Month: May 2012

Exodus International speaks out against FRC’s award winner

Being all into American history lately, I have missed some things. Like the Family Research Council giving an award to a guy who loves to hear himself vilify those he claims to love. Well, actually I don’t know if he has claimed to love gays or not.

Exodus, sounding a prophetic tone, released this statement about the matter today:

Exodus International, the world’s largest Christian ministry helping individuals and families struggling with same sex attraction, denounced the Family Research Council’s choice of pastor Ron Baity to receive its highest pro-family honor, the 2012 Watchman Award.

Baity is on record saying, “gays act worse than maggots,” will make society “more filthy,” and God had an “urban renewal plan for Sodom and Gomorrah.” Baity also compares gay and lesbian people to murderers and says gay marriage is America’s “death warrant.” Baity is founding pastor of Winston-Salem’s Berean Baptist Church and head of the pro-marriage organization, Return America.

“It’s time conservative Christians who claim biblical principles such as loving their enemies and neighbors, and considering the welfare of others first, to speak swiftly and strongly against this type of action,” says Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International.

“For too long we’ve stayed silent and allowed our brothers and sisters to tip that hat toward angry and abusive rhetoric. It’s a terrible witness for Christ, and clear hypocrisy to a watching world.”

Exodus joins the Southern Baptist Convention in distancing itself from Baity along with pastors Sean Harris and Charles Worley from North Carolina. Chambers went to Tony Perkins first and expressed concern about this decision. Having received no response, Exodus felt compelled to release a statement.

When I do stuff like this, I get nasty emails, doubts about my Christianity and threats. I wonder what will happen with Exodus.  In any case, I think they are right in their assessment of the situation.

Museveni backs wife to take over as Uganda’s President

Yowari Museveni will apparently not provoke a Constitutional crisis and remain in office after age 75 but he is backing his wife as the NRM standard bearer when he retires. This according to the East African:

Apparently, First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni has emerged as the preferred successor to the president, with the full backing of her husband, who is also chairman of the ruling National Resistance Movement.

Senior security sources told The EastAfrican that the president dropped the name of his wife, who is also Ruhaama MP and Minister for Karamoja Affairs, a few weeks ago while meeting top army generals, who form a critical power base of the regime, and whose support will be key to whoever succeeds the incumbent.

The source added that the generals did not expect this twist in the succession saga.

“There was a loud silence in the room. Army chiefs were all in disbelief [that he could name his wife for successor]. I don’t know how it will end because they [generals] have remained quiet, instead of coming out in support of Mzee’s choice,” said the source.

Janet Museveni has been rumored as more conservative than her husband and was named as being behind the anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda.

Another Baptist leader speaks out against NC gay concentration camp minister

Bill Leonard is James and Marilyn Dunn Professor of Church History and Baptist Studies at the School of Divinity, Wake Forest University. In a column yesterday, titled Baptist Shame, Leonard spoke out in condemnation against Charles Worley’s remarks about gay concentration camps.

He begins:

Tonight I am ashamed to be a Baptist. Born into Baptist “cradle role” in the First Baptist Church of Decatur, Texas, and baptized on profession of faith in that congregation when I was 8 years old, I’ve been a born-again Baptist for over five decades.

Leonard draws a historical parallel:

In 1980, a Baptist evangelist declared on national television that, “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew,” a remark that in many ways advanced this type of homiletical diatribe into the American public square.

E. Glenn Hinson, then my colleague at the Baptist seminary in Louisville and one of the most Christ-like human beings I have ever known, said of that statement, “Such is the stuff of which holocausts are made.”

Hinson’s statement sparked great controversy inside and outside the seminary. His words were true then, and perhaps even truer now. Such concentration-camp language is shameful, whether used in 1930s Europe or 2012 North Carolina.

I recommend the entire column.

This hurts my head.

Harping, harping, harping. It’s about the homosexuals…

Those who say the pastor should be ignored need to think through the thinking process of this woman who sits in the pew. Maybe this way of thinking is specific to Pastor Worley and this woman but I kind of doubt it.

I am glad for the Christian ministers who have spoken against this church recently. If I were in NC, I would be holding a sign outside of this church.

These guys need to write a follow up article on North Carolina.