Reply #121: Clearly you don't live near a Southern Baptist megachurch

[Rob H.]

I do, and I've lived in the south for a long time and can assure you that a lot of Southern Baptists would sooner be dragged over carpet tacks and dipped in rubbing alcohol every day for a year than knowingly do anything good for the GLBT community. The pastor of the biggest local SB megachurch thinks that there is literally no such thing as gay or lesbian people, just straight people who've been led astray by temptation (or Satan, take your pick). He also thinks homosexuality can be "cured" through counseling and prayer. I heard him say so myself.

I have a friend who goes there and she's otherwise very reasonable and has had gay and lesbian friends over the years, but last year she admitted to me that she regretted that she'd moved to this state and missed the deadline to register to vote here because she wanted to vote just so she could vote in favor of amending the state constitution to make same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The irony is, she and her current boyfriend have both been married before so neither of them is exactly a poster child for how marriage should work.

I have no doubt that all the people who attend that megachurch consider themselves good Christians, despite their pastor constantly telling them that no matter how good they are, deep down they're all a bunch of dirty sinners who are going to burn in hell for eternity unless they give their lives over to Jesus. They may even tell themselves they believe in "Hate the sin, love the sinner" but from what I've observed of the actions of people who say that, it's just a fancy way of saying, "Hate the sinner."

The attitudes of their pastor, though, complete with bashing gays and lesbians, the nonreligious, and people who are of a more logical, scientific mindset (FTR, he thinks Darwin is wrong and that the creation story of the Bible is literally true. Surprise! Or not) are among the most ignorant, vile, and benighted I've ever heard. It's hard to believe that if they attend that church regularly that their attitudes would be very much different from his.

</rant>

Edit: punctuation.