","title":{"rendered":"So funny, I forgot to laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Swaggart apologized for his comments the other day<\/a> about, should a gay man look upon him romantically\/lustfully, he’d “kill him and tell God he died.” Or so I read<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then I read the apology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Swaggart said he has jokingly used the expression “killing someone and telling God he died” thousands of times, about all sorts of people. He said the expression is figurative and not meant to harm.
\n“It’s a humorous statement that doesn’t mean anything. You can’t lie to God — it’s ridiculous,” Swaggart told The Associated Press. “If it’s an insult, I certainly didn’t think it was, but if they are offended, then I certainly offer an apology.”<\/p>\n

Hey, way to go on the Sincere-o-Meter, Jimmy. How humble and humility-filled, how concerned over how others might be hurt or threatened by your words. If <\/em>it’s an insult, if <\/em>they’re offended … nicely said.<\/p>\n

You mean you actually joke all the time about killing people, then nudge-and-winking God about about it? How Christ-like, again!<\/p>\n

How …<\/p>\n

… wait. I ought not attack someone’s motives, but give them the benefit of the doubt, right? Consider their actions, not debate or presume about their good will. So …<\/p>\n

Jimmy, your words belie the Christian concept of “hate the sin, love the sinner.” They provide, even if not intended, both fodder for those who consider Christians to be intolerant bigots, and for those who are prone to un-Christian violence against gays. They were ill-considered to start with, and your “aw, shucks, I was just kidding, don’t take it so seriously” response is not an apology, but a dismissal, not a reaching out but a pushing away. That would be difficult to accept in anyone who considers themselves a Christian, but coming from someone who leads a public ministry in Christ’s name<\/strong> it seems particularly difficult to reconcile with Jesus’ ministry — as well as being difficult to reconcile with the stated mission<\/a> of your Jimmy Swaggart Ministries — “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) — or the intent of your World Evangelism Fellowship –“The call of God to win the lost is clear.” I do not understand how even such “jokes” can serve as such preaching, nor dismissal of feelings “win the lost.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Or, put more bluntly, Jimmy, get your head out of your ass and stop being a scandal to the faith and cause you claim to profess. Yeesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Swaggart apologized for his comments the other day about, should a gay man look upon him romantically\/lustfully, he’d “kill him and tell God he died.” Or so I read….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6329,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/20\/how_christlike.html","url_meta":{"origin":6308,"position":0},"title":"How Christlike … not","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 20-Sep-04 9:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's perhaps inappropriate to ascribe motivations to people, but certainly it's not inappropriate to say that Jimmy Swaggart doesn't seem particuarly Christian in this proclamation: During the program, a rambling...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8722,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/29\/ch_ch_ch_change-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":6308,"position":1},"title":"Ch-ch-ch-changes","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Aug-05 10:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"Beloit College is known for many things, but most of all for its class mind-set listing, updated each year, to give some context to what this year's freshmen have grown...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27002,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/08\/you-can-scrub-but-you-cant-hide-on-the-internet.html","url_meta":{"origin":6308,"position":2},"title":"You can scrub, but you can't hide, on the Internet","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Mar-12 11:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"To be fair, Rush might simply be taking down material that he's apologized for. 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